suits every one
who grieves or loves or triumphs. It does not indicate the love, the
grief, the triumph of this man and no other. It possesses the pathos
and the beauty of countless human lives prolonged through inarticulate
generations, finding utterance at last in it. It is deficient in that
particular intonation which makes a Shelley's voice differ from a
Leopardi's, Petrarch's sonnets for Laura differ from Sidney's sonnets
for Stella. It has always less of perceptible artistic effect, more
enduring human quality. Some few of its lines are so well found, so
rightly said, that they possess the certainty of natural things--a
quality rare in the works of all but the greatest known poets. But
these phrases with the accent of truest truth are often embedded in
mere generalities and repetitions.

These characteristics of popular poetry help to explain the frequent
recurrence of the same ideas, the same expressions, the same stanzas
even, in the lyrics of the Goliardi. A _Volkslied_, once created,
becomes common property. It flies abroad like thistledown; settles and
sows its seed; is maimed and mutilated; is improved or altered for the
worse; is curtailed, expanded, adapted to divers purposes at different
times and in very different relations.

We may dismiss the problem of authorship partly as insoluble, partly
as of slight importance for a literature which is manifestly popular.
With even greater brevity may the problem of nationality be disposed
of. Some critics have claimed an Italian, some an English, some a
French, and some a German origin for the _Carmina Vagorum_. The truth
is that, just as the _Clerici Vagi_ were themselves of all nations, so
were their songs; and the use of a Latin common to all Europe in the
Middle Ages renders it difficult even to conjecture the soil from
which any particular lyric may have sprung. As is natural, a German
codex contains more songs of Teutonic origin; an English displays
greater abundance of English compositions. I have already observed
that our two chief sources of Goliardic literature have many elements
in common; but the treasures of the Benedictbeuern MS. differ in
complexion from those of the Harleian in important minor details; and
it is probable that if French and Italian stores were properly
ransacked--which has not yet been done--we should note in them similar
characteristic divergences.

The _Carmina Burana_, by their frequent references to linden-trees and
nightin