Eating bread and honey.'

From this species of verse, which probably prevailed among the
natives of Provence (the Roman Provencia) and into which at a
later period, rhyme was introduced as an embellishment, the
Troubadours derived the metre of their ballad poetry, and thence
introduced it into the rest of Europe."

Literature with the Romans was not of spontaneous growth; it was
chiefly due to the influence of the Etruscans, who were their
early teachers, they lacked that delicate fancy and imagination
that made the Greeks, even before they emerged from a state of
barbarism, a poetical people. The first written literature of the
Romans was in the form of history, in which they excelled. Like
other nations, they had oral compositions in verse long before
they possessed any written literature. The exploits of heroes
were recited and celebrated by the bards of Rome as they were
among the Northern nations. Yet these lays were so despised by
the Romans that we can scarcely see any trace of their existence
except in certain relics which have been borrowed from true
poetry and converted into the half fabulous history of the infant
ages of Rome. That the Romans, as a people, had no great national
drama, and that their poems never became the groundwork of a
later polished literature was due to the incorporation of
foreigners into their nation who took little interest in the
traditions of their earlier achievements. Father Ennius (239-169
B.C.), as Horace calls him, was the true founder of Latin poetry.
He enriched the Latin language, gave it new scope and power; and
paid particular attention to its grammatical form. What he has
done was so well done, that it has never been undone, although