34 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In a German song a young man feigns death and when his love 

 approaches he springs up and kisses her. "She falls dead with fright, 

 and he declares that since she has died for him he will die for her. 

 So they are buried severally at one and the other side of the church, 

 and two lily stocks are planted, which embrace 'like two real married 

 people.' "1 



A white and a red tulip are planted on the graves of the lovers, 

 in the Hungarian song of the "Two Princes." Their souls pass into 

 the tulips.^ 



The Irish-Gaelic story of Naisi and Deirdre may be cited here, 

 although the trees were not really planted. King Conor causes the 

 lovers to be buried far apart, but for some days the graves are found 

 open in the morning and the lovers together. The king orders stakes 

 of yew to be driven through the bodies, so that they are kept asunder. 

 Yew trees grow from the stakes, and so high as to embrace each other 

 over the cathedral of Armagh.^ 



(4) Sometimes a single tree or plant springs from the lovers' graves. 

 A few of these, especially lilies, may appear as a sign of innocence 

 and purity, of which Hartland cites a number of instances.^ 



We find an example in Rusticien de Puise's prose romance of 

 Tristan. A green brier issues from Tristan's tomb, mounts to the 

 roof of the chapel, then descends and enters Isolde's tomb. King 

 Mark causes it to be cut down three times, but the next morning it is 

 as flourishing as ever.^ 



In another mediaeval romance, we are told that King Mark lays 

 the lovers within a chapel above which he sets a statue of Ysonde, 

 and from Sir Tristan's grave grows an eglantine which twines about 

 the statue. As in the French prose romance, the plant is cut down 

 three times, but it grows again and ever winds about the image.^ 



Child cites a Middle High-German poem, from a manuscript of 

 the end of the fourteenth century, in which a vine is said to have 

 risen from the common grave of Pyramus and Thisbe and descends 

 into it again.'' 



1 Child (Part II, p. 506) citing Schroer (Vienna, 1869). 



2 Ibid., (I, 98) citing Aigner. 



2 Gaidoz, H., Le Suicide, Mélusine, IV, 12, citing Transactions of the Gaelic 

 Society of Dublin, I, 133, 1808. 



* The Legend of Perseus (London, 1894), Vol. I, p. 199. 



' Scott's Minstrelsy, op. cit., p. 128. 



« Cox, George W., and Jones, E. H., Popular Romances of the Middle Ages 

 (London, 1871), p. 267. 



Ï Child (II, 490) citing Kohler. 



