sists of eight shorter songs. Some of them are by no means devoid of poetic merit, but they have a somewhat sentimental manner, which makes them appear rather modern to the reader. The adversaries of the manuscript have not been slow in noting this circumstance. I shall only translate one of the short poems of the manuscript, entitled "The Cuckoo":—
"In the fields there stands an oak-tree,
On the oak-tree a cuckoo calls:
He ever calls, he laments
That spring does not last for ever.
How could the wheat ripen in the fields
spring lasted for ever?
How could the apples ripen in the garden
If summer lasted for ever?
Would not the ears of corn freeze in the stack
If autumn lasted for ever?
Would not the maiden be mournful
If her solitude lasted for ever?
In view of the uncertainty concerning the authenticity of the Manuscript of Königinhof, it is obviously impossible to assign a date to it. The writers who believe in its genuine character hold that the poems were transcribed and collected in their present shape at the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century, but that some of them are of far higher antiquity. The distinctly heathen character of one of these poems renders this certain, of course, if only we can dismiss the supposition of a modern falsification.
The second ancient Bohemian manuscript that was supposed to have been discovered at the beginning of the present century is that of Zelená Hora or Grüneberg, which is generally mentioned in connection with the Manuscript of Königinhof, and is printed together with it
