CHAUCER; GOWER.--The greatest name of the period and the one which radiates most brilliantly is that of Chaucer in the fourteenth century, author of _The Canterbury Tales_ and a crowd of other works. He possessed very varied imagination, sometimes vigorous, sometimes humorous, an extraordinary sense of reality, much spirit, and a fertility of mind which made him the ancestor and precursor of Shakespeare. To his illustrious name must be added that of his friend and pupil Gower, who is curious because he is representative of the three literatures still in use in his day, having written his _Speculum Meditatus_ in French, his _Vox Clamantis_ in Latin, and his _Confessio Amantis_ in English. So far as I am aware this phenomenon was never repeated. CHAPTER VII THE MIDDLE AGES: GERMANY Epic Poems: _Nibelungen_. Popular Poems. Very numerous Lyric Poems. Drama. FIRST LITERARY WORK.--The most ancient monument of German literature is the _Song of Hildebrand_, which goes back to an unknown antiquity, perhaps to the ninth century, and a very beautiful fragment of which has been preserved by a happy chance. We are entirely ignorant of works written in German between the _Song of Hildebrand_ and the _Nibelungen_, except for some religious poems such as the _Heliand_ in low German and the _Book of the Gospels_ in high German. THE NIBELUNGEN,--The _Nibelungen_ form a vast poem, written probably in the thirteenth century (or, at that epoch, formed by juxtaposition of more ancient popular songs). It is a great national monument wherein are collected the legendary exploits of all the ancestors of the Germans, Huns, Goths, Burgundians and Franks especially. Portions possess admirable dramatic qualities. The analogy with the _Iliad_ is remarkable, and the comparison may be made even from the literary point of view. VARIOUS PRODUCTIONS.--Then come productions less national in type, imitations of French poems. _Song of Roland_, _Alexander_, songs of the _Cycle of Arthur_ or of the _Round Table_, imitations of Latin poems: for instance, the _Aeneid_, etc. Here, too, was spread the _Story of Renard_, as in France, and even now the question is unsettled whether the first poem of _Renard_ is French or German. Religious and satiric poems were abundant in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but what is highly characteristic is the large number of lyrical poets (Dietmar of Ast, Kürenberg, Frederic of Hausen, the Emperor Henry VI, etc.) produced by the Middle Ages in Germany. This poetry was generally amorous and melancholy, sometimes full of the warlike ardour which is found among our own troubadours. The poets who, as in France, wandered through Germany, from court to court and from castle to castle, called themselves minnesingers (singers of love). The one who has remained most famous is Tannhäuser. A fantastic and touching legend has formed about his name.