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)

GERMANY. 135

Mit vil schonen bliimen lit;
Summer zit
Vrbide git,

Davon suln wir sin gemeit.....

Frbide und froiderich gemiite

Suln wir diesen sumer han :
Heide und anger schone in bliite,

Da stent bliimen wolgetan;
Uf der heide und in dem walde

Singent kleinii vogellin,
Susse stimme, manigvalde;

Des suln wir in froidcn sin.....

Nu singen
Nu singen!
Dannoch harte erspringen
Den reigea,
Den reigen,
Pfaffen und leigen! &c

We seem to hear the string of the ' geige' itself
twang to the rythm of such lines as occur a little
further on:

Verrirret,

Verrirret,
1st der seite erkirret:

Nu hbren !

Nu horen!
Er wil uns ertbren. &c.

The Trovibadours, 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 arti-
ficial classifications of the French minstrels are with
the former almost entirely wanting. They have, as
was before observed, scarcely any tensons, and no