46 COSMOS. 



maidens is disheveled by the rough winds of March. As Gu- 

 drun, hoping for the arrival of her liberators, is leaving her 

 couch, and the sea begins to shine in the light of the rising 

 morning star, she distinguishes the dark helmets and shields 

 of her friends. This description is conveyed in but few words, 

 but it calls before the mind a visible picture, and heightens 

 the feeling of suspense preceding the occurrence of an import- 

 ant historical event. Homer, in a similar manner, depicts 

 the island of the Cyclops and the well-ordered gardens of Al- 

 cinoiis, in order to produce a visible picture of the luxuriant 

 profusion of the wilderness in which the giant monsters dwell, 

 and of the splendid abode of a powerful king. Neither of the 

 poets purposes to give an individual delineation of nature." 



' ; The rugged simplicity of the popular epic contrasts strong 

 ly with the richly-varied narratives of the chivalric poets of 

 the thirteenth century, who all exhibited a certain degree of 

 artistical skill, although Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von 

 Eschenbach, and Gotfried von Strasburg* were so much dis- 

 tinguished above the rest in the beginning of the century, that 

 they may be called great and classical. It would be easy to 

 collect examples of a profound love of nature from their com- 

 prehensive works, as it occasionally breaks forth in similitudes ; 

 but the idea of giving an independent delineation of nature 

 does not appear to have occurred to them. They never ar- 

 rested the plot of the story to pause and contemplate the tran- 

 quil life of nature. How different are the more modern poetic 

 compositions ! Bernardin de St. Pierre makes use of events 

 merely as frames for his pictures. The "lyric poets of the thir- 

 teenth century, when they sang of Minne or love, which they 

 did not, however, invariably choose as their theme, often speak 

 of the genial month of May, of the song of the nightingale, or 

 of the drops of dew glittering on the flowers of the heath, but 

 these expressions are always used solely with reference to the 

 feelings which they are intended to reflect. In like manner, 

 when emotions of sadness are to be delineated, allusion is made 

 to the sear and yellow leaf, the songless birds, and the seed 

 buried beneath the snow. These thoughts recur incessantly, 

 although not without gracefulness and diversity of expression. 

 The tender Walther von der Vogelweide and the meditative 

 Wolfram von Eschenbach, of whose poems we unfortunately 

 possess but a few lyrical songs, may be adduced as brilliant 

 examples of the cultivators of this species of writing." 



* On the romantic description of the gro^o of the lovers, in the Tris- 

 tan of Gotfried of Strasburg, see Gervinus,^p! cit., bd. i., s. 450- 



