Of the Origin of Romantic Fiction in Europe. 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1824 edition. Excerpt: ...Ramsey. His_turn for poetry did not hinder his arriving to the dignity of an archdeacon. Leland mentions eight books of his epigrams, amatorial verses, and poems on philosophical subjects . The proem to his book Dr. HERBIS, has this elegant invocation, Vatum magne parens, herbarum Phoebe reporter, Vosque, quibus resonant Tempe jocosa, deas Si mihi serta prius hedera fiorente parastis, Ecce meos fiores, serta parate, fero.. it is not improbable that they took their name from the monk above mentioned, who was the most popular and almost only Latin poet of his time in France. He wrote many Latin pieces not in rhyme, and in a good style of Latin versification. Particularly a Latin heroic in twelve books, containing the history of the bible from the creation of the world to the story of Ruth. Also some elegia, which have a tolerable degree of classic purity Some suppose that pope Leo the Second, about the year 680, a great reformer of the chants and hymns of the church, invented this sort of verse. ' It is remarkable that Bede, who lived in the eighth century, in his book DE Aa'rir Mm'rIucA, does not seem to have known that rhyme was a common ornament of the church-hymns of his time, many of which he quotes. See Opp. tom. i. 34. cap. penult. But this chapter, I think, is all taken from Marius Victo rinus, a much older writer. The hymns which Bede quotes are extremely bar-barons, consisting of is modulated struc-cure, or a certain number of feet without quantity, like the odes of the minstrels or scalds of that age. Ut sunt," he says, cannina vuLcAIuuM roxuaum." In the mean time we must not forget, that the early French troubadours men-tion a sort of rhyme in their vernacular poetry partly distinguished...