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146 the world, after the semi-barbaric influence of go-aheadism—which may be described as the progress of the humanity, but not of the divinity, of man.

And so we turn, as children, lovingly to the old master spirits who ruled long and long ago; who taught bright lessons in dark ages, which the people of the age were not old enough to read; and, therefore, they have slumbered on in their hundreds of years of sleep, until the greatest poet of our times has burst through the thorny hedges that surrounded them, and aroused to life the sleeping beauty so long hidden from the gaze of the world.

Mr. J. M. Ludlow, in his "Popular Epics of the Middle Ages"—though he does not touch upon the cycle containing the Grail, Gral, or Sangreal legends—remarks that, "to this cycle belong poems of wonderful beauty and pathos, or even thoughtful depth, such as two of the French 'Tristans,' or the German 'Parzival; although, "in life-like vigour and freshness," he considers them as "far from equalling those of the former cycles." Yet, speaking of the olden songsmiths as a whole, he says, "Perhaps we shall find something to learn from them Perhaps, if we look closely into it, we may discover that the substance of poetry is there, of which we have too often kept only the garment."

Perhaps we may discover more: perhaps we may discover that these men taught in parables; that their harps were tuned to give forth chords, of which the key-note was appreciated but by the few; or which, perhaps, is only now sounding in the ears of a later generation; or whose light, like that of a hitherto undiscovered star, has but just reached the earth. As in each myth of Greece and Rome, Lord Bacon believed some great truth of nature or of philosophy to be set forth; as from the wild legends of the Scandinavian deities may beauteous meanings be elicited; and in the "Havamal," or High Song of Odin, the wisdom almost of Solomon be found; so in the Grail legends of the Arthurian cycle may be traced deep lessons of high thought and theologic teaching, and a spiritual element that gives, as it were, two lives to the poem—even as the outer and inner life of man make up the perfect being, yet one only generally known to his fellow-creatures, unless he is carefully studied by some loving bosom friend, to whom, through the medium of a discriminating sympathy, the higher, truer reading of his manhood becomes appreciable.

In these remarks upon the Grail legends, I have more particularly in mind the German Gral-Sage of "Parzival," composed, or rather compiled, by Wolfram van Eschenbach—a German poet of the thirteenth century, born some time in the latter half of the twelfth. This Wolfram was "one of the most fertile of the Minnesingers and romance writers of his day." His birthplace appears to be a matter of dispute, but in his poem he calls himself a Bavarian (stanza 121, line 7, of canto Gurnemanz, "Parzival"). He was of good family, and led the roving life of a minstrel knight; not being overburdened with riches, yet well esteemed by his contemporaries. He took part in the poetic tournament, or "Wartburg-kriege," at the Thuringian Court—Walter der Vogelweide, Reimar the elder, Henry of Rispach, or the virtuous clerk, Henry of Ofterdingen, and Klingesor von Ungerland, being among those present.

The poems of Walter der Vogelweide, like those of Wolfram von Eschenbach, were not unfrequently tinctured with a religious spirit: indeed, a religious and devotional train of thought seems to have been common to the poets of this age; and when we consider the times in which they lived, we shall scarcely wonder at it, since the Crusaders were then arousing a sentiment for religion among all classes, which, in earnest thinking minds, became something more sincere than a mere enthusiastic effervescence. Therefore, it was natural, in such an age, that the poet should turn to the Christian myth of the Grail rather than to the Sagas and Eddas of the Scandinavians, or the classic fables of Greece;—though these were not neglected, Wolfram himself being the author of the "German Homer," a poem of more than thirty thousand verses, celebrating the exploits of Hector and Paris. The popular mind, leaning towards a Christianity mixed up with romance and knight-errantry, necessitated poets to write up to its demands and cravings; and the search for and possession of the Holy Grail might seem an apt parallel to the longing felt for the possession of the Holy City, then in possession of the Infidels.

The history of the exploits of Arthur, King of the Britons, which had been compiled by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the