NATIONAL POETRY. 445 



it for a long time. England, however, was an exception to the rule ; and 

 since the death of Chaucer, her poets, or rather her versifiers, had confined 

 themselves to imitating the " Romance of the Rose," and to paraphrasing the 

 histories of mythology. 



In Italy, after the death of Petrarch, poetry declined in spite of all the 

 efforts made by Coluccio, Burchiello, and Arispa to revive it. A few poems 

 on chivalry, such as " Buovo d'Antona," " La Spagna," &c., might be passed 

 over without notice, had they not led up to the brilliant writings of Boiardo 



Fig. 346. Portrait of Sannazar. Fac-simile, on a reduced Scale, of an anonymous Engraving of 

 the Sixteenth Century, published at Borne by Ant. Salamanca. In the Library of M. Ambroise 

 Firmin-Didot, Paris. 



and Ariosto. Laurenzio de' Medici, however, the gonfalonnier of the 

 Florentine Republic, awoke the spirit of Italian poetry in 1469 by his 

 " Canti Carnavaleschi " ("Carnival Songs "), and he was seconded in his efforts 

 by Politien and Pulci, though the former was one of the most fanatical 

 partisans of the ancient classics. Latin poetry had, it may be remarked, 

 many staunch votaries throughout the Middle Ages, and their works, consist- 

 ing of centos of Virgil, Horace, and Lucan, were in continuous and numerous 



