ass in Poland, as
also in Russia. True chivalry indeed does not require simply the
contrast of a low, helpless, and submissive class; its lustre never
appears brighter than when placed side by side with an independent
yeomanry.

In calling the Bohemian lyric poetry of this age the echo of the
German, we do not mean to say it was wanting in originality; but wish
rather to convey the idea, that the same spirit inspired at the time
the Bohemians and the Germans, proceeding however from the latter, who
themselves received it from the more romantic Provence. Of these
heroic love-songs very few are left. There are, however, several
productions of this period, in which the German influence is not to be
recognized at all, but which exhibit purely Slavic national features.
We will here enumerate the monuments of the Bohemian language from
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which have been preserved,
before we pass to the fourteenth, which was more productive and
exhibited in some measure a new character.

The most remarkable is the above-mentioned manuscript of Koeniginhof.
It contains, besides several epic songs partly complete and partly
fragmentary, seven or eight charming lyric pieces. The near
relationship of the Slavic nations among each other, is exhibited in
no feature more strikingly than in their national popular poetry,
especially in the little lyric songs, the immediate effusion of their
feelings, wishes, and cares; whilst epic poetry, which draws her
materials from the external world, must hence, in every nation, be in
some measure modified by their different fortunes and situations. With
the exception of this manuscript and a few scattered love-songs and
tales, all we have from this early period is of a religious character,
viz. a fragment of a history of Christ's passion in rhymes, another of
a legend of the twelve apostles, and a hymn on the merits of the
Bohemian patron saint, Wenceslaus. There is also a complete Psalter in
Bohemian, with a whole series of hymns, or rather rhymed formularies,
corresponding to those sung in the catholic church, viz a _Te Deum,_,
an office for the dead, a prayer for the intercession of all saints,
etc. A piece in prose, entitled "The complaint of a lover on the banks
of the Moldau," a very rare appearance in those early times, was
formerly considered as genuine, on the authority of Linde and
Dobrovsky; but has since been proved to be spurious. The first
historians of Bohemia