THE iIfINNESYNGERS
I'ROFESSOR REEVES
Many centuries ago there flourished in France
writers and singers called troubadours, in the
south, and trouveres, in the north. These people
followed the reciters and writers of the earlier
Chansons de Gestes, which had grown long and
tedious,and so the new singers found appreciative
listeners to their shorter, livlier, merrier songs, as
they passed from town to town, or from castle to
castle, or when they gave expression to their feel
ings of love and admiration beneath their mis•
tress' windows.
The effect of this new practical development
was felt even in Germany, and, in the Minne
singers, we find the counterpart of the trouba
dours of Provence. The character of their lyrics
is expressed in the term "Minne," love, i.e., they
were writers of love songs. In general they sang
of love, spring and flowers, and their songs are
bright and joyous, or melancholy, as they felt
happy or depressed ; as Nature seemed to be
joyous or sorrowful.
It seems rather singular that men used to the
hardships of life in the rough and warlike times
of eight or nine centuries 'ago should put aside
thoughts of warfiire and conquest, though many
of them and their contemporaries did not, and
&vote themselves to the composition of poetry
dealing with Nature and the tenderer human pas•
sions. But with many it was so, and, in this
way, became more firmly established, if possible,
that noble characteristic of the German people—
the appreciation of, and regard for, women which
they boast of,and to which the Minnesingers gave
so much prominence in their poems.
In their work we may see, too ; just a hint,
sometimes more, of their longing for political
and religious freedom of . which Luther, a master
singer as well as a reformer, was the standard
bearer long after. This feeling was inspiredby the
experiences of the Crusades and encouraged by
the Swabian rulers of the times, the Hohenstauf-
E LANCE.
THE FR
ens, though it did not burst out in all its force
until long after.
The troubadours of Provence gave the exam.
ple and the Hohenstaufens, thenfselves educated
and refined rulers, gave the support and encour
agement which was needed to supplement such
literary productions as the Nibelungen Lied, thus
reaching, educating and refining the masses to a
greater extent than was possible in the case of the
heroic epics,
The Hohenstaufen rulers who are particu
larly worthy of mention because of their appre
ciation of the productions of the Minnesingers,
their sympathy with them and who themselves
wrote songs, as was often the case with members
of the nobility in those times, were "Frederick
Barbarossa, Who reigned thirty-eight years, and
his grandson, Frederick Jr., who reigned thirty
six years." Both of these men were unusually
well educated and relined and, because of their
writings and acts in opposition to the severity of
church rule, were called "heretics." Some of
the most noted of those whose reputation is de
pendent entirely on poetical work are Henry of
Veldig, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Hartman von
der Awe, and Walther von der Vogelweide. Vel
dig was the first one of prominence and Vogel
weide the one in whom the Minn singer period
had its culmination.
A fitting closing of this sketch may be a few
stanz is from Vogelweide's "Spring and Women,"
translated by Bayard Taylor :
When the blossoms from tlin grasp are springing,
As limy laughed to meet the sparkling sllln ;
Fiarly on sumo Mindy morn of May,
And all the smith' birds on the boughs are singing
Bost of mush!, finished and again boon,
\Vim! Mime equal rapture elm eu pray ?
It Is loreitily huh . uf• heaven•
But should \re guess what tither 'night be given,
So I (teeter°, that, %Odell in my Hight,
Still better seems, and still would SOOlll, 1110 I the salmi
delight,
When a noble thinie of purest beauty
Well attired, with even garnished tresses,
Unto all, hi tioehtl habit, goes,
Finely gracious, yet subdued to duty,
Whose impartial glanou her state expresses,
As on stars the sun his radianee throws I
'Num let May ids Idlss renew tie
What IA there so idissful to us,
As low lips of lovo to 800 ?
IVo goosu 'won the !HMI° Mono, awl lul Llio blossoms bo