little niceties
in dress, tapestry, needlework, and furnishings. The poem was written
mostly in prison where its author spent two years for a libel on the
Prince Regent. Byron used to visit him there and bring him books bearing
on Francesca's history. Hunt brought into the piece romantic stuff from
various sources, including a summary of the book which betrayed the
lovers to their fatal passion, the romance of "Lancelot du Lac." And
Giovanni speaks to his dying brother a paraphrase of the celebrated
eulogy pronounced over Lancelot by Sir Ector in the "Morte Darthur":

"And, Paulo, thou wert the completest knight
That ever rode with banner to the fight;
And thou wert the most beautiful to see,
That ever came in press of chivalry:
And of a sinful man thou wert the best
That ever for his friend put spear in rest;
And thou wert the most meek and cordial
That ever among ladies eat in hall;
And thou wert still, for all that bosom gored,
The kindest man that ever struck with sword."

Hunt makes the husband discover his wife's infidelity by overhearing her
talking in her sleep. In many other particulars he enfeebles, dandifies,
and sentimentalises Dante's fierce, abrupt tragedy; holding the reader by
the button while he prattles in his garrulous way of Paulo's "taste"--

"The very nose, lightly yet firmly wrought,
Showed taste"--

and of

"The two divinest things in earthly lot,
A lovely woman in a rural spot!"

a couplet which irresistibly suggests suburban picnics.

Yet no one in his generation did more than Leigh Hunt to familiarise the
English public with Italian romance. He began the study of Italian when
he was a schoolboy at Christ Hospital, being attracted to Ariosto by a
picture of Angelica and Medoro, in West's studio. Like his friend Keats,
on whose "Eve of St. Agnes" he wrote an enthusiastic commentary,[19] Hunt
was eclectic in his choice of material, drawing inspiration impartially
from the classics and the romantics; but, like Keats, he became early a
declared rebel against eighteenth-century traditions and asserted impulse
against rule. "In antiquarian corners," he says, in writing of the
influences of his childish days, "Percy's 'Reliques' were preparing a
nobler age both in poetry and prose." At school he fell passionately in
love with Collins and Gray, composed a "Winter" in imitation of Thomson,
one hundred stanzas of a "Fairy King" in emulation of Spenser, and