Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/219

'To return, however, to this great man (Petrarch) who taught me the story I propose relating to you, he has prefaced it in a high strain of eloquence by a description of the territory of Piedmont, with the rich district of Saluzzo, together with the swelling Appenines, that form the boundary of West Lombardy; including, in his account, the Mount Viso, from whose region the river Po, in a feeble spring, first takes its course eastward, towards the Emilian way, Verara and Venice, gaining strength and magnitude as it rolls along: all which, in the original work, however beautiful in itself, appears to me unconnected with the purpose in hand; except, indeed, that he skilfully contrives to make it lead to the matter of his history: and, therefore it is that I have slightly alluded to his description, because it forms the scene of the tale you are now to hear.'