Taylor, Edgar [Editor]; Austin, Sarah [Editor]: 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)

56 ITALY.

a little variation in each removed it very widely from
the common standard ; and those soon appeared to
be distinct languages, which originally were perhaps
hardly to be called separate dialects, and even still in
sound continued to be very similar, however distinct
they looked upon paper. This descort has been several
times printed, and is not wortli translation : but per-
haps it will not be thought out of its place here, as it
is a curious specimen of the whimsical direction often
given to the talents of the Troubadour poets, and is
now published correctly from the MS., which differs
materially from the copy in the Mem. de l'Acad. des
Inscriptions, where it seems given with the care-
lessness usual with many of the French critics. The
poet's mind being troubled by the mutability of his
mistress's mind, he determines to make the strain of
bis complaint as variable in the tongues in which it
is to be uttered.

Eras ' quan vey * yerdeyar
Pratz e vergicrs e boscatges,
Vuelh s un Descort comensar
D' amor, per qu' icu vauc a ratges4;
Q' una domna m sol3 amar,
Mas camjatz 1' es sos coratges 6,
Per qu' ieu fauc' dezacordar
Los motz e '1 sos 6 e 'Is lenguatges.

1 Mainteiiant. " vois, 3 veux. ' vais a l'aventure. 5 soli-
tus est. 6 cceur. ' fais. 8 son.