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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 ETICS--FRENCH PATRIOTIC VERSE-ROMANS D'AVENTURE 'CENTO NOVELLE ANTICHE' THE AVVENTUROSO CICILIANO-THE 'REALI DI FRANCIA'-GERMAN EPICS-ICELANDIC RÍMUR — FORNSÖGUR AND LÝGISÖGUR — ENGLISH ROMANCES — ALLITERATIVE POETRY-SCOTTISH ROMANCES-THE 'BRUCE'-LAU -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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