Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/309

 PROSE AND POPULAR READING 297 These words find an echo in ' The Soul's Guide ' : 'In our day everyone aspires to read and write ; this is praiseworthy, and very much to be recommended when the books are good, but not when they incite to sensu- ality and immodesty. Such is the character of many fictitious books ; do not read them. Eead good books and authentic histories ; this is good for thy salva- tion.' ' The Consolation of the Soul,' taking still higher ground, says : ' There are many who read or listen to bad books, but they lose their time, for they find in them no consolation for their souls. Idle people read books about Tristan, about Dietrich of Bern, and the giants of old who served the world and not God. In these books there is no good, for they contain no con- solation for the soul. To read them is a waste of time, and we shall have to account to God for misspent hours.' These quotations give us some idea of the many popular books. Amongst the works whose poetic and romantic character appealed most to the imagination of the German people, those which dwelt on their own and foreign heroes held the first place. Many of them were only prose versions of old poems. To this class belonged the history of Duke Ernest — a popular favourite on account of his misfortunes and courage — which was published towards the close of the fifteenth century, the history of William of Austria (1481), of Wigalois — the Knight of the Wheel — (1493), and that of Frederic Barbarossa (1519) ; the old tradition of the adversities of the mermaid Melusine (1474), a touch- ing picture of maternal love, the loves of Prince Floris and his dear Bianceffora (1499), and the story of