“Thou art the blooming heaven-branch,
Which blooming, blooms in many a grange;
Great care and strange
God lavished, Maid, on thee.”
We have, unfortunately, no space for a selection of the beauties collected for us in this book, and can only recommend our readers to procure it for themselves. It is full of gems, and is especially welcome to us as evidence of the high degree to which the burning faith of those days had led and guided lyrical art. Hartmann von der Aue's “Poor Henry” is, so we are told, “the original of that sweet story of self-sacrifice which Longfellow has made universally known as the ‘Golden Legend,’ (p. 190).” The same hymn we have already quoted has this allusion to the “living wine of true remorse” and the following words:
“He whom God's love has never found
Is like a shadow on the ground,
And does confound
Life, wisdom, sense, and reason.”
Conrad von Würzburg, in his “Golden Smithy,” represents himself as a gold-smith working an ornament for the Queen of Heaven, and says, “If in the depth of the smithy of my heart I could melt a poem out of gold, and could enamel the gold with the glowing ruby of pure devotion, I would forge a transparent shining and sparkling praise of thy work, thou glorious Empress of Heaven.” Walter von der Vogelweide sings these grand words: