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)

76 FRANCE.

stores of these neglected and almost unknown singers
in the king's library of Paris, and making such se-
lections from them for the present work as were
desirable for comparing them with their cotempora-
ries ; but from all that has been seen, there is little
doubt they possess much of the sprightliness of heart
which sparkles in the songs of the Troubadours
and Minnesingers. The same devotion to the fe-
male sex, the same zeal in their service, the same
curious blending of religious and amatory feel-
ings and associations, distinguish these writers, as
appear in the works of the Troubadours ; they had
institutions of gallantry corresponding in most re-
spects to those of the South; they had their Puys
or courts of love, and their Gieux sous l'ormel in
May, where their Gieux-partis were the counterparts
of the Provencal Tensons ; they were as pathetic
martyrs to " cis jolis maux," the pains of love; and
that some of them were as keen pursuers of concetti
is well known to those who have perused the chan-
sons of king Thibaud, and seen the poet " in the prison
of which Love keeps the keys, aided by his three
bailiffs, Hope deferred, Beauty, and Anxiety."

Among the crowd of lyric poets of about the age
of Philip Augustus, rank many of the nobility of
the kingdom, such as Henry duke of Brabant, Peter
Mauclerc count of Bretagne, the count of Anjou
(brother of St Louis, afterwards king of Naples, and