[913] Comp. J. Burckhardt, Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien (Stuttg. 1868), pp. 320-332.
[914] Compare pp. 47 sqq., where the magnificence of the festivals is shown to have been a hindrance to the higher development of the drama.
[915] In comparison with the cities of the North.
[916] The procession at the feast of Corpus Christi was not established at Venice until 1407; Cecchetti, Venezia e la Corte di Roma, i. 108.
[917] The festivities which took place when Visconti was made Duke of Milan, 1395 (Corio, fol. 274), had, with all their splendour, something of mediæval coarseness about them, and the dramatic element was wholly wanting. Notice, too, the relative insignificance of the processions in Pavia during the fourteenth century (Anonymus de Laudibus Papiae, in Murat. xi. col. 34 sqq.).
[918] Gio. Villani, viii. 70.
[919] See e.g. Infessura, in Eccard, Scrippt. ii. col. 1896; Corio, fols. 417, 421.
[920] The dialogue in the Mysteries was chiefly in octaves, the monologue in ‘terzine.’ For the Mysteries, see J. L. Klein, Geschichte der Ital. Dramas, i. 153 sqq.
[921] We have no need to refer to the realism of the schoolmen for proof of this. About the year 970 Bishop Wibold of Cambray recommended to his clergy, instead of dice, a sort of spiritual bézique, with fifty-six abstract names represented by as many combinations of cards. ‘Gesta Episcopori Cameracens.’ in Mon. Germ. SS. vii. p. 433.
[922] E.g. when he found pictures on metaphors. At the gate of Purgatory the central broken step signifies contrition of heart (Purg. ix. 97), though the slab through being broken loses its value as a step. And again (Purg. xviii. 94), the idle in this world have to show their penitence by running in the other, though running could be a symbol of flight.