Con grand devotion la planta fi cavadha; Cercan la soa radix, dond ella po esse nadha : Incerco lo cor del monego trovan k' ella è invojadha, Of course, Bonvesin did not invent these stories either. For all of them the sources or older versions of the same theme will, in due course, be found; in the case of the finest of them, the one last quoted, they are well known. But this does not take away from the value of Bonvesin's simple narrative, the full merit of which, indeed, does not come out till we compare it with these other versions. In Bonvesin's works, we find, together with the religious and moral poetry, some more practical pieces, dealing with life on earth: he gives not only precepts for pious living and for the attainment of bliss in the next world, but also directions for fit conduct in this. To this category belongs, in part, the treatise of the months, but, in a greater degree, another poem, that deals with the fifty rules of conduct at table, "De quinquaginta curialitatibus ad mensam.' This contains minute regulations as to how one has to conduct oneself in company at meals, how one is to sit, to be decent and clean, to eat and drink, to hand to one's neighbour the drinking cup that was intended for general use, and the like. At times the admonitions are very strange, and afford us a glimpse into the conditions of social intercourse at that time. Similar to this is an anonymous didactic poem, also written in the dialect of Northern Italy, in which a friend is instructed in the rules of morality and decent conduct, with special reference again to behaviour at table. However, it is not certain whether this poem, which is preserved in a Vatican MS., belongs to this period. Here we have, therefore, the beginnings of a secular didactic poetry, dealing with the actual world; and as the real representative of this school we may regard another poet, only a few of whose works have as yet been published, namely the Cremonese, Girardo Patechio, or, as he called himself in dialectic form, Girard Pateg'. Patechio appears to be the earliest of all the poets of Northern Italy known to us. For the chronicler Salimbene, who was born in 1221, tells of a practical joke once played by his (Salimbene's) uncle on Master Patecchus of Cremona; so that this probably took place before 1250. The same Salimbene, under the year 1259, records a poem of Patechio—“ De Tædiis "—and in various passages in his chronicle he incidentally introduced verses from it, which show that it belonged to the class of poetry which the Provençals called enueg, and was therefore an enumeration of all the things that were disagreeable and objectionable to the poet, as opposed to the genre called plazer, which was employed by Guittone. Salimbene says of himself that he had composed an imitation of Patechio's "De Tædiis." This has been lost; but we have imitations belonging to a later period in a sonnet of Bindo Bonichi, and in a chapter of Pucci, which testify to the influence exercised by this old poem in dialect on the literary development of future generations and in the midst of Tuscany. The enueg, as was already the case with the Provençals, inclined towards satire and then assumed didactic tendencies, inasmuch as it dealt with the general relations of mankind and society, whilst the poet, in expressing his indignation, at the same time criticised and censured the prevailing morals. To this class belonged Patechio's poem, to judge from the fragments that have been preserved. A further characteristic product of this popular didactic tendency is the same writer's "Splanamento de li proverbi de Salamone," in long clumsy verses; here the author, as he says at the beginning, desires, by translation into the vulgar tongue, to make Solomon's wise maxims generally accessible, not for the clever and cultured, who do not require such a version, but for the sake of the masses. An anonymous Venetian is the author of a poem in one hundred and eighty-nine stanzas of four long verses joined together by the same rhyme, which treats one of the favourite themes of medieval didactic and satirical poetry. It inveighs against women, and contains a long enumeration of their intrigues and vices; this description being rendered more effective by examples taken not only from antiquity but selected likewise from events that were almost contemporary, as also by the use of similes that refer principally to the peculiarities of animals. Here and there we find passages taken from a short Old French poem on the same subject, the "Chastiemusart." The writer's aim appears to have been very serious; he does not jest, but earnestly exhorts men to guard against wicked men, and repeatedly declares that no fear would ever keep him from uttering the truth for the benefit of his neighbour. A collection of early Genoese poems belongs partly to the end of the thirteenth century, and partly to the beginning of the fourteenth. One author is probably responsible for the entire series, in which the Italian pieces are interspersed with Latin ones; the collection has the appearance of a kind of poetical diary that was gradually compiled, in which the writer incorporated his compositions and observations as the occasion gave birth to them, and this accounts for the fact that prayers, legends, moralisings, political poems, maxims, proverbs, and jests are here mingled indiscriminately. In one place we read an invocation to the Virgin or to Saint Stephen, a marriage blessing, a diffuse paraphrase of the Decalogue or the life of Saint Catherine, and elsewhere directions for the choice of a wife, rules of health, warning against law-suits, words of censure against the painting of women, attacks on wicked priests, who preach and do not practise, reflections on the pernicious results of the party struggles between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which were causing the ruin of the city of Genoa. Some of the short interspersed pieces (motti) may have been maxims which were on everyone's lips, and which the author adopted with certain modifications; this is probable from the circumstance, that the vulgar jest concerning the evil results of the eating of chestnuts (No. 8) occurs again in the collection with slight variations (No. 103), and in the same way another saying (No. 88) with greater changes (No. 135). The form employed is mostly the verse of nine syllables, but not infrequently also that of eight syllables, rhyming in pairs or crosswise. The Genoese poet displays strong municipal patriotism; the praise of his native city forms the subject of several long poems, in which he describes to a friend the power and wealth of Genoa in the most glowing colours. With this is combined an ardent hatred of her rival Venice, with which city continual warfare was waged. In two poems (Nos. 47 and 49) he celebrates the great victories of the Genoese fleet at Lajazzo and Curzola (in 1294 and 1298). These are exact descriptions of the events in bald historic narrative, which are, however, animated by the feeling of patriotic pride, that fills the whole : "Oh! what a mighty attack," he exclaims (Nos. 49, 317), "with seventy-seven ships, which are worthy to be gilded, to conquer nearly a hundred galleys !" De, che grande envagimento, The latest of the dated political poems (85) refers to the arrival of the Emperor Henry VII. in Lombardy in the year 1311. It expresses the same feelings as the famous words of Dante, Cino and Dino Compagni. The new Emperor is the saving light, which God has caused to rise over the stormy ocean of this world; he descends, the bearer of peace, and the cities yield to him, seeing his goodness and his impartiality. Here, and in many other passages, we recognise the citizen of the maritime republic by his predilection for taking his examples and images from ships and from the sea. The ill-guarded ship, whose crew thoughtlessly abandon themselves to rest and diversion, is surprised and captured by the lurking foe; in the same way, we, traversing the sea of life, must be on our guard, lest we fall a prey to the Evil One. Here the three principal sins that threaten us are given as Pride, Avarice, and Lust, corresponding to the lion, wolf, and leopard of the "Divine Comedy" (39). The dark dungeon into which the crew of the conquered vessel are thrown by their enemies serves as an image for hell and its torments (54), in the enumeration of which it is to be noted how they are here made to coincide with the nature of the sins themselves. There is cold and frost for those who were cold in their love for God; darkness and vapours for those who did not follow the divine light, but kept to the obscure and confused paths of sensuality; and the terrible sight of the devils for those that looked with such longing on the vanities of the world. Of course, as will be seen, this attempt at a deeper conception of the penalties of hell is yet far from being a complete success. IN VII RELIGIOUS LYRICAL POETRY IN UMBRIA N Northern Italy the religious poetry is principally narrative and didactic; whereas the lyrical character predominates in Umbria, the real centre of the great religious movement in Italy in the thirteenth century, the home of S. Francis, whose efforts contributed so largely towards inducing men to become absorbed in the spiritual life. Francis, the son of a merchant called Pietro Bernardone, was born in Assisi in the year 1182. At the age of twentyfive, after a dangerous illness, he turned away from the joyous and worldly life that he had led till then. In mystic dreams he thought he was called to accomplish a great mission. He sought solitude and lost himself in ecstatic prayers; then he gave up all earthly ties, left his father's house, lived on alms, and imposed severe privations on himself. Companions of the same mind as himself soon gathered round him, and thus the order of the Franciscans was formed, whose principal rule was the poverty of one and all, a life entirely occupied with sacrifice and pure love. But Francis's asceticism does not take the form of a gloomy abjuration of all that is beautiful in the world; he sees in Nature not evil, but the glorious work of God, and as such he sings her praises and loves her with childlike tenderness. In his simplicity and humility, the saint felt that he was closely united to all creatures, even to inanimate objects, and called them all his brothers and sisters, because they, like man, had been created by God. He addressed them as intelligent beings, and exhorted them to love and gratitude towards Him, who had made them so fair and so useful. This poetic instinct, which filled his life and thoughts, inspired him once to the famous Hymn to the Sun. In it the saint sings in praise of God, while celebrat |