In the latter the force and fire which occasionally break through the
stiff wrappings of the longer poems appear with less difficulty and in
fuller measure.
It is, however, undoubtedly curious, and not to be explained merely by
the difference of subject, that the styles of the letters and of the
poems, agreeing well enough between themselves, differ most remarkably
from that of the _Heptameron_. The two former are decidedly open to
the charges of pedantry, artificiality, heaviness. There is a great
surplusage of words and a seeming inability to get to the point. The
_Heptameron_ if not equal in narrative vigour and lightness to Boccaccio
before and La Fontaine afterwards, is not in the least exposed to
the charge of clumsiness of any kind, employs a simple, natural, and
sufficiently picturesque vocabulary, avoids all verbiage and roundabout
writing, and both in the narratives and in the connecting conversation
displays a very considerable advance upon nearly all the writers of the
time, except Rabelais, Marot, and Desperiers, in easy command of the
vernacular.
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