FRAUENLOB  , the name by which HEINRICH VON

MEISSEN, a German poet of the 13th century, is generally known . He seems to have acquired the sobriquet because in a famous Liederstreit with his rival Regenbogen he defended the use of the word Frau (i.e. frouwe,=lady) instead of Weib (wtp=woman) . Frauenloh was born about 1250 of a humble burgher family . His youth was spent in straitened circumstances, but he gradually acquired a reputation as a singer at the various courts of the German princes . In 1278 we find him with Rudolph I. in the Marchfeld, in 1286 he was at Prague at the knighting of Wenceslaus (Wenzel) II., and in 1311 he was present at a knightly festival celebrated by Waldemar of Brandenburg before Rostock . After this he settled in Mainz, and there according to the popular account, founded the first school of Meistersingers (q.v.) . He died in 1318, and was buried in the cloisters of the cathedral at Mainz . His grave is still marked by a copy made in 1783 of the original tombstone of 1318; and in 1842 a monument by Schwanthaler was erected in the cloisters . Frauenlob's poems make a great display of learning; he delights in far-fetched metaphors, and his versification abounds in tricks of form and rhyme . Frauenlob's poet), was edited by L . Ettmuller in 1843; a selection will be found in K . Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichter des la. bis 14 .

Jahrhunderts (3rd ed., 1893) . An

English translation of Frauenlob's Cantica canticorum, by A . E . Kroeger, with notes, appeared in 1877 at St Louis, U.S.A . See A . Boerkel, Frauenlob (2nd ed., 1881) .