400 COSMOS. 



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 strongly 

 with the richly varied narratives of the chivalric poets of the 

 thirteenth century, who all exhibited a certain degree of art- 

 istical skill, although Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschen- 

 bach. and Gottfried von Strasburg*' were so much distinguished 

 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 comprehen- 

 sive 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 arrested the plot 

 of the story to pause and contemplate the tranquil life of 

 nature. How different are the more modern poetic composi- 

 tions ! Bernardin de St. Pierre makes use of events merely as 

 frames for his pictures. The lyric poets of the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, 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 ex- 

 pressions 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." 



" The question, whether contact with Southern Italy, or the 

 intercourse opened by means of the crusades with Asia Minor, 

 Syria, and Palestine, may not have enriched Germanic poetry 

 with new images of natural scenery, must be answered generally 

 in the negative, for we do not find that an acquaintance with 

 the east gave any different direction to the productions 'of the 



* On the romantic description of the grotto of the lovers, in the 

 Tristan of Gottfried of Strasburg, see Gervmus, op. cit. bd. i. s. 450. 



