[12] See D'Ancona, Poesia Popolare, p. 11, note.
[13] See Carducci, Dello Svolgimento della Letteratura Nazionale, p. 29.
[14] Romagnoli has reprinted some specimens of the Illustre et Famosa Historia di Lancillotto del Lago, Bologna, 1862.
[15] Muratori in Antiq. Ital. Diss. xxx. p. 351, quotes a decree of the Bolognese Commune, dated 1288, to the effect that Cantatores Francigenarum in plateis Communis omnino morari non possint. They had become a public nuisance and impeded traffic.
[16] In the Cento Novelle there are several Arthurian stories. The rubrics of one or two will suffice to show how the names were Italianized. Qui conta come la damigella di Scalot morì per amore di Lanciallotto de Lac. Nov. lxxxii. Qui conta della reina Isotta e di m. Tristano di Leonis. Nov. lxv. In the Historia di Lancillotto, cited above, Sir Kay becomes Keux; Gawain is Gauuan. In the Tavola Ritonda, Morderette stands for Mordred, Bando di Benoiche for Ban of Benwick, Lotto d'Organia for Lot of Orkeney.
[17] See Adolfo Bartoli, Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. ii. chapters iii., iv., v., vi., for a minute inquiry into this early dialectical literature.
[18] Cento Novelle, Milano, 1825, Nov. ii. and xxi.
[19] Chronica Fr. Salimbene Parmensis, ord. min., Parmæ, 1857, p. 166.
[20] See the Cronache Siciliane, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1865, the first of which bears upon its opening paragraph the date 1358. Sicilian, it may be said in passing, presents close dialectical resemblance to Tuscan. Even the superficial alteration of the Sicilian u and i into the Tuscan o and e (e.g. secundu and putiri into secondo and potere) effaces the most obvious differences.
[21] The Italians wavered long between several metrical systems, before they finally adopted the hendecasyllabic line, which became the consecrated rhythm of serious poetry. Carducci, in his treatise Intorno ad alcune Rime (Imola, Galeati, 1876), pp. 81-89, may be profitably consulted with regard to early Italian Alexandrines. He points out that Ciullo's Tenzone: