point and character to good Latinity."

Southey does not seem to have known those remarkable productions of the
middle ages, which have been made accessible to us by the researches of
Docen, of Grimm, of Schmeller, and of Mr. Wright; and, above all, of that
exquisite gem, "De Phyllide et Flora," first printed by Docen[2], and since
given by Mr. Wright in his collection of _Poems attributed to Walter de
Mapes_. We have, however, a much better text from the hand of Jacob Grimm,
in the _Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin for 1843_, p. 239. Of this poem it
is perhaps not exaggeration to say, that it is an Idyll which would have
done honour to the literature of any age or country; and if it is the
production of Walter de Mapes, we have reason to be proud of it. It is a
dispute between two maidens on the qualities of their lovers, the one being
a soldier, the other a priest. It breathes of the spring, of nature, and of
love:

"Erant ambae virgines et ambae reginae
Phyllis coma libera Flora comto crine,
Non sunt formae virginum sed formae divinae,
Et respondent facies luci matutinae.

Nec stirpe, nec facie, nec ornatu viles,
Et annos et animos habent juveniles
Sed sunt parum inpares, et parum hostiles
Nam hinc placet clericus illi vero miles."

{298} Love is called in to decide the dispute, and it causes no surprise to
find, after due ventilation of the cause, the judgment of the court to be:

"Secundum scientiam et secundum morem,
AD AMOREM CLERICUM DICUNT APTIOREM."

Your readers who are not already acquainted with this interesting picture
of ancient manners will, I think, be pleased with having it pointed out to
their notice.

Should the following song not be already in print, I can also furnish from
the same source a version of the ballad on "Robin Goodfellow" by the same
hand, should it be acceptable.[3]

S. W. SINGER.

"CANTIO.

"O Pampine! quo venisti?
Cur me spectas fronte tristi?
Tolle caput, sis jucundus,
Tolle poculum exue fundus,
Et salutem jam bibamus,
Ad sodales quos amamus;
O Pampine! tibi primum
Haustum summus hunc ad imum.

Ecce de christallo factum
Purum vas, et hoc intactum,
Lympha nunc et succo plenum,
Nec includit hoc venenum;
Medicamen quod repellit
Omnes malos, nec fefellit,
O Pampine! invito Momo,
Tibi, tu es meus homo.

Hic est sacer fons et flumen,
Quod qui potant vocant numen,
Iras pellit, demit lites,
Et supe