6 Caxton translated from the ancient Dutch or Flemish Reynaert de Vos.' We have compared the first chapters, which agree pretty closely. It was afterwards re-composed and enlarged again and again, in French and in German, and in Latin and in English, so that the most pleasant and delectable history of Reynard the Fox' bears only a general resemblance to Alkmaar's poem, which we consider as the original of all the prose works. The opinion which has been advanced, that he imitated either the Dutch or English prose, appears wholly untenable. Sebastian Brand's Ship of Fools, was translated into half the languages in Europe. The preacher, John Gieler of Keysersburg composed one hundred and ten sermons upon the follies of the world, which he delivered at Strasburg, taking the illustra tions of his text, Stultorum infinitus est numerus,' from Brand's ample cargo. Gieler gives many minute and whimsical pictures of the time, and is more humorous than the Chancellor of Stras burg, who writes, however, with plain good sense, and honestly confesses that he deserves the cap and bells full as much as the crew which he has shipped to Narragonia. 6 Bouterwek remarks, that the rude inferiority of the German poetry, during the 16th century, forms an unpleasing contrast to its state in Italy and Spain, where the Germans might easily have acquired a taste for elegant literature, if they had been gifted with any perception of its beauties. The military and political relations which Charles the Fifth had with Italy, led crowds of the German nobility into that country. The same monarch introduced numbers of distinguished Spaniards into Germany, where the Spanish language became well known. And yet, in the age of Ariosto and Cervantes, Hans Sachs continued to rank as the first of German poets; and the only dignified epic which Germany possessed, was the stiff allegory of Melchior Pfuitzing. However low the adventures of the honourable, valorous, and far-famed knight, Sir Tewrdannekhs,' may rank as a romantic peem, it is nevertheless a valuable specimen of the typographical luxury of the Germans, a taste which was justly encouraged by Maximilian, by whom the graphic arts were employed to transmit to posterity the memorials of the unexampled magnificence of his court. Maximilian, like Francis the First, prided himself in being a preux Chevalier. At the diet of Worms, he did not think it beneath his rank to descend into the lists, and break a lance with the boastful Frenchman, who had proffered defiance to the Knights of Germany. This monarch showed his partiality for chivalry in the library as well as in the field. He formed a curious collection of ancient manuscripts, which were deposited in the Castle of Ambras in the Tyrol, and which were afterwards removed to the Imperial library 6 at Vienna. When Tewrdaunckhs' first appeared, the known taste of the Emperor gave rise to the supposition that he was the author of the work. This question has been long debated. The authority of Cuspinian, who ascribes it to him, has been considered of great weight: and in the Imperial Library, there is a rough draught of the first seventy-four chapters in Maximilian's handwriting; in the margin of which he has given careful instructions for the composition of the engravings, which ornament the printed copies. This manuscript, however, differs materially from the printed text; and the most probable opinion is, that the Emperor sketched out the plan of the poem, but that it owes its present shape to Melchior Pfuitzing, then Provost of St Sebold's church at Nuremberg. In the course of time, the well known bibliographer Panzer succeeded to the parsonage of St Sebold's, and became the inhabitant of the deanery which Pfuitzing had rebuilt at his own expense.'. The worthy historian of printing adds, that he often looked up with pleasure to the inscription on the little stone tablet over his library door' which recorded Pfuitzing's liberality. We can enter into his feelings; for the early editions are certainly amongst the finest specimens of printing which the art has ever produced, although the wood cuts of Hans Schauffelin to which the Emperor was so attentive, have been rather overrated. The poem acquired just celebrity, although it is dreadfully tedious. It contains an allegorical biography of its reputed author. In the character of Tewrdaunekhs, which, when divested of Pfuitzing's spelling, and written Theuerdank, appears a little less terrific, he is represented as wooing the Princess Ehrenreich, daughter of King Romreich, under which names we are to recognise Mary of Burgundy, and Charles the Bold her father. Theuerdank is led into manifold perils by the treacherous advice of the three Ministers of Romreich's kingdom, Furvittig,' or Presumption; Unfalo,' or Calamity; and Neidelhait,' or Envy. And it is a joyful event to arrive at the conclusion of the poem, when the whole Cabinet is thus disposed of:-One is hanged-another beheaded-and the third has his neck broken by being thrown. from the top of a high wall. Poetry long continued thus degraded. The learned lived in Germany like Roman colonists, and looked down upon the barbarous language of the nation with as much contempt as the Prefect of Augusta Vindelicorum, could have done. The nobility were not devoid of a thirst for knowledge: It was an age of polemics; and those who had embraced the reforma tion were anxious to be able to repel the objections of their opponents. Public affairs could not be managed without a knowledge of the civil law. But no flowers grew in the paths VOL. XXVI. NO. 51. which they had chosen. There was no opportunity of cultivating composition or oratory. The provincial States held their meetings with closed doors; and, in the general diet of the Empire, their attention was mainly engrossed by deciding who should sit on a chair, and who on an arm-chair; or in devising such acute expedients for allaying the heart-burnings of offended dignity, as that which placed the Prince Bishop of Osnaburgh on the Quer-banck. An insuperable barrier was raised between the nobility and the rotouriers; (we must be allowed to use the French word, and to exult in observing, that no corresponding term can be found in English);-but if it could have been passed, they would have profited little by being bound prentices to the Nuremberg Master-singers. And if any genius arose amongst these industrious professors, their regulations were sure to repress it into dull mediocrity. Amidst all these discouragements, a pleasing ray of poetical feeling may be discovered in these humble productions, the popular song and ballad, by which fame was neither earned nor sought for. The most valuable portion now extant of these compositions, was composed in the sixteenth century. But their history can be traced much higher. The style and manner of our own Border ballads may be reckoned as a portion of the inheritance which we derive from our ancestors, whether they wandered in the Hircynian forest, or the wilds of Scandinavia: And in the Lay of Hildebrand we can discover the phraseology of our latest minstrelsy. Her furlaet in lante luttila sitten Prut in bure, barn unwahsan.' The singular and striking analogy existing between the Danish and Scottish ballads, was first discovered by Mr Jamieson; and in the present work he has resumed the inquiry on a more extended scale. The songs mentioned by Tacitus, in his account of the Germans, those collected by the order of Charlemagne, and those which the Goths brought with them out of the East, are now not to be found; yet it is more than probable, that much more of them is preserved, in however altered a form, than we are aware of,—in the elder Northern and Teutonic Romances, the Danish and Swedish, Scottish and English popular ballads, and those which are sung by old women and nurses, and hawked about at fairs, in Germany. To show the intimate connexion which these have with each other, is the principal object in view in this publication; and the materials brought forward for this purpose have in general one merit at least, that of being altogether new, in any form whatever, to most, if not all, of our readers. As to the execution of the part of this work assigned to the present writer, he begs leave to observe, that he wishes himself to be considered rather as a commentator and editor, than a poetical trans lator; for his translations themselves have been done, to the best of his ability, in such a manner as to supersede the necessity of illustration; and such pieces have been selected as might best illustrate each other, as well as the general subject of our ballad romance and traditionary poetry. Where there seemed to be occasion for throwing light upon, or preserving the memory of, peculiar usages, superstitions, &c. notes have been subjoined. As to the dialect (the ancient Scottish) adopted in these versions, he is under considerable anxiety, being aware that it may be received with diffidence, and its propriety questioned. They were written in Livonia, after a residence of upwards of twelve years in England, and four on the Continent; and it will with justice be concluded, that he must have lost much of the natural facility in the use of his native dialect, which is above all necessary for poetical narrative. Of this he is himself sufficiently sensible; and therefore would never have attempted to adapt it to original composition; at the same time that he is far from considering it as a valid objection to his undertaking his present task. Having cultivated an intimate acquaintance with the Scottish language in all its stages, so far back as any monuments of it remain, he might be supposed to have some confidence in his use of it. If in his translations he has blended the dialects of different ages, he has at least endeavoured to do judiciously what his subject seemed to require of him, in order to preserve as entire as possible, in every particular, the costume of his originals. This This is one of the strong est features of resemblance between the Northern and Scottish Ballad, in which there is found a phraseology which has long been obsolete in both countries, and many terms not understood by those who recite them, and for the meaning of which we must refer to the Norse or Icelandic of the eighth and ninth centuries. On the other points of resemblance, it will not be necessary to say any thing, as they must strike every attentive observer; nor can the style which has been adopted be more satisfactorily justified, than by informing the reader, that the general cast of structure, diction, and idiom, has been so sedulously followed, that, for whole stanzas together, hardly any thing has been altered but the orthography.' p. 245, 246. The lay of Trazemund, which has been edited by Messrs Grimm, and illustrated with their usual learning and acuteness, is a very ancient specimen of the German ballad; the song of this mysterious pilgrim, who had wandered through seventytwo kingdoms, and the dark enigmas which he unravels, display the mythological colouring of the Icelandic poetry. In the 14th century, the re-appearance of the lay of Hildebrand, as a narrative ballad, evinces the stubborn vitality of popular poetry. And the Noble Meringer,' together with other ballads in simple stanzas, and bearing a nearer resemblance to the English style, continue the history of these compositions in the following age. 6 The verse, by which leisure is assisted, and work is cheered,-which soothes the cares of the high-born damsel, and makes the spinning wheel of the cottage maid whirl with redoubled velocity, although usually comprehended under the name of popular poetry,-should be considered as distinct from the narrative ballad. It seems that, in Germany, no specimens of this species of poetry have survived, anterior to the fragments which John Gansbein, the town-clerk of Limburg, has saved from the general wreck, by inserting them in his Chronicle. Amongst other particulars, he has carefully noted, that in the year 1360, a general change took place in the fashion of popular song, when the musicians also learned to pipe' in a better style than had been hitherto used. The historian inserts a portion of the Complaint of the Wanton Nun,' as it was sung and piped by the people' and also preserves the memory of a bare-footed monk, a poor lazar, who, according to the severe, but necessary laws of those times, was banished from society, but who was the best song-writer in the Rheinland.' 6 The war songs of the Swiss are written in a fine strain of genuine ballad poetry. Halb Suter's song on the battle of Seinpach (1386), in which Duke Leopold of Austria was defeated and slain, may be given as an instance. The ballad begins in admirable keeping with the omen which warns the husbandman of the approach of the unbidden guests; the description of the Castle of Willison in flames; and the boasts of the invaders. Die Biene kam geflogen, macht in der Lind ihi nest, Die Schweitzer wollen in Södten, dasjung und alte Blut.' The wars of Burgundy established the military fame of the Swiss. Their successes raised their patriotism to the highest pitch of enthusiasm; and the same warriors who had fought in the ranks, afterwards caused their cottages to resound with the strains of honest exultation. The ballads of Veit Weber, who was born out of the pale of the Helvetic confederacy, but who supported the cause with the loyalty of a native, are written with all the flush of victory. He hurries over the field of battle, and points out the flying Burgundians driven into the lake, and dying it with their blood, or climbing into the high trees, from which they are shot down by the Swiss cross-bow men. The fluctuating fortunes of the Protestants under Charles the Fifth, afforded matter for innumerable ditties. The doleful Lament of the Electress Dame Sbila of Saxony,' and the |