Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/265

 POPULAE POETRY 253 nobility ; but as soon as this influence had died out in the course of the fourteenth century, the former sprang up again with renewed creative force, and its productions might have supplied new matter and life for the poetic art had not violent disturbing forces interfered with in- tellectual culture in the sixteenth century. The revival of popular poetry kept pace with the growth of independence and the impulse towards free- dom in the people. It was not the heritage of any particular class, but of the whole nation. All traditions that had been loved, all feelings that had been cherished by the people from time immemorial — joy, sorrow, mirth, or humour — now found vent and expression in simple, effective lyrics. And it was just this plain, un- cultivated style that made the deepest impression, because, like Nature's own utterance, it spoke the un- varnished truth. Here we have the real thiner, not vague memories ; here are depicted our immediate sur- roundings, the present simple joys, nothing far off and distant; and all is so lifelike and real that the very trees and flowers seem to speak to us. As the common property of the nation, these folk- songs were sung before the emperor and the peasant alike, in the palace and the cottage, under the village linden on summer evenings and at the festive board. Even in the sacred house of prayer the same melodies were often sung that were heard at the peasants' gatherings. Words and music were inseparably bound up together, and both were essential to the complete- ness of the songs. Verses were not then made simply to be read. No poet ever published a poem without either composing a choral accompaniment for it or adapting it to some known melody. The poem de-