The Dark Ages #250684

Or, in other words, the darkness of the Dark Ages comes to an end about the time when Italian scholars reproduce the forms of classical poetry in their modern. Tongue. Trissino's Sophonisba, the first Italian tragedy in regular form, was an historical beacon mark ing the limit. Over the Gothic centuries the his torian travels quickly till he comes to at length Erasmus. It is all dark, and it is all middle. The biographer of Dryden's friend, Mr Walter Moyle, expresses the common opinion: From Ann. Dom. 440 to 1440 was a long but dark Period of Time, and he aimed only to preserve a Thread of the History of that Middle Age.