Note 1337 — Chapter XVI
Reading edition
In the opinion of Bouterwek (v. 282), the taste for chivalrous romance declined in the latter part of the century, through the prevalence of a classical spirit in literature, which exposed the mediæval fictions to derision. The number of shorter and more amusing novels might probably have more to do with it; the serious romance has a terrible enemy in the lively. But it revived, with a little modification, in the next age.