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THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.

THE END OF COURT-POETRY.

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CAUSES OF DECLINE-'ENFANCES'-REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT-CYCLICAL POEMS FRANCO-ITALIAN EPICS-FRENCH PATRIOTIC VERSE-ROMANS D'AVENTURE-'CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE' THE AVVENTUROSO CICILIANO'THE 'REALI DI FRANCIA'-GERMAN EPICS-ICELANDIC RÍMUR - FORNSÖGUR AND LYGISÖGUR — ENGLISH ROMANCES - ALLITERATIVE POETRY-SCOTTISH ROMANCES-THE 'BRUCE'-LAURENCE MINOT.

How came the old poetry-epic, romance, minnesong -to die out as it did in the fourteenth century? Was Who killed it suffocated by adverse outward conditions, court-poetry or had it completed its natural term of life? Perhaps it is not necessary to choose between these solutions. It seems probable that more than one cause was at work. That there were hostile agencies abroad cannot be doubted. In this task of

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