PERIODS OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE. EDITED BY PROFESSOR SAINTSBURY. A COMPLETE AND CONTINUOUS HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT. In 12 Crown 8vo Volumes. Price 7s. 6d. net each. "The criticism which alone can much help us for the future is a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working to a common result." THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY BY F. J. SNELL WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS MCMXXIII All Rights reserved PREFACE. THE range and difficulty of the task essayed in the following pages render explanation unavoidable. The writer entered on the undertaking, not only with much trepidation, but with some amount of misapprehension. When at last the real nature of the enterprise dawned upon him, he was already too deeply committed to withdraw from it. He determined therefore to do his best, consoling himself with the thought that the work was worth accomplishing, were the workman unworthy. It is evident that a book of this sort must depend, in a larger measure than is entirely agreeable, on compilation. The only alternative is to ignore the claims of whole literatures with which one possesses no large first-hand acquaintance. To be precise, the writer, though he once knew a little Swedish, is exceedingly backward in Icelandic, whilst his Welsh is even more elementary, being almost |