The music of these minnesingers existing in manuscript has been but little heeded, and only lately has an attempt been made to classify and translate it into modern notation. The result so far attained has been unsatisfactory, for the rhythms are all given as spondaic. This seems a very improbable solution of the mystery that must inevitably enshroud the musical notation of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Nithart (plate 36), by whom a number of melodies or "tones" are given in Hagen's book (page 845), has been dubbed the second "Till Eulenspiegel." He was a Bavarian, and lived about 1230, at the court of Frederick of Austria. He was eminently the poet and singer of the peasants, with whom, after the manner of Eulenspiegel, he had many quarrels, one of which is evidently the subject of the picture. His music, or melodies, and the verses which went with them, form the most complete authentic collection of mediaeval music known. In considering the _minnelieder_ of the Germans it is very interesting to compare them with the songs of the troubadours, and to note how in the latter the Arab influence has increased the number of curved lines, or arabesques, whereas the German songs may be likened to straight lines, a characteristic which we know is a peculiarity of their folk song. PASTORELLA BY THIBAUT II, KING OF NAVARRE, 1254. [Figure 41] [W: L'Autrier par la matinee Entre sen bos et un Vergier Une pastore ai trounee chantant pour soi en voisier.] Example from NITHART [Figure 42]