CHAPTER II.

THE ITALIAN DECADENCE AND THE SPANIARDS.

Decadence of Italian Criticism 323 Paolo Beni 324 Possevino: his _Bibliotheca Selecta_ 325 Tassoni: his _Pensieri Diversi_ 326 Aromatari 328 His _Degli Autori del Ben Parlare_ 329 Boccalini and Minors 329 Influence of the _Ragguagli_ 330 The set of Seicentist taste 331 Spanish criticism: highly ranked by Dryden? 331 The Origins—Villena 333 Santillana 333 Encina 335 Valdés 335 The beginning of regular Criticism. Humanist Rhetoricians 336

Poetics: Rengifo 337 Pinciano 338 La Cueva 341 Carvallo 341 Gonzales de Salas 341 The _Cigarrales_ of Tirso de Molina 343 Lope’s _Arte Nuevo_, &c. 344 His assailants and defenders 346 The fight over the Spanish drama 347 Cervantes and Calderon 347 Gongorism, Culteranism, &c. 349 Quevedo 349 Gracián 349 The limitations of Spanish criticism 350