[457]. As at the beginning of Bk. ii. I had less obligation to acknowledge than at that of Bk. i., so here also the diminution continues. On the general subject it approaches zero. Théry himself is more sketchy than himself here; and has practically nothing in detail to say of any one save Raymond Lully, who does not supply us with anything, though he brought Rhetoric, like other sciences, into his philosophic scheme. Even in regard to individuals, it is only on Dante that I know of much precedent treatment, and for that v. infra.
[458]. Ed. Capperonnier, pp. 318-328; pp. 375-409. Ed. Halm, i. 137-151; ii. 505-550, 607-618. The Rhetoric (forming part of his Institutiones) of Cassiodorus is also in both collections. It has been glanced at, supra (pp. [346], [349]), and will be noticed again, infra (p. [390]).
[460]. But see below (p. [400]) for other contributions of Isidore to our subject.
[461]. Licet flammivomo tuæ sapientiæ lumini scintilla ingenioli mei nil addere possit. This was the kind of style wherewith the Dark Ages liked to lighten their darkness.
[462]. This very agreeable Latin verse debate on the merits of knights and clerks as lovers, which had so long a popularity that it was paraphrased by Chapman on the eve of the seventeenth century, dates originally, it would seem, from the twelfth. It may be found in Wright’s Poems of Walter Mapes, p. 258 (London, 1841), or in Carmina Burana, p. 155 (3rd ed., Breslau, 1894).
[463]. The editions of the Confessions, Latin and English, are so numerous that I refer to none in particular, but quote book and chapter throughout.
[464]. For poor little Roman boys had no prose Defoes or Marryats.
[465]. Virgil was of course popular everywhere. But, as we have seen, he was specially popular in Roman Africa, because of the local patriotism (the strongest sentiment of ancient times) which laid hold of the story of the hapless Queen of Carthage. I have sometimes thought that much of the origin of Romance may be traced to this. For Africa, till the Mahometan Deluge, was the most literary quarter of the late Roman world.
[466]. Peacock, in Gryll Grange. The utterance is of course dramatic, not direct, but the character in whose mouth it is put obviously expresses the author’s sentiments.