real passion for poesy and her masters. He had
from his youth read the works of the poets with heart-felt delight, and
had spent much labor and great sums of money in the collection of the
poetical works of every tongue, and the society of minstrels was
especially dear to him. He invited them from all quarters to his court,
and loaded them with honors. He never grew wearied with their songs,
and for the sake of some new and splendid production often forgot the
most important business affairs, and even the necessaries of life.
Amidst such strains had his daughter grown up, and her soul became, as
it were, a tender song, the artless expression of longing and of
sadness. The beneficent influence, which the protected and honored
poets exerted, showed itself through the whole land, but particularly
at the court. Life, like some precious potion, was enjoyed in lingering
and gentle draughts, and in its purer pleasures; because all low and
hateful passions were shunned, as jarring discords to the harmony which
ruled all minds. Peace of soul, and beautiful contemplations of a
self-created happy world, had become the possession of this wonderful
time, and dissension appeared only in the old legends of the poets, as
a former enemy of man. It seemed as if the spirits of song could have
given no lovelier token of their gratitude to their protector, than his
daughter, who possessed all that the sweetest imagination could unite
in the tender form of a fair maiden. When you beheld her at the
beautiful festivals, amid a band of charming companions in glittering
white dress, intensely listening to the rival songs of the inspired
minstrels, and with blushes placing the fragrant garland around the
locks of the happy one, who had won the prize, you would have taken her
for the beautiful and embodied spirit of this art, conspiring with its
magic language; and you would cease to wonder at the ecstasies and
melodies of the poets.

Yet a mysterious fate seemed to be at work in the midst of this earthly
paradise; The sole concern of the people of that country was about the
marriage of the blooming princess, upon which the continuation of their
blissful times, and the fate of the whole land, depended. The king was
growing old. This care lay heavy at his heart; and yet no opening for
marriage showed itself, that was agreeable to the wishes of all. A holy
reverence for the royal family forbade any subject to harbor the idea
of proposing for the ha