Dante’s “trilogy,” or three-part poem, has several thousand four-line verses and is usually regarded as, on the literary side, the flower of the Middle Ages. Longfellow wrote a beautiful poem in appreciation of it, comparing it to a Gothic cathedral. But it is also interesting as showing how Europe was at the time being awakened by the Arab culture. Dante, who lived in Florence, where there was a great deal of liberality of thought, speaks throughout with great respect of the Arab and Greek philosophers, and in his ethical ideas he is deeply influenced by them. He wrote in Italian and thus inaugurated the great Italian literature of the Renaissance. His minor works, in prose, are _The New Life_ and _The Banquet_. §3. HERALDS OF THE RENAISSANCE Dante died in 1321, and within two decades of that date were born the great Italian writers Petrarch and Boccaccio, the French chronicler Froissart, and the gifted English poet Chaucer. Dante himself may in a sense, as I have said, be called a herald of the Renaissance or re-birth of letters, but he is mainly medieval while these four are predominantly characterized by the new spirit of humanity. Petrarch (1304-74) is the first great figure in the revival of Greek and Latin literature. He wrote mostly in Latin, but the _Sonnets_ he composed in Italian are so beautiful that four hundred editions of them have appeared. His contemporary Boccaccio (1313-75), also of Italy, is best known as the author of the _Decameron_. The word means “The Ten Days Work,” and the book consists of a hundred witty and skilful short stories which are supposed to be told to each other, during ten days, by a group of ladies and gentlemen. The stories reflect all the gaiety, sparkle, and license of that early springtime of the new Europe. In France about the same time Froissart (born 1338) wrote a _Chronicle_ which is regarded as a classic. He traveled very extensively and tells, with bright coloring, the history of each leading country in Europe in the fourteenth century. The Re-Birth soon spread from Italy to the northern lands, as Europe was now comparatively settled and men traveled and read. Chaucer (1340-1400), the first great English poet, had met Petrarch and was deeply influenced by him and Boccaccio. His famous _Canterbury Tales_ is a broad and wonderfully vivid picture of the life and characters of his age. All the chief types of the time are introduced as pilgrims on the way to Canterbury, and their tales they tell to each other depict early English life graphically for us. The old English is rather difficult to read, but the humor and shrewd observation make it worth while to try. §4. THE NEW AGE IN ITALY AND FRANCE