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“Shall I Compare Thee to a Morn in May?”: Walther von der Vogelweide and His Lady

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2020

Arthur Groos
Arthur Groos*
Affiliation:
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
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Abstract

Walther von der Vogelweide’s “Sô die bluomen ûz dem grase dringent” is usually presented as an adaptation of a commonplace of Minnesang, the assertion that the joys inspired by a courtly lady are superior to those of spring. Such an interpretation accounts neither for Walther’s detailed presentation of the comparison between nature and the lady nor for the apparent repetition of his theme in the final stanza. The poet’s careful use of stylistic and thematic parallels, particularly similes derived from the medieval view of nature, transform the traditionally brief commonplace into a hierarchical conception of being which pervades the entire poem. Simultaneously. Walther’s adaptation of his theme necessitates the “repetition,” which self-consciously involves both his audience and the preceding stanzas in a further comparison, emphasizing the role of the poet in creating and perpetuating the fictions of Minnesang and its system of values.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 91 , Issue 3 , May 1976 , pp. 398 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1976

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References

Notes

1 Walther's poetry will be cited by page and line number from the edition of Karl Lachmann, Die Gedichte Wallhers von der Vogelweide, 13th ed., rev. Carl von Kraus and Hugo Kuhn (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1965). For surveys of scholarship on the present poem, see Wilhelm Wilmanns, ed., Wallher von der Vogelweide (Halle: Waisenhaus, 1883), pp. 220–22; Carl von Kraus, Wallher von der Vogelweide : Untersuchungen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1935), pp. 157–58; Manfred Gunter Scholz, Bibliographie zu Wallher von der Vogelweide (Berlin : Schmidt, 1969), pp. 105–06. The best interpretation of the poem, with some of whose assumptions this article takes issue, is by Hennig Brinkmann, “Ein ritterliches Credo: Zu einem Liede Walthers von der Vogelweide,” Wirkendes Wort, 1 (1950-51), 145–48.

2 On the history of the trope, see C. C. Hense, Poetische Personifikation in griechischen Dichtungen mit Berucksichtigung lateinischer Dichter (Halle: Waisenhaus, 1868), pp. 260–64, and Gunnar Rudberg, “Aeschylea,” Symbolae Osloenses, 17 (1937), 1–8. On Walther and this Latin tradition, see von Kraus, Untersuchungen, p. 158, and the Carminu Burana, Vol. i, Pt. ii, ed. Alfons Hilka and Otto Schumann (Heidelberg: Winter, 1941), nos. 73, st. 2b; 114, st. 2; 138, st. 4; 144, st. 1 (variants); and 151, st. 1. Walther's familiarity with the Latin tradition is evidenced by other parallels such as “ez ist wol halb ein himelriche” (46, 5) with CB. no. 79, st. 3, “paradisus hie est pene.”

3 “Fur die Natur steht ein antiker Topos [45, 36], fur hôchstes Menschentum aber ein christliches Bild [46, 15] … wertvoll ist, was die Antike ausdriickt, aber hôheren Rang hat, was Christliches adelt.” Brinkmann, “Credo,” p. 147. The simile of laughing flowers, however, is equally “Christian.” My colleague Guiseppe Mazzotta draws my attention to the fact that St. Thomas Aquinas cites it as a perfect example of metaphor in his commentary on Galatians. See the Opera Omina, ed. Stanislaus Fretté, xxi (Paris: Vives. 1889), 230.

4 De Rerum Proprietatibus (1601; rpt. Frankfurt/Main: Minerva, 1964), pp. 407–08 (Bk. Viii, Ch. xxviii). Further quotations from Bartholomaeus, whom I use as the most informative early 13th-century encyclopedist rather than as a “source,” will be cited according to book, chapter, and page number of this edition.

5 See Wilmanns. Walther, pp. 221–22; Anton E. Schônbach, Beitrdge zur Erklàrung altdeutscher Dichtwerke II: Walther von der Vogelweide, Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, philosophisch-historische Klasse, 145, No. 9 (Vienna: C. Gerold's Sohn, 1903), pp. 52–53; Brinkmann, “Credo,” p. 147.

6 Max Hermann Jellinek, “Zur Kritik und Erklàrung einiger Lieder Walthers von der Vogelweide,” Beitrdge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 43 (1918), 4; and von Kraus, Untersuchungen, p. 157. For actual examples of the topos, see Ignaz Zingerle, “Vergleiche bei mittelhochdeutschen Dichtern,” Germania, 13 (1868), 296–98.

7 Pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite, De Divinis Nominibus, Ch. iv, cited by Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale (1624; rpt. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1964), cols. 1095–96 (Bk. xv, Ch. iv). See also Bartholomaeus Anglicus, pp. 406–07 (Bk. Viii, Ch. xxviii).

8 Bartholomaeus' sources are, in order of appearance: Isidore of Seville, Etymologise, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford: Clarendon, 1911), Bk. in. Ch. lxxi. Sec. 1; St. Ambrose, HexįEmeron, ed. Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologis Cursus Computus: Series Latina (Paris: Migne, 1844–64; henceforth cited as PL), Vol. xiv, cols. 187–88; Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Mercurii et PhilologiįE, ed. Adolf Dick (Leipzig: Teubner, 1969), p. 73 (Bk. Ii. Sec. 185); Macrobius, Commentarius in Somnium Scipionis, ed. Jacobus Willis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1970), pp. 78–79 (Bk. i. Ch. xx. Sees. 1–8); Plato, Timaeus, ed. J. H. Waszink, Timaeus a Calcidio Trunslatus Commentariogue Instructus (London and Leyden: Brill, 1962), p. 31 (Sec. 39B); Pseudo-Aristotle, Libellus de Causis Proprietatum Elementorum, in the Opera Omnia (Venice: apud luntas, 1563–76), vii. fol. 208r-208v.

9 Virginal w (st. 778, 11. 9–10), ed. Franz Stark, Dietrichs erste Ausfahrt, Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 52 (Stuttgart: Literarischer Verein, 1860), p. 285. For major encyclopedic sources, see Pliny, Historia Naturalis, ed. Carl Mayhoff (Leipzig: Teubner, 1906), i, 131–32 (Bk. Ii. Ch. vi, Sec. 13); Isidore of Seville, EtymologiįE, Bk. Iii. Ch. lxi, Sec. 1 ; Pseudo-Isidore, Liber de Natura Rerum, PL, 83, col. 997; Bede, De Natura Rerum, PL, 90, col. 206; Hrabanus Maurus, De Universo, PL, 111, cols. 271–72; Thomas of Cantimpré, Liber de Natura Rerum, ed. H. Boese, i (Berlin : De Gruyter, 1973), 389; Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Naturale, cols. 1099, 1102, and 1107 (Bk. xv, Chs. ix, xvi, and xxiv). I am indebted to Rudy Spraycar for drawing my attention to this topos.

10 The topos appears to have been introduced by Gregory the Great's seminal Moralia in Job. PL. 76, cols. 730–31, and was widely disseminated by his epitomizers, Paterius, PL, 79, col. 1116; Alulfus, PL, 79, col. 1413; Odo of Cluny, PL, 133, col. 502; and Garner of Paris, PL, 193, cols. 37–38, as well as by the major collections of distinctiones: the Clavis ScripturįE, ed. Jean Baptiste Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense (1855; rpt. Graz: Akademische Druckund Verlagsanstalt, 1963), ii, 60–61 ; Hrabanus Maurus, De Universe, PL, 111, cols. 267–68; Garner of Rochefort, AllegoriįE in Universum Sacram Scripturam, PL, 112, col. 1058; Alan of Lille, Distinctiones, PL, 210, cols. 947–18; Hieronymus Lauretus, Silva Allegoriarum Totins SacrįE ScripturįE (1570; rpt. Munich: Fink, 1971), pp. 936–37. The number of references could easily be multiplied from commentaries and sermons on the biblical sources for the topos cited in the above works. “See Wilhelm Wilmanns, ”Zu Walther von der Vogelweide,“ Zeitschrift fur deutsches Alter turn und deutsche Litera-tur, 13 (1867), 233.

12 See Günther Schweikle, “Minne und Maze,” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrifl fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 37 (1963), 521–22, and Heinrich Giske, “Uber Korner und verwandte metrische Erscheinungen in der mittelhochdeutschen Lyrik,” Zeitschrift fur deutsche Philologie, 18(1886), 58, 61–62.

13 Wilmanns, Walther, p. 222; Julius Wiegand, Zur lyri-schen Kunst Walthers, Klopstocks und Goethes (Tubingen : Niemeyer, 1956), p. 10; Brinkmann, “Credo,” p. 147.

14 See Dietmar von Aist, “lieber hete i'ir minne / dan al der vogele singen” (32, 16–17); Rudolf von Fenis, “Diu heide der wait noch der vogele sane / kan ân ir trôst mir niht vroude bringen” (83, 36–37); Heinrich von Morungen, “mich frôit ir werdekeit / baz dan der meie und al sine done / die die vogel singent” (141, 12–14). Cited from Des Minnesangs Fruhling (MF, 33rd ed., ed. Carl von Kraus (Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1965). The motif is also Used in Walther 43, 33–36, and Pseudo-Walther 27, 17–26.

15 “Mhd. sagen ist pragnanter als unser nhd. ‘sagen.’ Unser heutiges ‘sagen’ ware mhd. sprechen … Mhd. sagen heiBt: ‘berichten, erzàhlen, (ver)kiinden.’ ” Richard Kienast, “Walthers von der Vogelweide àltester Spruch im ‘Reichston,’ ”in Walther von der Vogelweide, ed. Siegfried Beyschlag, Wege der Forschung, 112 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1971), p. 255.

16 See Hermann Jantzen, Geschichte des deutschen Streitgedichtes im Mittelalter, Germanistische Abhandlungen, 13 Breslau: Koebner, 1896), pp. 69–73.

17 Wählen kann man blindlings, kiesen nur prufend. Bei wdhlen findet mehr ein gegensatz der subjecte, bei kiesen einer der objecte statt.“ Georg Friedrich Benecke, Wilhelm Muller, Friedrich Zarncke, Mittelhochdeutsches Worterbuch (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1854–66), I, 824a. Walther's use of the two words is quite precise. See Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand, ”kiesen und weln In der mittelhochdeutschen ‘Spruchdichtung,‘ “Studien zur deutschen Literatur und Sprache des Mittelalters: Festschrift Hugo Moser, ed. Werner Besch (Berlin: Schmidt, 1974), pp. 358–69.

18 “Ex ipso [sole] menses et anni numerantur; ex ipso vicissitudines temporum hunt.” Isidore of Seville, Etymo-logiįE, Bk. Iii, Ch. li, Sec. 1. Isidore's statement, or one expressing the same idea, is cited in most medieval encyclopedias.

19 See esp. Hugo Kuhn, “Die Kunstwelt des hofischen Idealismus,” Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von den Anfdngen bis zum Ende des Spdtmittelalters, ed. Felix Genzmer et al. (1952; rpt. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1962), pp. 128–32.

20 For broader treatments of this problem, see Kenneth J. Northcott, “Walther von der Vogelweide and Tradition,” Deutsche Beitrdge zur geistigen Uberlieferung, 5 (1965), 29–47, and Martha Mayo Hinman, “Minne in a New Mode: Walther and the Literary Tradition,” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrifl fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 48 (1974), 249–63.