Transcriber’s Note:

Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter, and are linked for ease of reference. Internal references in the text and index are also linked.

The marginal notes follow the topics enumerated in the table of contents, and appeared several lines after the paragraph opening. Here, they usually appear mid-paragraph. topic phrase On occasion, where the opening sentence is inordinately lengthy or the paragraph short, the note will appear adjacent to the opening line.

There are a number of issues in the Index regarding misnumbered or missing references. These explanatory notes are linked from the name of the entry.

Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s [note] at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.

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A HISTORY OF CRITICISM
AND LITERARY TASTE

Ignorantium temeraria plerumque sunt judicia.

—Polycarp Leyser.

A History of Criticism

AND

LITERARY TASTE IN EUROPE

FROM THE EARLIEST TEXTS TO THE PRESENT DAY

GEORGE SAINTSBURY

M.A. Oxon.; Hon. LL.D. Aberd.

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. II.

FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE DECLINE OF

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ORTHODOXY

SECOND EDITION

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MCMV

A HISTORY OF CRITICISMAND LITERARY TASTE

A HISTORY OF CRITICISM
AND LITERARY TASTE