[Footnote 253: See, for instance his description of the sun's crown, the most poetical passage in book VII.] [Footnote 254: 1420, 1430.] [Footnote 255: This is the title Froissart (1397) gave to his collection when presenting it to Richard II.] [Footnote 256: Lebrun, 1729-1807; Esménard, 1770-1812.] [Footnote 257: Lydgate, "The Destruction of Troy"--description of Hector's chapel. Especially read the Pageants or Solemn Entries.] [Footnote 258: See the Vision of Fortune, a gigantic figure. In this painting he shows both feeling and talent.] [Footnote 259: Lydgate, "Fall of Princes." Warton, II. 280.] [Footnote 260: The War of the Hussites, The Hundred Years' War, and The War of the Roses.] [Footnote 261: About 1506. "The Temple of Glass. Passetyme of Pleasure."] [Footnote 262: About 1500.] [Footnote 263: The court fool in Victor Hugo's drama of "Le Roi s'amuse."--Tr.] [Footnote 264: Died 1529; Poet-Laureate 1489. His "Bouge of Court," his "Crown of Laurel," his "Elegy on the Death of the Earl of Northumberland," are well written, and belong to official poetry.] BOOK II.--THE RENAISSANCE CHAPTER FIRST The Pagan Renaissance _PART I.--Manners of the Time_ SECTION I.--Ideas of the Middle Ages For seventeen centuries a deep and sad thought had weighed upon the spirit of man, first to overwhelm it, then to exalt and to weaken it, never losing its hold throughout this long space of time. It was the idea of the weakness and decay of the human race. Greek corruption, Roman oppression, and the dissolution of the ancient world, had given rise to it; it, in its turn, had produced a stoical resignation, an epicurean indifference, Alexandrian mysticism, and the Christian hope in the kingdom of God. "The world is evil and lost, let us escape by insensibility, amazement, ecstasy." Thus spoke the philosophers; and religion, coming after, announced that the end was near; "Prepare, for the kingdom of God is at hand." For a thousand years universal ruin incessantly drove still deeper into their hearts this gloomy thought; and when man in the feudal state raised himself, by sheer force of courage and muscles, from the depths of final imbecility and general misery, he discovered his thought and his work fettered by the crushing idea, which, forbidding a life of nature and worldly hopes, erected into ideals the obedience of the monk and the dreams of fanatics.