Chapter IV: Popular Secular Poetry

Separation between Cultivated Persons and the People--Italian despised by the Learned--Contempt for Vernacular Literature--The _Certamen Coronarium_--Literature of Instruction for the Proletariate--Growth of Italian Prose--Abundance of Popular Poetry--The People in the Quattrocento take the Lead--Qualities of Italian Genius--Arthurian and Carolingian Romances--_I Reali di Francia_--Andrea of Berberino and his Works--Numerous Romances in Prose and Verse--Positive Spirit--Versified Tales from Boccaccio--Popular Legends--Ginevra degli Almieri--Novel of _Il Grasso_--Histories in Verse--_Lamenti_--The Poets of the People--_Cantatori in Banca_--Antonio Pucci--His _Sermintesi_--Political Songs--Satires--Burchiello--His Life and Writings--Dance-Songs--Derived from Cultivated Literature, or produced by the People--Poliziano--Love-Songs--_Rispetti_ and _Stornelli_--The Special Meaning of _Strambotti_--Diffusion of this Poetry over Italy--Its Permanence--Question of its Original Home--Intercommunication and Exchange of Dialects--_Incatenature_ and _Rappresaglie_--Traveling in Medieval Italy--The Subject-Matter of this Poetry--Deficiency in Ballad Elements--Canti Monferrini--The Ballad of _L'Avvelenato_ and Lord Ronald 234