WALTHER VON VOGELWEIDE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—I was much pleased in reading your review of " Eupho- rion " to find that somebody has spoken the truth at last about the Minnesingers. It is no use being mealy-mouthed, nor blinking the fact that the love sung by them was mainly adulterous. Yet, as you justly observe, Walther von der Vogelweide was an exception. As I believe, this is to be thus explained. From the vast majority of his songs it is clear that Walter's moral tone was singularly high and noble. At first, as a Minnesinger, he followed the usual track ; but after composing one Alba and two or three similar productions, his spirit seems to have revolted from painting the coarser side of knightly woman-homage. Hence he takes refuge in vagueness of lan- guage, and in the metaphysical refinements which mar his poems as love-songs. I have long thought that his didactic poems were far his finest. It is clear from several expressions in his works that he lost much present popularity by declining to pander to the taste of the day. As an old admirer of this great lyrical poet, whose superiority to the overrated Heine is infinite, and who is probably the greatest name in his class in German literature, I venture to throw out the above hypothesis.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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