DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3825#0146
136 GERMANY.
wearisome distinctions of planhs, sixtines, descorts,
refrains, bref-doubles, &c. The envoi too, an almost
invariable conclusion of a chanson, is wholly wanting.
The subject in fact, not the form, characterizes the
German song ; and every poet gives vent to his joys
or his sorrows in such strains as may be most ac-
cordant to his feelings, unshackled by such laws as
were imposed in the decay of the art, when the
'meisters' or 'masters,' as we shall see hereafter,
began to make a trade of the muse.
It may, perhaps, be asked, why no notice is taken
in these observations of early English poetry. To
this it may be answered;—first, that to do so, we
must enter upon a field in which, in order to proceed
satisfactorily, more would be required than the present
limits would allow:—secondly, that several works are
open to every English reader which enter fully into the
early poetic history of his country, though perhaps not
so fully as might be due to the purely English or Saxon
source of our literature, and the gradual formation of
our genuine language as distinguished from its French
adulterations :—and thirdly, that the greater part of
the poetry which appeared in England cotempora-
neously with the period under consideration, belongs
to the Anglo-Norman school already noticed. The
wearisome distinctions of planhs, sixtines, descorts,
refrains, bref-doubles, &c. The envoi too, an almost
invariable conclusion of a chanson, is wholly wanting.
The subject in fact, not the form, characterizes the
German song ; and every poet gives vent to his joys
or his sorrows in such strains as may be most ac-
cordant to his feelings, unshackled by such laws as
were imposed in the decay of the art, when the
'meisters' or 'masters,' as we shall see hereafter,
began to make a trade of the muse.
It may, perhaps, be asked, why no notice is taken
in these observations of early English poetry. To
this it may be answered;—first, that to do so, we
must enter upon a field in which, in order to proceed
satisfactorily, more would be required than the present
limits would allow:—secondly, that several works are
open to every English reader which enter fully into the
early poetic history of his country, though perhaps not
so fully as might be due to the purely English or Saxon
source of our literature, and the gradual formation of
our genuine language as distinguished from its French
adulterations :—and thirdly, that the greater part of
the poetry which appeared in England cotempora-
neously with the period under consideration, belongs
to the Anglo-Norman school already noticed. The