Saintsbury

Cited as Saintsbury. — 15 quotations

Arthurian

In magnitude, in interest, and as a literary origin, the Arthurian invention dwarfs all other things in the book.

Bestiary

A bestiary . . . in itself one of the numerous mediæval renderings of the fantastic mystical Zoology.

Chanson de geste

Langtoft had written in the ordinary measure of the later chansons de geste.

Donnée

That favorite romance donnée of the heir kept out of his own.

Flite

The bird of Pallas has also a good “flyte” on the moral side . . . in his suggestion that the principal effect of the nightingale's song is to make women false to their husbands.

Flitting

These “flytings” consisted of alternate torrents of sheer Billingsgate poured upon each other by the combatants.

Game

It was obviously Lord Macaulay's game to blacken the greatest literary champion of the cause he had set himself to attack.

Genre

French drama was lisping or still inarticulate; the great French genre of the fabliau was hardly born.

Gospel

If any one thinks this expression hyperbolical, I shall only ask him to read Œdipus, instead of taking the traditional witticisms about Lee for gospel.

Hedge

The Heroic Stanzas read much more like an elaborate attempt to hedge between the parties than . . . to gain favor from the Roundheads.

Oddment

A miscellaneous collection of riddles, charms, gnomic verses, and “oddments” of different kinds.

Plump

After the plump statement that the author was at Erceldoune and spake with Thomas.

Precious

Elaborate embroidery of precious language.

Telltale

It supplies many useful links and telltales.

Touchy

It may be said of Dryden that he was at no time touchy about personal attacks.