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)

THIBAUD, KING OF NAVARRE. 263

Lady, the fates command, and I must go,—

Leaving the pleasant land so dear to me :
Here my heart suffer'd many a heavy woe ;

But what is left to love, thus leaving thee ?
Alas ! that cruel land beyond the sea!

Why thus dividing many a faithful heart,
Never again from pain and sorrow free,

Never again to meet, when thus they part ?

I see not, when thy presence bright I leave,

How wealth, or joy, or peace can be my lot;
Ne'er yet my spirit found such cause to grieve

As now in leaving thee : and if thy thought
Of me in absence should be sorrow-fraught,

Oft will my heart repentant turn to thee,
Dwelling, in fruitless wishes, on this spot,

And all the gracious words here said to me.

O gracious God ! to thee I bend my knee,

For thy sake yielding all I love and prize ;
And O how mighty must that influence be,

That steals me thus from all my cherish'd joys !
Here, ready, then, myself surrendering,

Prepared to serve thee, I submit; and ne'er
To one so faithful could I service bring,

So kind a master, so beloved and dear.