New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-05-22

ample. does he fail to do more than mention the
- NJ Pico della Mirandola? THE enduring
...,ue OF Picos work" says Symonds. is due,
%, 20 his quixotic quest of an accord between
..gan Hebrew and Christian traditions. but to
no noble spirit Of confidence and humane SYM
,otbv with all great movements Of the mind.
wh,ch penetrates it," Symonds himself ad-
,,,ed that the positive achievements OF the
r,orentines in philosophy were not to he rated
highly but ne points out that their discussions
we're largely responsible for the first accurate
examination of the text of the Greek phoso-
,hers in Western Europe, an examination from
which enormously important results were to
oow sending not only broad stream Of newly
awakened learning through the world Of schol
orshp but correlative rvulcts which fertilized
,nnumerable minor tracts The trouble appears
70 he that Dr. Garnctt has been overwhelmed
nv the magnitude of his task, ard despairing Of
anv minute representation of all the forces po-
ten, in Italian letters, has confined himself to
Straight, rWard. mattcr-of-fact record Of his
chief authors.
The part played by Pico would not he so in
,eresting TO the student if il had not touched
the literary genius Of Italy on the sensuous.
aesthetic side to which reference has been made
q
nevertheless imhued with the love OF learning.
a phrase which implied in the Italy Of his day
exactly what it implies everywhere to-day.
namely a love OF whatever is gracious. refining
and beautiful. Even as the authors drew away
from the pedantic languages and Italy began to
have a literature in The vcrnacular, they re-
tanned their confidence in the pagan laws Of
taste. and the racest products OF the soil were
to a certain extent gilded and TRANSPORTED by
the feeling for purely literary virtues which
was one Of the chief clements in the revival OF
scholarship Abiding to the "Decameron' and
TO BoccacciO's development Of Italian prose as
an artistic vehicle Or. Garnett neatly observes
that the book illustrates an alliance between
the elegant but superfine literature of courts
and the vigorous but homey literature Of the
people" We wish he had expanded this thought
and had described more in detail the marriage
OF thoroughly vitalized substance with polished.
elegant and yet flexible manner which was typl-
cal from Boccaccios time onward Of whatever
was best and most characteristic In the litera-
turc Of the peninsula. He is helpful so far as
he goes but he does not go far Following up
the main line Of development with doubtful
when he fails to take the OPP
portunity offered him by Boardo. with his Gu
riOus mingling Of dazzling romance and indu-
bitably human feeling naturally loses sight
of some OF the most interesting ramiiications OF
the Italian spirit. as for instance the combina-
ton in Machiavclli of personal force charac-
terstic Of a condottieri and "A pure intellectual
lty more Justly TO be referred to the drcst light
In the classicists laboratory OF thought. There
Is nothing more suggestive TO the student than
the complexity Of the Renaissance. a period In
which elemental emotions were overad with
a thousand trappings without ever losing their
primal force But must have done with
fault finding. We cannot but deprecate DIR.
Garnett's failure TO appreciate the early Italian
novelists at their proper value-his meagre esti-
mate OF their dramatic qualities revealing a
hmentable ignorance OF one Of their chief vir-
tues and implying complete an ignorance OF
Ezabethan England's Indebtedness to Italy for
much that went TO make her Drama OF Blood
and we find his laudation OF DAnnunzio grossly
exaggerated. his Indifference 10 chroniclers like
Matarazzo as short sighted and as careless but
we relinqulsh his book with the conviction that
IN a rudimentary way 1t should prove OF some
service IL was great subject TO handle In
such small space. Perhaps. after all. DIR. Gar
nett Is not wholly to blame.
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