All that could flee exiled themselves; the Greeks flocked to Italy. Out of the plundered libraries came a number of manuscripts, with which Nicholas V. and Bessarion enriched Rome and Venice. The result of the disaster was, for intellectual Europe, a new impulse given to classic studies.
With the glare of the fire was mingled a light as of dawn; its rays were to illuminate Italy and France, and, further towards the North, England also.
FOOTNOTES:
[826] I try, repeatedly says Stephen Hawes,
To followe the trace and all the perfitnes
Of my maister Lydgate.
"The Historie of Graund Amoure and La Bell Pucle, called the Pastime of Plesure, contayning the Knowledge of the Seven Sciences and the Course of Man's life in this Worlde," London, 1554, 4to, curious woodcuts (reprinted by the Percy Society, 1845, 8vo; the quotation above, p. 2). It is an allegory of unendurable dulness, in which Graund Amoure (love of knowledge apparently) visits Science in the Tower of Doctrine, then Grammar, &c. Hawes lived under Henry VII.
[827] On the fabliaux introduced into England, see above, p. [225]; the greater number of them are found in Hazlitt: "Remains of the early popular Poetry of England," London, 1864, 4 vols. One of the best, "The Wright's Chaste Wife," written in English, about 1462, by Adam de Cobsam, has been published by the Early English Text Society, ed. Furnivall, 1865, with a supplement by Mr. Clouston, 1886; it is the old story of the honest woman, who dismisses her would-be lovers after having made fun of them. That story figures in the "Gesta Romanorum," in the "Arabian Nights," in the collection of Barbazan (story of Constant du Hamel). It has furnished Massinger with the subject of his play, "The Picture," and Musset with that of "la Quenouille de Barberine."—On the romances of chivalry, see above, pp. [219] ff. A great number of rhymed versions of these romances are of the fifteenth century.—Ex. of pious works in verse, of the same century: Th. Brampton, "Pharaphrase on the seven penitential psalms, 1414," Percy Society, 1842; Mirk, "Duties of a Parish Priest," ed. Peacock, E.E.T.S., 1868, written about 1450; Capgrave (1394-1464), "Life of St. Katharine," ed. Horstmann and Furnivall, E.E.T.S., 1893 (various other edifying works by the same); many specimens of the same kind are unpublished.—Ex. of chronicles: Andrew de Wyntoun, "Orygynal Cronykil of Scotland," finished, about 1424, ed. Laing, Edinburgh, 1872 ff., 3 vols. 8vo; Hardyng (1378-1465?), "Chronicle in metre," London, 1543, 8vo. Hardyng sold for a large price, to the brave Talbot, who knew little about palæography, spurious charters establishing England's sovereignty over Scotland; those charters exist at the Record Office, the fraud was proved by Palgrave. All these chronicles are in "rym dogerel."
[828] "The Story of Thebes," by Lydgate (below p. 499); "The Tale of Beryn," with a prologue, where are related in a lively manner the adventures of the pilgrims in Canterbury and their visit to the cathedral (ed. Furnivall and Stone, Chaucer Society, 1876-87, 8vo); Henryson adds a canto to "Troilus" (below p. 507). Other poems are so much in the style of Chaucer that they were long attributed to him: "The Court of Love"; "The Flower and the Leaf"; "The Isle of Ladies, or Chaucer's Dream," &c. They are found in the Morris edition of Chaucer's works. All these poems are of the fifteenth century.
[829] Born about 1370, at Lydgate, near Newmarket; sojourned in Paris in 1426, died in 1446, or soon after. Concerning the chronological order of his works, and his versification, see "Lydgate's Temple of Glas," ed. J. Schick, Early English Text Society, 1891, Introduction. His "Troy Book" is of 1412-20; his "Story of Thebes," of 1420-22; his translation of Deguileville, of 1426-30; his "Fall of Princes" was written about 1430.
[830] He gave an English version of the famous story called in French, "Le Lai de l'Oiselet" (ed. G. Paris, 1884): "The Chorle and the Byrde."