In der Väter Hallen ruhte Ritter Rudolfs Heldenarm, Rudolfs, den die Schlacht erfreute Rudolfs, welchen Frankreich scheute Und der Sarazenen Schwarm Er, der letzte seines Stammes, Agnes mit den goldnen Locken War des Greises Trost und Stab; Sanft wie Tauben, weiss wie Schwäne, Küsste sie des Vaters Thräne Von den grauen Wimpern ab. Ach sie weinte selbst im Stillen Wenn der Mond ins Fenster schien. Albrecht mit der offnen Stirne Brannte für die edle Dirne; Aber Horst der hundert Krieger Und der Vater war ihm hold. Einst beim freien Mahle küsste Horst entbrannte, blickte seitwärts Drohend warf er seinen Handschuh Albrecht nahm das Fehdezeichen Röthlich schimmerte die Rüstung Und die Hirsche flohn ins Thal. Auf des Söllers Gitter lehnte Sank, wie Albrecht, und erblich. Bang' von leiser Ahndung spornet Starrt, and stürzt sich in sein Schwert. Rudolf nahm die kalte Tochter Thränenlos und ohne Klage Und verschied im stummen Harm. Sir Rodolph was resting his heroic arm, from the fatigues of war, in the halls of his ancestors-Rodolph, who rejoiced in battlesRodolph, who was dreaded by France and by the hordes of Saracens. He, the last of his race, was bewailing the loss of his sons; his complaints were re-echoed from cloisters within moss-grown walls. Agnes, with the golden locks, was the comfort and the prop of the old knight;-endowed with the mildness of the dove, and the whiteness of the swan;-she kissed her father's tears off his grey eye-lashes. Alas! she was herself weeping in secret when the moon shone in her window. Albert, with the open brow, sighed for the noble girl, and met with a return of love. But Horst, who kept one hundred warriors in pay, boasted of the ancestors of his race, and gloried in trophies earned in battle; and her father favoured him. Önce at a festive meal Albert kissed her delicate hand; her soft eyes strove to punish him, but, alas! trembling tears dropped upon her tucker. Horst was incensed; he cast a side glance upon his heavy murderous weapon: love and rage glowed upon the cheeks of the knight; his eyes wildly sparkled fire around. He, threatening, cast his gauntlet into the chaste lap of Agnes: "Take it, Albert! This very hour I'll wait for you near the mill-pond." And he had scarcely said the word, when he gallopped off on his steed. Albert calmly took the hostile gauntlet, and mounted his horse; he beheld with joy a tear trickling from the blue eyes of Agnes for his and love's sake. The rays of the setting sun spread a glimmering red upon their armours; the ground resounded afar under the hoofs of their horses, and the stags fled into the valley. Agnes, speechless and dismayed, leaned over the railing of her balcony: she saw the bright lances sparkle, saw-the noble Albert fall, and, like Albert, fell pale and lifeless. Agitated with some slight forebodings, Horst spurred his foam-covered horse; he soon heard loud wailings in the house, hastened to the young lady's room, startled, and rushed upon his sword. Rodolph snatched his lifeless daughter in his fatherly arms; he held her thus for two long days without shedding a tear or uttering a complaint, and sunk to rest in silent grief. 780. Zwischen moosbewachs'nen Mauern tönte seiner Klage Trauern in der Zellen Wiederhall; the construction in prose is, das Trauern seiner Klage tönte in dem Wiederhall der Zellen zwischen moosbewachsenen Mauern, the wailing of his lamentation resounded in the echo of the cells between moss-grown walls. Zwischen, prep. denoting the co-existence of severals objects together. It is the English "betwixt, between," and literally means in the midst of the two. We say, Windsor liegt zwischen London und Oxford, Windsor is situated between London and Oxford. Wieland says: "Zwischen Angst und zwischen Hoffen Aengstlich zwischen Klippen treibt." And to express figuratively the situation of a person who is hemmed in, as it were, between difficulties and dangers, we say, es befindet sich zwischen Thür und Angel, he is between the door and the hinge. Zwischen governs the dative, zwischen mir und dir, unless it marks the direction or motion towards a place which separates two objects: zwischen die Streitenden gerathen, to get between the combatants; zwischen die Räder fallen, to fall between the wheels. Moos bewachsen is one of those elliptical expressions which give so much energy to the German language; it properly denotes überwachsen mit Moos, grown over with moss. But mark with what rapidity the whole image is offered to the understanding in a single epithet, at a single glance, though it contains the different ideas of growing, growing over, being grown over, with what? with Thus we say, der schwarzumwölkte Berg, the mountain surrounded with black clouds; der Schiffbesüete Strom, the river thronged (sown) with ships. We moss. have in the twelfth strophe, sein schaumbedecktes Pferd, his foam-covered horse; but such compound epithets, whether they be made of participles or of adjectives, cannot be employed as predicates or attributes, as we observed of adjectives denoting the matter of which an object is composed, sec. 725. We cannot say, der Strom ist schiffbesäet; das Mädchen ist lilien armig, &c. for a logical reason, which it would be too long to detail here. Küsste sie des Vaters Thräne von dengrauen Wimpern ab, viz. sie küsste ab, impf. of the act. comp. sep. abküssen, to kiss off; ich küsse ab, ich küsste ab, ich habe abgeküsst, ich habe kein Lust abzuküssen. Poets, in general, are not fond of employing separable compound verbs in their simple tenses, because the distance of the preposition from the verb favours neither harmony nor picturesque effect. 781. Rühmte seines Stammes Ahnen, boasted of the aucestors of his race. We had ein Ahnen, sec. 774; but Ahnen here is the pl. of the obsolete sub. masc. der Ahn, the ancestor, instead of which we now use der Ahnherr, in the singular. In common life we say, Vorältern, progenitors. Ahnen applies commonly to ancestors of a noble family, as here; Vorfahren denotes simply predecessors. 782. Mit erfochtnen Fahnen, with colours obtained by fighting. Eine Fahne, sub. fem. the guidon, standard, colours of a regiment; the banner, the flag, the streamer of a ship; also an ensigncy. Ein Fähndrich, or more commonly Fähnrich, sub. masc. an ensign. Erfochten is the part. past of the insep. irr. comp. verb erfechten, to obtain by fighting; ich erfechte, ich erfocht, ich habe erfochten. We have frequently directed your attention to the advantages which we derive from our compound verbs, and particularly to the verbs formed with the insep. particle er, sections 473, 512, and 690. We say, Caffarelli hat sich ein Herzogthum ersungen. Madame Catalani hätte sich grosse Reichthümer ersingen können. Goeking says: "Ruhm und sogar Unsterblichkeit "Glory and even immortality may be earned by fighting and by singing." 783. Der Vater war ihm hold, her father was favourable to him, favoured him. Einem hold seyn, to be one's friend, to favour him. Hold, adj. affectionate, kind, favourable; and in speaking of females, sweet, combining physical and moral perfections; beauty of form with sweetness of disposition. 784. Harr' ich dein is a poetical contraction for harre ich deiner, I expect thee, I wait for thee. Deiner is the genitive of the pron. Du, thou; and ich harre, the present of the indicative, instead of the future, ich werde harren, I shall or will wait, I'll wait. As werde, the mark of our future, is rather heavy and dragging, and yet cannot be omitted or shortened and contracted as in English, we frequently employ the present instead of the future. Klopstock says: "Wär' er auch in Wolken gehüllt und dunkel von Wettern Instead of an welchem ich sterben werde. Harren is a reg. neut. verb, conjugated with haben, and construed with auf, or with the genitive, as here. Luther translates Psalm xlii. 11, "Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God;" by Harre auf Gott, den ich werde ihm noch danken, dass er meines Angesichts Hülfe und mein Gott ist. And Psalm lxix. 6, "Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake;" by Lass nicht zu Schanden werden an mir die Dein harren. The German proverb says, hoffen und harren (to hope and to expect) macht manchen zum Narren (makes many a man mad.) 785. Die Zähre, sub. fem. the tear, is a nobler word than Thräne, sec. 707. The latter may be caused by a mere physical pain, as smoke; the former always proceeds from a moral cause. Hagedorn, labouring under a painful disease, said: "Mein Auge füllt sich leicht mit freundschaftlichen Zähren ; Die Thräne der Betrübniss ein." 786. Röthlich, adj. reddish. The syllable lich is appended to adjectives formed of verbs, of substantives, and of adjectives; as here, röthlich, which comes from roth, red. The syllable lich, in this case, denotes a similarity |