Chapter XXIV

HISTORY OF POLITE LITERATURE IN PROSE FROM 1600 TO 1650.

Decline of Taste in Italy 623
Style of Galileo 624
Bentivoglio 624
Boccalini’s News from Parnassus 624
His Pietra del Paragone 625
Terrante Pallavicino 625
Dictionary Delia Crusca 625
Grammatical Works--Buonmattei--Bartoli 626
Tassoni’s Remarks on Petrarch 626
Galileo’s Remarks on Tasso 626
Sforza Pallavicino 626
And other Critical Writers 626
Prolusiones of Strada 627
Spanish Prose--Gracian 627
French Prose--Du Vair 627
Balzac 628
Character of his Writings 628
His Letters 628
Voiture--Hotel Rambouillet 629
Establishment of French Academy 630
Its objects and Constitution 630
It publishes a Critique on the Cid 631
Vaugelas’s Remarks on the French Language 631
La Mothe le Vayer 632
Legal Speeches of Patru 632
And of Le Maistre 632
Improvement in English Style 633
Earl of Essex 633
Knolles’s History of the Turks 634
Raleigh’s History of the World 635
Daniel’s History of England 635
Bacon 635
Milton 636
Clarendon 636
The Icon Basilice 636
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy 637
Earle’s Characters 637
Overbury’s Characters 637
Jonson’s Discoveries 637
Publication of Don Quixote 638
Its Reputation 638
New Views of its Design 638
Probably erroneous 638
Difference between the two Parts 639
Excellence of this Romance 639
Minor Novels of Cervantes 639
Other Novels--Spanish 639
And Italian 639
French Romances--Astrée 639
Heroic Romances--Gomberville 640
Calprenède 640
Scuderi 641
Argenis of Barclay 641
His Euphormis 643
Campanella’s City of the Sun 643
Few Books of Fiction in England 643
Mundus Alter et Idem of Hall 644
Godwin’s Journey to the Moon 644
Howell’s Dodona’s Grove 644
Adventures of Baron de Fænesle 644