As elsewhere in Europe, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Germany produced numberless romances.These may be classed under (1) Romances of Arthur, (2) Romances of the Holy Graal, (3)Romances of Antiquity, and (4) Romances of Love and Chivalry.The chief poets of romances were Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg, and Wolfram von Eschenbach.A good example of the romance of love is "Der Arme Heinrich of Hartmann von Aue"."Poor Henry", to quote Scherer, "is a kind of Job, a man of noble birth; rich, handsome, and beloved, who is suddenly visited by God with the terrible affliction of leprosy,and who can be cured only by the lifeblood of a young maiden who is willing to die for him.The daughter of a peasant, to whose house he has retired in his despair, resolves to sacrifiice her life for him.Heinrich accepts her offer, and the knife to kill her is already whetted, when a better feeling arises in his breast, and he refuses to take upon himself the guilt of her death, resolving to resign himself to the will of God.This resignation saves him; he recovers and marries the maiden." Our extracts are from the first and last of the poem.
HENRY THE LEPER.
Ll.1-131.--Once on a time, rhymeth the rhyme, In Swabia land once on a time, There was a nobleman so journeying, Unto whose nobleness everything Of virtue and high-hearted excellence Worthy his line and his high pretense With plentiful measure was meted out:
The land rejoiced in him round about.
He was like a prince in his governing--In his, wealth he was like a king;
But most of all by the fame far-flown Of his great knightliness was he known, North and south, upon land and sea.
By his name he was Henry of the Lea.
All things whereby the truth grew dim Were held as hateful foes with him:
By solemn oath was he bounden fast To shun them while his life should last.
In honour all his days went by:
Therefore his soul might look up high To honorable authority.
A paragon of all graciousness, A blossoming branch of youthfulness, A looking-glass to the world around, A stainless and priceless diamond, Of gallant 'haviour a beautiful wreath, A home when the tyrant menaceth, A buckler to the breast of his friend, And courteous without measure or end;Whose deeds of arms 'twere long to tell;
Of precious wisdom a limpid well, A singer of ladies every one, And very lordly to look upon In feature and hearing and countenance:
Say, failed he in anything, perchance, The summit of all glory to gain.
And the lasting honour of all men.
Alack! the soul that was up so high Dropped down into pitiful misery;The lofty courage was stricken low, The steady triumph stumbled in woe, And the world-joy was hidden in the dust, Even as all such shall be and must.
He whose life in the senses centreth Is already in the shades of death.
The joys, called great, of this under-state Burn up the bosom early and late;And their shining is altogether vain, For it bringeth anguish and trouble and pain, The torch that flames for men to see And wasteth to ashes inwardly Is verily but an imaging Of man's own life, the piteous thing.
The whole is brittleness and mishap:
We sit and dally in Fortune's lap Till tears break in our smiles betwixt, And the shallow honey-draught be mix'd With sorrow's wormwood fathom-deep.
Oh! rest not therefore, man, nor sleep:
In the blossoming of thy flower-crown A sword is raised to smite thee down.
It was thus with Earl Henry, upon whom for his pride God sent a leprosy, as He did upon Job.But he did not bear his affliction as did Job.
Its duteousness his heart forgot;
His pride waxed hard, and kept its place, But the glory departed from his face, And that which was his strength, grew weak.
The hand that smote him on the cheek Was all too heavy.It was night, Now, and his sun withdrew its light.
To the pride of his uplifted thought Much woe the weary knowledge brought That the pleasant way his feet did wend Was all passed o'er and had an end.
The day wherein his years had begun Went in his mouth with a malison.
As the ill grew stronger and more strong,--There was but hope bore him along;
Even yet to hope he was full fain That gold might help him back again Thither whence God had cast him out.
Ah! weak to strive and little stout 'Gainst Heaven the strength that he possessed.
North and south and east and west, Far and wide from every side, Mediciners well proved and tried Came to him at the voice of his woe;But, mused and pondered they ever so, They could but say, for all their care, That he must be content to bear The burthen of the anger of God;For him there was no other road.
Already was his heart nigh down When yet to him one chance was shown;For in Salerno dwelt, folk said, A leach who still might lend him aid, Albeit unto his body's cure, All such had been as nought before.
Earl Henry visits the leach in Salerno whom he implores to tell him the means by which he may be healed.
Quoth the leach, "Then know them what they are;Yet still all hope must stand afar.
Truly if the cure for your care Might be gotten anyway anywhere, Did it hide in the furthest parts of earth, This-wise I had not sent you forth.
But all my knowledge hath none avail;
There is but one thing would not fail:
An innocent virgin for to find, Chaste, and modest, and pure in mind, Who to save you from death might choose Her own young body's life to lose;The heart's blood of the excellent maid--That and nought else can be your aid.
But there is none will be won thereby For the love of another's life to die.
"'T was then poor Henry knew indeed That from his ill he might not be freed, Sith that no woman he might win Of her own will to act herein.
Thus got he but an ill return For the journey he made unto Salerne, And the hope he had upon that day Was snatched from him and rent away.
Homeward he hied him back: fall fain With limbs in the dust he would have lain.
Of his substance--lands and riches both--He rid himself; even as one doth Who the breath of the last life of his hope Once and forever hath rendered up.
