Taylor, Edgar [Hrsg.]; Austin, Sarah [Hrsg.]: Lays of the minnesingers or German troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Illustr. by specimens of the contemporary lyric poetry of Provence and other parts of Europe ; With histor. and crit. notes, and engravings from the ms. of the minnesingers in the king's library at Paris, and from other sources (London, 1825)

34 CASTILLE.

to illustrate the state of the language at that pe-
riod :

Si com la mar se plang greument e crida
Com dos forts vents la baten egualment,
Hu de Levant e 1' altre de Ponent,
E dura tant fins 1' urn vent la jequida
Sa forca gran per lo mas poderos :
Dos grans dezigs han combatut ma pensa,
Mas lo voler vers un seguir dispensa;
Yol vos publico, amar dretament vos.

As when the sea groans heavily and cries

When two contending winds sweep o'er its breast,

One from the East, the other from the West,

Till the one yielding to the other dies;

Even so two mighty passions, angrily,

Have long contended in my breast, until

Obeying the high dictates of my will

I followed one—that one was, love to thee !

Mr. Roscoe's Translat. of SUmondi, vol. i. p. 249.

It would perhaps have been unnecessary to have
touched upon Castilian poetry, which has very little
bearing upon the period and class of composition
that come under consideration in this little work,
if it were not desirable to notice the hypothesis,
supported principally by Father Andrez in his work
' Dell' Origine e de' Progressi d' ogni Letteratura,'