of the race from which they sprung. How good they are may be seen from a few of the specimens so admirably rendered by John Addington Symonds:[1]—
"The moon has risen her plaint to lay
Before the face of Love Divine;
Saying in heaven she will not stay,
Since you have stolen what made her shine.
Aloud she wails with sorrow wan;—
She told her stars, and two are gone:
They are not there; ye have them now;
They are the eyes in your bright brow.
Think it no grief that I am brown;
For all brunettes are born to reign:
White is the snow, yet trodden down;
Black pepper, kings do not disdain:
White snow lies mounded in the vales;
Black pepper's weighed in brazen scales.
O Swallow, Swallow, flying through the air,
Turn, turn, I prithee, from thy flight above.
Give me one feather from thy wing so fair,
For I will write a letter to my love.
When I have written it and made it clear,
I'll give thee back thy feather, Swallow dear;
When I have written it on paper white,
I'll make, I swear, thy missing feather right;
When once 'tis written on fair leaves of gold,
I'll give thee back thy wings and flight so bold."
Two other leading poetical figures of the fifteenth century, Matteo Maria Boiardo and Luigi Pulci, authors of the Orlando Innamorato and the Morgante Maggiore, will be best treated along with the writers of chivalrous
- ↑ The best collection of popular Italian belletristic literature is the Canti e Racconti del Popolo Italiano, in eight volumes, edited by E. Comparetti and A. D'Ancona.
