At a later period Poggio makes
merry over the many knights of his day without a horse and without
military training. Those who wished to assert the privilege of the
order, and ride out with lance and colors, found in Florence that they
might have to face the government as well as the jokers.
On considering the matter more closely, we shall find that this belated
chivalry, independent of all nobility of birth, though partly the fruit
of an insane passion for titles, had nevertheless another and a better
side. Tournaments had not yet ceased to be practiced, and no one could
take part in them who was not a knight. But the combat in the lists,
and especially the difficult and perilous tilting with the lance,
offered a favourable opportunity for the display of strength, skill,
and courage, which no one, whatever might be his origin, would
willingly neglect in an age which laid such stress on personal merit.
It was in vain that from the time of Petrarch downwards the tournament
was denounced as a dangerous folly. No one was converted by the
pathetic appeal of the poet: 'In what book do we read that Scipio and
Caesar were skilled at the joust?' The practice became more and more
popular in Florence. Every honest citizen came to consider his
tournament-- now, no doubt, less dangerous than formerly--as a
fashionable sport.
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