From the waterfall, he named her
Minnehaha, Laughing Water.
Longfellow, Hiawatha, iv. (1855).
Minnesingers, the Troubadours of Germany during the Hohenstaufen period (1138-1294), minstrels who composed and sung short lyrical poems—usually in praise of women or in celebration of the beauties of nature—called Minne, or love songs. The names of nearly three hundred of these poets have come down to us, including all classes of society, the most famous being Dietmar von Aist, Ulrich von Lichenstein, Heinrich von Frauenlob, and above all Walther von der Vogelweid (1168-1230). Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Strasburg, and Hartmann von der Aue are also classed among the Minnesingers, but their principal fame was won in the field of metrical romance.
*** The story runs that Vogelweid bequeathed his worldly all to a Wurtzburg monastery upon condition that they should feed the doves at noon every day upon his grave. The multiplying birds aroused the avaricious alarm of the abbot, who forbade the daily distribution.
“Time has long effaced the inscriptions
On the cloister’s funeral stones,
And tradition only tells us
Where repose the poet’s bones.
But around the vast cathedral
By sweet echoes mutiplied
Still the birds repeat the legend
And the name of Vogelweid.”
H. W. Longfellow, Walter von der Vogelweid 186-.
Mino´na, “the soft blushing daughter of Torman,” a Gaelic bard in the Songs of Selma, one of the most famous portions of Macpherson’s Ossian.
Minor (The), a comedy by Samuel Foote (1760). Sir George Wealthy, “the minor,” was the son of Sir William Wealthy, a retired merchant. He was educated at a public school, sent to college, and finished his training in Paris. His father, hearing of his extravagant habits, pretended to be dead, and, assuming the guise of a German baron, employed several persons to dodge the lad, some to be winners in his gambling, some to lend money, some to cater to other follies, till he was apparently on the brink of ruin. His uncle, Mr. Richard Wealthy, a City merchant, wanted his daughter, Lucy, to marry a wealthy trader, and as she refused to do so, he turned her out of doors. This young lady was brought to Sir George as a fille de joie, but she touched his heart by her manifest innocence, and he not only relieved her present necessities, but removed her to an asylum where her “innocent beauty would be guarded from temptation, and her deluded innocence would be rescued from infamy.” The whole scheme now burst as a bubble. Sir George’s father, proud of his son, told him he was his father, and that his losses were only fictitious; and the uncle, melted into a better mood, gave his daughter to his nephew, and blessed the boy for rescuing his discarded child.
Minotti, governor of Corinth, then under the power of the doge. In 1715 the city was stormed by the Turks; and during the siege one of the magazines in the Turkish camp blew up, killing 600 men. Byron says it was Minotti himself who fired the train, and that he perished in the explosion.—Byron, Siege of Corinth (1816).
Minstrel (The), an unfinished poem, in Spenserian metre, by James Beattie. Its design was to trace the progress of a poetic genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawn of fancy to the fullness of poetic rapture. The first canto is descriptive of Edwin, the minstrel; canto ii. is dull philosophy, and there, happily, the poem ends. It is a pity it did not end with the first canto (1773-4).
And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy,
Deep thought oft seemed to fix his infant eye.
Dainties he heeded not, nor gaude, nor toy,
Save one short pipe of rudest minstrelsy;
Silent when sad, affectionate, tho’ shy;
And now his look was most demurely sad;
And now he laughed aloud, though none knew why.
The neighbors stared and sighed, yet blessed the lad;
Some deemed him wondrous wise, and some believed him mad.
Canto i. 16.
Minstrel (Lay of the Last). Ladye Margaret, “the flower of Teviot,” was the daughter of Lord Walter Scott, of Branksome Hall. She loved Baron Henry, of Cranstown; but between the two families a deadly feud existed. One day the elfin page of Lord Cranstown inveigled the heir of Branksome Hall (then a lad) into the woods, where he fell into the hands of the English, who marched with 3000 men to Branksome Hall; but, being told that Douglas was coming to the rescue with 10,000 men, the two armies agreed to settle by single combat whether the lad should be given up to the mother or be made King Edward’s page. The two champions were Sir Richard Musgrave (English) and Sir William Deloraine (Scotch). The Scotch champion slew Sir Richard, and the boy was delivered to his mother. It now turned out that Sir William Deloraine was Lord Cranstown, who claimed and received the hand of Ladye Margaret as his reward.—Sir W. Scott (1805).