There is none of this nonsense in the Old Romances, though sometimes they are tediously sentimental, and we wonder as much at the capacity of our ancestors in bearing dry verses as dry blows. Generally, however, they show an unaffected piety and love of nature. The delight of the old minstrels in the return of Spring is particularly agreeable, and another argument in favor of the Northern origin of this class of poems. Many of them open with passages like this: Merry it is in the month of May, When the small fowls sing their lay, Then flowers the apple-tree and perry, And the little birds sing merry; Then the ladies strew their bowers With red roses and lily flowers, The damisels lead down the dance, And the knights play with shield and lance. Some of the comparisons, also, drawn from Nature, are as fresh as dew. For example, when a lady sees her lover: She is as glad at that sight As the birds are of the light. Or, As glad as grass is of the rain. A knight is said to be As weary as water in a weir, a simile full of imagination. The most airy glimpses of the picturesque occur sometimes; as describing a troop of knights: They rode away full serriedly, Their gilded pennons of silk of Ind Merrily rattled with the wind; The steeds so noble and so wight Leaped and neighed beneath each knight. After quoting various specimens of these poems, Mr. Lowell gave the following sketch of the manners and customs of Romance-land, “condensed from the best authorities.”