Page:The National Idea in Italian Literature.djvu/11

 "" was the title of the inaugural lecture delivered in the University of Manchester, on November 6th, 1919, at the opening of the newly-founded department of Italian Studies. In the following pages the lecture has been somewhat expanded and, here and there, modified. It remains, however, substantially the same. I would ask my readers to take it still as no more than a prolusione, and to let this explain, if not excuse, the omission of many names, especially in the nineteenth century, which could not have been passed over in any fuller treatment of the subject. E. G. G.


 * July 22nd, 1920