“Tapina me, che amava uno sparviero; amaval tanto ch’io me ne moria: a lo richiamo ben m’era maniero ed unque troppo pascer no’ l dovia. or è montato e salito sì altero, assai più altero che far non solia; ed è assiso dentro a un verziero, e un’altra donna l’averà in balìa. isparvier mio, ch’io t’avea nodrito; sonaglio d’oro ti facea portare, perchè nell’uccellar fossi più ardito. or sei salito siccome lo mare, ed hai rotti li getti, e seì fuggito quando eri fermo nel tuo uccellare.” One of the most original and thoughtful of the “Minnesänger” is the old Reinmar. His poems are given now for the first time in a correct and readable text by Lachmann and Haupt, and many a difficult passage has been elucidated by their notes. His poems, however, are not easy to read, and we should have been thankful for some more help than the editors have given us in their notes. The following is a specimen of Reinmar’s poetry:— “High as the sun stands my heart; That is because of a lady who can be without change In her grace, wherever she be. She makes me free from all sorrow. “I have nothing to give her, but my own life, That belongs to her: the beautiful woman gives me always Joy, and a high mind, If I think of it, what she does for me. “Well is it for me that I found her so true! Wherever she dwell, she alone makes every land dear to me; If she went across the wild sea, There I should go; I long so much for her. “If I had the wisdom of a thousand men, it would be well That I keep her, whom I should serve: May she take care right well, That nothing sad may ever befall me through her. “I was never quite blessed, but through her: Whatever I wish to her, may she allow it to me! It was a blessed thing for me That she, the Beautiful, received me into her grace.” Carlyle, no doubt, is right when he says that, among all this warbling of love, there are infinite twitterings which, except their gladness, have little to charm us. Yet we like to read them as part of the bright history of those by-gone days. One poet sings:— “If the whole world was mine, From the Sea to the Rhine, I would gladly give it all, That the Queen of England Lay in my arms,” etc.