This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly ss received 66-1860 WEDGWOOD, Stephen H ensleigh, 1936- THREE SONGS OF REINMAR DER ALTE: A FORMAL-STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATION. The Ohio State University, Fh.D., 1965 Language and Literature, modem University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THREE SONGS OF REINMAR DER ALEE A FORMAL-STRUCTURAL INTERPRETATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Stephen Hensleigh Wedgwood, A.B., M.A. The Ohio State University 1965 Approved by v Adviser, Department of German PREFACE The modern interpreter of medieval literature faces certain difficulties which are, by the nature of things, insurmountable. The most serious from a practi­ cal viewpoint is perhaps the lack of reliable texts. The manuscripts which transmit Reinmar's songs, for example, date at the earliest from the end of the thirteenth cen­ tury — nearly a century after the death of the poet. During the several generations which separate the songs' composition from their collection and copying in the various manuscripts, numerous corruptions, omissions, and rearrangements necessarily occurred which, despite the best efforts of distinguished textual scholars since Karl Lachmann and before, simply cannot be rectified. The critic, seeking to approach and understand Reinmar and the other Minnesingers, deals at best with an approxima­ tion of what the poet actually sang. In yet another sense our understanding of Rein- mar's songs can only be approximate. Reinmar, like his contemporaries, was as much composer as poet. Words and music of the Minnesanp; were created together, each song in its own characteristic "Ton," and undoubtedly the musi­ cal structure of the songs in large part determined their verbal form. The music is now totally lost, apparently ii even beyond the possibility of reconstruction, and with it is lost a major dimension of the Minnesinger's art. Strictly speaking, therefore, the final, and com­ plete understanding of Reinmar's art must be considered an unattainable goal. This realization, however, should not deter us from the pursuit of the best and fullest possible appreciation of the poet and his work, about which there is still much to learn. To a considerable extent, as a matter of fact, necessity may be found a virtue. The following investigation departs somewhat from traditional methods of medieval study and, precisely because no other approach is available, undertakes to examine several of Reinmar's songs as purely literary works of art. The investigation is primarily concerned, furthermore, not so much with the explication of the songs, the weighing of meanings and the defining of in­ dividual words and expressions, as with the description and illumination of the songs' inner workings, of the formal relationships among their parts and the manner of their construction and unification. In this way it is expected that a fresh and worthwhile contribution can be made toward understanding and appreciating Reinmar1 s artistic accomplishment. In addition it is hoped that such a close examination of Reinmar's compositional techniques may eventually work backwards, through the iii elaboration of internal formal and structural criteria, toward the resolution of certain textual problems, par­ ticularly the establishment of Reinmar's authorship and the determination of the proper ordering of the strophes of individual songs. The best available text of Reinmar's songs is found in Friedrich Vogt' s edition of Des Minnesangs Friihling (3d edition; Leipzig: S. Hirzel Verlag, 1920) on which the three following interpretations are based. This text is altogether more reliable than the more re­ cent edition of Carl von Kraus (30th printing [4-th. edi­ tion]; Leipzig: Hirzel, 1950). Both these editions have been compared, of course, with each other as well as against the reproductions of the original manuscripts; and occasional disputed readings, as well as departures from Vogt's text, will be indicated as they occur. Here it should be mentioned, however, that Vogt's arrangement of the strophes of In disen boesen ungetriuwen tagen. (chapter I) and also of Daz beste daz ie man gesprach. (chapter II) has been altered in .accordance with the formal findings of the investigation. Finally, I have followed the manuscripts in restoring throughout, without comment, the full forms of words and phrases which all editions of Minnesangs Friihling render in contracted form, presumably in the interest of "regularizing" the metre of iv the songs. These contractions, many of them involving simply the omission of an unstressed, syllable: e.g., d§st for daz_ist, sist for si ist, diech for die ich, perhaps seem insignificant enough. But the superficial, metrical regularity which they impose on the songs — neither Lachmann, nor Vogt, nor Kraus explains the metrical theory on which they are based — gives a dis­ torted impression. In these matters it is by far preferable to follow the manuscripts, even though they may be in error, them, to force the texts to conform to a set of preconceptions. My especial gratitude is due to Professor Walter Naumann, now of the Institut fur Vergleichende Literatur wissenschaft of the Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt, and to Professor Norbert Puerst of the Department of Germanic Languages, Indiana University, who guided the early stages of this dissertation and have been constant pillars of support and encouragement. I am also extrem­ ely grateful to Professor Wolfgang Fleischhauer of the Department of German, The Ohio State University, who has on quite short notice taken over the guidance of this work and has been unstinting of his wisdom and energy. v VITA February 15 1 1936 Born - Mt. Kisco, New York. 1957 A.B. cum laude, Harvard Univer­ sity , Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1957-1958 Fulbright^Fellow - Eberhard-Karls- Universitat, Tubingen, Germany. 1958-1959 Woodrow Wilson National Fellow- The Ohio State University, Colum­ bus, Ohio. 1959 M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 1960-1961 Teaching Assistant, Department of German, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 1961-1965 Lecturer, Department of Germanic Languages, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. FIELDS OF STUDY German Language and Literature: Professors Oskar Seidlin, Walter Naumann, Sigurd Burckhardt, Wolfgang Fleischhauer, Ulrich Groehke. vi CONTENTS Page PREFACE ................................ ii VITA .......................................... vi INTRODUCTION.................................. 1 Chapter ■I. IN DISEN BOESEN UNGETRIUWEN TAGEN .... 37 II. DAZ EESTE DAZ IE MAN GESPRACH.......... 98 III. WAZ ICH NU NIUWER MAERE SAGE.............. 164 CONCLUSION.......................................225 BIBLIOGRAPHY- .....................................244 vii INTRODUCTION At the beginning of his influential study of "Die Lieder Reinmars des Alten," Carl von Kraus'*" makes a sig- 1 (Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wis- senschaften, philosophisch-philologische und historische Klasse, XXX; Miinchen, 1919), in three parts. nificant and somewhat surprising confession. Kraus des­ cribes his long inability to warm personally toward the songs of the poet, whose intellectuality and limited thematic and emotional range he finds decidedly tedious. Kraus seems almost painfully conscious of the contra­ diction which stands between Reinmar’s great contemporary reputation, his recognized influence upon generations of successors and imitators, and the general characterization of the poet in the literary histories. "Auch ich,,r he* confides, habe lange Zeit statt der an ihm von Gottfried geriihmten Kunst der Variation vorwiegend Mono- tonie gefunden; und die von Walther in beiden Nachrufen gepriesene Technik (kunst) vermochte ich ebensowenig zu entdecken wie andere. 2 Kraus, part I, p. 5* 1 Interestingly, however, Kraus makes his personal disap­ pointment the point-of-departure for a new investigation of the poet. In evident awe of Reinmar's reputation, he suspends his own negative impressions and allows himself to be guided by Reinmar's own contemporaries who "auf alle Falle recht gehabt haben mussen. ." Sie haben unter der unmittelbaren Einwirkung seiner Kunst ^gestanden, wahrend wir uns ihr nur nahern konnen nach Uberwindung all der Hindernisse, die die Zeit und die liberliefer- ung dazwischen gelegt haben. .und schliess- lich: sie waren Dichter, und wir sind bloss Gelehrte.* 5Ibid., p. 6. Kraus1s attempt to discover the Reinmar that Walther and Gottfried knew, however, evidently springs more from a sense of duty than from any personal sympathy for or fascination with Reinmar himself. Kraus's mixed feelings seem generally symptomatic of Reinmar's modern reception. Other medieval poets — above all Walther von der Vogelweide with his human good sense and Heinrich von Morungen in his sparkling sensuousness — seem to speak directly to our modern sensibilities. Reinmar, on the other hand, the introverted analyst of fleeting emotional states, the resigned "Scholastiker der unglucklichen Liebe" (Uhland's epithet), is accorded great "historical significance," but apparently has not been much enjoyed. Much more outspoken than Kraus in his distaste for Reinmar is, for example, Kurt Plenio. Plenio com­ pares Reinmar's character unfavorably with that of Friedrich von Hausen, whom he finds "maiinlich" and "fest . .wahrend Reinmars weichheit durch die schwahkenden stimmungen des weiblichen und weibischen, frauenhaften und damenhaften gleitet."^