Architectural works and decorative works in general were constructed
with a view to receiving inscriptions, often in frequent repetition;
while the Northern Gothic seldom, and with difficulty, offered a
suitable place for them, and in sepulchral monuments, for example, left
free only the most exposed parts -- namely the edges.
By what has been said hitherto we have, perhaps, failed to convince the
reader of the characteristic value of this Latin poetry of the
Italians. Our task was rather to indicate its position and necessity in
the history of civilization. In its own day, a caricature of it
appeared--the so-called macaronic poetry. The masterpiece of this
style, the 'opus macaronicorum,' was written by Merlinus Coccaius
(Teofilo Folengo of Mantua). Vi/e shall now and then have occasion to
refer to the matter of this poem. As to the form--hexameter and other
verses, made up of Latin words and Italian words with Latin endings --
its comic effect lies chiefly in the fact that these combinations sound
like so many slips of the tongue, or like the effusions of an over-
hasty Latin 'improvisatore.' The German imitations do not give the
smallest notion of this effect.
Fall of the Humanists in the Sixteenth Century
Why, it may be asked, were not these reproaches, whether true or false,
heard sooner? As a matter of fact, they were heard at a very early
period, but the effect they produced was insignificant, for the plain
reason that men were far too dependent on the scholars for their
knowledge of antiquity--that the scholars were personally the
possessors and diffusers of ancient culture.
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