some
of the ancient love poets, or _Minne-Singers_; and he shewed me the other
day some curious drawings relating to the same, taken from a MS. of the
XIIIth century, in the public library. But Oberlin, in 1786, published an
interesting work "_De Poetis Alsatiae eroticis medii aevi_"--and more lately
in 1806; M. Arnold in his "_Notice litteraire et historique sur les poetes
alsaciens_," 1806, 8vo.--enriched by the previous remarks of Schoepflin,
Oberlin, and Frantz--has given a very satisfactory account of the
achievements of the Muses who seem to have inhabited the mountain-tops of
Alsatia--from the ninth to the sixteenth century inclusively. It is a
fertile and an interesting subject. Feign would I, if space and time
allowed, give you an outline of the same; from the religious metres of
_Ottfried_ in the ninth--to the charming and tender touches which are to be
found in the _Hortus deliciarum_[227] of _Herade_ Abbess of Landsberg, in
the twelfth-century: not meaning to pass over, in my progress, the
effusions of philology and poetry which distinguished the rival abbey of
_Hohenbourg_ in the same century. Indeed; not fewer than three Abbesses--
_Relinde, Herade, and _Edelinde_--cultivated literature at one and the same
time: when, in Arnold's opinion, almost the whole of Europe was plunged in
barbarism and ignorance. Then comes _Guenther_, in the fifteenth century;
with several brave geniuses in the intervening period: and, latterly, the
collection of the _Old Troubadour Poetry of Alsace_, by _Roger Maness_--of
which there is a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris; and another (containing
matter of a somewhat later period) in the Public library here; of which
latter not a specimen, as I understand, has seen the light in the form of a
printed text.

In later times, _Brandt, Wimphelin, Locher, Baldus, Pfeffel_, and
_Nicolay_, are enough to establish the cause of good poetry, and the
celebrity of this city in the production of such poets. As to the
_Meister-Saengers_ (or Master-Singers) who composed the strains which they
sang, perhaps the cities of Mentz and Nuremberg may vie with that of
Strasbourg, in the production of this particular class. _Hans Sachs_ of
Nuremberg, formerly a cobler, was considered to be the very _Coryphoeus_
of these Master-Singers. At the age of fourscore he is said to have
composed four thousand three hundred and seventy verses.

A word or two only respecting the language spoken at Strasbourg. From