THE MINNESINGERS.

ALONGSIDE of the comparatively few

authors who wrote court epics, there arose a large number of writers who produced a rich body of lyric poetry. To this class of writing, existing in various forms and treating of numerous subjects, the common name Minnesong is given. The term minne has several meanings, the oldest and best being that of kind remembrance or love of a friend. In the best of the songs the term is used in this sense; but later it attained a licentious meaning, to which many of the poems

correspond. In honor and in the service. of women, were these songs of the court poets sung, they told of love's sorrows and joys; the love of nature, especially the return of spring, permeated all the poems. The praise of women culminates in the glorification of the Virgin Mary, to whom numerous poems are dedicated. The noblest and most earnest of the Minnesingers paid homage to the Christian religion, and sang their songs in the service of God. Many of the wandering minstrels extolled the royal patrons from whom they received their support.

Of the numerous manuscript collec

tions of these poems, that have come down to us, by far the most important is the Large Heidelberg Manuscript. This remarkable book, containing the songs of one hundred and forty poets from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, is a magnificent folio, bound in red leather and adorned with the French royal coat of arms embossed in gold. It contains 429 leaves of strong parchment, upon which the songs are written in a beautiful, uniform, and legible hand. The first letter of each stanza is printed in bright colors, and nearly every poet is represented by a picture, which always occupies a whole page. Each poet appears in a characteristic position or action. The first two are royal Minnesingers, Henry VI and Conradin. After these come the poets of higher and lower nobility, who in turn are followed by those from the people. The pictures cannot be authentic portraits, but they present us ideas from the life of chivalry; pictures of war and of domestic scenes, pictures of love incidents, and of many interests of chivalrous life. Walter von der Vogelweide is sitting on a stone, wrapt in thought. Wolfram von Eschenbach stands in full armor, with visor drawn, at the side of his horse, ready to

mount.

By whom the manuscript was prepared, and where it was first kept, is unknown. Toward the end of the sixteenth century, it was found carefully preserved at a castle in the valley of the upper Rhine. In 1607, it was purchased for the library in Heidelberg. During the Thirty Years' War, in some unknown manner, it was taken to Paris, where for two centuries, under the title of Paris Manuscript, it formed one of the most precious treasures of the National Library. In 1888, thanks to the emperors William I and Frederick III, it was restored to the library in Heidelberg, and is now called the Large Heidelberg Manuscript. Unfortunately the manuscript gives no melodies, and thus about half of the art of the Minnesingers is lost; for all these poems were sung. They appeared from the first before the public, together with a melody which the poet himself generally composed.

Walter von der Vogelweide, the greatest of the Minnesingers, was probably born in Tyrol between 1165 and 1170, and was a descendant from a poor family of the lower nobility. In Austria, he learned the art of poetry, and composed his youthful minnesongs. Here he found. a true patron in Duke Frederick the Catholic, after whose death Walter became a wandering minstrel, and tried his fortune in political songs, now with one party, and now with another. Although he often changed parties, his patriotism and his praise of the German land and of the German women were ever the same. On horseback he traveled all over Germany, and even in France and Hungary, singing his songs to his own violin accompaniments. Resting from his wanderings, he tarried awhile at the court of Hermann of Thuringia, where he took part in the renowned poets' contest at the Wartburg. In many a poem he praises his patrons, but never descends to common flattery. Whenever he thought it right, he raised his voice against the emperor and princes, just as freely as against the pope and the priests. Although he had traveled far and wide, he had nowhere found a home, and not one of the many princes who petted him, gave him a fixed dwelling-place; and the greatest lyric poet of the Middle Ages was compelled to wander, as a vagabond and a beggar. The following poem, addressed to Emperor Frederick II, expresses his feelings on this subject:

"Pity me, O noble king, That I, a singer, am so poor.

How shall I chant the praise of spring,
Of bird, and flower, and sweetheart, sing,
While entering another's door?
Who warms himself not at his own hearth fire,
His song shall oft in piteous sighs expire.

"God greet thee, mine host,' alas, is my song;
I am bowing, and singing it all the year long.
'Be welcome, my guest,' is what I would sing,
And by my own fireside offerings bring.

A host in his home is merry and glad,
A wanderer begging a lodging is sad.
Here now, there to-morrow,
What trouble and sorrow!

Give unto me that of all good things the best,
A home where the wandering singer may rest."1
1 Translation by Conant.