f his
Emit, before it was quite finished, to the Countess of Cleve, to read
and to see (_i. e._, the pictures).

The noble maidens, whose instructors were usually the castle chaplains,
learned early to sing minnesongs, to sing and say the ancient sagas and
legends; they often even composed songs and poems; they learned music,
which was part of a liberal education, played the fiddle, zither, and
harp. Isolde, according to Gottfried von Strassburg, knew Irish, French,
Latin, and played the Welsh fiddle. Fine handiwork belonged to a noble
lady's occupations. The laws of courtesy were, as we have mentioned,
codified into a perfect science for use under all conditions: at the
court, at home, at the dance and play, on the street, to control conduct
toward high and low, men and women; minute directions were provided for
all occasions. Even the conversation in society, at the banquet table,
is prescribed; noble ladies must show grace and measure in the favorite
ball play, ride horseback, chase with falcons, blush, and nod their
heads courteously at the tournaments. The reception of guests and their
hospitable entertainment is their business, and the social savoir-faire
constitutes ladylike courtoisie or moralitas. Religion toward God and
the world, churchgoing, all are strictly regulated; and we see women in
all their aspects, as we pass in review the vast literature of the time.
The arts of adornment, of painting the cheeks and lips, are highly
developed; the men seem to have been even more eager to adorn and
decorate their persons than were the women. Male garments are adorned
with symbolic colors; coats of arms of silk embroidery appear on the
most ridiculous parts of knightly dress. Superficiality and superstition
widely prevail. There is a strong belief in magic or love potions, as we
learn, e. g., from a bit of poetry by Veldeke:

"No thanks to Tristan that his heart had been Faithful and true unto his
queen; For thereto did a potion move More than the power of love: Sweet
thought to me, That ne'er such cup my lips have prest; Yet deeper love,
than ever he Conceived, dwells in my breast: So may it be! So constant
may it rest! Call me but thine As thou art mine!"

The knightly dwelling, that is, the palace or castle of a lord, with a
watch tower outside, rising above the strong wall and separated from the
other dwellings, had always distinct from it a ladies' house, called
"the women's secret" (_der frouven heimliche_),