her commercial ascendancy; and the French language was, in Turkey, in Syria, and in Greece, the only medium of commercial intercourse. Since Malta has been in our possession, the sovereignty and guardianship of the Mediterranean have been virtually in the hands of Great Britain. Italian vessels are now no longer deterred from keeping the sea through fear of the Barbary corsairs. But the Greeks more especially have, from being mere pirates, become active merchants, and bid fair to share with England the commerce of the Levant. For several years before the present insurrection broke out, between four and five hundred Greek ships were employed in the commerce of the Black Sea ; and a great part of the internal maritime trade of Turkey was in their hands. It is remarkable, too, that the formation of colleges and the revival of learning in Greece have kept pace with the increase of their commerce ; and the same causes are bringing on, in the nineteenth century, the regeneration of society at the eastern extremity of Europe, which were instrumental in rolling away the Gothic darkness from the western nations. But we must hasten to give some account of the volumes which have suggested this train of remarks. The extracts which we have given from the preliminary dissertation prefixed to the Lays of the Minnesingers, will have shewn the taste and ability with which the critical department is executed. The volume is a joint production, the translations being by another hand. The first specimen is an ode on the merry month of May by Count Conrad of Kirchberg, who sang in the latter part of the twelfth century. It begins thus : May, sweet May, again is come, Sing ye, join the chorus gay! Hail this merry, merry May,' &c. This, it must be admitted, is simple and natural enough, , but the namby-pamby versification does not strike us as doing justice to the original. The following is a 'mood of my own mind,' which, in its style of sentiment, reminds us of Wordsworth. 'Twas summer,-through the opening grass The birds in all their different tribes Roaming on, the nightingale And by the greenwood's shady side, Fast by the fountain, where bright flowers Close shelter'd from the summer heat, All care was banish'd, and repose Yet, while it seem'd as if away And in the boundless joys of heaven Was wrapt in ecstasy, E'en then, my body revel'd still In earth's festivity; And surely never was a dream So sweet as this to me. Thus I dream'd on, and might have dwelt When hark! a raven's luckless note (Sooth, 'twas a direful scream,) Broke up the vision of delight; Instant my joy was past: O, had a stone but met my hand, That hour had been his last.' A fragment by the same minstrel, Walter Vogelweide, describes in a very natural and pathetic manner, the feelings with which he revisited the scenes of his youth on his return from the holy land. Ah! where are hours departed fled? Is life a dream, or true indeed? Did all my heart hath fashioned From fancy's visitings proceed? very Yes! I have slept; and now unknown To me the things best known before : Where are they?—they are here no more. Despoil'd the woods, the fields, of home, (Alas ! that e'er such change should come !) Salutes me now as one estranged : Of nought but things perverted, changed : That pass'd me as the dasbing oars Ceaseless my heart its fate deplores. &c.' Among the poems of Troubadours, those of Bernard de Born, who flourished in the latter part of the twelfth century, are distinguished by their spirit and marked character. The one beginning, “The beautiful spring delights me well,' breathes a curious mixture of gayety and martial ardour; and the preceding one is singularly elegant for the times. Our readers will, however, be better pleased with the modest merit of the following simple stanzas by a Gascon knight, Gaubert Amiels. • I covet not a high-born dame ; An equal in degree Heaven never meant for me. Mid courtiers great and high; It would not bring me joy. That sings beside my bower, At distance, hovering o'er; Who seeketh not for mine, For regal dame to pine. To courtiers leave them free : For she has vanquish'd me : There is not one so fair, Who thus my love can share. • To her, then, will I grateful bow, And willing thanks repay More fair each coming day. That higher dames there be ; So fair, so bright as she. Than if my love more lofty were.' The false rhyme in the last couplet sadly mars the conclusion; but we have too frequent reason to complain of the negligence or indolence of the Translator in this respect. Fidelity with as close an adherence as possible to the rhythm of the original, appears to have been the chief object with the Poetical Co-editor; and in these respects, the translations have considerable merit. In compositions of this character, however, where the whole beauty lies in the turn of expression and the music of language, literal fidelity is preserved at too high a cost, if it require a departure from correct versification, and a disregard of the peculiar genius of the English language. These translations strike us as more clever than poetical, more ingenious than graceful, displaying more facility and tact than delicacy of taste. We give as our last specimen, some very pleasing lines, in which Conrad of Wurtzburg, who flourished towards the close of the thirteenth century, laments over the declining popularity of his art, in the true spirit of a genuine bard. • Unwilling stays the throng To hear the minstrel's song; Where night by night she loves And makes the hills and groves The Songs of Greece are offered by the Translator, not as mere rhymes, but as documents proving the heroism and illus'trating the manners of Greece.' They consist of, 1. Historical Ballads, describing the adventures of Kleftai or events of pathetic interest, and not unfrequently reminding the reader of the Spanish ballads relating to the conflicts between the Christians and the Moors, or the minstrelsy of our own border; 2. Romantic Ballads; 3. Domestic Songs; 4. Distichs current on the coast and islands. To these are added some 'recent odes of Greek literati.' The following simple ballad celebrates the heroism of a Thessalian Armatolé who lived some thirty or forty years ago. I see the Turks in every pass, Th' Arnauts on many a hill; Yet Sterghios, while his breath remains, • While snow descends on mountain heights, No! rather let us make our lair Where wolves are forced to lurk. . While slaves beneath the splendid weight Enjoy with infidels below Their cities and their plains; The brave have here a citadel In every lonely glen : Rather than share with Turks the mosque, We share with beasts the den.' There are several ballads on the fall of Suli, the history of which most interesting episode in the Greek Revolution we gave in a former volume.* We select one which records by no means a solitary instance of female heroism, recalling the days of Carthage and Numantia. |