GO'LIAR'DIC LITERATURE, or GAIMINA BuRANA. The songs of the wandering students in the later Middle Ages. These called themselves Goliardi, i.e. children or followers of Golies. Nothing is definitely known about this Golias. By some the poems bearing his name have been attributed to Walter Mapes, but there is no pos sibility that the songs of the Goliards represent the creation of any one man or even of a few men. They bear the stamp of universality. A song, originally sung by one poet or rhymester, was adopted, changed, resung, by others, until it became the common property of the student body. The poems as a whole may be divided into two general classes. The first class comprises the satirical songs. With the impatience and enthu siasm of youth the students attacked the vices of all classes except their own, and of course the members of the Church fared worst. Their poems are exceedingly irreverent to the ecclesiastical dignitaries, and this fact alone was sufficient to prevent any author from putting his name to his verses. In the second class the noticeable facts
are the purely pagan spirit, the love of outdoor life, the zest for enjoyment, the feeling that all things which yield pleasure are lawful. Their themes are three: nature, wine, and women, all of which they loved ardently. Some of their songs are popular at the present time. The German Corps students still sing at the grave of a departed brother, Gaudeamus igitur juvenes dum sumus. The best known of the drinking songs is Mem est propositum in taberna mori. The Lauriger Hora tius is believed to be the work of the Goliardi. Consult: Symonds, Wine, Women, and Song (Lon don, 1884) ; Schmeller, Carmine Burana (3d ed., Breslau, 1894) ; Wright, "Latin Poems Common ly Attributed to Walter Mapes," Camden Society Publica lions, (London, 1841) ; Pernwerth von Biirnstein, Carmina Burana Selecta (Witrzburg, 1879).