STUDY OF ROMANCE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 447 



Of Romance philology proper, as we understand it now, Raynouard 

 can be considered the godfather, not the father. Its father was 

 a foreigner. And what could he be but a German? The German 

 scholar, young or old, was in the condition of an agriculturist expert 

 in agrarian chemistry, provided with all instruments invented by 

 modern mechanics, who undertakes to cultivate a soil whose previous 

 workers had been satisfied to use old manners, old spades, and old 

 plows. Uhland is an eloquent example of this. Ludwig Uhland 

 was a youth of twenty-three when, in 1810, having gone to Paris 

 for the study of laws, he got deep into the study of French medieval 

 literature, turning at once to the MSS. Having returned after only 

 eight months, he published, in 1812, a paper Ueber das altfranzo- 

 sische Epos, 1 a beacon of light in the heavy darkness. This light shone 

 only for the Germanic world. The Latin world continued for some 

 time to confuse, as had been done until then, distinct things, and 

 to speak of "Romances of Chivalry" as one genus subdivided into 

 three species: Carlovingian romances, the Romances of the Round 

 Table, Amadis and its family. 



The value of his example is increased by the fact that Uhland was 

 above all a poet. A poetic soul and poetic skill were also found in 

 Frederick Diez, his junior by only seven years. Nor did he prove 

 wanting in these qualities when he turned to the Spanish " romances," 

 either in reviewing the Silva de romances viejos of Jakob Grimm, or 

 the Sammlung Spanischer Romanzen of Dcpping, or in publishing 

 the Altspanischc Romanzen in his own translation. 2 Spain was of all 

 Romance nations the one which exercised the greatest charm on 

 Germany. 3 She exercised this charm through her ballads, Herder 



tradition; Cavedoni, whose dissertation Dclle accoglienze e degli onori ch' cbbero 

 i Troratori Provenzali alia Corte dci Marchcsi d'Este neJ sec. XIII (in Memorie dclla 

 Rcnlc Aecademia di Scienze, Lcttere ed Arti di Modena, vol. n, pp. 2GS-312) can be 

 called a standard work. Very curious is the way in which the propagation hap- 

 pened. We know it from the letter quoted in the preceding note. 



1 In the review Die Musen, which La Motte Fouque had begun to publish at 

 Berlin. In the review itself this writing could not easily be seen; but it was 

 reprinted in Uhland's Schriften zur Geschichte der Dichtung und Sage, vol. iv, 

 Stuttgart, 1SG9, p. 327 ff. 



It is to be noted that the Altspanische Romanzen tiberscizt ron Friedrich Diez, 

 which the title-page assigns to 1818, belongs in reality to the f firmer year. See Zcit. f. 

 roman. l'hilol.,vo\. iv, p. 583, and compare vol. vn, p. 4SI. As to antecedents which 

 did not leave the silence of home, see Stengel, Erinnerungsworte an Friedrich 

 Diez, Marburg, 1883, p. 23. note 1, and Diez-Reliqiiicn, Marburg, 1894, p. 1. 



3 Hear Bouterwek, preface to vol. in, p. viii: " Nur dann aber werdeich glauben, 

 diese Geschichtsbiichei in der Ilauptsache nicht umsonst geschrieben zu haben, 

 wenn sie mitwirken, die spanische und portugiesische Litteratur unter uns in 

 Aufnahme zu bringen; empfangliche Gemiithrr fiir sic innigst zu interessin n; 

 und, wo moglich, zu veranlassen dass der deutsche Geist durcli diese schonen Tone 

 von Siiden her zu neuer Selbstthatigkeit bclebt werde. I) e u t s c h e s G e m ii t h 

 und spanische Phantasie in k r a f t i g e r Vereinigung, was 

 konnten die nicht hervor bringen?" The spaced words are in the original printed 

 in larger letters. The first who led his countrymen to the Iberian peninsula was 

 Dieze. (See p. 441, note 5.) What the conditions were in his time, is said in the 

 preface: ''Bey der eifrigen und mannigfaltigen Bemiihungen. die Kenntniss der 

 auslandischen Literatur unter uns zu verbreiten, ist die spanische noch sehr 



