MEDIEVAL LIFE IN EUROPE 299

the sun, and the planets, and the eighth after the fixed stars.
All these are visible from earth. Above them is the ninth
or crystalline Heaven, which directs by its movements the
daily revolution of all the others. In it nature starts ; from
it proceed time and motion, together with all celestial in-
fluences for the government of the world. It is :

The robe that with its regal folds enwraps
The world and with the nearer breath of God
Doth burn and quiver.

" Above it, climax of the vision, is the infinite and mo-
tionless sea of divine love where God makes blessed the
saints and angels in the vision of His Essence."1

Though Dante's imagery and expression are medieval, he
belongs to all time. Next to him stands the galaxy of
writers like Petrarch, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Malory.
They have all left us familiar pictures of medieval life.
We might close this' chapter with the portrayal of an ideal
knight who was indeed the ideal man of the Middle Ages.

" Ah, Lancelot," says Sir Ector in Malory's Le Morte
d'Arthur, "thou wert head of all Christian knights, and no^/
I dare say, thou Sir Lancelot, there thou liest, that thou wert
never matched of earthly knight's hand. And thou wert the
courteoust knight that ever bare shield. And thou wert the
truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrad horse. And thou
wert the truest lover of a sinful man that ever loved woman.
And thou wert the kindest man that ever struck with sword.
And thou wert the goodliest person that ever came among press
of knights. And thou wert the meekest man and the gentlest
that ever ate in hall among ladies. And thou wert the sternest
knight to thy mortal foe that ever put spear in the rest/'

JL John Drinkwater, The Outline of Literature, p. 239.