This monograph provides a translation of and a literary commentary on Heinrich von Mugeln"s allegorical poem Der meide kranz, based on the existing edition (by Jahr). The aim of the translation is to supplement the commentary by clarifying what is taken to be the meaning of a given passage. It is also hoped that a translation into English will make the poem accessible to a wider group of readers. The commentary has three main objectives. First, to elucidate the content of the more ‘technical’ passages (e.g. the speeches of the liberal arts and the discourse on the Trinity) and to comment on Mugeln"s intellectual vocabulary; secondly, to provide stylistic and thematic parallels from Latin and German literature and drawing attention to the different types of paradigmatic material used; and thirdly, to provide an overall interpretation of the poem. The last objective involves re-assessing the structure, providing a sharper focus on the role of the narratorial figure, and providing an alternative view to Jahr"s unfavourable, and as yet unchallenged, opinion of the poem as a work lacking unity and cohesion. It will be argued that the different section of the allegory is unified by the overriding theme of the contrast between the greatness of God and the limitations of his creatures, a theme which might also be termed ‘the humilitation of Natura’. This idea helps overcome the problem of the apparent shift of focus from Mary during the first dispute to Natura during the rest of the poem. The commentary draws both on the pattern of rhetorical analysis suggested by Stackmann, and on the approach taken by Kibelka of attempting to identify intellectual Denkstile rather than specific sources. The significance of the models provided by Latin philosophical allegory and by the tradition of the Furstenspiegel is also examined.
