Uplifted, and the malediction
Of my affliction
Is taken from me, and my weary breast
At length finds rest.
We are next transferred as spectators to the courtyard of the castle, and a most beautiful scene occurs between Hubert, Prince Henry’s seneschal, and Walter, the Minnesinger, a capital embodiment of the knightly poet of the middle ages. The prince, it seems, has relapsed from the glory of his exaltation, has become more soul-sick than ever, has fallen under the malediction of the church; and has gone forth into disgrace and banishment. We give the concluding passage of this scene, where Walter speaks of the “beings of the wind” that attend the poet, and, leaning over the parapet of the castle, describes the landscape:
Walter. I would a moment here remain.
But you, good Hubert, go before,
Fill me a goblet of May-drink,
As aromatic as the May
From which it steals the breath away,