que competemment enteudolt son Latin, et souffl-



Pait n.] DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 52i

poet's genius, at least have impeded his popularity. A very com-
petent judge has pronounced the poem of the Cid to be "decideidlj
and beyond comparison the finest in the Spanish language.*' It is
at least superior to any that was written in Europe before the ap-
pearance of Dante {!)»

A strange obscurity envelops the infancy of the Italian ^^ij wntew m
language. Though it is certain that grammatical Latin ^^ ^**"«"-
bad ceased to be employed in ordinary discourse, at least from the
time of Charlemagne, we have not a single passage of undisputed
authenticity, in the current idiom, for nearly four centuries after-
wards. Though Italian phrases are mixed up in the barbarous jar-
gon of some charters, not an instrument is extant in that language
before the year 1200; unless we may reckon one in the Sardinian
dialect, (which I believe was rather Provencal than Italian, ) noticed
by Muratori (2). Nor is there a vestige of Italian poetry older than
a few fragments of Giullq d'Alcamo, a Sicilian, who must have writ-
ten before il93, since he mentions Saladin as then living (3). lliis
may strike us as the more remarkable, when we consider the political
circumstances of Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. From
the struggles of her spirited republics against the emperors, and
their internal factions, we might, upon all general reasoning, anti-
cipate the early use and vigorous cultivation of their native language.
