"And as the beaming moon Rides high the stars among, And moves with lustre mild The mirky clouds along; So, midst her maiden throng, Uprose that matchless fair; And higher swell'd the soul Of many a hero there." Most expressive of popular feeling toward woman is, perhaps, the ballad and folklore poetry of a people. Though preserved mostly without date or name they breathe national sentiment most faithfully. True folk songs would betray the nationality from which they sprang even though the language did not. All the characteristics of the German _Gemut_ (mood, soul, sentiment, and longing strangely blended) exhale from songs like the following: "Sweet nightingale, thyself prepare, The morning breaks, and thou must be My faithful messenger to her, My best beloved, who waits for thee. "She in her garden for thee stays, And many an anxious thought will spring, And many a sigh her breast will raise, Till thou good tidings from me bring. "So speed thee up, nor longer stay; Go forth with gay and frolic song; Bear to her heart my greetings, say That I myself will come ere long. "And she will greet thee many a time, 'Welcome, dear nightingale! I will say; And she will ope her heart to thee, And all its wounds of love display. "Sore pierced by love's shafts is she, Thou then the more her grief assail; Bid her from every care be free: Quick! haste away, my nightingale!" Even more naïve and lovely is perhaps this gem: "If a small bird I were, And little wings might bear, I'd fly to thee: But vain those wishes are; Here then my rest shall be. "When far from thee I bide, In dreams still at thy side I've talked with thee; And when I woke, I sigh'd, Myself alone to see. "No hour of wakeful night But teems with thoughts of light-- Sweet thoughts of thee As when in hours more bright, Thou gav'st thy heart to me." But in whatever sense the chivalry and minnesong were conceived, they certainly turned toward worldliness. The struggle of the Papacy against the Empire was accompanied by a struggle of the clergy against the knighthood. The clerics attempted to turn the warlike and passionate instincts of the time in the direction of spiritual things. An immense number of holy legends of good women resulted, the ideals of which were humility, self-abnegation, and chastity; we have the legend of Crescentia, a pure woman, who, accused like Saint Genevieve, is at last justified and saved; others die for their virtue, and are sanctified; the story of Lucretia of ancient Roman memory is revived in the style of contemporary court life, where she appears as a white raven.