al baggage than his
eulogist, whose own legacy is not small. It will depend a good deal on
individual taste whether his actual poetical powers be put lower or
higher. We have of his, or attributed to him, two long romances of
adventure, translations or adaptations of the _Chevalier au Lyon_ and
the _Erec et Enide_ of Chrestien de Troyes; a certain number of songs,
partly amatory, partly religious, two curious pieces entitled _Die
Klage_ and _Buechlein_, a verse-rendering of a subject which was much a
favourite, the involuntary incest and atonement of St Gregory of the
Rock; and lastly, his masterpiece, _Der Arme Heinrich_.

[Footnote 118: Ed. Bech. 3d ed., 3 vols. Leipzig, 1893.]

[Sidenote: Erec der Wanderaere _and_ Iwein.]

In considering the two Arthurian adventure-stories, it is fair to
remember that in Gottfried's case we have not the original, while in
Hartmann's we have, and that the originals here are two of the very
best examples in their kind and language. That Hartmann did not escape
the besetting sin of all adapters, and especially of all mediaeval
adapters, the sin of amplification and watering down, is quite true.
It is shown by the fact that while Chrestien contents himself in each
case with less than seven thousand lines (and he has never been
thought a laconic poet), Hartmann extends both in practically the same
measure (though the licences above referred to make the lines often
much shorter than the French, while Hartmann himself does not often
make them much longer)--in the one case to over eight thousand lines,
in the other to over ten. But it would not be fair to deny very
considerable merits to his versions. They are readable with interest
after the French itself: and in the case of _Erec_ after the
_Mabinogion_ and the _Idylls of the King_ also. It cannot be said,
however, that in either piece the poet handles his subject with the
same appearance of mastery which belongs to Gottfried: and this is not
to be altogether accounted for by the fact that the stories
themselves are less interesting. Or rather it may be said that his
selection of these stories, good as they are in their way, when
greater were at his option, somewhat "speaks him" as a poet.

[Sidenote: _Lyrics._]

The next or lyrical division shows Hartmann more favourably, though
still not exactly as a great poet. The "Frauenminne," or profane
division, of these has something of the artificial character which
used very unjustly to be