At the suggestion of the publishers the following brief notices of some of the works and authors mentioned in these essays are added for convenience of reference.

Æthiopica, the oldest and most famous of the Greek romances. It narrates the loves of Theagenes and Charicleia, and was written in his youth by Heliodorus of Emesa, who flourished about the end of the fourth century, and died as Bishop of Tricca in Thessaly.

Alexander, or as he is termed in some MSS. the Wild Alexander. A South-German poet of the thirteenth century. Of his life scarcely anything is known.

Chrestien de Troyes, a French trouvÈre, who flourished in the second half of the twelfth century. He may be regarded as the popularizer in the French form of the cycle of tales that centre about the Round Table. The most important of his poems is the one bearing the title, Perceval le Gallois or Li Contes del Graal.

Comte de Champagne.—See Thibaut.

Arnaud Daniel, a ProvenÇal poet, who died about 1189. He was distinguished for the complicated character of his versification, and in particular was the inventor of the verse called the sestine. He lived for some time at the court of Richard I. of England. Dante in the twenty-sixth canto of the Purgatory puts him at the head of all the ProvenÇal poets. He was also highly praised by Petrarch.

Daphnis and Chloe, a Greek pastoral romance, the prototype of all the pastoral romances which have been written in various languages. Its composition is usually ascribed to a certain Longus, a Greek sophist, who flourished about the beginning of the fifth century.

Freidank, the composer of a Middle High German didactic poem, which belongs to the first half of the thirteenth century. The name has been considered by some to be merely allegorical. His work, which was entitled Bescheidenheit, consists of over four thousand verses and discusses religious, political and social questions. It was an exceedingly popular work during the Middle Ages.

Gaces Brulles, a French trouvÈre of the early part of the thirteenth century. He was born in Champagne, but spent a portion of his life in Brittany. About seventy of his chansons are extant.

Gottfried von Strassburg, a German poet who flourished at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century. His great work was the epic entitled Tristan und Isolde, continued by others after his death. This took place somewhere between 1210 and 1220. Gottfried wrote also many lyric poems.

Guillaume de Balaun (or Balazun), a ProvenÇal poet of the twelfth century. He was the lover of the lady of Joviac, in the GÉvaudan. Alienation having sprung up between them upon account of his assumed or real indifference, his mistress would not restore him to favor unless he should agree to extract the nail of the longest finger of his right hand, and should come and present it to her with a poem composed expressly for the occasion. The condition was fulfilled.

Johann Hadlaub, a German poet, who flourished at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century. His life was spent mainly in Zurich. His compositions were principally love-songs and popular songs dealing with the pleasures of autumn and harvest. A statue was erected to him in Zurich in 1885.

Hartmann von Aue, a Middle High German, belonging by birth to a noble 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.

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 Æthiopica, Jacapone and Jacopone, sestine and sestina.