9a 



It was a sluggish, a slovenly and halfrbegotten amphi- 

 bioiis civilization, savouring much of the gross and vicious. 

 It did not push forward, as might be expected, but re- 

 mained stationary ,f (^reven became retrograde. The know- 

 ledge of the .ajjcieotsj was introduced, ijt js true; and the 

 learned languages, particularly Latin, werp in, general use. 

 But the classics then best known, and in the highest re- 

 pute, were not of the purest style. Such a preference 

 argued the rude and inferior taste of the times. The clas- 

 sics in greatest vogvje, while the; best authors were neglect- 

 ed, were, in poetry, Ovid, Lucan, Statins, Prudentius. The 

 most admired prose writers were Seneca, Boethius, Ma- 

 crobius and Valerius Maximus, Dictys and Dares: the 

 Gesta Romanorum also of Guido de Colonna, the Bel- 

 lum Trojanum of Josephus Isca,nus, the Philippeid of 

 Guillaume le Breton, and the Alexandreid of Gaultier de 

 Chatillon, were favourite works. The amusements of the 

 times bore the stamp of grossness:,^'ude rhymers, minsteels 

 and mummers, jugglers, tumblers and posture-masters, were 

 the delight of a rude people. Joinville (as quoted by God- 

 win) talks of the estimation in which they were held, and 

 of their ingenious gibes and mockeries, and feats of leger- 

 demain: Chaucer, also, alludes to their popularity.* The 

 miracle plays or mysteries, of which a vast number are 

 preserved, not only in English, but in- other languages, 

 particularly Italian, are monuments of the gross taste in- 

 fused by the monks, these rude arbiters of elegance. The 



N 2 ., , ceremonials 



* l.ifc of Chaucer, Vol. I. p. 62. 



