CHAPTER XIV.

HISTORY OF POETRY FROM 1550 TO 1600.

General Character of Italian Poets in this Age 318 Their usual Faults 318 Their Beauties 318 Character given by Muratori 318 Poetry of Casa 318 Of Costanzo 319 Baldi 319 Caro 319 Odes of Celio Magus 319 Coldness of the Amatory Sonnets 320 Studied Imitation of Petrarch 320 Their Fondness for Description 320 Judgment of Italian Critics 320 Bernardino Rota 320 Gaspara Stampa; her Love for Collalto 321 Is ill-requited 322 Her Second Love 322 Style of Gaspara Stampa 322 La Nautica of Baldi 322 Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso 323 Satirical and burlesque Poetry; Aretin 323 Other burlesque Writers 324 Attempts at Latin Metres 324 Poetical Translations 324 Torquato Tasso 324 The Jerusalem excellent in Choice of Subject 324 Superior to Homer and Virgil in some Points 324 Its Characters 325 Excellence of its Style 325 Some Faults in it 325 Defects of the Poem 326 It indicates the peculiar Genius of Tasso 326 Tasso compared to Virgil 326 To Ariosto 326 To the Bolognese Painters 327 Poetry Cultivated under Charles and Philip 327 Luis de Leon 328 Herrera 328 General Tone of Castilian Poetry 329 Castillejo 329 Araucana of Ercilla 329 Many epic Poems in Spain 329 Camœns 330 Defects of the Lusiad 330 Its Excellencies 330 Mickle’s Translation 330 Celebrated Passage in the Lusiad 331 Minor Poems of Camœns 331 Ferreira 331 Spanish Ballads 331 French Poets numerous 332 Change in the Tone of French Poetry 333 Ronsard 333 Other French Poets 334 Du Bartas 334 Pibrac; Desportes 335 French Metre and Versification 335 General character of French Poetry 335 German Poetry 336 Paradise of Dainty Devices 336 Character of this Collection 336 Sackville’s Induction 336 Inferiority of Poets in early years of Elizabeth 337 Gascoyne 337 Spenser’s Shepherd’s Kalendar 337 Sydney’s Character of Contemporary Poets 338 Improvement soon after this Time 338 Relaxation of Moral Austerity 339 Serious Poetry 339 Poetry of Sydney 339 Epithalanium of Spenser 340 Poems of Shakspeare 340 Daniel and Drayton 340 Nosce Teipsum of Davies 340 Satires of Hall, Marston, and Donne 341 Modulation of English Verse 341 Translations of Homer by Chapman 341 Of Tasso by Fairfax 342 Employment of Ancient Measures 342 Number of Poets in this Age 342 Scots and English Ballads 343 The Faery Queen 343 Superiority of the First Book 343 The succeeding Books 344 Spenser’s Sense of Beauty 344 Compared to Ariosto 344 Style of Spenser 345 Inferiority of the latter Books 345 Allegories of the Faery Queen 346 Blemishes in the Diction 346 Admiration of the Faery Queen 346 General Parallel of Italian and English Poetry 347 Decline of Latin Poetry in Italy 347 Compensated in other Countries 347 Lotichius 347 Collections of Latin Poetry by Gruter 348 Characters of some Gallo-Latin Poets 348 Sammarthanus 349 Belgic Poets 349 Scots Poets--Buchanan 349