BER, 197

High placed, and blooming fair as fits my race ?

And mine was thus-while sported with thy beard

The hands which touch it now imploringlyIn sooth, my father, I will welcome thee, When thou'rt waxed old, to a right friendly home,

And nurse thy ailments with soft ministry.' I mind them well these words; but thou forget'st

Yea, quite forget'st-and wouldst destroy me. Nay,

Spare me, my father. By thy sire-by hisBy this, my mother, who, in grief of heart, Doth travail twice for me-I pray thee spare, What share had I in Paris' nuptial theft? And Helen-why is she to write my doom? My father, look at me-one look-one kissSome pledge of thee I fain would have-although

I were to perish, and to plead in vain.

In vain! Ah! brother, thou art weak to aid; But weep with me-beseech our father thus: 'Sure sister shall not die?' Yea, even the

With Euripides the Athenian tragic drama closes. We have seen that, in his hands, it lost its religious form and ideal cast, and became an instrument to display sophistry, and an embodi ment of false art. After Euripides, no dramatist of any eminence appears; and for centuries the gift of expressing in dramatic impersonation the wonderful play of human action and pas sion (for the Roman stage was a mere gorgeous exhibition of scenic effect) was lost to man. And, though it revived in Shakspere, and displayed itself in creations even more perfect and har monious, more varied and subtle, than those of Greek art, nothing like the early Attic drama, with its pious spirit and moral effect, has been restored. Like a ray of light, that scatters itself throughout space and perishes, this rare combination of religion and intellectual excellence is not likely to re-appear again.

THE race of Hapsburg, in monopolising the once elective Empire of Germany, has also monopolised the attention of general readers of German history, obscuring the names and the fame of those few rivals who competed with it in the early stages of its progress. Even Coxe, the historian of the House of Austria, has passed too cursorily over one whose reign forms an interesting episode in the story of the Austrian Dynasty, who was one of the most accomplished princes of his time, and whose life contained some of the elements of romance. We will therefore dedicate a few pages to the memory of Adolphus of Nassau.

The cradle of the House of Nassau was a small castle on the mountain near the town of Nassau. One tall

slender tower, in ruins, now scarce suffices to tell the antiquary what it was yet Nassau formerly, and successfully, contested the Imperial crown with Austria; sent five ecclesiastical electors to the German Diet, and shot forth several branches from its main stem, one of which, Nassau-Orange, gave, in later days, a king to Great Britain, and now in the Netherlands holds a place among the royal houses of Europe.

Adolphus, son of Walram, Count of Nassau (in the thirteenth century), was more highly cultivated than was usual in his days, when military talents and qualifications were more regarded than any other. Besides his native German, he was perfectly well acquainted with French and Latin; had a taste for literature and for architecture; was skilled in politics and civil government-a brave soldier, and accomplished in the art of war; chivalrous, polite, and amiable in many respects; but his good disposition was subsequently warped by the temptations to which pecuniary difficulties exposed him.

During the life of his father (who

died in 1289) he married Imogine, daughter of Gerlac, Count of Limburg, a lady of great merit and beauty. The marriage was one of mutual affection -and he built for his private residence a castle, which he called Adolfs-ech, that is, Adolphus's nook, a name suggestive of a peaceful and happy retirement. Its ruins are near Schwalbach, on a high round hill, looking down over a small village on the Aar. The moat of the castle was cut out of the rock, and it was surrounded by fish-ponds. The road leading thither from Schwalbach runs through a close valley, overtopped by crags.

In 1291 died Rodolph of Hapsburg, first Emperor of Germany of that name and lineage. -a man esteemed for wisdom, courage, and many vir tues. His eldest son, Albert, who had neither the moderation nor the good qualities of Rodolph, felt confident that the choice of the Electors of Germany must fall, by right, on him; and with. out waiting for their decision, he went to the castle of Trifels, where the imperial insignia were kept, took possession of them, and carried them to Hagenau, near Frankfort, where he had a brilliant court of 600 knights. But this act of presumption gave great umbrage to the Electors, and prepar ed the way for a rival to supersede him.

Gerard of Nassau-Epstein, Archbishop of Mentz, and Arch-chancellor of the Empire, a man of great influence, was anxious to procure the election of Adolphus of Nassau, his near kinsman, for the sake of family aggrandisement; and his design was fa voured by the discontent of the princes at the over-confident assumption of Rodolph's son. He fostered their distrust of Albert's haughty and ambi tious character; secured the voices of the Electors of Cologne, Triers, and the Palatinate for Adolphus, by large promises; fomented jealousies of each

other among the remaining Electors, and prevailed on them to promise to vote in accordance with his directions at the time of public decision.

The election took place early in May, 1292, in Frankfort, in the sacristy of the barefooted friars, whither the Archbishop secretly conveyed Adolphus, desiring him to be ready to enter the sacristy as soon as it should be opened to him. After the celebration of mass the Prelate addressed the Electoral Princes:-"I have besought the Holy Spirit, that by his grace he would give me to know the man whom God wills to honour; therefore, I now nominate to you one who will be able to deliver the Empire in all perils, and I chuse Count Adolphus of Nassau, who stands here before you, as King of the Romans." And immediately the Archbishop began to sing the Te Deum: the other Ecclesiastical Electors joined him; and the lay Electors stood motionless with surprise, and perceived that they had been overreached by Gerard. But they respected the valiant and accomplished Count of Nassau, and no dissentient voice was raised. Three heralds forthwith proclaimed Adolphus Emperor, with all due pomp, in the streets of Frankfort; and he was shortly afterwards crowned in the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle.

When the intelligence of the election reached Albert, his fury burst be. yond all bounds. He was more enraged that the crown should have devolved on Adolphus, than on any other man. Indeed, the whole tenor of his conduct and language towards the Emperor throughout his life, indicates a strong personal, rather than a merely political hostility, and corroborates a tradition that they had been once rivals in love, as afterwards in ambition; both having been at the same time suitors for the hand of Imogine of Limburg, whose unqualified rejection of Albert in favour of Adolphus had occasioned the former bitter mortification, and inspired an implacable hatred of his more fortunate competitor, who, in point of person, address, and character, was infinitely superior to the uncouth, coarse, and moody Albert. The disappointed lover sought consolation for the disdain of Imogine by marrying Elizabeth, the richly-dowered daughter and heiress of the Duke of Carinthia. But she, born in 1263, and wedded in 1276,

was a child-bride of only thirteen, Self-interest was the motive of the bridegroom in the union; love must have been out of the question; and he afterwards showed, on various occasions, that irritated feelings connected with Adolphus and Imogine rankled deeply in his bosom.

Albert, on first hearing of the Count of Nassau's elevation, seemed determined to retain the insignia, and to contest the Empire. But his own affairs were in an unfavourable situa tion, for dangerous revolts against his authority had broken out among his feudal subjects in Switzerland, Austria, and Styria; and he felt himself unequal to additional conflicts. He therefore listened the more easily to the envoys of the Electoral princes who came to demand the regalia, and accepted the explanation of the Archbishop of Mentz, to the effect that he (Albert) could not have been legally elected, as he lay under the Pope's ban on account of his wars with an ecclesiastic, the Bishop of Saltzburg. Thus compelled to give way, he surrendered the insignia, and, followed by a magnificent train, rode to Oppenheim, in the Palatinate, where Adolphus then had his court. The new Emperor received him with affability and kindness; and Albert did homage for his fiefs with a placid countenance, but with hate and envy burning in his mind.

On Albert's return to Vienna he found himself again embroiled with his old enemy, the Bishop of Saltzburg; while the Austrians and Styrians, anxious to shake off his rigorous yoke, endeavoured to gain the support of Adolphus, who, however, refused it, being too generous to take advantage of his rival's difficulties to injure him. Albert's agitation caused him a danger. ous illness: by the use of violent reme dies he recovered, but he lost an eye, his features were distorted, and his face frightfully disfigured.

Adolphus made brilliant progresses through the Rhine-lands, Alsace, Burgundy, and part of Switzerland; receiving everywhere due homage, and many marks of attachment. And he wisely took opportunities of exhorting the nobles to abstain from feuds and civil strife, and to cultivate peace and amity. The belligerent Bishop of Strasburg, who for years had waged war with Adolphus the Count of

Nassau, now submitted to Adolphus the Emperor. Some governors in Alsace, who, instead of preserving social order, had themselves become predatory knights, Adolphus subdued by force of arms, and severely punished. He took for his model on all occasions his noble-minded predecessor, Rodolph I., and gave proofs of good intentions, decision, penetration, and activity.

He employed some of his revenue for the benefit of his patrimonial dominion of Nassau. Among other works that he set on foot therein, he restored Wiesbaden, which had been nearly destroyed in feudal wars, and rebuilt the palace, which is no longer extant, but the street leading to its site is still called Palace-street. And he fortified the Castle of Sonnenburg, whose fine ruin crowns a chalky hill, rising above the village of Sonnenburg, half a league from Wiesbaden. Imogine founded near the last-named town the Convent of Klarenthal, whose first abbess was the sister of Adolphus; and here the empress erected a tomb for herself and her family.

But clouds began to lower on the bright horizon. The Archbishop of Mentz expected that, as he had raised Adolphus to the throne he had a right to an extraordinary degree of power in the empire, and aimed, in fact, at ruling under the name of his kinsman. But the latter lost no time in demonstrating that he intended to hold the reins of government in his own hand: and he repelled with firmness, and sometimes even with scorn, every attempt at undue interference on the part of the prelate, who, in consequence, became his deadly enemy, and who determined to use more strenuous efforts to ruin him than he had used before to elevate him. Albert of Hapsburg, too, watched every action of Adolphus with a lynx-eye in order to find occasions for maligning, and misrepresenting, and undermining his popularity.

Unfortunately poverty, which prepares pit-falls for many a foot that would fain walk firmly and rightly on, laid snares in the path of Adolphus, and the deceitful counsels of expe

diency prompted undue means of deliverance from them. If he was poor while count, he was not less so when emperor; a rank which increased his expenses without proportionably increasing his means; and his exigencies sometimes tempted him to acts which, under other circumstances, he would have scorned to commit, and which furnished causes of reproach but too well founded. One of those acts is connected with English history.†

Edward I., of England, was at war with Philip IV. (surnamed the Handsome), King of France, for the possession of Guienne. Philip had seized some lands belonging to Germany in the territory of Arles. Adolphus, therefore, desirous to preserve the integrity of the empire, and protect its frontiers, entered into a league with Edward, from whom he received 30,000 marks of silver to raise and equip an army for the purpose of attacking France from Alsace and the Lower Rhine, thus to make a diversion in favour of the English arms. But Pope Boniface VIII. interfered. He wished to engage the powers of Christendom in a holy war," and deemed it a necessary preliminary that they should be at peace among themselves. He forbade Adolphus to prosecute his design, under pain of excommunication, pronouncing it "unworthy of so great a sovereign as the head of the holy Roman empire to take the field for pay like a common soldier;" and he similarly prohibited all the princes of the empire from taking any part in the dispute between England and France. That the emperor did not fulfil his engagement with Edward was not his fault: the blame lay in his not returning the money received for conditions unperformed; but he had applied it to his own purposes, and was unable to refund it. This circumstance gave a colour to the reproaches cast on his conduct by Albert and the Archbishop; and many who would as eagerly have grasped, and as firmly retained, English coin, now joined in condemning Adolphus, to whom they gave the contemptuous appellation of "Stipendiarius," the hireling.

But the transaction which, above all

others, exposed him to censure, was one in which he was involved, relative to the Landgraviate of Thuringia,* for the better understanding of which, it is necessary to take up the story from its commencement, long before the reign of Adolphus.

Albrecht,† Landgrave of Thuringia, surnamed for his vices "The Degenerate" (der Entartete), had married Margaret, daughter of the deceased Emperor, Frederick II. (of the House of Hopenstauffen), and had two sons, Frederick and Dietzman. When Albrecht had been married thirteen years he became enamoured of one of the ladies of his court, Kunigunda Von Eisenberg, who, from her evil disposition, was more congenial to him than his amiable and neglected wife, whose mild virtues he despised. Kunigunda, who became the mother of a son named Apitz, domineered over the Landgrave and his subjects with shameless arrogance, and behaved with extraordinary insolence to the Landgravine, by whom the cruelty and insults of her husband and his mistress were borne with the patience of a martyr. At length this criminal pair resolved to despatch the unfortunate lady, and hired an assassin to murder her while asleep; but the man, touched with compassion for the innocent victim, lying helpless and unconscious before him, awakened her, told the errand on which he had been sent, and bade her fly. She rushed to the bed of her young sons to take a last and miserable leave of them; and, it is recorded, so intense were the pangs of her maternal agony, that in the frenzy of her embrace she bit Frederick deeply in the cheek: he bore the mark all his life, and was surnamed "The Bitten." Margaret effected her escape to Frankfort, was kindly received by the citizens, and found refuge in a convent of white nuns, where grief for her children soon terminated her existence, in 1270, the same year in which she had fled, being 22 years before the coronation of Adolphus.

After Margaret's death the Landgrave married Kunigunda, and cen

tring all his paternal cares in Apitz, resolved to make him his successor in Thuringia. His legitimate sons, Fre deric and Dietzman, who had inherited, not their wicked father's, but their virtuous mother's character, had been taken under the care of their uncle, the Margrave of Landsberg. When they reached the age of manhood they protested against their father's intended illegal substitution of Apitz for themselves in the Landgraviate, and found many nobles and knights to espouse their just cause. A war en

sued between Albrecht and his two sons. Frederic was taken prisoner in a battle, and confined in the Castle of Wartburg; that stronghold which in three centuries after became famous as the retreat of Martin Luther. Here the young captive would have been starved to death in his dungeon but for the pity of three vassals, who plan ned and effected his escape.

The unnatural war continued, and Albrecht, in his turn, was himself taken by his sons, who resolved on im prisoning him for life. But the then Emperor, Rodolph I., desired a more decorous and Christian-like termina tion of the strife; and accordingly convened at Eisenach a meeting of some nobles to arbitrate with himself between the contending parties. By the award of the arbitrators it was agreed, that Albrecht should be set free on his giving a solemn pledge that he would not at any time sell, mort. gage, or otherwise alienate, any part of his lands without the knowledge and consent of his legitimate sons. b

During, the life of Rodolph, Albrecht gave no cause for distrust; but on the death of that Emperor he res newed his attempt to set aside Frederic and Dietzman for Apitz; and not only to deprive them of Thuringia, but also of Misniat and Lusatia, which they had inherited from their uncle's son, who had died childless. Again, the domestic war blazed out; and Ku, nigunda advised her criminally-weak husband to sell all the territories, and with their price to purchase domains