TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES In the text version Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted like =this=. The book cover was modified by the Transcriber and has been added to the public domain. A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants. For the words with both variants present the one more used has been kept. Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected. * * * * * Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: IV. Edited by Edmund Gosse Short Histories of the Literatures of the World EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE Large Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. each Volume ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE By Prof. GILBERT MURRAY, M.A. FRENCH LITERATURE By Prof. EDWARD DOWDEN, D.C.L., LL.D. MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE By the EDITOR ITALIAN LITERATURE By RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D. SPANISH LITERATURE By J. FITZMAURICE-KELLY [_Shortly_ JAPANESE LITERATURE By WILLIAM GEORGE ASTON, C.M.G. [_Shortly_ MODERN SCANDINAVIAN LITERATURE By GEORGE BRANDES SANSKRIT LITERATURE By Prof. A. A. MACDONELL HUNGARIAN LITERATURE By Dr. ZOLTÁN BRÖTHY AMERICAN LITERATURE By Professor MOSES COIT TYLER GERMAN LITERATURE By Dr. C. H. HERFORD LATIN LITERATURE By Dr. A. W. VERRALL _Other volumes will follow_ LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN [_All rights reserved_] A History of ITALIAN LITERATURE BY RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D. [Illustration] London WILLIAM HEINEMANN MDCCCXCVIII Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. At the Ballantyne Press PREFACE “I think,” says Jowett, writing to John Addington Symonds (August 4, 1890), “that you are happy in having unlocked so much of Italian literature, certainly the greatest in the world after Greek, Latin, English. To have interpreted one such literature and made it accessible to English-speaking people seems to me a sufficient result of a life.”