It is not the loved woman who is of importance--what do we know of the
ladies who inspired the exquisite mediaeval poetry? They have long been
dust, and we may be sure that their perfection was no greater than is
the perfection of their grand-daughters. But the love of the poets is
alive to-day, an eternal document of the human heart, representing one
of the great phases through which the relationship between man and woman
has passed.
The following are a few stanzas by the German minnesinger, Steinmar,
which were later on adapted to the Holy Virgin:
In summer-time how glad am I
When over lea or down
A country lass mine eyes espy,
Of maidens all the crown.
Oh! Paradise! How glad am I
When o'er the heavenly down
God and God's Mother I espy,
Of women all the crown.
The Italian poets, far more profound than the Provencals, saw a goddess
in the beloved (whom they always addressed as Madonna), and humbled
themselves before her.
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