It is surely difficult in the perusal of many of these ancient songs to abstain from partaking in the joyous hilarity, the frolic festivity of spirit, with which they seem to revel in the charms of nature as clothed in her most smiling forms. The gay meadows, the budding groves, the breezes and flowers
. . . . . di primavera candida e vermiglia,
sparkle in the song; and the buoyant effervescence of youthful gaiety is often in delightful keeping with the bounding rhythm and musical elegance of the verse. When we were noticing king Thibaud's supercilious depreciation of such minstrels as borrowed the ornaments, and often the subjects of their poetry, from the natural objects around them, we might have placed by the side of the Troubadour whom we then quoted in their justification the following verse by the Minnesinger Von Buwenburg, as further exemplifying the spirit with which these topics were often selected and dwelt upon them in the fullness of the heart, not in the practised skill of a spinner-out of conceits.
Say, what is the sparkling light before us
O'er the grassy mead, all bright and fair,
As the spirit of mirth did wanton o'er us?
Well, well, I see that summer is there;
By the flow'rs upspringing, and birds sweet singing,
And animals playing :-- and, lo! the hand
Of nature her beautiful offspring bringing
All ranged in their seasons at her command!
May heav'n complete thee, thou fair creation,
For such pleasures as these are joy's true foundation!
The compositions of the Minnesingers display a great deal of the same blending of religious with amatory ideas, and of confusion in the objects of the poet's adoration, which have been observed among the Troubadours, and which are characteristic of the chivalric spirit of the age. The fashion of the day gave an unnatural elevation to the immediate subjects of the minstrel's idolatry; and from this arose a correspondent familiarizing degradation of the images, to a comparison with which he sought to raise his terrestrial divinity. The Virgin, the angels and paradise, nay even the Supreme Being, are sometimes placed on an equal, and not more than an equal, footing of honour with the immediate object of adoration, yet perhaps with no intentional irreverence in the mind of the ardent poet. A curious passage from the Lai d'Oiselet (Barbazan, III. 119) will illustrate the naïveté of the philosophy with which these subjects were expounded:--
Et por verité vos recort,
Diex et amors sont d'un accort;
Diex aime sens et honorance
Amors ne l'a pas en viltance;
Diex het orgueil et fauceté
Et amors aimme loiauté;
Diex aime honor et cortoisie
Et bone amor ne het-il mie;
Diex escoute bele proiere,
Amors ne le met pas arriere.
Instances of the strangest confusion of these topics are abundant among the Troubadours; and the following verse from Christian von Lupin may serve as a specimen of it among the Minnesingers :
They say that joy's high dwelling place is heaven:
Joy is where man's delight to him is given:
Then for her sake my feet shall journey where
My charmer is, for paradise is there:
If but her blessed smile may light on me,
Here pleas'd on earth I'll dwell -- for here my heaven will be.
There are, however, among the lyric pieces of the Minnesingers some which, for the age, possess considerable merit, and which are devoted entirely to religious topics, such as the praises of the Virgin or of a favourite saint. Brother Eberhart of Sax is the author of an ode to the former, which has some power; and another singer devoted himself to a rifacciamento of Solomon's Song, which Herder introduced to public notice among his "Lieder de Liebe." Der Marner is the author of a sonnet, which, being the shortest piece of the sort, may be here translated as a specimen.
Maria! Virgin! mother! comforter
Of sinners! queen of saints in heav'n that are!
Thy beauty round the eternal throne doth cast
A brightness that outshines its living rays:
There in the fullness of transcendent joy
Heaven's king and thou sit in bright majesty:
Would I were there, a welcom'd guest at last
Where angel tongues re-echo praise to praise!
There Michael sings the blessed Saviour's name
Till round the eternal throne it rings once more,
And angels in their choirs with glad acclaim,
Triumphant host, their joyful praises pour:
There thousand years than days more short appear,
Such joy from God doth flow and from that mother dear.
But a considerable difference may be observed in the extent to which the German and the Provençal poets are, generally speaking, accustomed to go in their idolatry of the fair sex; the former appearing usually to restrain their mode of expressing their attachments within much more natural and reasonable bounds, and to content themselves with assigning to woman a superior rank in the scale of society, without bowing so lowly down to her temporal and spiritual authority, or erecting such an extravagant scale of dominion as it pleased the minstrels of Provence to assign to her. Perhaps the cause of this distinction may to a considerable extent be pointed out. In the South, this exaltation of the female sex was a recent innovation, -- a feeling which had seized on the mind with the ardour of novelty,-- not a rule of action founded on social principles. The Roman institutions had there suffered much less adulteration from the leaven of Teutonic innovation; and it does not appear that women had any where, but among the Germans, occupied that position in society which the latter seem always to have conceded to them. But with the ascendancy of chivalric feelings a spirit of devotion for the sex came into fashion in France, and, like many other fashions, was soon carried to a most extravagant excess. Men thought they could never prostrate themselves too low before the idols "to which they bowed their knee." She who had been treated as a slave became on a sudden a divinity; to her were ascribed all the attributes of sovereignty; and courts of justice even were created to enforce obedience to a new code of laws, and to dignify all sorts of caprice with the mimic consequence of judicial solemnity.
These follies certianly at any rate never attained such a height in Germany.*
*[The following whimsical and otherwise worthless stanzas of Hugh of Werbenwag (about 1250) constitute the only intimation that occurs to our remembrance of a temporal jurisdiction acknowledged or appealed to by the German Troubadours in affairs of the heart; and even here the complaint is to no authority constituted for the especial purpose, but to the king (Conrad), with a further appeal to the emperor, and thence in due gradation to the pope; subject also most curiously to the acknowledged right of the accused to the legal wager of battel if claimed.
If such her purpose last, I'll send
A message to my lady,
To warn her that my suit I'll ply
Unto the king to aid me;
I'll say she wins and wears my gage,
Yet will she not my pain assuage;
And if he hears me not, I'll seek the emperor's court.
Yet fear I when we both appear
Battel must waged be;
If she on oath deny the truth
Of the words she spoke to me,
Then must I strive with her in fight:
So is the law; but shall I smite
That lady? Yet how hard to let her strike me dead.
Yes, if king Conrad listen not,
Or hearing will not heed,
Then will I seek the Emperor's grace,
For he hath heard the deed:
And still if justice be not there
I'll to Thuringia's prince repair,
Or to the Pope, with whom justice in mercy dwells.
LADY.
Dear friend, thy anger waxes high,
To kings and emperors flying;
Go not to Rome, but rest at home,
For hope on me relying:
The light of faithful love pursue,
And follow still with service true;
Love without law is best: such would my counsel be.]
Its inhabitants were not, in the 11th or 12th century, to be taught for the first time the respect and esteem due to the female sex. Even in barbarian days, the great observer Tacitus had extolled an example which Rome might have copied with advantage: the new spirit of chivalry and the progress of civilization only mellowed ancient sympathies, and aroused affections of a purer and more social description than those which are the general characteristics of cotemporary French society and literature.
The lyric poetry of the two countries is strongly marked by this distinction. The German is more chaste, tender and delicate, the Troubadours much oftener require the pruning hand of the selector for modern eyes, whenever they emerge from their cold and fanciful conceits. In no class of the poetry of the Troubadours is the excess of refinement on "passages of love" more apparent than in their tensons. In these, the Germans have the credit of being peculiarly deficient. The "Battle of Wartburg," almost the only German piece that has any similitude to the tenson, is a tournament in song, conducted (or represented to have been conducted) before the Thuringian court by Wolfram of Eschenbach, Walther Vogelweide, Reinmar the elder, Henry of Rispach or the virtuous clerk, Henry of Ofterdingen, and Klingesor of Ungerland; but the subjects of discussion between these worthies have nothing in common with those which interested the Provençaux.
The German songs, moreover, are less metaphysical and spiritualized. The scholastic subtleties and casuistries, which the Italians inherited from the Troubadours, very seldom form any feature of the Northern poetry. In this respect, it may be ruder, but it undoubtedly breathes more of feeling, more of love for the beautiful in nature, and more of joy in her perfections. Similar ideas, undoubtedly, often adorn the songs of the Troubadours, but they are generally introduced merely in a sort of proem, unconnected with the rest of the subject, and from which the poet speedily plunges into a more artificial strain. There are very few, if any, instances among them of entire songs of joy, floating on in buoyancy of spirit, and glowing with general delight in natural objects, in the bursting promise of spring, or the luxuriant profusion of summer, like some of those which will be selected from the works of the Minnesingers.
On the other hand, the Provençal poets are much more classical in their illustrations. Such images as the following are of very frequent recurrence.-- The moth and the candle, in Folquet de Marseille:
Ab bel semblan que fals' amors adutz
S' atrai ves leis fols amans e s' atura,
Co' l parpaillos, qu'a tan folla natura
Que s fer el foc per la clardat que lutz.
The self-sacrificing waste of the candle in the service of others, Raimond de Thoulouse:
Atressi cum la candela,
Que si meteyssa destruy,
Per far clardat ad autruy,
Chant, on plus trac greu martire,
Per plazer de l' autra gen.
The sun-flower, by Peyrols:
Li oill del cor m' estan
Vas lei qu'aillors no vire,
Si qu' ades on qu'ieu m'an
La vei e la remire,
Tot per aital semblan
Com la flors qu'om retrai,
Que totas horas vai
Contra 'l soleill viran.
The metaphorical language of the Minnesingers is often spirited; thus Henry of Morunge sings--
Where now is gone my morning star?
Where now my sun? Its beams are fled.
Though at high noon it held afar
Its course above my humble head,
Yet gentle evening came, and then
It stoop'd from high to comfort me;
And I forgot its late disdain,
In transport living joyfully.
And again the same author --
Mine is the fortune of a simple child
That in the glass his image looks upon;
And by the shadow of himself beguil'd
Breaks quick the brittle charm, and joy is gone.
So gaz'd I -- and I deem'd my joy would last --
On the bright image of my lady fair:
But ah! the dream of my delight is past,
And love and rapture yield to dark despair.
In the construction of their verses, the Germans seem entitled to the merit of great originality. Had they borrowed servilely from the Troubadours, no features of their poetry would have been so certain of transmission as the measure and the music; yet the German system of versification is almost universally different, and must have required tunes as various. The Iambus is the only foot of the Troubadours; the Minnesingers have almost as many as the classical writers. The following song by Conrad of Wutzburg is translated into a measure which will give an idea of the intricate style of some of the Minne-lieds:
See how from the meadows pass
Brilliant flowers and verdant grass;
All their hues now they lose: o'er them hung
Mournful robes the woods invest
Late with leafy honours drest:
Yesterday the roses gay blooming sprung,
Beauteously the fields adorning;
Now their sallow branches fail:
Wild her tuneful notes at morning
Sung the lovely nightingale,
Now in woe, mournful, low, is her song.
Nor for lily nor rose sighs he,
Nor for birds' sweet harmony,
He to whom winter's gloom brights delight.
Seated by his leman dear
He forgets the alter'd year;
Sweetly glide at eventide the moments bright.
Better this than culling posies;
For his lady's love he deems
Sweeter than the sweetest roses;
Little he the swain esteems
Not possessing that best blessing --- love's delight.
The dactylic measure used by some of these songsters (particularly Ulrich of Lichtenstein), was peculiarly adapted to their hymns of joy. Its harmony, and the degree of perfection to which it was carried, would be hardly credited, if we had not before us the originals, free from any sort of doubt as to their authenticity. Bouterwek observes, that modern Germany cannot perhaps show a more perfect specimen of this sort of versification than the following, with the exception perhaps of the last line.
Was klagest du, tumber,
Vil seligen kumber,
Den ich durch Got dir geraten han;
Das du der guoten
Der reine gemuoten
Werest mit truwen vil untertan?
Tuot dir den tot
Vil suesse not,
So senfte swere,
So lieblich twanc
We, zwifelere!
So bist du vil krank.
That the songs were sung, and accompanied by musical instruments and by dancing, is plain, from the repeated allusions to both. The song frequently concludes with the excuse that "the string is broken,"
Nu ist der seite enzwei.
One example may suffice of the metre of some of these dance or chorus songs, in which lightness and good humour seem to have been more consulted than any higher sort of poetic excellence:
Walt mit grüner varwe stat;
Nachtegal,
Süssen schal,
Singet, der vil sanfte tüt:
Meien blüt
Hohen müt
Git den vogellin überal.
Heide breit
Wol bekleit
Mit vil schonen blümen lit;
Summer zit
Vröide git,
Davon suln wir sin gemeit. ....
Fröide und fröiderich gemüte
Suln wir diesen sumer han:
Heide und anger schone in blüte,
Da stent blümen wolgetan;
Uf der heide und in dem walde
Singent kleinú vogellin,
Susse stimme, manigvalde;
Des suln wir in froiden sin. ....
Nu singen
Nu singen!
Dannoch harte erspringen
Den reigen,
Den reigen,
Pfaffen und leigen! &c.
We seem to hear the string of the 'geige' itself twang to the rhythm of such lines as occur a little further on:
Verrirret,
Verrirret,
Ist der seite erkirret:
Nu hören!
Nu hören!
Er wil uns ertören. &c.
The Troubadours, on the other hand, generally move in a measured, sedate, and plaintive tone.
In comparing the Minnesingers with these their rivals, it may also be worthy of remark that the artificial classifications of the French minstrels are with the former almost entirely wanting. They have, as was before observed, scarcely any tensons, and no wearisome distinctions of planhs, sixtines, descorts, refrains, bref-doubles, &c. The envoi, too, an almost invariable conclusion of a chanson, is wholly wanting. The subject in fact, not the form, characterizes the German song: and every poet gives vent to his joys or his sorrows in such strains as may be most accordant to his feelings, unshackled by such laws as were imposed in the decay of the art, when the 'meisters' or 'masters', as we shall see hereafter, began to make a trade of the muse.
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It may, perhaps, be asked, why no notice is taken in these observations of early English poetry. To this it may be answered ;-- first, that to do so, we must enter upon a field in which, in order to proceed satisfactorily, more would be required than the present limits would allow :-- secondly, that several works are open to every English reader which enter fully into the early poetic history of his country, though perhaps not so fully as might be due to the purely English or Saxon source of our literature, and the gradual formation of our genuine language as distinguished from its French adulterations :-- and thirdly, that the greater part of the poetry which appeared in England cotemporaneously with the period under consideration, belongs to the Anglo-Norman school already noticed. The risk, however, shall be run of incurring blame for reprinting what has been rendered familiar by several preceding publications, for the sake of recalling the reader's attention, in this connection, to the old song to the cuckoo, [from the Harleian MSS. 978. f. 5.] which is assigned by Warton to the early part of the 13th century. It is worthy of notice, not only as a connecting step of gradation between the Anglo-Saxon and English tongues, but as being, in poetic character, a genuine offshoot of the Teutonic school, resembling in many of its features the kindred songs of the German Minnesingers. We could almost fancy one of those minstrels, singing in nearly the same words and measure :
Sumer is i-cumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed,
And bloweth med,
And springeth the wde nu:
Sing cuccu! cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lamb,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth,
Bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu!
Wel singes thu cuccu,
Ne swik thou nauer nu!
Sing cuccu nu!
Sing cuccu!
[Summer is come in, loud sing cuckoo! groweth the seed, and bloweth the meed, and springeth the wood now: sing cuckoo! The ewe bleateth after the lamb, loweth after the calf the cow, the bullock starteth, the buck verteth (goes to harbour in the fern -- Ritson), merry sing cuckoo, cuckoo! cuckoo! Well singest thou cuckoo, cease thou never now! &c. -- 'Swic' seems to be the German 'schweige,' the 'swic' or 'swig' of the Suabian Minnesingers.]
~ Lays of the Minnesingers or German Troubadours of the 12th and 13th Centuries. (anonymous). Printed in London for Longman, etc. 1825. {1st edition}.
Admiration of his lady's perfections, joy in her smiles, grief at her frowns, and anxiety for her welfare, are expressed by the poet in a thousand accents of simplicity and truth; and if extravagance or affectation sometimes offends, it ought to be recollected that the bounds of taste were not then so accurately defined, nor the gallant spirit of chivalry so chastened as to render unncessary some allownance for the extravagance of a principle which was in the main generous, and at any rate conferred incalculable blessings on society, in advancing the interests and elevating the station of its most defenceless portion.
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