Swabian family, was born about 1170, and died between 1210 and 1220. He
wrote _Erec and Enide_, basing it upon the French poem with the same
title of Chrestien de Troyes. Another poem of his belonging also to the
Arthurian cycle is _Iwein_. The most popular of his works with modern
students is _Der arme Heinrich_. The details of its story have been made
known to English readers by Longfellow's _Golden Legend_, which is
founded upon it. Another work of his is entitled _Gregorius vom Stein_.
HEINRICH VON MORUNGEN, a German minnesinger, a knight of Thuringia, who
flourished at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth
century. His last years were spent at the court of Meissen. He wrote
many love-songs, many of which owe their existence to those of the
troubadours.
HEINRICH VON VELDEKE, a German poet of the twelfth century, who was of a
noble family settled near Maastricht, on the lower Rhine. Besides the
love-songs and other pieces he wrote, he was the composer of the epic of
the _Eneide_, the first poem of the Middle High German epic poetry,
which reached its highest development in the writings of Hartmann von
Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Gottfried von Strassburg.
HUGO VON TRIMBERG, a German poet, who flourished at the end of the
thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. From 1260 to
1309 he was rector of the collegiate school in the Theuerstadt, a suburb
of Bamberg. He is known as the composer of the _Renner_, a didactic
poem, in which the manners and customs of the time are largely depicted,
and the prevailing vices severely censured.
JACOPO DA TODI, or JACOPONE, an Italian poet, born about the middle of
the thirteenth century at Todi, in the duchy of Spoleto. He belonged to
the noble family of the Benedetti, began life as an advocate, but, on
account of the sudden accidental death of his wife, devoted himself to a
religious life and entered the order of Franciscans. He wrote many
religious poems in Italian, and also in Latin. To him in particular is
ascribed the composition of the famous _Stabat Mater Dolorosa_.
NEIDHART VON REUENTHAL, a German lyric poet of the thirteenth century.
He was of a noble Bavarian family, but spent part of his life in
Austria. His poems were written between 1210 and 1240, and are of
special interest for the descriptions they give of the customs of the
times.
THIBAUT, COUNT OF CHAMPAGNE AND KING OF NAVARRE. He was born at Troyes
in 1201, and died in 1253. He is one of the most noted of the early
French poets.
ULRICH VON LIECHTENSTEIN, a Middle High German poet, born about 1200,
and died in 1276. He was the author of the poem entitled _Frauendienst_,
described in this volume, and also of a didactic poem called
_Frauenbuch_.
WALTHARIUS ET HILTGUNDE, or simply Waltharius, a Latin poem of the tenth
century in hexameter verse, and consisting of between fourteen hundred
and fifteen hundred lines. Its authorship is unknown.
WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE, the greatest German poet of the Middle Ages.
He was born about 1160, and died about 1230. He was of a knightly
family, though poor, and much of his life was spent at the courts of
several German princes and emperors. He wrote not only love-poems, but
in the contest that went on between the imperialists and the papacy, he
supported the side of the former in patriotic verses which had no slight
influence upon contemporary opinion. Both for matter and manner he stood
at the head of the poets called minnesingers.
WERNHER THE GARDENER, a German poet of the thirteenth century, who
composed, between 1234 and 1250, the story of _Meier Helmbrecht_.
Nothing is known with certainty of his life.
WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, a German poet, of noble birth, of the latter
half of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth. He died
about 1220. His greatest work is the _Parzival_, which was completed
about 1210. It was founded, according to his own statement, partly upon
the _Conte del Graal_ of Chrestien de Troyes, but more particularly upon
the work of a poet whom he calls Kyot, who is supposed by some to be
Guyot de Provins, whose romance of _Perceval_, not extant, is assumed to
be the original of Wolfram's poem. Another of his poems was the
unfinished _Titurel_, which contains the tale of the love of
Schionatulander and Sigune.
[Decoration]
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Spelling and punctuation errors have been repaired.
Ellipses in poetry have been spaced to preserve appearance of the
original; all other ellipses are standardized.
Colons after "Liechtenstein" and "Helmbrecht" on Contents page, and
variant punctuation after the same terms in Chapter headings, were
retained.
P. 21, (cp. Inf., 14, 30; 24, 5) in original "24" was at the end of a
line, and "5" at the beginning of the next, with no punctuation between.
P. 47 original "midst of his prostestations" changed to "midst of
his protestations."
P. 76 original "reficient" changed to "reficiant."
P. 92 original "merry-makings" changed to more frequent "merrymakings."
P. 93 original "Wezerant. He" changed to "Wezerant.' He" (single quote
added).
P. 116 Hey[=a], [=a] indicates lower case "a" with macron. (Text version
only).
P. 132 The change in indentation in the poetry, beginning at "Thou
lookest down," is faithful to the original.
P. 174 "sister's thin chanting" changed to "sisters' thin chanting."
P. 184 original "Tristran und Isolde" changed to "Tristan und Isolde."
P. 187 original "von Lichtenstein" changed to more frequent "von
Liechtenstein."
The following variant spellings were used in the original equally,
and were retained: god-father and godfather, riband and ribband,
rose-bushes (second use is quoting the first=1 use) and rosebush,
Wendel and Wentel, "Arnaud Daniel" and "Arnaut Daniel," Aethiopica
and AEthiopica, Jacapone and Jacopone, sestine and sestina.