Chapter XIV: History of Poetry From 1550 to 1600

General Character of Italian Poets in this Age 318
Their usual Faults 318
Their Beauties 318
Character given by Muratori 318
Poetry of Casa 318
Of Costanzo 319
Baldi 319
Caro 319
Odes of Celio Magus 319
Coldness of the Amatory Sonnets 320
Studied Imitation of Petrarch 320
Their Fondness for Description 320
Judgment of Italian Critics 320
Bernardino Rota 320
Gaspara Stampa; her Love for Collalto 321
Is ill-requited 322
Her Second Love 322
Style of Gaspara Stampa 322
La Nautica of Baldi 322
Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso 323
Satirical and burlesque Poetry; Aretin 323
Other burlesque Writers 324
Attempts at Latin Metres 324
Poetical Translations 324
Torquato Tasso 324
The Jerusalem excellent in Choice of Subject 324
Superior to Homer and Virgil in some Points 324
Its Characters 325
Excellence of its Style 325
Some Faults in it 325
Defects of the Poem 326
It indicates the peculiar Genius of Tasso 326
Tasso compared to Virgil 326
To Ariosto 326
To the Bolognese Painters 327
Poetry Cultivated under Charles and Philip 327
Luis de Leon 328
Herrera 328
General Tone of Castilian Poetry 329
Castillejo 329
Araucana of Ercilla 329
Many epic Poems in Spain 329
Camœns 330
Defects of the Lusiad 330
Its Excellencies 330
Mickle’s Translation 330
Celebrated Passage in the Lusiad 331
Minor Poems of Camœns 331
Ferreira 331
Spanish Ballads 331
French Poets numerous 332
Change in the Tone of French Poetry 333
Ronsard 333
Other French Poets 334
Du Bartas 334
Pibrac; Desportes 335
French Metre and Versification 335
General character of French Poetry 335
German Poetry 336
Paradise of Dainty Devices 336
Character of this Collection 336
Sackville’s Induction 336
Inferiority of Poets in early years of Elizabeth 337
Gascoyne 337
Spenser’s Shepherd’s Kalendar 337
Sydney’s Character of Contemporary Poets 338
Improvement soon after this Time 338
Relaxation of Moral Austerity 339
Serious Poetry 339
Poetry of Sydney 339
Epithalanium of Spenser 340
Poems of Shakspeare 340
Daniel and Drayton 340
Nosce Teipsum of Davies 340
Satires of Hall, Marston, and Donne 341
Modulation of English Verse 341
Translations of Homer by Chapman 341
Of Tasso by Fairfax 342
Employment of Ancient Measures 342
Number of Poets in this Age 342
Scots and English Ballads 343
The Faery Queen 343
Superiority of the First Book 343
The succeeding Books 344
Spenser’s Sense of Beauty 344
Compared to Ariosto 344
Style of Spenser 345
Inferiority of the latter Books 345
Allegories of the Faery Queen 346
Blemishes in the Diction 346
Admiration of the Faery Queen 346
General Parallel of Italian and English Poetry 347
Decline of Latin Poetry in Italy 347
Compensated in other Countries 347
Lotichius 347
Collections of Latin Poetry by Gruter 348
Characters of some Gallo-Latin Poets 348
Sammarthanus 349
Belgic Poets 349
Scots Poets--Buchanan 349