We pass now to love-poems of a more purely personal kind. One of
these, which is too long for translation and in some respects
ill-suited to a modern taste, forms the proper transition from the
descriptive to the lyrical section. It starts with phrases culled from
hymns to the Virgin:--
"Si linguis angelicis
Loquar et humanis."
"Ave formosissima,
Gemma pretiosa;
Ave decus virginum,
Virgo gloriosa!"
These waifs and strays of religious diction are curiously blent with
romantic and classical allusions. The girl is addressed in the same
breath as--
"Blanziflor et Helena,
Venus generosa."
Toward the close of the poem, the lover, who at length has reached the
object of his heart's desire, breaks into this paean of victorious
passion:--
"What more? Around the maiden's neck
My arms I flung with yearning;
Upon her lips I gave and took
A thousand kisses burning:
Again and yet again I cried,
With whispered vows and sighing,
This, this alone, sure, sure it was
For which my heart was dying!
"Who is the man that does not know
The sweets that followed after?
My former pains, my sobs and woe,
Were changed for love and laughter:
The joys of Paradise were ours
In overflowing measure;
We tasted every shape of bliss
And every form of pleasure."
The next piece which I shall quote differs in some important respects
from the general style adopted by the Goliardi in their love-poetry.
It is written in rhyming or leonine hexameters, and is remarkable for
its quaint play on names, conceived and executed in a truly medieval
taste.