The mediaeval legends had lived on after the gradual extinction of the
poetry of chivalry, partly in the form of rhyming adaptations and
collections, and partly of novels in prose. The latter was the case in
Italy during the fourteenth century; but the newly-awakened memories of
antiquity were rapidly growing up to a gigantic size, and soon cast
into the shade all the fantastic creations of the Middle Ages.
Boccaccio, for example, in his 'Visione Amorosa,' names among the
heroes in his enchanted palace Tristram, Arthur, Galeotto, and others,
but briefly, as if he were ashamed to speak of them; and following
writers either do not name them at all, or name them only for purposes
of ridicule. But the people kept them in its memory, and from the
people they passed into the hands of the poets of the fifteenth
century. These were now able to conceive and represent their subjects
in a wholly new manner. But they did more. They introduced into it a
multitude of fresh elements, and in fact recast it from beginning to
end. It must not be expected of them that they should treat such
subjects with the respect once felt for them. All other countries must
envy them the advantage of having a popular interest of this kind to
appeal to; but they could not without hypocrisy treat these myths with
any respect.
Instead of this, they moved with victorious freedom in the new field
which poetry had won.
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