Confession_, was undoubtedly written at Pavia, but whether by an
Italian or not we do not know. The probability is rather, perhaps, in
favour of Teutonic authorship, since this _Confession_ is addressed to
a German prelate. Here it may be noticed that the proper names of
places and people are frequently altered to suit different countries;
while in some cases they are indicated by an N, sufficiently
suggestive of their generality. Thus the _Confession of Golias_ in the
_Carmina Burana_ mentions _Electe Coloniae_; in an English version,
introduces _Praesul Coventriae_. The prayer for alms, which I have
translated in Section xiii., is addressed to _Decus N----_, thou
honour of Norwich town, or Wittenberg, or wherever the wandering
scholar may have chanced to be.

With regard to the form and diction of the _Carmina Vagorum_, it is
enough to say two things at the present time. First, a large portion
of these pieces, including a majority of the satires and longer
descriptive poems, are composed in measures borrowed from hymnology,
follow the diction of the Church, and imitate the double-rhyming
rhythms of her sequences. It is not unnatural, this being the case,
that parodies of hymns should be comparatively common. Of these I
shall produce some specimens in the course of this study. Secondly,
those which do not exhibit popular hymn measures are clearly written
for melodies, some of them very complicated in structure, suggesting
part-songs and madrigals, with curious interlacing of long and short
lines, double and single rhymes, recurrent ritournelles, and so forth.

The ingenuity with which these poets adapted their language to the
exigencies of the tune, taxing the fertility of Latin rhymes, and
setting off the long sonorous words to great advantage, deserves
admiring comment. At their best, it is almost impossible to reproduce