Vulgar words in Initiation into Literature (Page 1)
This book at a glance
|
~ ~ ~ Sentence 296 ~ ~ ~
Rabelais has been called the Homeric buffoon, Lucian is certainly the Socratic.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 453 ~ ~ ~
Aulus Gellius was only a rather untidy or at least not very methodical scholar who wrote feebly; Apuleius with his _Golden Ass_ was merely a fantastic romancist, very complex, curious about everything, more especially with regard to singularities, lively, amusing, mystical at times; in short, distinctly disconcerting.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 557 ~ ~ ~
Among the celebrated Tuscans of this epoch was Guittone of Arezzo, mentioned by Dante and Petrarch with more or less consideration; Jacopone of Todi, at once both mystic and buffoon, in whom it has been sought, in a manner somewhat flattering to him, to trace a predecessor of Dante; Brunetto Latini, the authentic master of Dante, who was encyclopaedic, after a fashion, and who published, first in French, whilst he was in Paris, _The Treasure_, a compilation of the knowledge of his time, then, in Italian, _Tesoretto_, a collection of maxims drawn from his previous work, besides some poetry and translations from Latin.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 617 ~ ~ ~
He has been called "the buffoon Homer," and the nickname may be legitimately granted to him.
~ ~ ~ Sentence 643 ~ ~ ~
PRÉCIEUX AND BURLESQUES.--Then succeeded the _précieux_ and the _burlesques_, who resembled each other, the _précieux_ seeking wit and believing that all literary art consisted in saying it did not matter what in a dainty and unexpected fashion; the _burlesques_ also sought wit but on a lower plane, desiring to be "droll," buffoons, prone to cock-and-bull stories or crude pranks in thought, style, and parody.