ROLAND THE BRAVE.
Can any of your readers and correspondents, versed in "legendary lore," reconcile the two different tales of which "Roland the Brave" is the hero? The one related in Mrs. Hemans's beautiful ballad describes him as reported dead, and that his fair one too rashly took the veil in "Nonnenwerder's cloister pale," just before his return. The story proceeds to tell how in grief her lover sought the battle-field, and finally fell, with other brave companions, at Roncesvalles.
I have been surprised, when perusing Dr. Forbes's highly amusing narrative of his holiday in Switzerland (pp. 28-9.), to find that he identifies Roland with the hero of Schiller's beautiful ballad, who rejoiced in the unromantic appellation of Ritter Toggenburg. That unhappy lover, according to the poet, being rejected by his fair one, who could only bestow on him a sister's affection, sought the Holy Land in despair, and tried to forget his grief; but returning again to breathe the same air with his beloved, and finding her already a professed nun, built himself a hut, whence he could see her at her convent window. Here he watched day by day, as the poet beautifully says; and here he was found, dead, "still in the attitude of the watcher."
"Blickte nach dem Kloster drüben,
Blickte Stunden lang
Nach dem Fenster seiner Lieben
Bis das Fenster klang,
Bis die Liebliche sich zeigte,
Bis das theure Bild
Sich in 's Thal herunter neigte
Ruhig, engelmild.
. . . . . .
"Und so sass er viele Tage
Sass viel' Jahre lang,
Harrend ohne Schmerz und Klage
Bis das Fenster klang,
Bis die Liebliche sich zeigte, &c. &c.
"Unde so sass er, eine Leiche
Eines Morgens da,
Nach dem Fenster noch das bleiche
Stille Antlitz sah."
Was this Ritter Toggenburg, the hero of Schiller's ballad, the nephew of Charlemagne, Roland, who fell at Roncesvalles? Is not Dr. Forbes in error in ascribing the Ritter's fate to Roland? Are they not two distinct persons? Or is Mrs. Hemans wrong in her version of the story? I only quote from memory:
"Roland the Brave, the brave Roland!
False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand
That he had fall'n in fight!
And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,
Thou fairest maid of Allemain.
Why so rash has she ta'en the veil
In yon Nonnenwerder's cloister pale?
For the fatal vow was hardly spoken,
And the fatal mantel o'er her flung.
When the Drachenfels' echoes rung—
'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!
. . . . . .
She died; he sought the battle plain,
And loud was Gallia's wail,
When Roland, the flower of chivalry,
Fell at Roncesvalles!"
I shall be glad to have a clear idea of the true Roland and his story.
X. Y. Z.