Yet it may be applied in a different sense, though without hesitation, to our fourth selected name, Walther von der Vogelweide,[120] a name in itself so agreeable that one really has to take care lest it raise an undue prejudice in his favour. Perhaps a part of his greatness belongs to him as the chief representative of a class, not, as in Wolfram's case, because of individual merit,--a part also to his excellence of form, which is a claim always regarded with doubt and dislike by some, though not all. It is nearly a quarter of a century since the present writer first possessed himself of and first read the delectable volume in which Franz Pfeiffer opened his series of German Classics of the Middle Ages with this singer; and every subsequent reading, in whole or in part, has only increased his attraction. There are some writers--not many--who seem to defy criticism by a sort of native charm, and of these Walther is one. If we listen to some grave persons, it is a childish thing to write a poem, as he does his second _Lied_, in stanzas every one of which is mono-rhymed on a different vowel. But as one reads "Diu werlt was gelf, roet unde bla,"[121] one only prays for more such childishness. Is there a better song of May and maidens than "So diu bluomen uz dem grase dringent"? where the very phrase is romance and nature itself, and could never be indulged in by a "classical" poet, who would say (very justly), "flowers grow in beds, not grass; and if in the latter, they ought to be promptly mown and rolled down." How intoxicating, after deserts of iambs, is the dactylic swell of "Wol mich der stunde, daz ich sie erkande"! how endearing the drooping cadence of "Bin ich dir unmaere Des enweiz ich niht; ich minne dich"! how small the change which makes a jewel out of a commonplace in "Si hat ein _kussen_ daz ist rot"! [Footnote 120: Ed. Bartsch. 4th ed. Leipzig, 1873.] [Footnote 121: "Diu werlt was gelf, roet unde bla, grueen, in dem walde und anderswa kleine vogele sungen da. nu schriet aber den nebelkra. pfligt s'iht ander varwe? ja, s'ist worden bleich und uebergra: des rimpfet sich vil manic bra." Similar stanzas in _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_ follow in order.]