6s 



Though the Arabians mofl: certainly did not teach the Troubadours fo 

 rhime, notwithftanding Fauchet and Le Clerc fuppofe they did, their 

 poetry mufl: have deeply colored the proven9aI verfe, enflamed as it was 

 with the wildefl ardor and enthufiafm. Defpicably then as fome may 

 judge of r/^/;«^, thefe Rhimersand Merry Men all will be found the real 

 fathers of chivalry and crufade, that were nurfed in their fongs, and im- 

 paffioned the age with that romantic love of glory, which ftill gives a com- 

 plexion to the politics and manners of Europe. Then it was, that under 

 thefe Rhimers, and their patrons the Homini de corte, the poetry of France 

 and Italy, for that of Spain had a very different caufe, firft affumed a 

 regular form in all the graces and decoration of numbers, that f^ncy 

 could invent, or care employ, or rhime and harmony recommend ; laying 

 the foundation of the various poetry, which thefe kingdoms afterward 

 produced, whether heroic or dramatic, fatyric or amatory, allegoric or 

 fublime. This rhiming entertainment continued at the courts of the great, 

 under the different appellations of Chanfom and Tengons, for upwards of 

 200 years after the time of Robert and Conflance, not only advancing 

 Italian and Gallic poetry to a rapid pitch of improvement, but confi. 

 derably influencing that of Europe in general, efpecially that of England, 

 which fcarcely yet had begun to dawn ; but whofe meridian afterward 

 blazed out in a fplendor and magnificence furpaffmg the moll brilliant 

 aera of her neighbours. Here we will leave the French poetry, of which 

 fome little had been faid before, though more perhaps may occur in 

 another place. 



From France, and her own immediate tranflations from the Norman, 



the Englifli took the turn of their poetry, and Ihaped their verfification : 



Vol. IX. I fo,. 



knowledge of the Time-piece, whofe mvention has been afcribed to a fo much later date : 

 and we read alfo, that after the time of Roger, the Sultan of jEgypt made a prefert of 

 another Tirae-piece to the Emperor Frederic II, which not only (hewed the hours of the 

 day and night, but with them the motions of the Sun, Moon, and other planets. Thus 

 -in two different parts of the world, we have an orrery five hundred years earlier than 

 its reputed invention. 



