on society, touching especially the Roman Court, and criticising
eminent ecclesiastics in all countries; to moral dissertations, and to
discourses on the brevity of life.

Of the two divisions, the former yields by far the livelier image of
the men we have to deal with. It will therefore form the staple of my
argument. The latter blends at so many points with medieval literature
of the monastic kind, that it is chiefly distinguished by boldness of
censure and sincerity of invective. In these qualities the serious
poems of the Goliardi, emanating from a class of men who moved behind
the scenes and yet were free to speak their thoughts, are unique.
Written with the satirist's eye upon the object of his sarcasm, tinged
with the license of his vagabondage, throbbing with the passionate and
nonchalant afflatus of the wine-cup, they wing their flight like
poisoned arrows or plumed serpents with unerring straightness at
abuses in high places.

The wide space occupied by Nature in the secular poems of the Goliardi
is remarkable. As a background to their love-songs we always find the
woods and fields of May, abundant flowers and gushing rivulets,
lime-trees and pines and olive-trees, through which soft winds are
blowing. There are rose-bowers and nightingales; fauns, nymphs, and
satyrs dancing on the sward. Choirs of mortal maidens emerge in the
midst of this Claude-landscape. The scene, meanwhile, has been painted
from experience, and felt with the enthusiasm of affection. It
breathes of healthy open air, of life upon the road, of casual joys
and wayside pleasure, snatched with careless heart by men whose tastes
are natural. There is very little of the alcove or the closet in this
verse; and the touch upon the world is so infantine, so tender, that
we are indulgent to the generalities with which the poets deal.