s; turned it inside out, twisted a bit here, a bit there,
ripped open seam after seam, patched and repatched with stuffs and
stitches of its own; and then wore the whole thing as it had never been
intended to be worn; until this cast-off poetic apparel, stretched on
the freer moral limbs of natural folk, faded and stained by weather and
earth into new and richer tints, had lost all its original fashionable
stiffness, and crudeness of colour, and niminy-piminy fit, and had
acquired instead I know not what grace of unexpectedness,
picturesqueness, and ease.[1]

[1] Any one who is sceptical of the Courtly derivation of the Italian
popular song may, besides consulting the admirable book of Prof.
d'Ancona, compare with the contents of Tigri's famous "Canti popolari
Toscani," the following scraps of Sicilian and early Italian lyrics:--

The Emperor Frederick II. writes: "Rosa di maggio--Colorita e
fresca--Occhi hai fini--E non rifini--Di gioie dare--Lo tuo parlare--La
gente innamora--Castella ed altura."

Jacopo Pugliesi says of his lady: "Chiarita in viso piu che
argento--Donami allegrezze--Ben eo son morto--E mal colto--Se non mi dai
conforto--_Fior dell' orto_."

Inghilfredi Siciliano: "Gesu Cristo ideolla in paradiso--E poi la fece
angelo incarnando--Gioia aggio preso di giglio novello--E vago, che
sormonta ogni ricchezza--Sua dottrina m' affrezza--Cosi mi coglie e
olezza--Come pantera le bestie selvagge."

Jacopo da Lentino: "E di virtute tutte l' altre avanza--E somigliante a
stella e di splendore--Colla sua conta (_cf_. Provencal _coindeta_,
gentille) e gaia innamoranza--E piu bella e che rosa e che fiore--Cristo
le doni vita ed allegranza--E si la cresca in gran pregio ed onore."

I must finish off what might be a much longer collection with a charming
little scrap, quite in rispetto tone, by Guinicelli: "Vedut 'ho la
lucente stella diana--Ch' appare anzi che 'l giorno renda albore--Ch' a
preso forma di figura umana--Sovr' ogni altra mi par che dia
splendore--Viso di neve colorato in grana--Occhi lucenti, gai e pien
d'amore--Non credo che nel mondo sia cristiana--Si piena di beltate e di
valore."]

Well; for many a year did the song of the peasants rise up from the
fields and oliveyards unnoticed by the good townsfolk taking their
holiday at the Tuscan villa; but one day, somewhere in the third quarter
of the fifteenth century, the long-drawn chant of the rispetto, telling
perhaps how the singer's sweethea