[705] These striking expressions are taken from the seventh volume of Michelet’s Histoire de France (Introd.).
[706] Tomm. Gar, Relaz. della Corte di Roma, i. pp. 278 and 279. In the Rel. of Soriano, year 1533.
[707] Prato, Arch. Stor. iii. p. 295 sqq. The word ‘saturnico’ means ‘unhappy’ as well as ‘bringing misfortune.’ For the influence of the planets on human character in general, see Corn. Agrippa, De occulta philosophia, c. 52.
[708] See Trucchi, Poesie Italiane inedite, i. p 165 sqq.
[709] Blank verse became at a later time the usual form for dramatic compositions. Trissino, in the dedication of his Sofonisba to Leo X., expressed the hope that the Pope would recognise this style for what it was—as better, nobler, and less easy than it looked. Roscoe, Leone X., ed. Bossi, viii. 174.
[710] Comp. e.g. the striking forms adopted by Dante, Vita Nuova, ed. Witte, p. 13 sqq., 16 sqq. Each has twenty irregular lines; in the first, one rhyme occurs eight times.
[711] Trucchi, op. cit. i. 181 sqq.
[712] These were the ‘Canzoni’ and Sonnets which every blacksmith and donkey-driver sang and parodied—which made Dante not a little angry. (Comp. Franco Sachetti, Nov. 114, 115.) So quickly did these poems find their way among the people.
[713] Vita Nuova, ed. Witte, pp. 81, 82 sqq. ‘Deh peregrini,’ ibid. 116.
[714] For Dante’s psychology, the beginning of Purg. iv. is one of the most important passages. See also the parts of the Convito bearing on the subject.