NATIONAL POETRY. 



Decadence of Latin Poetry. Origins of Vulgar Poetry. Troubadours, Trouveurs, and Jugglers. 

 Rutebeuf. Thibaud of Navarre and his School. Marie de France. "Romance of the 

 Renard." The " Guyot Bible." The " Romance of the Rose." The Minnesingers. Dante. 

 The " Romancero." The Meistersingers. Petrarch. English Poets ; Chaucer. Eustache 

 Deschamps, Alain Chartior, Charles d'Orleans, Villon. Chambers of Rhetoric. Poets of the 

 Court of Burgundy. Modern Latin Poetry. The Poems of Chivalry in Italy. Clement 

 Marot and his School. The Epic Poems, Tasso, Camoens. Poets of Germany and of the 

 Northern Countries. Ronsard and his School. Poetry under the Valois Kings. 



E the Barbarians established themselves 

 upon the ruins of the Roman empire in 

 the West," says M. Charles Nisard, in his 

 graphic history of poetry amongst the 

 different peoples of Europe, " the down- 

 fall of eloquence and of poetry occurred 

 with startling rapidity. Boethius wrote 

 in his prison the treatise on the ' Consola- 

 tion of Philosophy,' and was put to death 

 shortly afterwards (524). This treatise, 

 which combines the highest of ancient 

 morality with the tenderest feelings of Christian resignation, is the last 

 protest of an expiring art ; it is the voice of the swan exhaling its last 

 melody beneath the knife which is about to immolate it." 



Boethius was, in fact, one of the last Romans who wrote Latin verses with 

 the true classic ring in them. Since the reign of Theodosius the Great, Latin 

 poetry had been gradually declining, and the Church had ceased to use it 

 except for her sacred hymns. This is why most of the poets from the fifth to 

 the seventh century St. Paulinus, Sedulius, St. Prosper, Sidonius Apollinaris, 

 Juvencus, Venautius Fortunatus, &c. wrote only upon pious or moral 

 subjects. The singing of hymns was calculated, in the opinion of the 



