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)

WALTER VOGELWEIDE. 213

cumstances (probably his poverty and infirmities)
prevented him from returning to the Holy Land, to
crown his days with that everlasting reward which
the swords of younger and more favoured competitors
were enabled- to earn. .

An ancient MS. preserves the tradition that Wal-
ter's mortal remains were deposited beneath a tree in
the precincts of the minster at Wurtzburg ; that by
his will he directed the birds to be statedly fed upon
his tomb ; and that the following epitaph thus com-
memorated his name and talents:

Pascua qui volucrum vivus, Walthere, fuisti,
Qui flos eloquii, qui Palladis os, obiisti!
Ergo quod aureolam probitas tua possit habere,
Qui legit, hie dicat-----" Deus istius miserere ! "