STUDY OF ROMANCE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 449 



After this first period Diez took up especially linguistic investi- 

 gations. He meant to do for the family of Romance languages what 

 Grimm had done for the Germanic family; and he succeeded to an 

 unparalleled degree. Just through this he became the founder of 

 Romance philology, that needed indeed a solid foundation. For 

 linguistic studies can, from their very nature, be converted into 

 pure science more easily than literary ones. But even for the latter 

 a knowledge of the structure and the history of the language is of 

 inestimable value. This Diez himself proved every time he returned 

 to the realm of literature. His last return, worth mentioning for 

 the subject, is in the little book, Ueber die erste portugiesische Kunst 

 und Hofpoesie, of 1863. 



Diez was an exquisite fruit of the Germanic tree, not an isolated 

 phenomenon. Therefore we find him surrounded by a whole pleiad 

 of other scholars, amongst whom he will only gradually take the place 

 of leader and master. Here w r e shall find Bekker, whom his quality of 

 classical philologian shall not deter from joining Uhland in his 

 studies in Paris, from printing the very first Chanson de geste 

 (which by chance was in Provencal version) , from bringing to light 

 with the Bonvesin de la Riva monuments of our Italian literature, 

 rich in varied dialects; here also Ferdinand Wolf, vigorous pion- 

 eer in the researches, still faulty in many respects, in the rhythm- 

 ical and musical forms of the Middle Ages; * here Witte, who will 

 acquire the leadership in Dante studies; here a swarm of other 

 editors of texts and investigators. And a younger generation will 

 grow up by the side of the older one. And we shall have Bartsch with 

 his Peire Vidal an important example of the extension of the crit- 

 ical method in reconstructing texts with the most useful Provencal 

 and French chrestomathies, 2 with abundant writings and public- 

 ations. We shall have Theodor Miiller, Conrad Hoffmann, and a 

 multitude of others beside. And always greater will become the 

 place which Romance philology has, from the very beginning, been 

 allowed to take, by their very liberal rules, in German universities. 

 And the labor of the instructors will be strengthened by the coopera- 

 tion of the students, who will produce an infinite number of doctors' 

 dissertations, frail twigs taken singly, not to be broken when gathered 



1 Utbcr die Lais, Sequenzen und Leichc. Em Bcitraq zur Gcschichte dcr rliyth- 

 mischen Formen und Singweisen der Volkslicdcr und dcr volksmossigen Kirchcn- 

 und-K-unstlicdcr im Mittelalter. Heidelberg. 1S41 . 



2 " Texte critique" Genin had named in the title itself his edition of the Chanson 

 de Poland : and to that name might also have aspired, with more reason, perhaps, 

 the edition of the same poem that in 1851 Theodor M filler printed and suppressed. 

 But from these and other attempts to the J'cire Vidnl the distance is great. The 

 good-natured system practiced by Ilaynouard had besides been already con- 

 demned by Diez in his preface to the Pcesi<' dir Troubadours, p. xi: "... War ees- 

 /.\\ wlinschen gewcsen, dass der Verfasser die wichtigsten Lesarten, nicht eben jedo 

 nichtssagende Variante, seinem Texte untergelegt und so den Leser an der Critik 

 hatteTheil nahmen lassen, ein Punkt, der fiir die gelehrte Benutzung der Werke 

 von entschiedener Wichtigkeit ist.'' 



