Excerpt from Fable and Song in Italy The aim of this little volume is twofold. First, to trace out some of the influences acting on the more popular forms of Italian song; and secondly, to offer to English readers, in the shape of translated extracts, specimens of Italian poets whose works difficulties of language have hitherto rendered inaccessible to the general public. In carrying out the first part of my programme, I have specially dwelt in the early chapters on the survival of classical myths in popular tradition, and on their transformation and modification at the hands of minstrels and poets. As Boiardo is the great exemplar, among the more polished bards, of this species of assimilation, I have illustrated it by following out some of the episodes in which he has thus blended antique and mediæval mythology, so as to present them in consecutive and intelligible form. It is only in this fashion that the chivalric epic can be rendered readable to contemporaries, since its prolixity and discursiveness make it wearisome to pursue continuously as a whole. Its original composition for piecemeal recitation places it in a totally different category from modern literature, addressed primarily to the mind through the eye. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.