The newspaper., 1907-03-29
principal founders of prose style.
Toward the close of the twelfth


century Parzival appeared.
This is considered the greatest
poem of the middle ages, and was
written by Wolfram Won Eschenbach.
t is a psychological poem and deals
with questions that have always
occupied the minds of men. Par
zival is n representation of the sin
ful man, who. trusting to his own
powers, despairs Of God and him
self and obtains the heavenly king
dom only by repentance and humil-
ity. The legend of King Arthur and
the Holy Grail are introduced.
In the thirteenth century litera-
ture began to decline and the two
following centuries completed the
decadence. The emperor and prin-
cess paid no attention to literature
and art, and immortality and ignor-
ance went hand in hand. Among
the clergy things were no better,
about the only poetical product OF
this period being the Folk song.
These are described as always
fresh and natural and true to life.
They go from lip to lip, race to race,
country to country-always sung
never declaimed. In the streets, inns
and forests, they are sung by joyous
people.
Many OF these old Folk songs are
still sung by German students, and
large numbers of them are popular
through their English translation.
The Master song which traces its
origin back to the Mime song, and
which fiourished at this time, was
cultivated more by Guilds and So
cieties and under leaders who were
exceptionally strict in their rules and
regulations. Naturally their music
lacked that freshness that character
lies the true folk song.
OF the numerous manuscript col
lections of these poems that have
come down to us, the most impor-
tant is the large Heidelberg manu-
script. This remarkable book con-
tanning the songs OF 40 poets from
the 18th TO the 14th century, is a
magnificent folio, bound in red
leather, and adorned with the
French royal coat of arms embossed
in gold. 1t contains 429 leaves of
strong parchment upon which the
songs are written in beautiful, uni
form and legible hand. The first
letter OF each stanza il printed in
bright colors and nearly every poet
is represented by n picture. By
whom the manuscript was prepared
and where it was first kept, is un-
known.
1t seems the beginnings of the
drama date back to the earliest
Teutons, but it's real development
came about this time. and by the
clergy, Mt their great church festivals,
at Easter and Christmas. The Saw
tours birth and suffering and old
testament history Were brought be-
fore the people. These were known
as the passion plays. and were first
performed in the churches; but even
this early n comic or ludicrous e!e-
ment crept into them, and they were
excluded from the church. They
We're then carried to the open mar
ket places where the rudest kind OF
stage served for the performance.
The language was changed from the
Latin to German, and laymen We're
the actors. The plays frequently
lasted for several days, and the or
der of the program was something
like this: on the first day, the suffer-
ing and death of the Saviour: on the
second, his descent into hell; on the
third, his resurrection and ascension.
The windows. doors and roofs of
houses around the market place
served as auditorium. Toward the
close OF the middle ages, the whole
life of the Saviour and many of the
old testament stories were repre-
sented. During the 18th century,
the comic element that had been in
creasing, came to an Independent
dramatic development, and along
side of the religious. there arose the
secular drama, and alongside of the
tragedy the comedy.
With the discovery of Americn the