We may dismiss the problem of authorship partly as insoluble, partly
as of slight importance for a literature which is manifestly popular.
With even greater brevity may the problem of nationality be disposed
of. Some critics have claimed an Italian, some an English, some a
French, and some a German origin for the _Carmina Vagorum_. The truth
is that, just as the _Clerici Vagi_ were themselves of all nations, so
were their songs; and the use of a Latin common to all Europe in the
Middle Ages renders it difficult even to conjecture the soil from
which any particular lyric may have sprung. As is natural, a German
codex contains more songs of Teutonic origin; an English displays
greater abundance of English compositions. I have already observed
that our two chief sources of Goliardic literature have many elements
in common; but the treasures of the Benedictbeuern MS. differ in
complexion from those of the Harleian in important minor details; and
it is probable that if French and Italian stores were properly
ransacked--which has not yet been done--we should note in them similar
characteristic divergences.

The _Carmina Burana_, by their frequent references to linden-trees and
nightingales, and their numerous German refrains, indicate a German
home for the poems on spring and love, in which they are specially
rich.[14] The collections of our own land have an English turn of
political thought; the names Anglia and Anglus not unfrequently occur;
and the use of the word "Schellinck" in one of the _Carmina Burana_
may point, perhaps, to an English origin. France claims her own, not
only in the acknowledged pieces of Walter de Lille, but also in a few
which exhibit old French refrains. To Italian conditions, if not to
Italian poets, we may refer those that introduce spreading pines or
olive-trees into their pictures, and one which yields the refrain
_Bela mia_. The most important lyric of the series, _Golias'