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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:59 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:39:59 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12456-0.txt b/12456-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..843bb33 --- /dev/null +++ b/12456-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3719 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12456 *** + +THE TROUBADOURS + +BY + +REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. + + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE TROUBADOURS OF DANTE" +ETC. + +Cambridge: +at the University Press +1912 + + +_With the exception of the coat of arms at +the foot, the design on the title page is a +reproduction of one used by the earliest known +Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_ + + + +PREFACE + +This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature +of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific +knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the +Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful +for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject +will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The +latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real +importance has been omitted. + +H.J. CHAYTOR. + +THE COLLEGE, +PLYMOUTH, March 1912. + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +CHAP. + +I. INTRODUCTORY + +II. THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE + +III. TECHNIQUE + +IV. THE EARLY TROUBADOURS + +V. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD + +VI. THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE + +VII. THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY + +VIII. THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN + +IX. PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND + +BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES + +INDEX + +[Transcriptor's note: Page numbers from the original document have +been posted in the right margin to maintain the relevance of the +index references.} + +THE TROUBADOURS [1] + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + +Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary +history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the +highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth +and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provençal poetry was +already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated +the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them +to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is +Provençal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal +and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provençal +until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouvères" in +Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by +troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in [2] +early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and +appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of +Provençal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von +Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a +subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative +literature. + +The northern limit of the Provençal language formed a line starting from +the Pointe de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde, passing through +Lesparre, Bordeaux, Libourne, Périgueux, rising northward to Nontron, la +Rochefoucauld, Confolens, Bellac, then turning eastward to Guéret and +Montluçon; it then went south-east to Clermont-Ferrand, Boën, Saint +Georges, Saint Sauveur near Annonay. The Dauphiné above Grenoble, most +of the Franche-Comté, French Switzerland and Savoy, are regarded as a +separate linguistic group known as Franco-Provençal, for the reason that +the dialects of that district display characteristics common to both +French and Provençal.[1] On the south-west, Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Isles must also be included in the Provençal region. As +concerns the Northern limit, it must not be regarded as a definite line +of demarcation between the langue d'oil or the Northern French dialects +and the langue d'oc or Provençal. The boundary is, of course, determined +by noting the points at which certain linguistic features peculiar to +Provençal cease and are replaced by the characteristics of Northern [3] +French. Such a characteristic, for instance, is the Latin tonic _a_ +before a single consonant, and not preceded by a palatal consonant, +which remains in Provençal but becomes _e_ in French; Latin cant_a_re +becomes chant_a_r in Provençal but chant_e_r in French. But north and +south of the boundary thus determined there was, in the absence of any +great mountain range or definite geographical line of demarcation, an +indeterminate zone, in which one dialect probably shaded off by easy +gradations into the other. + +Within the region thus described as Provençal, several separate dialects +existed, as at the present day. Apart from the Franco-Provençal on the +north-east, which we have excluded, there was Gascon in the south-west +and the modern _départements_ of the Basses and Hautes Pyrénées; +Catalonian, the dialect of Roussillon, which was brought into Spain in +the seventh century and still survives in Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Islands. The rest of the country may be subdivided by a line to +the north of which _c_ before _a_ becomes _ch_ as in French, cant_a_re +producing chant_a_r, while southwards we find _c(k)_ remaining. The +Southern dialects are those of Languedoc and Provence; north of the line +were the Limousin and Auvergne dialects. At the present day these +dialects have diverged very widely. In the early middle ages the +difference between them was by no means so great. Moreover, a literary [4] +language grew up by degrees, owing to the wide circulation of poems and +the necessity of using a dialect which could be universally +intelligible. It was the Limousin dialect which became, so to speak, the +backbone of this literary language, now generally known as Provençal, +just as the Tuscan became predominant for literary purposes among the +Italian dialects. It was in Limousin that the earliest troubadour lyrics +known to us were composed, and this district with the adjacent Poitou +and Saintonge may therefore be reasonably regarded as the birthplace of +Provençal lyric poetry. + +Hence the term "Provençal" is not entirely appropriate to describe the +literary language of the troubadours, as it may also be restricted to +denote the dialects spoken in the "Provincia". This difficulty was felt +at an early date. The first troubadours spoke of their language as +_roman_ or _lingua romana,_ a term equally applicable to any other +romance language. _Lemosin_ was also used, which was too restricted a +term, and was also appropriated by the Catalonians to denote their own +dialect. A third term in use was the _lingua d'oc,_ which has the +authority of Dante [2] and was used by some of the later troubadours; +however, the term "Provençal" has been generally accepted, and must +henceforward be understood to denote the literary language common to the [5] +south of France and not the dialect of Provence properly so-called. + +For obvious reasons Southern France during the early middle ages had far +outstripped the Northern provinces in art, learning, and the refinements +of civilisation. Roman culture had made its way into Southern Gaul at an +early date and had been readily accepted by the inhabitants, while +Marseilles and Narbonne had also known something of Greek civilisation. +Bordeaux, Toulouse, Arles, Lyons and other towns were flourishing and +brilliant centres of civilisation at a time when Northern France was +struggling with foreign invaders. It was in Southern Gaul, again, that +Christianity first obtained a footing; here the barbarian invasions of +the fifth and sixth centuries proved less destructive to civilisation +than in Northern France, and the Visigoths seem to have been more +amenable to the influences of culture than the Northern Franks. Thus the +towns of Southern Gaul apparently remained centres in which artistic and +literary traditions were preserved more or less successfully until the +revival of classical studies during the age of Charlemagne. The climate, +again, of Southern France is milder and warmer than that of the North, +and these influences produced a difference which may almost be termed +racial. It is a difference visible even to-day and is well expressed by [6] +the chronicler Raoul de Caen, who speaks of the Provençal Crusaders, +saying that the French were prouder in bearing and more war-like in +action than the Provençals, who especially contrasted with them by their +skill in procuring food in times of famine: "inde est, quod adhuc +puerorum decantat naenia, Franci ad bella, Provinciales ad victualia".[3] +Only a century and a half later than Charlemagne appeared the first +poetical productions in Provençal which are known to us, a fragment of a +commentary upon the De Consolatione of Boethius[4] and a poem upon St +Foy of Agen. The first troubadour, William, Count of Poitiers, belongs +to the close of the eleventh century. + +Though the Count of Poitiers is the first troubadour known to us, the +relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza +construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing +lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional +lapses into coarseness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was +the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent +in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige +us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable stage of +previous development. At what point this development began and what +influences stimulated its progress are questions which still remain in [7] +dispute. Three theories have been proposed. It is, in the first place, +obviously tempting to explain the origin of Provençal poetry as being a +continuation of Latin poetry in its decadence. When the Romans settled +in Gaul they brought with them their amusements as well as their laws +and institutions. Their _scurrae_, _thymelici_ and _joculatores_, the +tumblers, clowns and mountebanks, who amused the common people by day +and the nobles after their banquets by night and travelled from town to +town in pursuit of their livelihood, were accustomed to accompany their +performances by some sort of rude song and music. In the uncivilised +North they remained buffoons; but in the South, where the greater +refinement of life demanded more artistic performance, the musical part +of their entertainment became predominant and the _joculator_ became the +_joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), a wandering musician and +eventually a troubadour, a composer of his own poems. These latter were +no longer the gross and coarse songs of the earlier mountebank age, +which Alcuin characterised as _turpissima_ and _vanissima_, but the +grave and artificially wrought stanzas of the troubadour _chanso_. + +Secondly, it has been felt that some explanation is required to account +for the extreme complexity and artificiality of troubadour poetry in its +most highly developed stage. Some nine hundred different forms of stanza [8] +construction are to be found in the body of troubadour poetry,[5] and +few, if any schools of lyric poetry in the world, can show a higher +degree of technical perfection in point of metrical diversity, complex +stanza construction and accuracy in the use of rime. This result has +been ascribed to Arabic influence during the eighth century; but no +sufficient proof has ever been produced that the complexities of Arabic +and Provençal poetry have sufficient in common to make this hypothesis +anything more than an ingenious conjecture. + +One important fact stands in contradiction to these theories. All +indications go to prove that the origin of troubadour poetry can be +definitely localised in a particular part of Southern France. We have +seen that the Limousin dialect became the basis of the literary +language, and that the first troubadour known to us belonged to Poitou. +It is also apparent that in the Poitou district, upon the border line of +the French and Provençal languages, popular songs existed and were +current among the country people; these were songs in honour of spring, +pastorals or dialogues between a knight and a shepherdess (our "Where +are you going, my pretty maid?" is of the same type), _albas_ or dawn +songs which represent a friend as watching near the meeting-place of a +lover and his lady and giving him due warning of the approach of dawn or [9] +of any other danger; there are also _ballatas_ or dance songs of an +obviously popular type.[6] Whatever influence may have been exercised by +the Latin poetry of the decadence or by Arab poetry, it is in these +popular and native productions that we must look for the origins of the +troubadour lyrics. This popular poetry with its simple themes and homely +treatment of them is to be found in many countries, and diversity of +race is often no bar to strange coincidence in the matter of this +poetry. It is thus useless to attempt to fix any date for the beginnings +of troubadour poetry; its primitive form doubtless existed as soon as +the language was sufficiently advanced to become a medium of poetical +expression. + +Some of these popular themes were retained by the troubadours, the +_alba_ and _pastorela_ for instance, and were often treated by them in a +direct and simple manner. The Gascon troubadour Cercamon is said to have +composed pastorals in "the old style." But in general, between +troubadour poetry and the popular poetry of folk-lore, a great gulf is +fixed, the gulf of artificiality. The very name "troubadour" points to +this characteristic. _Trobador_ is the oblique case of the nominative +_trobaire_, a substantive from the verb _trobar_, in modern French +_trouver_. The Northern French _trouvère_ is a nominative form, and +_trouveor_ should more properly correspond with _trobador_. The +accusative form, which should have persisted, was superseded by the [10] +nominative _trouvère_, which grammarians brought into fashion at the end +of the eighteenth century. The verb _trobar_ is said to be derived from +the low Latin _tropus_ [Greek: tropus], an air or melody: hence the +primitive meaning of _trobador_ is the "composer" or "inventor," in the +first instance, of new melodies. As such, he differs from the _vates_, +the inspired bard of the Romans and the [Greek: poeta], poeta, the +creative poet of the Greeks, the "maker" of Germanic literature. Skilful +variation upon a given theme, rather than inspired or creative power, is +generally characteristic of the troubadour. + +Thus, whatever may have been the origin of troubadour poetry, it appears +at the outset of the twelfth century as a poetry essentially +aristocratic, intended for nobles and for courts, appealing but rarely +to the middle classes and to the common people not at all. The +environment which enabled this poetry to exist was provided by the +feudal society of Southern France. Kings, princes and nobles themselves +pursued the art and also became the patrons of troubadours who had risen +from the lower classes. Occasionally troubadours existed with sufficient +resources of their own to remain independent; Folquet of Marseilles +seems to have been a merchant of wealth, above the necessity of seeking +patronage. But troubadours such as Bernart de Ventadour, the son of the [11] +stoker in the castle of Ventadour, Perdigon the son of a fisherman, and +many others of like origin depended for their livelihood and advancement +upon the favour of patrons. Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts +and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, +such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church +looked somewhat askance upon the profession. Women are also numbered +among the troubadours; Beatrice, the Countess of Die, is the most famous +of these. + +A famous troubadour usually circulated his poems by the mouth of a +_joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), who recited them at different +courts and was often sent long distances by his master for this purpose. +A joglar of originality might rise to the position of a troubadour, and +a troubadour who fell upon evil days might sink to the profession of +joglar. Hence there was naturally some confusion between the troubadour +and the joglar, and poets sometimes combined the two functions. In +course of time the joglar was regarded with some contempt, and like his +forbear, the Roman joculator, was classed with the jugglers, acrobats, +animal tamers and clowns who amused the nobles after their feasts. Nor, +under certain conditions, was the troubadour's position one of dignity; [12] +when he was dependent upon his patron's bounty, he would stoop to +threats or to adulation in order to obtain the horse or the garments or +the money of his desire; such largesse, in fact, came to be denoted by a +special term, _messio_. Jealousy between rival troubadours, accusations +of slander in their poems and quarrels with their patrons were of +constant occurrence. These naturally affected the joglars in their +service, who received a share of any gifts that the troubadour might +obtain. + +The troubadours who were established more or less permanently as court +poets under a patron lord were few; a wandering life and a desire for +change of scene is characteristic of the class. They travelled far and +wide, not only to France, Spain and Italy, but to the Balkan peninsula, +Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and England; Elias Cairel is said to have visited +most of the then known world, and the biographer of Albertet Calha +relates, as an unusual fact, that this troubadour never left his native +district. Not only love, but all social and political questions of the +age attracted their attention. They satirised political and religious +opponents, preached crusades, sang funeral laments upon the death of +famous patrons, and the support of their poetical powers was often in +demand by princes and nobles involved in a struggle. Noteworthy also is +the fact that a considerable number retired to some monastery or [13] +religious house to end their days (_se rendet_, was the technical +phrase). So Bertran of Born, Bernart of Ventadour, Peire Rogier, Cadenet +and many others retired from the disappointments of the world to end +their days in peace; Folquet of Marseilles, who similarly entered the +Cistercian order, became abbot of his monastery of Torondet, Bishop of +Toulouse, a leader of the Albigeois crusade and a founder of the +Inquisition. + + + +CHAPTER II [14] + + +THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE + +Troubador poetry dealt with war, politics, personal satire and other +subjects: but the theme which is predominant and in which real +originality was shown, is love. The troubadours were the first lyric +poets in mediaeval Europe to deal exhaustively with this subject, and as +their attitude was imitated with certain modifications by French, +Italian, Portuguese and German poets, the nature of its treatment is a +matter of considerable importance. + +Of the many ladies whose praises were sung or whose favours were desired +by troubadours, the majority were married. Troubadours who made their +songs to a maiden, as did Gui d'Ussel or Gausbert de Puegsibot, are +quite exceptional. Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a +conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object. This +conventional character was derived from the fact that troubadour love +was constituted upon the analogy of feudal relationship. If chivalry was +the outcome of the Germanic theory of knighthood as modified by the +influence of Christianity, it may be said that troubadour love is the [15] +outcome of the same theory under the influence of mariolatry. In the +eleventh century the worship of the Virgin Mary became widely popular; +the reverence bestowed upon the Virgin was extended to the female sex in +general, and as a vassal owed obedience to his feudal overlord, so did +he owe service and devotion to his lady. Moreover, under the feudal +system, the lady might often be called upon to represent her husband's +suzerainty to his vassals, when she was left in charge of affairs during +his absence in time of war. Unmarried women were inconspicuous figures +in the society of the age. + +Thus there was a service of love as there was a service of vassalage, +and the lover stood to his lady in a position analogous to that of the +vassal to his overlord. He attained this position only by stages; "there +are four stages in love: the first is that of aspirant (_fegnedor_), the +second that of suppliant (_precador_), the third that of recognised +suitor (_entendedor_) and the fourth that of accepted lover (_drut_)." +The lover was formally installed as such by the lady, took an oath of +fidelity to her and received a kiss to seal it, a ring or some other +personal possession. For practical purposes the contract merely implied +that the lady was prepared to receive the troubadour's homage in poetry +and to be the subject of his song. As secrecy was a duty incumbent upon [16] +the troubadour, he usually referred to the lady by a pseudonym +(_senhal_); naturally, the lady's reputation was increased if her +attraction for a famous troubadour was known, and the _senhal_ was no +doubt an open secret at times. How far or how often the bounds of his +formal and conventional relationship were transgressed is impossible to +say; "en somme, assez immoral" is the judgment of Gaston Paris upon the +society of the age, and is confirmed by expressions of desire occurring +from time to time in various troubadours, which cannot be interpreted as +the outcome of a merely conventional or "platonic" devotion. In the +troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid +by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn +from this source. + +However, transgression was probably exceptional. The idea of troubadour +love was intellectual rather than emotional; love was an art, +restricted, like poetry, by formal rules; the terms "love" and "poetry" +were identified, and the fourteenth century treatise which summarises +the principles of grammar and metre bore the title _Leys d'Amors_, the +Laws of Love. The pathology of the emotion was studied; it was treated +from a psychological standpoint and a technical vocabulary came into +use, for which it is often impossible to find English equivalents. The +first effect of love is to produce a mental exaltation, a desire to live [17] +a life worthy of the beloved lady and redounding to her praise, an +inspiring stimulus known as _joi_ or _joi d'amor_ (_amor_ in Provençal +is usually feminine).[7] Other virtues are produced by the influence of +this affection: the lover must have _valor_, that is, he must be worthy +of his lady; this worth implies the possession of _cortesia_, pleasure +in the pleasure of another and the desire to please; this quality is +acquired by the observance of _mesura_, wisdom and self-restraint in +word and deed. + +The poetry which expresses such a state of mind is usually idealised and +pictures the relationship rather as it might have been than as it was. +The troubadour who knew his business would begin with praises of his +beloved; she is physically and morally perfect, her beauty illuminates +the night, her presence heals the sick, cheers the sad, makes the boor +courteous and so forth. For her the singer's love and devotion is +infinite: separation from her would be worse than death; her death would +leave the world cheerless, and to her he owes any thoughts of good or +beauty that he may have. It is only because he loves her that he can +sing. Hence he would rather suffer any pain or punishment at her hands +than receive the highest favours from another. The effects of this love +are obvious in his person. His voice quavers with supreme delight or [18] +breaks in dark despair; he sighs and weeps and wakes at night to think +of the one subject of contemplation. Waves of heat and cold pass over +him, and even when he prays, her image is before his eyes. This passion +has transformed his nature: he is a better and stronger man than ever +before, ready to forgive his enemies and to undergo any physical +privations; winter is to him as the cheerful spring, ice and snow as +soft lawns and flowery meads. Yet, if unrequited, his passion may +destroy him; he loses his self-control, does not hear when he is +addressed, cannot eat or sleep, grows thin and feeble, and is sinking +slowly to an early tomb. Even so, he does not regret his love, though it +lead to suffering and death; his passion grows ever stronger, for it is +ever supported by hope. But if his hopes are realised, he will owe +everything to the gracious favour of his lady, for his own merits can +avail nothing. Sometimes he is not prepared for such complete +self-renunciation; he reproaches his lady for her coldness, complains +that she has led him on by a show of kindness, has deceived him and will +be the cause of his death; or his patience is at an end, he will live in +spite of her and try his fortune elsewhere.[8] + +Such, in very general terms, is the course that might be followed in +developing a well-worn theme, on which many variations are possible. The [19] +most common form of introduction is a reference to the spring or winter, +and to the influence of the seasons upon the poet's frame of mind or the +desire of the lady or of his patron for a song. In song the poet seeks +consolation for his miseries or hopes to increase the renown of his +lady. As will be seen in the following chapter, manner was even more +important than matter in troubadour lyrics, and commonplaces were +revivified by intricate rime-schemes and stanza construction accompanied +by new melodies. The conventional nature of the whole business may be +partly attested by the fact that no undoubted instance of death or +suicide for love has been handed down to us. + +Reference should here be made to a legendary institution which seems to +have gripped the imagination of almost every tourist who writes a book +of travels in Southern France, the so-called _Courts of Love_.[9] In +modern times the famous Provençal scholar, Raynouard, attempted to +demonstrate the existence of these institutions, relying upon the +evidence of the _Art d'Aimer_ by André le Chapelain, a work written in +the thirteenth century and upon the statements of Nostradamus (_Vies des +plus célèbres et anciens poètes provençaux_, Lyons 1575). The latter +writer, the younger brother of the famous prophet, was obviously well +acquainted with Provençal literature and had access to sources of [20] +information which are now lost to us. But instead of attempting to write +history, he embellished the lives of the troubadours by drawing upon his +own extremely fertile imagination when the actual facts seemed too dull +or prosaic to arouse interest. He professed to have derived his +information from a manuscript left by a learned monk, the _Moine des +Iles d'Or_, of the monastery of St Honorat in the Ile de Lerins. The +late M. Camille Chabaneau has shown that the story is a pure fiction, +and that the monk's pretended name was an anagram upon the name of a +friend of Nostradamus.[10] Hence it is almost impossible to separate the +truth from the fiction in this book and any statements made by +Nostradamus must be received with the utmost caution. André le Chapelain +seems to have had no intention to deceive, but his knowledge of +Provençal society was entirely second-hand, and his statements +concerning the Courts of Love are no more worthy of credence than those +of Nostradamus. According to these two unreliable authorities, courts +for the decision of lovers' perplexities existed in Gascony, Provence, +Avignon and elsewhere; the seat of justice was held by some famous lady, +and the courts decided such questions as whether a lover could love two +ladies at the same time, whether lovers or married couples were the more +affectionate, whether love was compatible with avarice, and the like. [21] + +A special poetical form which was popular among the troubadours may have +given rise to the legend. This was the _tenso_,[11] in which one +troubadour propounded a problem of love in an opening stanza and his +opponent or interlocutor gave his view in a second stanza, which +preserved the metre and rime-scheme of the first. The propounder then +replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was +made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for +settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding +the contest. Raynouard quotes the conclusion of a _tenso_ given by +Nostradamus in which one of the interlocutors says, "I shall overcome +you if the court is loyal: I will send the _tenso_ to Pierrefeu, where +the fair lady holds her court of instruction." The "court" here in +question was a social and not a judicial court. Had any such institution +as a judicial "court of love" ever been an integral part of Provençal +custom, it is scarcely conceivable that we should be informed of its +existence only by a few vague and scattered allusions in the large body +of Provençal literature. For these reasons the theory that such an +institution existed has been generally rejected by all scholars of +repute. + + + +CHAPTER III [22] + + +TECHNIQUE + +Provençal literature contains examples of almost every poetical _genre_. +Epic poetry is represented by Girart of Roussillon,[12] a story of long +struggles between Charles Martel and one of his barons, by the Roman de +Jaufre, the adventures of a knight of the Round Table, by Flamenca, a +love story which provides an admirable picture of the manners and +customs of the time, and by other fragments and _novelas_ or shorter +stories in the same style. Didactic poetry includes historical works +such as the poem of the Albigeois crusade, ethical or moralising +_ensenhamens_ and religious poetry. But the dominating element in +Provençal literature is lyrical, and during the short classical age of +this literature lyric poetry was supreme. Nearly five hundred different +troubadours are known to us at least by name and almost a thousand +different stanza forms have been enumerated. While examples of the fine +careless rapture of inspiration are by no means wanting, artificiality +reigns supreme in the majority of cases. Questions of technique receive +the most sedulous attention, and the principles of stanza construction, +rime correspondence and rime distribution, as evolved by the [23] +troubadours, exerted so wide an influence upon other European literature +that they deserve a chapter to themselves. + +There was no formal school for poetical training during the best period +of Provençal lyric. When, for instance, Giraut de Bornelli is said to +have gone to "school" during the winter seasons, nothing more is meant +than the pursuit of the trivium and quadrivium, the seven arts, which +formed the usual subjects of instruction. A troubadour learned the +principles of his art from other poets who were well acquainted with the +conventions that had been formulated in course of time, conventions +which were collected and systematised in such treatises as the Leys +d'Amors during the period of the decadence. + +The love song or _chanso_ was composed of five, six or seven stanzas +(_coblas_) with, one or two _tornadas_ or _envois_. The stanza varied in +length from two to forty-two lines, though these limits are, of course, +exceptional. An earlier form of the _chanso_ was known as the _vers_; it +seems to have been in closer relation to the popular poetry than the +more artificial _chanso_, and to have had shorter stanzas and lines; but +the distinction is not clear. As all poems were intended to be sung, the +poet was also a composer; the biography of Jaufre Rudel, for instance, +says that this troubadour "made many poems with good tunes but poor [24] +words." The tune known as _son_ (diminutive sonnet) was as much the +property of a troubadour as his poem, for it implied and would only suit +a special form of stanza; hence if another poet borrowed it, +acknowledgment was generally made. Dante, in his _De Vulgari +Eloquentia_, informs us concerning the structure of this musical +setting: it might be continuous without repetition or division; or it +might be in two parts, one repeating the other, in which case the stanza +was also divided into two parts, the division being termed by Dante the +_diesis_ or _volta_; of these two parts one might be subdivided into two +or even more parts, which parts, in the stanza, corresponded both in +rimes and in the arrangement of the lines. If the first part of the +stanza was thus divisible, the parts were called _pedes_, and the +musical theme or _oda_ of the first _pes_ was repeated for the second; +the rest of the stanza was known as the _syrma_ or _coda_, and had a +musical theme of its own. Again the first part of the stanza might be +indivisible, when it was called the _frons_, the divided parts of the +second half being the _versus_; in this case the _frons_ had its own +musical theme, as did the first _versus_, the theme of the first +_versus_ being repeated for the second. Or, lastly, a stanza might [25] +consist of _pedes_ and _versus_, one theme being used for the first +_pes_ and repeated for the second and similarly with the _versus_. +Thus the general principle upon which the stanza was constructed was that of +tripartition in the following three forms:-- + + +I + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } Syrma +2nd " } or Coda +3rd " etc. } + + +II + +1st line } +2nd " } Frons +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } +2nd " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd. " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + + +III + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } +2nd " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd. " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + + +These forms were rather typical than stringently binding as Dante +himself notes (_De Vulg. El._, ii, 11); many variations were [26] +possible. The first seems to have been the most popular type. The poem might also +conclude with a half stanza or _tornada_, (French _envoi_). Here, as in +the last couplet of the Arabic _gazul_, were placed the personal +allusions, and when these were unintelligible to the audience the +_joglar_ usually explained the poem before singing it; the explanations, +which in some cases remain prefixed to the poem, were known as the +_razos_. + +Troubadour poems were composed for singing, not for recitation, and the +music of a poem was an element of no less importance than the words. +Troubadours are described as composing "good" tunes and "poor" words, or +vice versa; the tune was a piece of literary property, and, as we have +said, if a troubadour borrowed a tune he was expected to acknowledge its +origin. Consequently music and words were regarded as forming a unity, +and the structure of the one should be a guide to the structure of the +other. Troubadour music is a subject still beset with difficulties[13]: +we possess 244 tunes written in Gregorian notation, and as in certain +cases the same poem appears in different MSS. with the tune in +substantial agreement in each one, we may reasonably assume that we have +an authentic record, as far as this could be expressed in Gregorian +notation. The chief difference between Troubadour and Gregorian music +lies in the fact that the former was syllabic in character; in other [27] +words, one note was not held over several syllables, though several +notes might be sung upon one syllable. The system of musical time in the +age of the troubadours was based upon the so-called "modes," rhythmical +formulae combining short and long notes in various sequences. Three of +these concern us here. The first mode consists of a long followed by a +short note, the long being equivalent to two short, or in 3/4 time +[Illustration: musical notation.]. The second mode is the reverse of +the first [Illustration: musical notation.]. The third mode in modern +6/8 time appears as [Illustration: musical notation.]. The principle of +sub-division is thus ternary; "common" time or 2/4 time is a later +modification. So much being admitted, the problem of transposing a tune +written in Gregorian notation without bars, time signature, marks of +expression or other modern devices is obviously a difficult matter. J. +Beck, who has written most recently upon the subject, formulates the +following rules; the musical accent falls upon the tonic syllables of +the words; should the accent fall upon an atonic syllable, the duration +of the note to which the tonic syllable is sung may be increased, to +avoid the apparent discordance between the musical accent and the tonic +syllable. The musical accent must fall upon the rime and the rhythm [28] +adopted at the outset will persist throughout the poem. + +Hence a study of the words will give the key to the interpretation of +the tune. If, for instance, the poem shows accented followed by +unaccented syllables or trochees as the prevalent foot, the first "mode" +is indicated as providing the principle to be followed in transposing +the Gregorian to modern notation. When these conditions are reversed the +iambic foot will prevail and the melody will be in the second mode. It +is not possible here to treat this complicated question in full detail +for which reference must be made to the works of J. Beck. But it is +clear that the system above outlined is an improvement upon that +proposed by such earlier students of the subject as Riemann, who assumed +that each syllable was sung to a note or group of notes of equal time +value. There is no evidence that such a rhythm was ever employed in the +middle ages, and the fact that words and music were inseparable in +Provençal lyrics shows that to infer the nature of the musical rhythm +from the rhythm of the words is a perfectly legitimate method of +inquiry. + +A further question arises: how far do the tunes correspond with the +structure of the stanza as given by Dante? In some cases both tune and +stanza correspond in symmetrical form; but in others we find stanzas [29] +which may be divided according to rule conjoined with tunes which +present no melodic repetition of any kind; similarly, tunes which may be +divided into pedes and coda are written upon stanzas which have no +relation to that form. On the whole, it seems that the number of tunes +known to us are too few, in comparison with the large body of lyric +poetry existing, to permit any generalisation upon the question. The +singer accompanied himself upon a stringed instrument (_viula_) or was +accompanied by other performers; various forms of wind instruments were +also in use. Apparently the accompaniment was in unison with the singer; +part writing or contrapuntal music was unknown at the troubadour period. + +As has been said, the stanza (_cobla_) might vary in length. No poetical +literature has made more use of rime than Provençal lyric poetry. There +were three typical methods of rime disposition: firstly, the rimes might +all find their answer within the stanza, which was thus a self-contained +whole; secondly, the rimes might find their answer within the stanza and +be again repeated in the same order in all following stanzas; and +thirdly, the rimes might find no answer within the stanza, but be +repeated in following stanzas. In this case the rimes were known as +_dissolutas_, and the stanza as a _cobla estrampa_. This last +arrangement tended to make the poem a more organic whole than was +possible in the first two cases; in these, stanzas might be omitted +without necessarily impairing the general effect, but, when _coblas +estrampas_ were employed, the ear of the auditor, attentive for the [30] +answering rimes, would not be satisfied before the conclusion of the +second stanza. A further step towards the provision of closer unity +between the separate stanzas was the _chanso redonda_, which was +composed of _coblas estrampas_, the rime order of the second stanza +being an inversion of the rime order of the first; the tendency reaches +its highest point in the _sestina_, which retained the characteristic of +the _chanso redonda_, namely, that the last rime of one stanza should +correspond with the first rime of the following stanza, but with the +additional improvement that every rime started a stanza in turn, +whereas, in the _chanso redonda_ the same rime continually recurred at +the beginning of every other stanza. + +Reference has already been made to the _chanso_. A poetical form of much +importance was the _sirventes_, which outwardly was indistinguishable +from the _chanso_. The meaning of the term is unknown; some say that it +originally implied a poem composed by "servants," poets in the service +of an overlord; others, that it was a poem composed to the tune of a [31] +_chanso_ which it thus imitated in a "servile" manner. From the _chanso_ +the _sirventes_ is distinguished by its subject matter; it was the +vehicle for satire, moral reproof or political lampooning. The +troubadours were often keenly interested in the political events of +their time; they filled, to some extent, the place of the modern +journalist and were naturally the partisans of the overlord in whose +service or pay they happened to be. They were ready to foment a war, to +lampoon a stingy patron, to ridicule one another, to abuse the morality +of the age as circumstances might dictate. The crusade _sirventes_[14] +are important in this connection, and there were often eloquent +exhortations to the leaders of Christianity to come to the rescue of +Palestine and the Holy Sepulchre. Under this heading also falls the +_planh_, a funeral song lamenting the death of a patron, and here again, +beneath the mask of conventionality, real emotion is often apparent, as +in the famous lament upon Richard Coeur de Lion composed by Gaucelm +Faidit. + +Reference has been already made to the _tenso_, one of the most +characteristic of Provençal lyric forms. The name (Lat. _tentionem_) +implies a contention or strife, which was conducted in the form of a +dialogue and possibly owed its origin to the custom in early vogue among +many different peoples of holding poetical tournaments, in which one [32] +poet challenged another by uttering a poetical phrase to which the +opponent replied in similar metrical form. Such, at any rate, is the +form of the _tenso_; a poet propounds a theme in the first stanza and +his interlocutor replies in a stanza of identical metrical form; the +dispute usually continues for some half dozen stanzas. One class of +tenso was obviously fictitious, as the dialogue is carried on with +animals or even lifeless objects, such as a lady's cloak, and it is +possible that some at least of the discussions ostensibly conducted +between two poets may have emanated from the brain of one sole author. +Sometimes three or four interlocutors take part; the subject of +discussion was then known as a _joc partit_, a divided game, or +_partimen_, a title eventually transferred to the poem itself. The most +varied questions were discussed in the _tenso_, but casuistical problems +concerning love are the most frequent: Is the death or the treachery of +a loved one easier to bear? Is a lover's feeling for his lady stronger +before she has accepted him or afterwards? Is a bad noble or a poor but +upright man more worthy to find favour? The discussion of such questions +provided an opportunity of displaying both poetical dexterity and also +dialectical acumen. But rarely did either of the disputants declare +himself convinced or vanquished by his opponents' arguments the question [33] +was left undecided or was referred by agreement to an arbitrator. + +A poetical form which preserves some trace of its popular origin is the +_pastorela_[15] or pastoral which takes its name from the fact that the +heroine of the piece was always a shepherdess. The conventional opening +is a description by a knight of his meeting with a shepherdess, "the +other day" (_l'autrier_, the word with which the poem usually begins). A +dialogue then follows between the knight and the shepherdess, in which +the former sues for her favours successfully or otherwise. The irony or +sarcasm which enables the shepherdess to hold her own in the encounter +is far removed from the simplicity of popular poetry. The _Leys d'Amors_ +mentions other forms of the same genre such as _vaqueira_ (cowherd), +_auqueira_ (goose girl), of which a specimen of the first-named alone +has survived. Of equal interest is the _alba_ or dawn-song, in which the +word _alba_ reappeared as a refrain in each verse; the subject of the +poem is the parting of the lovers at the dawn, the approach of which is +announced by a watchman or by some faithful friend who has undertaken to +guard their meeting-place throughout the night. The counterpart of this +form, the _serena_, does not appear until late in the history of +Provençal lyric poetry; in the _serena_ the lover longs for the [34] +approach of evening, which is to unite him with his beloved. + +Other forms of minor importance were the _comjat_ in which a troubadour +bids a lady a final farewell, and the _escondig_ or justification in +which the lover attempts to excuse his behaviour to a lady whose anger +he had aroused. The troubled state of his feelings might find expression +in the _descort_ (discord), in which each stanza showed a change of +metre and melody. The _descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras is written in +five dialects, one for each stanza, and the last and sixth stanza of the +poem gives two lines to each dialect, which Babel of strange sounds is +intended, he says, to show how entirely his lady's heart has changed +towards him. The _ballata_ and the _estampida_ were dance-songs, but +very few examples survive. Certain love letters also remain to us, but +as these are written in rimed couplets and in narrative style, they can +hardly be classified as lyric poetry. + +In conclusion, a word must be said concerning the dispute between two +schools of stylists, which is one of the most interesting points in the +literary history of the troubadours.[16] From the earliest times we find +two poetical schools in opposition, the _trobar clus_ (also known as +_car, ric, oscur, sotil, cobert_), the obscure, or close, subtle style +of composition, and the _trobar clar (leu, leugier, plan), the clear, +light, easy, straightforward style. Two or three causes may have [35] +combined to favour the development of obscure writing. The theme of love +with which the _chanso_ dealt is a subject by no means inexhaustible; +there was a continual struggle to revivify the well-worn tale by means +of strange turns of expression, by the use of unusual adjectives and +forced metaphor, by the discovery of difficult rimes (_rimes cars_) and +stanza schemes of extraordinary complexity. Marcabrun asserts, possibly +in jest, that he could not always understand his own poems. A further +and possibly an earlier cause of obscurity in expression was the fact +that the _chanso_ was a love song addressed to a married lady; and +though in many cases it was the fact that the poem embodied compliments +purely conventional, however exaggerated to our ideas, yet the further +fact remains that the sentiments expressed might as easily be those of +veritable passion, and, in view of a husband's existence, obscurity had +a utility of its own. This point Guiraut de Bornelh advances as an +objection to the use of the easy style: "I should like to send my song +to my lady, if I should find a messenger; but if I made another my +spokesman, I fear she would blame me. For there is no sense in making +another speak out what one wishes to conceal and keep to oneself." The [36] +habit of alluding to the lady addressed under a _senhal_, or pseudonym, +in the course of the poem, is evidence for a need of privacy, though +this custom was also conventionalised, and we find men as well as women +alluded to under a _senhal_. It was not always the fact that the +_senhal_ was an open secret, although in many cases, where a high-born +dame desired to boast of the accomplished troubadour in her service, his +poems would naturally secure the widest publication which she could +procure. A further reason for complexity of composition is given by the +troubadour Peire d'Auvergne: "He is pleasing and agreeable to me who +proceeds to sing with words shut up and obscure, to which a man is +afraid to do violence." The "violence" apprehended is that of the +_joglar_, who might garble a song in the performance of it, if he had +not the memory or industry to learn it perfectly, and Peire d'Alvernhe +(1158-80) commends compositions so constructed that the disposition of +the rimes will prevent the interpolation of topical allusions or +careless altercation. The similar safeguard of Dante's _terza rima_ will +occur to every student. + +The social conditions again under which troubadour poetry was produced, +apart from the limitations of its subject matter, tended to foster an +obscure and highly artificial diction. This obscurity was attained, as +we have said, by elevation and preciosity of style, and was not the +result of confusion of thought. Guiraut de Bornelh tells us his method [37] +in a passage worth quoting in the original-- + + Mas per melhs assire + mon chan, + vau cercan + bos motz en fre + que son tuit cargat e ple + d'us estranhs sens naturals; + mas no sabon tuich de cals. + +"But for the better foundation of my song I keep on the watch for words +good on the rein (_i.e._ tractable like horses), which are all loaded +(like pack horses) and full of a meaning which is unusual, and yet is +wholly theirs (naturals); but it is not everyone that knows what that +meaning is".[17] + +Difficulty was thus intentional; in the case of several troubadours it +affected the whole of their writing, no matter what the subject matter. +They desired not to be understood of the people. Dean Gaisford's reputed +address to his divinity lecture illustrates the attitude of those +troubadours who affected the _trobar clus_: "Gentlemen, a knowledge of +Greek will enable you to read the oracles of God in the original and to +look down from the heights of scholarship upon the vulgar herd." The +inevitable reaction occurred, and a movement in the opposite direction +was begun; of this movement the most distinguished supporter was the +troubadour, Guiraut de Bornelh. He had been one of the most successful [38] +exponents of the _trobar clus_, and afterwards supported the cause of +the _trobar clar_. Current arguments for either cause are set forth in +the _tenso_ between Guiraut de Bornelh and Linhaure (pseudonym for the +troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga). + +(1) I should like to know, G. de Bornelh, why, and for what reason, you +keep blaming the obscure style. Tell me if you prize so highly that +which is common to all? For then would all be equal. + +(2) Sir Linhaure, I do not take it to heart if each man composes as he +pleases; but judge that song is more loved and prized which is made easy +and simple, and do not be vexed at my opinion. + +(3) Guiraut, I do not like my songs to be so confused, that the base and +good, the small and great be appraised alike; my poetry will never be +praised by fools, for they have no understanding nor care for what is +more precious and valuable. + +(4) Linhaure, if I work late and turn my rest into weariness for that +reason (to make my songs simple), does it seem that I am afraid of work? +Why compose if you do not want all to understand? Song brings no other +advantage. + +(5) Guiraut, provided that I produce what is best at all times, I care +not if it be not so widespread; commonplaces are no good for the +appreciative--that is why gold is more valued than salt, and with song [39] +it is even the same. + +It is obvious that the disputants are at cross purposes; the object of +writing poetry, according to the one, is to please a small circle of +highly trained admirers by the display of technical skill. Guiraut de +Bornelh, on the other hand, believes that the poet should have a message +for the people, and that even the fools should be able to understand its +purport. He adds the further statement that composition in the easy +style demands no less skill and power than is required for the +production of obscurity. This latter is a point upon which he repeatedly +insists: "The troubadour who makes his meaning clear is just as clever +as he who cunningly conjoins words." "My opinion is that it is not in +obscure but in clear composition that toil is involved." Later +troubadours of renown supported his arguments; Raimon de Miraval +(1168-1180) declares: "Never should obscure poetry be praised, for it is +composed only for a price, compared with sweet festal songs, easy to +learn, such as I sing." So, too, pronounces the Italian Lanfranc Cigala +(1241-1257): "I could easily compose an obscure, subtle poem if I +wished; but no poem should be so concealed beneath subtlety as not to be +clear as day. For knowledge is of small value if clearness does not +bring light; obscurity has ever been regarded as death, and brightness [40] +as life." The fact is thus sufficiently demonstrated that these two +styles existed in opposition, and that any one troubadour might practise +both. + +Enough has now been said to show that troubadour lyric poetry, regarded +as literature, would soon produce a surfeit, if read in bulk. It is +essentially a literature of artificiality and polish. Its importance +consists in the fact that it was the first literature to emphasise the +value of form in poetry, to formulate rules, and, in short, to show that +art must be based upon scientific knowledge. The work of the troubadours +in these respects left an indelible impression upon the general course +of European literature. + + + +CHAPTER IV [41] + + +THE EARLY TROUBADOURS + +The earliest troubadour known to us is William IX, Count of Poitiers +(1071-1127) who led an army of thirty thousand men to the unfortunate +crusade of 1101. He lived an adventurous and often an unedifying life, +and seems to have been a jovial sensualist caring little what kind of +reputation he might obtain in the eyes of the world about him. William +of Malmesbury gives an account of him which is the reverse of +respectable. His poems, of which twelve survive, are, to some extent, a +reflection of this character, and present a mixture of coarseness and +delicate sentiment which are in strangely discordant contrast. His +versification is of an early type; the principle of tripartition, which +became predominant in troubadour poetry at a later date, is hardly +perceptible in his poems. The chief point of interest in them is the +fact that their comparative perfection of form implies a long anterior +course of development for troubadour poetry, while we also find him +employing, though in undeveloped form, the chief ideas which afterwards +became commonplaces among the troubadours. The half mystical exaltation +inspired by love is already known to William IX. as _joi_, and he is [42] +acquainted with the service of love under feudal conditions. The +conventional attitudes of the lady and the lover are also taken for +granted, the lady disdainful and unbending, the lover timid and relying +upon his patience. The lady is praised for her outward qualities, her +"kindly welcome, her gracious and pleasing look" and love for her is +considered to be the inspiration of nobility in the lover. But these +ideas are not carried to the extravagant lengths to which later poets +pushed them; William's sensual leanings are enough to counterbalance any +tendency to such exaggeration. The conventional opening of a love poem +by a description of spring is also in evidence; in short, the +commonplaces, the technical language and formulae of later Provençal +lyrics were in existence during the age of this first troubadour. + +Next in point of time is the troubadour Cercamon, of whom we know very +little; his poems, as we have them, seem to fall between the years 1137 +and 1152; one of them is a lament upon the death of William X. of +Aquitaine, the son of the notorious Count of Poitiers, and another +alludes to the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of William +X. According to the Provençal biography he was the instructor of a more +interesting and original troubadour Marcabrun, whose active life [43] +extended from 1150 to 1195. Many of his poems are extremely obscure; he +was one of the first to affect the _trobar clus_. He was also the author +of violent invectives against the passion of love-- + + Que anc non amet neguna + Ni d'autra no fon amatz-- + +"Who never loved any woman nor was loved of any." This aversion to the +main theme of troubadour poetry is Marcabrun's most striking +characteristic. + + Amors es mout de mal avi; + Mil homes a mortz ses glavi; + Dieus non fetz tant fort gramavi. + +"Love is of a detestable lineage; he has killed thousands of men without +a sword. God has created no more terrible enchanter." These invectives +may have been the outcome of personal disappointment; the theory has +also been advanced that the troubadour idea of love had not yet secured +universal recognition, and that Marcabrun is one who strove to prevent +it from becoming the dominant theme of lyric poetry. His best known poem +was the "Starling," which consists of two parts, an unusual form of +composition. In the first part the troubadour sends the starling to his +love to reproach her for unfaithfulness, and to recommend himself to her +favour; the bird returns, and in the second part offers excuses from the [44] +lady and brings an invitation from her to a meeting the next day. +Marcabrun knows the technical terms _cortesia_ and _mesura_, which he +defines: _mesura_, self-control or moderation, "consists in nicety of +speech, courtesy in loving. He may boast of courtesy who can maintain +moderation." The poem concludes with a dedication to Jaufre Rudel-- + + Lo vers e·l son vueill envier + A'n Jaufre Rudel outra mar. + +"The words and the tune I wish to send to Jaufre Rudel beyond the sea." + +This was the troubadour whom Petrarch has made famous-- + + Jaufre Rudel che usò la vela e'l remo + A cercar la sua morte. + +His romantic story is as follows in the words of the Provençal +biography: "Jaufre Rudel of Blaya was a very noble man, the Prince of +Blaya; he fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, though he had never +seen her, for the good report that he had of her from the pilgrims who +came from Antioch, and he made many poems concerning her with good tunes +but poor words.[18] And from desire to see her, he took the cross and +went to sea. And in the ship great illness came upon him so that those +who were with him thought that he was dead in the ship; but they [45] +succeeded in bringing him to Tripoli, to an inn, as one dead. And it was +told to the countess, and she came to him, to his bed, and took him in +her arms; and he knew that she was the countess, and recovering his +senses, he praised God and gave thanks that his life had been sustained +until he had seen her; and then he died in the lady's arms. And she gave +him honourable burial in the house of the Temple, and then, on that day, +she took the veil for the grief that she had for him and for his death." +Jaufre's poems contain many references to a "distant love" which he will +never see, "for his destiny is to love without being loved." Those +critics who accept the truth of the story regard Melisanda, daughter of +Raimon I., Count of Tripoli, as the heroine; but the biography must be +used with great caution as a historical source, and the mention of the +house of the order of Templars in which Jaufre is said to have been +buried raises a difficulty; it was erected in 1118, and in the year 1200 +the County of Tripoli was merged in that of Antioch; of the Rudels of +Blaya, historically known to us, there is none who falls reasonably +within these dates. The probability is that the constant references in +Jaufre's poems to an unknown distant love, and the fact of his crusading +expedition to the Holy Land, formed in conjunction the nucleus of the [46] +legend which grew round his name, and which is known to all readers of +Carducci, Uhland and Heine. + +Contemporary with Jaufre Rudel was Bernard de Ventadour, one of the +greatest names in Provençal poetry. According to the biography, which +betrays its untrustworthiness by contradicting the facts of history, +Bernard was the son of the furnace stoker at the castle of Ventadour, +under the Viscount Ebles II., himself a troubadour and a patron of +troubadours. It was from the viscount that Bernard received instruction +in the troubadours' art, and to his patron's interest in his talents he +doubtless owed the opportunities which he enjoyed of learning to read +and write, and of making acquaintance with such Latin authors as were +currently read, or with the anthologies and books of "sentences" then +used for instruction in Latin. He soon outstripped his patron, to whose +wife, Agnes de Montluçon, his early poems were addressed. His relations +with the lady and with his patron were disturbed by the _lauzengiers_, +the slanderers, the envious, and the backbiters of whom troubadours +constantly complain, and he was obliged to leave Ventadour. He went to +the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the granddaughter of the first +troubadour, Guillaume IX. of Poitiers, who by tradition and temperament +was a patroness of troubadours, many of whom sang her praises. She had [47] +been divorced from Louis VII. of France in 1152, and married Henry, Duke +of Normandy, afterwards King of England in the same year. There Bernard +may have remained until 1154, in which year Eleanor went to England as +Queen. Whether Bernard followed her to England is uncertain; the +personal allusions in his poems are generally scanty, and the details of +his life are correspondingly obscure. But one poem seems to indicate +that he may have crossed the Channel. He says that he has kept silence +for two years, but that the autumn season impels him to sing; in spite +of his love, his lady will not deign to reply to him: but his devotion +is unchanged and she may sell him or give him away if she pleases. She +does him wrong in failing to call him to her chamber that he may remove +her shoes humbly upon his knees, when she deigns to stretch forth her +foot. He then continues[19] + + Faitz es lo vers totz a randa, + Si que motz no y descapduelha. + outra la terra normanda + part la fera mar prionda; + e si·m suy de midons lunhans. + ves si·m tira cum diamans, + la belha cui dieus defenda. + Si·l reys engles el dux normans + o vol, ieu la veirai, abans + que l'iverns nos sobreprenda. + [48] +"The _vers_ has been composed fully so that not a word is wanting, +beyond the Norman land and the deep wild sea; and though I am far from +my lady, she attracts me like a magnet, the fair one whom may God +protect. If the English king and Norman duke will, I shall see her +before the winter surprise us." + +How long Bernard remained in Normandy, we cannot conjecture. He is said +to have gone to the court of Raimon V., Count of Toulouse, a well-known +patron of the troubadours. On Raimon's death in 1194, Bernard, who must +himself have been growing old, retired to the abbey of Dalon in his +native province of Limousin, where he died. He is perhaps more deeply +inspired by the true spirit of lyric poetry than any other troubadour; +he insists that love is the only source of song; poetry to be real, must +be lived. + + Non es meravelha s'ieu chan + mielhs de nulh autre chantador; + que plus mi tra·l cors ves amor + e mielhs sui faitz a son coman. + +"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer; for my heart +draws me more than others towards love, and I am better made for his +commandments." Hence Bernard gave fuller expression than any other +troubadour to the ennobling power of love, as the only source of real +worth and nobility. + +The subject speedily became exhausted, and ingenuity did but increase [49] +the conventionality of its treatment. But in Bernard's hands it retains +its early freshness and sincerity. The description of the seasons of the +year as impelling the troubadour to song was, or became, an entirely +conventional and expected opening to a _chanso_; but in Bernard's case +these descriptions were marked by the observation and feeling of one who +had a real love for the country and for nature, and the contrast or +comparison between the season of the year and his own feelings is of +real lyrical value. The opening with the description of the lark is +famous-- + + Quant vey la lauzeta mover + De joi sas alas contral rai, + que s'oblida e·s laissa cazer + per la doussor qu'al cor li vai, + ai! tan grans enveia m'en ve + de cui qu'eu veya jauzion! + meravilhas ai, quar desse + lo cor de dezirier no·m fon. + +"When I see the lark flutter with joy towards the sun, and forget +himself and sing for the sweetness that comes to his heart; alas, such +envy comes upon me of all that I see rejoicing, I wonder that my heart +does not melt forthwith with desire".[20] + +At the same time Bernard's style is simple and clear, though he shows +full mastery of the complex stanza form; to call him the Wordsworth of +the troubadour world is to exaggerate a single point of coincidence; but +he remains the greatest of troubadour poets, as modern taste regards [50] +poetry. + +Arnaut de Mareuil (1170-1200 _circa_) displays many of the +characteristics which distinguished the poetry of Bernard of Ventadour; +there is the same simplicity of style and often no less reality of +feeling: conventionalism had not yet become typical. Arnaut was born in +Périgord of poor parents, and was brought up to the profession of a +scribe or notary. This profession he soon abandoned, and his "good +star," to quote the Provençal biography, led him to the court of +Adelaide, daughter of Raimon V. of Toulouse, who had married in 1171 +Roger II., Viscount of Béziers. There he soon rose into high repute: at +first he is said to have denied his authorship of the songs which he +composed in honour of his mistress, but eventually he betrayed himself +and was recognised as a troubadour of high merit, and definitely +installed as the singer of Adelaide. The story is improbable, as the +troubadour's rewards naturally depended upon the favour of his patrons +to him personally; it is probably an instance of the manner in which the +biographies founded fictions upon a very meagre substratum of fact, the +fact in this instance being a passage in which Arnaut declares his +timidity in singing the praise of so great a beauty as Adelaide. + + Mas grans paors m'o tol e grans temensa, [51] + Qu'ieu non aus dir, dona, qu'ieu chant de vos. + +"But great fear and great apprehension comes upon me, so that I dare not +tell you, lady, that it is I who sing of you." + +Arnaut seems to have introduced a new poetical _genre_ into Provençal +literature, the love-letter. He says that the difficulty of finding a +trustworthy messenger induced him to send a letter sealed with his own +ring; the letter is interesting for the description of feminine beauty +which it contains: "my heart, that is your constant companion, comes to +me as your messenger and portrays for me your noble, graceful form, your +fair light-brown hair, your brow whiter than the lily, your gay laughing +eyes, your straight well-formed nose, your fresh complexion, whiter and +redder than any flower, your little mouth, your fair teeth, whiter than +pure silver,... your fair white hands with the smooth and slender +fingers"; in short, a picture which shows that troubadour ideas of +beauty were much the same as those of any other age. Arnaut was +eventually obliged to leave Béziers, owing, it is said, to the rivalry +of Alfonso II. of Aragon, who may have come forward as a suitor for +Adelaide after Roger's death in 1194. The troubadour betook himself to +the court of William VIII., Count of Montpelier, where he probably spent +the rest of his life. The various allusions in his poems cannot always [52] +be identified, and his career is only known to us in vague outline. +Apart from the love-letter, he was, if not the initiator, one of the +earliest writers of the type of didactic poem known as _ensenhamen_, an +"instruction" containing observations upon the manners and customs of +his age, with precepts for the observance of morality and right conduct +such as should be practised by the ideal character. Arnaut, after a +lengthy and would-be learned introduction, explains that each of the +three estates, the knights, the clergy and the citizens, have their +special and appropriate virtues. The emphasis with which he describes +the good qualities of the citizen class, a compliment unusual in the +aristocratic poetry of the troubadours, may be taken as confirmation of +the statement concerning his own parentage which we find in his +biography. + + [53] + +CHAPTER V + + +THE CLASSICAL PERIOD + +We now reach a group of three troubadours whom Dante[21] selected as +typical of certain characteristics: "Bertran de Born sung of arms, +Arnaut Daniel of love, and Guiraut de Bornelh of uprightness, honour and +virtue." The last named, who was a contemporary (1175-1220 _circa_) and +compatriot of Arnaut de Marueil, is said in his biography to have +enjoyed so great a reputation that he was known as the "Master of the +Troubadours." This title is not awarded to him by any other troubadour; +the jealousy constantly prevailing between the troubadours is enough to +account for their silence on this point. But his reputation is fairly +attested by the number of his poems which have survived and by the +numerous MSS. in which they are preserved; when troubadours were studied +as classics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Guiraut's poems +were so far in harmony with the moralising tendency of that age that his +posthumous reputation was certainly as great as any that he enjoyed in +his life-time. + +Practically nothing is known of his life; allusions in his poems lead us [54] +to suppose that he spent some time in Spain at the courts of Navarre, +Castile and Aragon. The real interests of his work are literary and +ethical. To his share in the controversy concerning the _trobar clus_, +the obscure and difficult style of composition, we have already alluded. +Though in the _tenso_ with Linhaure, Guiraut expresses his preference +for the simple and intelligible style, it must be said that the majority +of his poems are far from attaining this ideal. Their obscurity, +however, is often due rather to the difficulty of the subject matter +than to any intentional attempt at preciosity of style. He was one of +the first troubadours who attempted to analyse the effects of love from +a psychological standpoint; his analysis often proceeds in the form of a +dialogue with himself, an attempt to show the hearer by what methods he +arrived at his conclusions. "How is it, in the name of God, that when I +wish to sing, I weep? Can the reason be that love has conquered me? And +does love bring me no delight? Yes, delight is mine. Then why am I sad +and melancholy? I cannot tell. I have lost my lady's favour and the +delight of love has no more sweetness for me. Had ever a lover such +misfortune? But am I a lover? No! Have I ceased to love passionately? +No! Am I then a lover? Yes, if my lady would suffer my love." Guiraut's [55] +moral _sirventes_ are reprobations of the decadence of his age. He saw a +gradual decline of the true spirit of chivalry. The great lords were +fonder of war and pillage than of poetry and courtly state. He had +himself suffered from the change, if his biographer is to be believed; +the Viscount of Limoges had plundered and burnt his house. He compares +the evils of his own day with the splendours of the past, and asks +whether the accident of birth is the real source of nobility; a man must +be judged by himself and his acts and not by the rank of his +forefathers; these were the sentiments that gained him a mention in the +Fourth Book of Dante's _Convivio_.[22] + +The question why Dante should have preferred Arnaut Daniel to Guiraut de +Bornelh[23] has given rise to much discussion. The solution turns upon +Dante's conception of style, which is too large a problem for +consideration here. Dante preferred the difficult and artificial style +of Arnaut to the simple style of the opposition school; from Arnaut he +borrowed the sestina form; and at the end of the canto he puts the +well-known lines, "Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan," into the +troubadour's mouth. We know little of Arnaut's life; he was a noble of +Riberac in Périgord. The biography relates an incident in his life which +is said to have taken place at the court of Richard Coeur de Lion. + +A certain troubadour had boasted before the king that he could compose a [56] +better poem than Arnaut. The latter accepted the challenge and the king +confined the poets to their rooms for a certain time at the end of which +they were to recite their composition before him. Arnaut's inspiration +totally failed him, but from his room he could hear his rival singing as +he rehearsed his own composition. Arnaut was able to learn his rival's +poem by heart, and when the time of trial came he asked to be allowed to +sing first, and performed his opponent's song, to the wrath of the +latter, who protested vigorously. Arnaut acknowledged the trick, to the +great amusement of the king. + +Preciosity and artificiality reach their height in Arnaut's poems, which +are, for that reason, excessively difficult. Enigmatic constructions, +word-plays, words used in forced senses, continual alliteration and +difficult rimes produced elaborate form and great obscurity of meaning. +The following stanza may serve as an example-- + + L'aur' amara fa·ls bruels brancutz + clarzir que·l dons espeys' ab fuelhs, + e·ls letz becxs dels auzels ramencx + te balbs e mutz pars e non pars. + per qu'ieu m'esfortz de far e dir plazers + A manhs? per ley qui m'a virat has d'aut, + don tern morir si·ls afans no·m asoma. + +"The bitter breeze makes light the bosky boughs which the gentle breeze [57] +makes thick with leaves, and the joyous beaks of the birds in the +branches it keeps silent and dumb, paired and not paired. Wherefore do I +strive to say and do what is pleasing to many? For her, who has cast me +down from on high, for which I fear to die, if she does not end the +sorrow for me." + +The answers to the seventeen rime-words which occur in this stanza do +not appear till the following stanza, the same rimes being kept +throughout the six stanzas of the poem. To rest the listener's ear, +while he waited for the answering rimes, Arnaut used light assonances +which almost amount to rime in some cases. The Monk of Montaudon in his +satirical _sirventes_ says of Arnaut: "He has sung nothing all his life, +except a few foolish verses which no one understands"; and we may +reasonably suppose that Arnaut's poetry was as obscure to many of his +contemporaries as it is to us. + +Dante placed Bertran de Born in hell, as a sower of strife between +father and son, and there is no need to describe his picture of the +troubadour-- + + "Who held the severed member lanternwise + And said, Ah me!" (_Inf._ xxviii. 119-142.) + +The genius of Dante, and the poetical fame of Bertran himself, have +given him a more important position in history than is, perhaps, [58] +entirely his due. Jaufré, the prior of Vigeois, an abbey of +Saint-Martial of Limoges, is the only chronicler during the reigns of +Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. The +_razos_ prefixed to some of his poems by way of explanation are the work +of an anonymous troubadour (possibly Uc de Saint-CÃre); they constantly +misinterpret the poems they attempt to explain, confuse names and +events, and rather exaggerate the part played by Bertran himself. +Besides these sources we have the cartulary of Dalon, or rather the +extracts made from it by Guignières in 1680 (the original has been +lost), which give us information about Bertran's family and possessions. +From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have +come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed. + +Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and +Périgord. The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary +Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his +brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which +seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family +were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but +scanty. In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known, +except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first [59] +wife, and again married a certain Philippe. His warlike and turbulent +character was the natural outcome of the conditions under which he +lived; the feudal system divided the country into a number of fiefs, the +boundaries of which were ill defined, while the lords were constantly at +war with one another. All owed allegiance to the Duke of Aquitaine, the +Count of Poitou, but his suzerainty was, in the majority of cases, +rather a name than a reality. These divisions were further accentuated +by political events; in 1152 Henry II., Count of Anjou and Maine, +married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and mistress +of Aquitaine. Henry became king of England two years later, and his rule +over the barons of Aquitaine, which had never been strict, became the +more relaxed owing to his continual absence in England. + +South of Aquitaine proper the dominions of the Count of Toulouse +stretched from the Garonne to the Alps; this potentate was also called +the Duke of Narbonne, and was not disposed to recognise the suzerainty +of the Duke of Aquitaine. But in 1167 Alfonso II., King of Aragon and +Count of Barcelona, had inherited Provence, to which the Duke of +Toulouse laid claim. Henry and Alfonso thus became natural allies, and +the power of Alfonso in Aragon and Catalonia, was able to keep in check +any serious attempt that the Count of Toulouse might have meditated on [60] +Aquitaine. On the other hand, Henry had also to deal with a formidable +adversary in the person of the French king, his lawful suzerain in +France. Louis VII. (or Philippe Auguste) was able to turn the constant +revolts that broke out in Aquitaine to his own ends. These circumstances +are sufficient to account for the warlike nature of Bertran de Born's +poetry. The first _sirventes_ which can be dated with certainty belongs +to 1181, and is a call to the allies of Raimon V, Count of Toulouse, to +aid their master against the King of Aragon. What Bertran's personal +share in the campaign was, we do not know. He was soon involved in a +quarrel with his brother Constantin, with whom he held the castle of +Hautefort in common. Constantin was driven out and succeeded in +persuading the Count of Limoges and Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, to help +him. Richard, however, was occupied elsewhere, and Bertran survived all +attacks upon the castle. In 1182 he went to the court of Henry II., +during a temporary lull in the wars around him; there he proceeded to +pay court to the Princess Matilda, daughter of Henry II., whose husband, +Henry of Saxony, was then on a pilgrimage. He also took part in the +political affairs of the time. Henry II.'s eldest son, Henry "the young +king," had been crowned in 1170 at Westminster, and was anxious to have [61] +something more than the title, seeing that his brother Richard was Duke +of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, and practically an independent sovereign. +Bertran had not forgotten Richard's action against him on behalf of his +brother Constantin, and was, moreover, powerfully attracted by the open +and generous nature of the young king. He therefore took his side, and +on his return to Limousin became the central point of the league which +was formed against Richard. Henry II. succeeded in reconciling his two +sons, the young Henry receiving pecuniary compensation in lieu of +political power. But the young Henry seems to have been really moved by +Bertran's reproaches, and at length revolted against his father and +attacked his brother Richard. While he was in Turenne, the young king +fell sick and died on June 11, 1183. Bertran lamented his loss in two +famous poems, and soon felt the material effects of it. On June 29, +Richard and the King of Aragon arrived before Hautefort, which +surrendered after a week's resistance. Richard restored the castle to +Constantin, but Bertran regained possession, as is related in the second +biography. + +Henceforward, Bertran remained faithful to Richard, and directed his +animosity chiefly against the King of Aragon. At the same time it +appears that he would have been equally pleased with any war, which [62] +would have brought profit to himself, and attempted to excite Richard +against his father, Henry II. This project came to nothing, but war +broke out between Richard and the French king; a truce of two years was +concluded, and again broken by Richard. The Church, however, interfered +with its efforts to organise the Third Crusade, which called from +Bertran two _sirventes_ in honour of Conrad, son of the Marquis of +Montferrat, who was defending Tyre against Saladin. Bertran remained at +home in Limousin during this Crusade; his means were obviously +insufficient to enable him to share in so distant a campaign; other, and +for him, equally cogent reasons for remaining at home may be gathered +from his poems. There followed the quarrels between Richard and the +French king, the return to France of the latter, and finally Richard's +capture on the Illyrian coast and his imprisonment by Henry VI. of +Austria, which terminated in 1194. Richard then came into Aquitaine, his +return being celebrated by two poems from Bertran. + +The Provençal biography informs us that Bertran finally became a monk in +the Order of Citeaux. The convent where he spent his last years was the +abbey of Dalon, near Hautefort. The cartulary mentions his name at +various intervals from 1197 to 1202. In 1215 we have the entry "_octavo,[63] +candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bernardo de Born: cera tres solidos +empta est_." This is the only notice of the poet's death. + +Dante perhaps exaggerated the part he played in stirring up strife +between Henry II. and his sons; modern writers go to the other extreme. +Bertran is especially famous for his political _sirventes_ and for the +martial note which rings through much of his poetry. He loved war both +for itself and for the profits which it brought: "The powerful are more +generous and open-handed when they have war than when they have peace." +The troubadour's two _planhs_ upon the "young king's" death are inspired +by real feeling, and the story of his reconciliation with Henry after +the capture of his castle can hardly have been known to Dante, who would +surely have modified his judgment upon the troubadour if he had +remembered that scene as related by the biography. Sir Bertran was +summoned with all his people to King Henry's tent, who received him very +harshly and said, "Bertran, you declared that you never needed more than +half your senses; it seems that to-day you will want the whole of them." +"Sire", said Bertran, "it is true that I said so and I said nothing but +the truth." The king replied, "Then you seem to me to have lost your +senses entirely". "I have indeed lost them", said Bertran. "And how?" [64] +asked the king. "Sire, on the day that the noble king, your son, died, I +lost sense, knowledge and understanding." When the king heard Bertran +speak of his son with tears, he was deeply moved and overcome with +grief. On recovering himself he cried, weeping, "Ah, Bertran, rightly +did you lose your senses for my son, for there was no one in the world +whom he loved as you. And for love of him, not only do I give you your +life, but also your castle and your goods, and I add with my love five +hundred silver marks to repair the loss which you have suffered." + +The narrative is unhistorical; Henry II. was not present in person at +the siege of Hautefort; but the fact is certain that he regarded Bertran +as the chief sower of discord in his family. + +Mention must now be made of certain troubadours who were less important +than the three last mentioned, but are of interest for various reasons. + +Raimbaut d'Aurenga, Count of Orange from 1150-1173, is interesting +rather by reason of his relations with other troubadours than for his +own achievements in the troubadours' art. He was a follower of the +precious, artificial and obscure style, and prided himself upon his +skill in the combination of difficult rimes and the repetition of +equivocal rimes (the same word used in different senses or grammatical +forms). "Since Adam ate the apple," he says, "there is no poet, loud as [65] +he may proclaim himself, whose art is worth a turnip compared with +mine." Apart from these mountebank tricks and certain mild "conceits" +(his lady's smile, for instance, makes him happier than the smile of +four hundred angels could do), the chief characteristic of his poetry is +his constant complaints of slanderers who attempt to undermine his +credit with his lady. But he seems to have aroused a passion in the +heart of a poetess, who expressed her feelings in words which contrast +strongly with Raimbaut's vapid sentimentalities. + +This was Beatrice, Countess of Die and the wife of Count William of +Poitiers. The names, at least, of seventeen poetesses are known to us +and of these the Countess of Die is the most famous. Like the rest of +her sex who essayed the troubadour's art, the Countess knows nothing of +difficult rhymes or obscurity of style. Simplicity and sincerity are the +keynotes of her poetry. The troubadour sang because he was a +professional poet, but the lady who composed poetry did so from love of +the art or from the inspiration of feeling and therefore felt no need of +meretricious adornment for her song. The five poems of the Countess +which remain to us show that her sentiment for Raimbaut was real and +deep. "I am glad to know that the man I love is the worthiest in the +world; may God give great joy to the one who first brought me to him: [66] +may he trust only in me, whatever slanders be reported to him: for often +a man plucks the rod with which he beats himself. The woman who values +her good name should set her love upon a noble and valiant knight: when +she knows his worth, let her not hide her love. When a woman loves thus +openly, the noble and worthy speak of her love only with sympathy." +Raimbaut, however, did not reciprocate these feelings: in a _tenso_ with +the countess he shows his real sentiments while excusing his conduct. He +assures her that he has avoided her only because he did not wish to +provide slanderers with matter for gossip; to which the Countess replies +that his care for her reputation is excessive. Peire Rogier whose +poetical career lies between the years 1160 and 1180, also spent some +time at Raimbaut's court. He belonged to Auvergne by birth and was +attached to the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne for some years: here +there is no doubt that we have a case of a troubadour in an official +position and nothing more: possibly Peire Rogier's tendency to +preaching--he had been educated for the church--was enough to stifle any +sentiment on the lady's side. On leaving Narbonne, he visited Raimbaut +at Orange and afterwards travelled to Spain and Toulouse, finally +entering a monastery where he ended his life. + +Auvergne produced a far more important troubadour in the person of Peire [67] +d'Auvergne, whose work extended from about 1158 to 1180; he was thus +more or less contemporary with Guiraut de Bornelh and Bernart de +Ventadour. He was, according to the biography, the son of a citizen of +Clermont-Ferrand, and "the first troubadour, who lived beyond the +mountains (i.e. the Pyrenees, which, however, Marcabrun had previously +crossed)... he was regarded as the best troubadour until Guiraut de +Bornelh appeared.... He was very proud of his talents and despised other +troubadours." Other notices state that he was educated for an +ecclesiastical career and was at one time a canon. He had no small idea +of his own powers: "Peire d'Auvergne," he says in his satire upon other +troubadours "has such a voice that he can sing in all tones and his +melodies are sweet and pleasant: he is master of his art, if he would +but put a little clarity into his poems, which are difficult to +understand." The last observation is entirely correct: his poems are +often very obscure. Peire travelled, in the pursuit of his profession, +to the court of Sancho III. of Castile and made some stay in Spain: he +is also found at the courts of Raimon V. of Toulouse and, like Peire +Rogier, at Narbonne. Among his poems, two are especially well known. In +a love poem he makes the nightingale his messenger, as Marcabrun had [68] +used the starling and as others used the swallow or parrot. But in +comparison with Marcabrun, Peire d'Auvergne worked out the idea with a +far more delicate poetical touch. The other poem is a _sirventes_ which +is of interest as being the first attempt at literary satire among the +troubadours; the satire is often rather of a personal than of a literary +character; the following quotations referring to troubadours already +named will show Peire's ideas of literary criticism. "Peire Rogier sings +of love without restraint and it would befit him better to carry the +psalter in the church or to bear the lights with the great burning +candles. Guiraut de Bornelh is like a sun-bleached cloth with his thin +miserable song which might suit an old Norman water-carrier. Bernart de +Ventadour is even smaller than Guiraut de Bornelh by a thumb's length; +but he had a servant for his father who shot well with the long bow +while his mother tended the furnace." The satiric _sirventes_ soon found +imitators: the Monk of Montaudon produced a similar composition. Like +many other troubadours, Peire ended his life in a monastery. To this +period of his career probably, belong his religious poems of which we +shall have occasion to speak later. + +We have already observed that the Church contributed members, though +with some reluctance, to the ranks of the troubadours. One of the most [69] +striking figures of the kind is the Monk of Montaudon (1180-1200): the +satirical power of his _sirventes_ attracted attention, and he gained +much wealth at the various courts which he visited; this he used for the +benefit of his priory. He enjoyed the favour of Philippe Auguste II. of +France, of Richard Coeur de Lion and of Alfonso II. of Aragon, with that +of many smaller nobles. The biography says of him, "E fo faitz seigner +de la cort del Puoi Santa Maria e de dar l'esparvier. Lone temps ac la +seignoria de la cort del Puoi, tro que la cortz se perdet." "He was made +president of the court of Puy Sainte Marie and of awarding the +sparrow-hawk. For a long time he held the presidency of the court of +Puy, until the court was dissolved." The troubadour Richard de +Barbezieux refers to this court, which seems to have been a periodical +meeting attended by the nobles and troubadours of Southern Prance. +Tournaments and poetical contests were held; the sparrow-hawk or falcon +placed on a pole is often mentioned as the prize awarded to the +tournament victor. Tennyson's version of the incident in his "Geraint +and Enid" will occur to every reader. The monk's reputation must have +been considerable to gain him this position. His love poems are of +little importance; his satire deals with the petty failings of mankind, +for which he had a keen eye and an unsparing and sometimes cynical [70] +tongue. + + Be·m enoia, s'o auzes dire, + Parliers quant es avols servire; + Et hom qui trop vol aut assire + M'enoia, e cavals que tire. + Et enoia·m, si Dieus m'aiut + Joves hom quan trop port' escut, + Que negun colp no i a agut, + Capela et mongue barbut, + E lauzengier bee esmolut. + +"These vex me greatly, if I may say so, language when it is base +servility, and a man who wishes too high a place (at table) and a +charger which is put to drawing carts. And, by my hope of salvation, I +am vexed by a young man who bears too openly a shield which has never +received a blow, by a chaplain and monk wearing beards and by the sharp +beak of the slanderer." The monk's satire upon other troubadours is +stated by himself to be a continuation of that by Peire d'Auvergne; the +criticism is, as might be expected, personal. Two _tensos_ deal with the +vanities of women, especially the habit of painting the face: in one of +them the dispute proceeds before God as judge, between the poet and the +women: the scene of the other is laid in Paradise and the interlocutors +are the Almighty and the poet, who, represents that self-adornment is a +habit inherent in female nature. In neither poem is reverence a [71] +prominent feature. + +One of the most extraordinary figures in the whole gallery of troubadour +portraits is Peire Vidal, whose career extended, roughly speaking, from +1175 to 1215. He was one of those characters who naturally become the +nucleus of apocryphal stories, and how much truth there may be in some +of the fantastic incidents, in which he figures as the hero, will +probably never be discovered. He was undoubtedly an attractive +character, for he enjoyed the favour of the most distinguished men and +women of his time. He was also a poet of real power: ease and facility +are characteristics of his poems as compared with the ingenious +obscurity of Arnaut Daniel or Peire d'Auvergne. But there was a +whimsical and fantastic strain in his character, which led him often to +conjoin the functions of court-fool with those of court poet: "he was +the most foolish man in the world" says his biographer. His +"foolishness" also induced him to fall in love with every woman he met, +and to believe that his personal attractions made him invincible. + +Peire Vidal was the son of a Toulouse merchant. He began his troubadour +wanderings early and at the outset of his career we find him in +Catalonia, Aragon and Castile. He is then found in the service of Raimon +Gaufridi Barral,[24] Viscount of Marseilles, a bluff, genial tournament [72] +warrior and the husband of Azalais de Porcellet whose praises were sung +by Folquet of Marseilles. It was Barral who was attracted by Peire's +peculiar talents: his wife seems to have tolerated the troubadour from +deference to her husband. Peire, however, says in one of his poems that +husbands feared him more than fire or sword, and believing himself +irresistible interpreted Azalais' favours as seriously meant. When he +stole a kiss from her as she slept, she insisted upon Peire's departure, +though her husband seems to have regarded the matter as a jest and the +troubadour took refuge in Genoa. Eventually, Azalais pardoned him and he +was able to return to Marseilles. Peire is said to have followed Richard +Coeur de Lion on his crusade; it was in 1190 that Richard embarked at +Marseilles for the Holy Land, and as a patron of troubadours, he was no +doubt personally acquainted with Peire. The troubadour, however, is said +to have gone no farther than Cyprus. There he married a Greek woman and +was somehow persuaded that his wife was a daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople, and that he, therefore, had a claim to the throne of +Greece. He assumed royal state, added a throne to his personal +possessions and began to raise a fleet for the conquest of his kingdom. +How long this farce continued is unknown. Barral died in 1192 and Peire +transferred his affections to a lady of Carcassonne, Loba de Pennautier. [73] +The biography relates that her name Loba (wolf) induced the troubadour +to approach her in a wolf's skin, which disguise was so successful that +he was attacked by a pack of dogs and seriously mauled. Probably the +story that an outraged husband had the troubadour's tongue cut out at an +earlier period of his life contains an equal substratum of truth. The +last period of his career was spent in Hungary and Lombardy. His +political _sirventes_ show an insight into the affairs of his age, which +is in strong contrast to the whimsicality which seems to have misguided +his own life. + +Guillem de Cabestanh (between 1181 and 1196) deserves mention for the +story which the Provençal biography has attached to his name, a +Provençal variation of the thirteenth century romance of the _Châtelaine +de Coucy_.[25] He belonged to the Roussillon district, on the borders of +Catalonia and fell in love with the wife of his overlord, Raimon of +Roussillon. Margarida or Seremonda, as she is respectively named in the +two versions of the story, was attracted by Guillem's songs, with the +result that Raimon's jealousy was aroused and meeting the troubadour one +day, when he was out hunting, he killed him. The Provençal version +proceeds as follows: he then took out the heart and sent it by a squire +to the castle. He caused it to be roasted with pepper and gave it to his [74] +wife to eat. And when she had eaten it, her lord told her what it was +and she lost the power of sight and hearing. And when she came to +herself, she said, "my lord, you have given me such good meat that never +will I eat such meat again." He made at her to strike her but she threw +herself from the window and was killed. Thereupon the barons of +Catalonia and Aragon, led by King Alfonso, are said to have made a +combined attack upon Raimon and to have ravaged his lands, in +indignation at his barbarity. + +The Provençal biography, like the romance of the _Châtelain de Coucy_, +belongs to the thirteenth century, and the story cannot be accepted as +authentic. But the period of decadence had begun. By the close of the +twelfth century the golden age of troubadour poetry was over. Guiraut de +Bornelh's complaints that refinement was vanishing and that nobles were +growing hard-hearted and avaricious soon became common-places in +troubadour poetry. The extravagances of the previous age and the rise of +a strong middle and commercial class diminished both the wealth and the +influence of the nobles, while the peace of the country was further +disturbed by theological disputes and by the rise of the Albigeois +heresy. + + + +CHAPTER VI [75] + + +THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE + +The feudal society in which troubadour poetry had flourished, and by +which alone it could be maintained, was already showing signs of +decadence. Its downfall was precipitated by the religious and political +movement, the Albigeois Crusade, which was the first step towards the +unification of France, but which also broke up the local fiefs, +destroyed the conditions under which the troubadours had flourished and +scattered them abroad in other lands or forced them to seek other means +of livelihood. This is not the place to discuss the origin and the +nature of the Albigeois heresy.[26] The general opinion has almost +invariably considered the heretics as dualists and their belief as a +variation of Manicheism: but a plausible case has been made out for +regarding the heresy as a variant of the Adoptionism which is found +successively in Armenia, in the Balkan peninsula and in Spain, and +perhaps sporadically in Italy and Germany. Whatever its real nature was, +the following facts are clear: it was not an isolated movement, but was +in continuity with beliefs prevalent in many other parts of Europe. It [76] +was largely a poor man's heresy and therefore emerges into the light of +history only when it happens to attract aristocratic adherents or large +masses of people. It was also a pre-Reformation movement and essentially +in opposition to Roman Catholicism. Albi was the first head-quarters of +the heresy, though Toulouse speedily rivalled its importance in this +respect. The Vaudois heresy which became notorious at Lyons about the +same time was a schismatic, not a heretic movement. The Vaudois objected +to the profligacy and worldliness of the Roman Catholic clergy, but did +not quarrel with church doctrine. The Albigenses were no less zealous +than the Vaudois in reproving the church clergy and setting an example +of purity and unselfishness of life. But they also differed profoundly +from the church in matters of doctrine. + +Upon the election of Otho as Emperor, in 1208, Germany and Rome were at +peace, and Pope Innocent III. found himself at liberty to devote some +attention to affairs in Southern France. He had already made some +efforts to oppose the growth of heresy: his first emissaries were unable +to produce the least effect and in 1208 he had sent Arnaut of Citeaux +and two Cistercian monks into Southern France with full powers to act. +Their efforts proved fruitless, because Philippe Auguste was no less +indifferent than the provincial lords, who actually favoured the [77] +heretics in many cases; the Roman Catholic bishops also were jealous of +the pope's legates and refused to support them. Not only the laity but +many of the clergy had been seduced: the heretics had translated large +portions of scripture (translations which still remain to us) and +constantly appealed to the scriptures in opposition to the canon laws +and the immorality of Rome. They had a full parochial and diocesan +organisation and were in regular communication with the heretics of +other countries. It was clear that the authority of Southern France was +doomed, unless some vigorous steps to assert her authority were speedily +taken. "Ita per omnes terras multiplicati sunt ut grande periculum +patiatur ecclesia Dei." [27] The efforts of St Dominic were followed by +the murder of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in 1208, which +created an excitement comparable with that aroused by the murder of +Thomas à Becket, thirty-eight years before, and gave Innocent III. his +opportunity. In the summer of 1209 a great army of crusaders assembled +at Lyons, and Southern France was invaded by a horde composed partly of +religious fanatics, of men who were anxious to gain the indulgences +awarded to crusaders without the danger of a journey overseas, and of +men who were simply bent on plunder. The last stage in the development +of the crusade movement was thereby reached: originally begun to recover [78] +the Holy Sepulchre, it had been extended to other countries against the +avowed enemies of Christianity. Now the movement was to be turned +against erring members of the Christian Church and in the terms of a +metaphor much abused at that period, the Crusader was not only to +destroy the wolf, but to drive the vagrant sheep back into the fold.[28] +Beziers and Carcassonne were captured with massacre; Toulouse was spared +upon the humiliating submission of Raimon VI., and little organised +opposition was offered to the crusading forces under Simon de Montfort. +The following years saw the revolt of Toulouse and the excommunication +of Raimon VI. (1211), the battle of Muret in which Raimon was defeated +and his supporter Pedro of Aragon, was killed (1213), the Lateran +Council (1215), the siege of Toulouse and the death of Simon de Montfort +(1218). The foundation of the Dominican order and of the Inquisition +marked the close of the struggle. + +Folquet of Marseilles is a troubadour whose life belongs to these years +of turmoil. He was the son of a Genoese merchant by name Anfos, who +apparently settled in Marseilles for business reasons: Genoa was in +close commercial relations with the South of France during the twelfth +century, as is attested by treaties concluded with Marseilles in 1138 +and with Raimon of Toulouse in 1174. Folquet (or Fulco in Latin form) [79] +seems to have carried on his father's business and to have amused his +leisure hours by poetical composition. The Monk of Montandon refers to +him as a merchant in his _sirventes_ upon other troubadours. He is +placed in Paradise by Dante and is the only troubadour who there +appears, no doubt because of his services to the Church. His earliest +poems, written after 1180, were composed in honour of Azalais, the lady +whose favour was sought by Peire Vidal, and to whom Folquet refers by +the _senhal_ of Aimant (magnet). His poems are ingenious dissertations +upon love and we catch little trace of real feeling in them. The stories +of the jealousy of Azalais' sister which drove Folquet to leave +Marseilles are probably apocryphal. Folquet also addressed poems to the +wife of the Count of Montpelier, the daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople. He wrote a fine _planh_ on the death of Barral of +Marseilles in 1192 and it was about this time that he resolved to enter +the church. His last poem belongs to the year 1195. No doubt the wealth +which he may have brought to the Church as a successful merchant +contributed to his advancement, but Folquet was also an indomitably +energetic character. + +Unlike so many of his fellow poets, who retired to monasteries and there +lived out their lives in seclusion, Folquet displayed special talents or [80] +special enthusiasm for the order which he joined. Of the Cistercian +abbey of Toronet in the diocese of Fréjus he became abbot, and in 1205 +was made Bishop of Toulouse. He then, in company with St Dominic, +becomes one of the great figures of the Albigeois crusade: in 1209 he +was acting with Simon de Montfort against Raimon VI., the son of his old +patron and benefactor, and persuaded the count to surrender the citadel +of Toulouse to de Montfort and the papal legate. He travelled in +Northern France in order to stir up enthusiasm for the crusade. The +legend is related that, hearing one of his love songs sung by a minstrel +at Paris, he imposed penance upon himself. He helped to establish the +Inquisition in Languedoc, and at the Lateran council of 1215 was the +most violent opponent of Count Raimon. To enter into his history in +detail during this period would be to recount a large portion of the +somewhat intricate history of the crusade. Of his fanaticism, and of the +cruelty with which he waged war upon the heretics, the Count Raimon +Roger of Foix speaks at the Lateran council, when defending himself +against the accusation of heresy. + + E die vos de l'avesque, que tant n'es afortitz, + qu'en la sua semblansa es Dieus e nos trazitz, + que ab cansos messongeiras e ab motz coladitz, + dont totz horn es perdutz qui·ls canta ni los ditz, [81] + ez ab sos reproverbis afilatz e forbitz + ez ab los nostres dos, don fo eniotglaritz, + ez ab mala doctrina es tant fort enriquitz + c'om non auza ren dire a so qu'el contraditz. + Pero cant el fo abas ni monges revestitz + en la sua abadia fo si·l lums eseurzitz + qu'anc no i ac be ni pauza, tro qu'el ne fo ichitz; + e cant fo de Tholosa avesques elegitz + per trastota la terra es tals focs espanditz + que ia mais per nulha aiga no sira escantitz; + que plus de D.M., que de grans que petitz, + i fe perdre las vidas e·ls cors e·ls esperitz. + Per la fe qu'icu vos deg, als sous faitz e als ditz + ez a la captenensa sembla mielhs Antecritz + que messatges de Roma. + +"And of the bishop, who is so zealous, I tell you that in him both God +and we ourselves are betrayed; for with lying songs and insinuating +words, which are the damnation of any who sings or speaks them, and by +his keen polished admonitions, and by our presents wherewith he +maintained himself as _joglar_, and by his evil doctrine, he has risen +so high, that one dare say nothing to that which he opposes. So when he +was vested as abbot and monk, was the light in his abbey put out in such +wise that therein was no comfort or rest, until that he was gone forth +from thence; and when he was chosen bishop of Toulouse such a fire was +spread throughout the land that never for any water will it be quenched; +for there did he bring destruction of life and body and soul upon more [82] +than fifteen hundred of high and low. By the faith which I owe to you, +by his deeds and his words and his dealings, more like is he to +Anti-Christ than to an envoy of Rome." (_Chanson de la croisade contre +les Albigeois_, v. 3309.) + +Folquet died on December 25, 1231, and was buried at the Cistercian +Abbey of Grandselve, some thirty miles north-west of Toulouse. Such +troubadours as Guilhem Figueira and Peire Cardenal, who inveighed +against the action of the Church during the crusade, say nothing of him, +and upon their silence and that of the biography as regards his +ecclesiastical life the argument has been founded that Folquet the +troubadour and Folquet the bishop were two different persons. There is +no evidence to support this theory. Folquet's poems enjoyed a high +reputation. The minnesinger, Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg (end of the +twelfth century) imitated him, as also did the Italians Rinaldo d'Aquino +and Jacopo da Lentino. + +The troubadours as a rule stood aloof from the religious quarrels of the +age. But few seem to have joined the crusaders, as Perdigon did. Most of +their patrons were struggling for their existence: when the invaders +succeeded in establishing themselves, they had no desire for court +poetry. The troubadour's occupation was gone, and those who wished for +an audience were obliged to seek beyond the borders of France. Hence it [83] +is somewhat remarkable to find the troubadour Raimon de Miraval, of +Carcassonne, continuing to sing, as though perfect tranquillity +prevailed. His wife, Gaudairenca, was a poetess, and Paul Heyse has made +her the central figure of one of his charming _Troubadour Novellen_. +Raimon's poems betray no forebodings of the coming storm; when it broke, +he lost his estate and fled to Raimon of Toulouse for shelter. The +arrival of Pedro II. of Aragon at Toulouse in 1213 and his alliance with +the Count of Toulouse cheered the troubadour's spirits: he thought there +was a chance that he might recover his estate. He compliments Pedro on +his determination in one poem and in another tells his lady, "the king +has promised me that in a short time, I shall have Miraval again and my +Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will +regain their lost delights." Such was the attitude of many troubadours +towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain +section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of +patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of +their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole +acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no +attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such [84] +attempts was forth-coming. + +On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real +courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in +maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first +energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse +been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to +reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty +lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as +little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy. +His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the _Chanson de +la Croisade_ reflects their hopes and fears and describes their +struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic +splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in +the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders +who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest +poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within +the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that +he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a noble +and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he +was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and [85] +went from court to court, accompanied by a _joglar_: he was especially +favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a +hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his _chansos_ +that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case +of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral _sirventes_: he +was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and +immorality and the special objects of his animosity are the Roman +Catholic clergy and the high nobles. "The clergy call themselves +shepherds and are murderers under a show of saintliness: when I look +upon their dress I remember Isengrin (the wolf in the romance of +Reynard, the Fox) who wished one day to break into the sheep-fold: but +for fear of the dogs he dressed himself in a sheepskin and then devoured +as many as he would. Kings and emperors, dukes, counts and knights used +to rule the world; now the priests have the power which they have gained +by robbery and treachery, by hypocrisy, force and preaching." "Eagles +and vultures smell not the carrion so readily as priests and preachers +smell out the rich: a rich man is their friend and should a sickness +strike him down, he must make them presents to the loss of his +relations. Frenchmen and priests are reputed bad and rightly so: usurers [86] +and traitors possess the whole world, for with deceit have they so +confounded the world that there is no class to whom their doctrine is +unknown." Peire inveighs against the disgraces of particular orders; the +Preaching Friars or Jacobin monks who discuss the relative merits of +special wines after their feasts, whose lives are spent in disputes and +who declare all who differ from them to be Vaudois heretics, who worm +men's private affairs out of them, that they may make themselves feared: +some of his charges against the monastic orders are quite unprintable. + +No less vigorous are his invectives against the rich and the social +evils of his time. The tone of regret that underlies Guiraut de +Bornelh's satires in this theme is replaced in Peire Cardenal's +_sirventes_ by a burning sense of injustice. Covetousness, the love of +pleasure, injustice to the poor, treachery and deceit and moral laxity +are among his favourite themes. "He who abhors truth and hates the +right, careers to hell and directs his course to the abyss: for many a +man builds walls and palaces with the goods of others and yet the +witless world says that he is on the right path, because he is clever +and prosperous. As silver is refined in the fire, so the patient poor +are purified under grievous oppression: and with what splendour the +shameless rich man may feed and clothe himself, his riches bring him +nought but pain, grief and vexation of spirit. But that affrights him [87] +not: capons and game, good wine and the dainties of the earth console +him and cheer his heart. Then he prays to God and says 'I am poor and in +misery.' Were God to answer him He would say, 'thou liest!'" To +illustrate the degeneracy of the age, Peire relates a fable, perhaps the +only instance of this literary form among the troubadours, upon the +theme that if all the world were mad, the one sane man would be in a +lunatic asylum: "there was a certain town, I know not where, upon which +a rain fell of such a nature that all the inhabitants upon whom it fell, +lost their reason. All lost their reason except one, who escaped because +he was asleep in his house when the rain came. When he awoke, he rose: +the rain had ceased, and he went out among the people who were all +committing follies. One was clothed, another naked, another was spitting +at the sky: some were throwing sticks and stones, tearing their coats, +striking and pushing... The sane man was deeply surprised and saw that +they were mad; nor could he find a single man in his senses. Yet greater +was their surprise at him, and as they saw that he did not follow their +example, they concluded that he had lost his senses.... So one strikes +him in front, another behind; he is dashed to the ground and trampled +under foot... at length he flees to his house covered with mud, bruised [88] +and half dead and thankful for his escape": The mad town, says Peire +Cardenal, is the present world: the highest form of intelligence is the +love and fear of God, but this has been replaced by greed, pride and +malice; consequently the "sense of God" seems madness to the world and +he who refuses to follow the "sense of the world" is treated as a +madman. + +Peire Cardenal is thus by temperament a moral preacher; he is not merely +critical of errors, but has also a positive faith to propound. He is not +an opponent of the papacy as an institution: the confession of faith +which he utters in one of his _sirventes_ shows that he would have been +perfectly satisfied with the Roman ecclesiastical and doctrinal system, +had it been properly worked. In this respect he differs from a +contemporary troubadour, Guillem Figueira, whose violent satire against +Rome shows him as opposed to the whole system from the papacy downwards. +He was a native of Toulouse and migrated to Lombardy and to the court of +Frederick II. when the crusade drove him from his home. "I wonder not, +Rome, that men go astray, for thou hast cast the world into strife and +misery; virtue and good works die and are buried because of thee, +treacherous Rome, thou guiding-star, thou root and branch of all +iniquity... Greed blindeth thy eyes, and too close dost thou shear thy [89] +sheep... thou forgivest sins for money, thou loadest thyself with a +shameful burden. Rome, we know of a truth that with the bait of false +forgiveness, thou hast snared in misery the nobility of France, the +people of Paris and the noble King Louis (VIII., who died in the course +of the Albigeois crusade); thou didst bring him to his death, for thy +false preaching enticed him from his land. Rome, thou has the outward +semblance of a lamb, so innocent is thy countenance, but within thou are +a ravening wolf, a crowned snake begotten of a viper and therefore the +devil greeteth thee as the friend of his bosom." This sirventes was +answered by a _trobairitz_, Germonde of Montpelier, but her reply lacks +the vigour and eloquence of the attack. + +It is not to be supposed that the troubadours turned to religious poetry +simply because the Albigeois crusade had raised the religious question. +Purely devotional poetry is found at an earlier period.[29] It appears +at first only sporadically, and some of the greatest troubadours have +left no religious poems that have reached us. The fact is, that the +nature of troubadour poetry and its homage to the married woman were +incompatible with the highest standard of religious devotion. The famous +_alba_ of Guiraut de Bornelh invokes the "glorious king, true light and +splendour, Lord Almighty," for the purpose of praying that the lovers [90] +for whom the speaker is keeping watch may be undisturbed in interchange +of their affections. Prayer for the success of attempted adultery is a +contradiction in terms. For a theory of religion which could regard the +Deity as a possible accomplice in crime, the Church of Southern France +in the twelfth century is to blame: we cannot expect that the +troubadours in general should be more religious than the professional +exponents of religion. On the other hand, poems of real devotional +feeling are found, even from the earliest times: the sensual Count of +Poitiers, the first troubadour known to us, concludes his career with a +poem of resignation bidding farewell to the world, "leaving all that I +love, the brilliant life of chivalry, but since it pleases God, I resign +myself and pray Him to keep me among His own." Many troubadours, as has +been said, ended their lives in monasteries and the disappointments or +griefs which drove them to this course often aroused religious feelings, +regrets for past follies and resolutions of repentance, which found +expression in poetry. Peire d'Auvergne wrote several religious hymns +after his retirement from the world; these are largely composed of +reiterated articles of the Christian faith in metrical form and are as +unpoetical as they are orthodox, Crusade poems and _planhs_ upon the [91] +deaths of famous nobles or patrons are religious only in a secondary +sense. A fine religious _alba_ is ascribed to Folquet of Marseilles-- + + Vers Dieus, e·l vostre nom e de sancta Maria + m'esvelherai hueimais, pus l'estela del dia + ven daus Jerusalem que' m'ensenha qu'ien dia: + estatz sus e levatz, + senhor, que Dieu amatz! + que·l jorns es aprosmatz + e la nuech ten sa via; + e sia·n Dieus lauzatz + per nos e adoratz, + e·l preguem que·ens don patz + a tota nostra via. + La nuech vai e·l jorns ve + ab elar eel e sere, + e l'alba no's rete + ans ven belh' e complia. + +"True God, in Thy name and in the name of Saint Mary will I awake +henceforth, since the star of day rises from o'er Jerusalem, bidding me +say, 'Up and arise, sirs, who love God! For the day is nigh, and the +night departs; and let God be praised and adored by us and let us pray +Him that He give us peace for all our lives. Night goes and day comes +with clear serene sky, and the dawn delays not but comes fair and +perfect.'" + +At the close of the Albigeois crusade the Virgin Mary becomes the theme +of an increasing number of lyric poems. These are not like the farewells [92] +to the world, uttered by weary troubadours, and dictated by individual +circumstances, but are inspired by an increase of religious feeling in +the public to whom the troubadours appealed. Peire Cardenal began the +series and a similar poem is attributed to Perdigon, a troubadour who +joined the crusaders and fought against his old patrons; though the poem +is probably not his, it belongs to a time but little posterior to the +crusade. The cult of the Virgin had obvious attractions as a subject for +troubadours whose profane songs would not have been countenanced by St +Dominic and his preachers and religious poetry dealing with the subject +could easily borrow not only the metrical forms but also many technical +expressions which troubadours had used in singing of worldly love. They +could be the servants of a heavenly mistress and attribute to her all +the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that +the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the +supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut +Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new +_genre_: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem +admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many +poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with +classical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from [93] +the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea +of the character of this poetry. + + Domna, rosa ses espina, + sobre totas flors olens, + verga seca frug fazens, + terra que ses labor grana, + estela, del solelh maire, + noirissa del vostre paire, + el mon nulha no·us semelha + ni londana ni vezina. + + Domna, verge pura e fina, + ans que fos l'enfantamens, + et apres tot eissamens, + receup en vos carn humana + Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire, + si com ses trencamen faire + intra·l bels rais, quan solelha, + per la fenestra veirina. + + Domna, estela marina + de las autras plus luzens, + la mars nos combat e·l vens; + mostra nos via certana; + car si·ns vols a bon port traire + non tem nau ni governaire + ni tempest que·ns destorbelha + ni·l sobern de la marina. + +"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing +fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun, +nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, [94] +neither far nor near. + +Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same, +Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without +causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun +shines. + +Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the +wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to +a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it +trouble us." + + + +CHAPTER VII [95] + + +THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY + +To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of +its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The +movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and +the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the very existence of its lyric +poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations +between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early +period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean +was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local nobles were +connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman +Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and _joglars_ to visit the +Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian +dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their +poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to +troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal +was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the +Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of [96] +Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less +importance offered a welcome to Provençal poets. More than twenty +troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to +have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their +poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provençal became +the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of +troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure. + +Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career +(1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour +quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor +noble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of +Orange; he exchanged _tensos_ with his patron with whom he seems to have +been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym +Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time +later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence +of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a +wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of +Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in +which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady. + +"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart [97] +is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded +if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than +if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up." +The lady then replies in her own Genoese dialect: she knows nothing of +the conventions of courtly love, and informs the troubadour that her +husband is a better man than he and that she will have nothing to do +with him. The poem is nothing but a _jeu d'esprit_ based upon the +contrast between troubadour sentiments and the honest but unpoetical +views of the middle class; it is interesting to philologists as +containing one of the earliest known specimens of Italian dialect. An +example of the Tuscan dialect is also found in the _descort_ by +Raimbaut. This is a poem in irregular metre, intended to show the +perturbation of the poet's mind. Raimbaut increased this effect by +writing in five different languages. He found a ready welcome from +Bonifacio II. at the court of Montferrat which Peire Vidal also visited. +The marquis dubbed him knight and made him his brother in arms. Raimbaut +fell in love with Beatrice, the sister of the marquis, an intimacy which +proceeded upon the regular lines of courtly love. He soon found an +opportunity of showing his devotion to the marquis. In 1194 Henry VI. [98] +made an expedition to Sicily to secure the claims of his wife, +Constance, to that kingdom: the Marquis Boniface as a vassal of the +imperial house followed the Emperor and Raimbaut accompanied his +contingent. He refers to his share in the campaign in a later letter to +the marquis.[30] + + Et ai per vos estat en greu preyzo + Per vostra guerra e n'ai a vostro pro + Fag maynt assaut et ars maynta maiso + Et a Messina vos cobri del blizo; + En la batalha vos vinc en tal sazo + Que·us ferion pel pietz e pel mento + Dartz e cairels, sagetas e trenso. + +"For your sake I have been in hard captivity in your war, and to do you +service I have made many an assault and burned many a house. At Messina +I covered you with the shield; I came to you in the battle at the moment +when they hurled at your breast and chin darts and quarrels, arrows and +lance-shafts." The captivity was endured in the course of the marquis's +wars in Italy, and the troubadour refers to a seafight between the +forces of Genoa and Pisa in the Sicilian campaign. In 1202 he followed +his master upon the crusade which practically ended at Constantinople. +He had composed a vigorous _sirventes_ urging Christian men to join the +movement, but he does not himself show any great enthusiasm to take the [99] +cross. "I would rather, if it please you, die in that land than live and +remain here. For us God was raised upon the cross, received death, +suffered the passion, was scourged and loaded with chains and crowned +with thorns upon the cross.... Fair Cavalier (i.e. Beatrice) I know not +whether I shall stay for your sake or take the cross; I know not whether +I shall go or remain, for I die with grief if I see you and I am like to +die if I am far from you." So also in the letter quoted above. + + E cant anetz per crozar a Saysso, + Ieu non avia cor--Dieus m'o perdo-- + Que passes mar, mas per vostre resso + Levey la crotz e pris confessio. + +"And when you went to Soissons to take the cross, I did not intend--may +God forgive me--to cross the sea, but to increase your fame I took the +cross and made confession." The count lost his life, as Villehardouin +relates, in a skirmish with the Bulgarians in 1207. Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras probably fell at the same time. + +This is enough to show that troubadours who came to Italy could make the +country a second home, and find as much occupation in love, war and +politics as they had ever found in Southern France. Aimeric de Pegulhan, +Gaucelm Faidit, Uc de Saint-Circ,[31] the author of some troubadour [100] +biographies, were among the best known of those who visited Italy. The +last named is known to have visited Pisa and another troubadour of minor +importance, Guillem de la Tor, was in Florence. Thus the visits of the +troubadours were by no means confined to the north. + +It was, therefore, natural that Italians should imitate the troubadours +whose art proved so successful at Italian courts and some thirty Italian +troubadours are known to us. Count Manfred II. and Albert, the Marquis +of Malaspina, engaged in _tensos_ with Peire Vidal and Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras respectively and are the first Italians known to have written +in Provençal. Genoa produced a number of Italian troubadours of whom the +best were Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo. The latter was a wanderer +and spent some time in Castile at the court of Alfonso X. Lanfranc +Cigala was a judge in his native town: from him survive a _sirventes_ +against Bonifacio III. of Montferrat who had abandoned the cause of +Frederick II., crusade poems and a _sirventes_ against the obscure +style. The Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi was a prisoner at Genoa from 1266 +to 1273, having been captured by the Genoese. The troubadour of Genoa, +Bonifacio Calvo, had written a vigorous invective against Venice, to +which the captive troubadour composed an equally strong reply addressed [101] +to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours +became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is +certainly Sordello. + +There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he +was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of noble family. His name is not +to be derived from _sordidus_, but from _Surdus_, a not uncommon +patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early +years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court +of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell +in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, _Par._ ix. +32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely +obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a +family feud, while others assert that the elopement took place with the +connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (_Inf_. +xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and +Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the +Provençal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his +flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He +thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France, +where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, [102] +penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is +the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose _sirventes_ speaks of him +as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso +IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this +no date can be assigned. Allusions in his poems show that he was in +Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of +the Countess Beatrice (_Par._ vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar, +Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have +been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur +and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady +cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin +treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known nobles, +and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is +uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in +1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Charles on his +Italian expedition against Manfred in 1265, and seems to have been +captured by the Ghibellines before reaching Naples. At any rate, he was +a prisoner at Novara in September 1266; Pope Clement IV. induced Charles +to ransom him, and in 1269, as a recompense for his services, he +received five castles in the Abruzzi, near the river Pescara: shortly [103] +afterwards he died. The circumstances of his death are unknown, but from +the fact that he is placed by Dante among those who were cut off before +they could repent it has been conjectured that he came to a violent end. + +Sordello's restless life and his intrigues could be exemplified from the +history of many another troubadour and neither his career nor his +poetry, which with two exceptions, is of no special originality, seems +to justify the portrait drawn of him by Dante; while Browning's famous +poem has nothing in common with the troubadour except the name. These +exceptions, however, are notable. The first is a _sirventes_ composed by +Sordello on the death of his patron Blacatz in 1237. He invites to the +funeral feast the Roman emperor, Frederick II., the kings of France, +England and Aragon, the counts of Champagne, Toulouse and Provence. They +are urged to eat of the dead man's heart, that they may gain some +tincture of his courage and nobility. Each is invited in a separate +stanza in which the poet reprehends the failings of the several +potentates. + + Del rey engles me platz, quar es paue coratjos, + Que manje pro del cor, pueys er valens e bos, + E cobrara la terra, per que viu de pretz blos, + Que·l tol lo reys de Fransa, quar lo sap nualhos; + E lo reys castelas tanh qu'en manje per dos, [104] + Quar dos regismes ten, e per l'un non es pros; + Mas, s'elh en vol manjar, tanh qu'en manj'a rescos, + Que, si·l mair'o sabra, batria·l ab bastos. + +"As concerns the English King (Henry III.) it pleases me, for he is +little courageous, that he should eat well of the heart; then he will be +valiant and good and will recover the land (for loss of which he lives +bereft of worth), which the King of France took from him, for he knows +him to be of no account. And the King of Castile (Ferdinand III. of +Castile and Leon), it is fitting that he eat of it for two, for he holds +two realms and he is not sufficient for one; but if he will eat of it, +'twere well that he eat in secret: for if his mother were to know it, +she would beat him with staves." + +This idea, which is a commonplace in the folklore of many countries, +attracted attention. Two contemporary troubadours attempted to improve +upon it. Bertran d'Alamanon said that the heart should not be divided +among the cowards, enumerated by Sordello, but given to the noble ladies +of the age: Peire Bremen proposed a division of the body. The point is +that Dante in the Purgatorio represents Sordello as showing to Virgil +the souls of those who, while singing _Salve Regina_, ask to be pardoned +for their neglect of duty and among them appear the rulers whom Sordello +had satirised in his _sirventes_. Hence it seems that it was this [105] +composition which attracted Dante's attention to Sordello. The other +important poem is the _Ensenhamen_, a didactic work of instruction upon +the manner and conduct proper to a courtier and a lover. Here, and also +in some of his lyric poems, Sordello represents the transition to a new +idea of love which was more fully developed by the school of Guido +Guinicelli and found its highest expression in Dante's lyrics and Vita +Nuova. Love is now rather a mystical idea than a direct affection for a +particular lady: the lover is swayed by a spiritual and intellectual +ideal, and the motive of physical attraction recedes to the background. +The cause of love, however, remains unchanged: love enters through the +eyes; sight is delight. + +We must now turn southwards. A school of poetry had grown up in Sicily +at the court of Frederick II. No doubt he favoured those troubadours +whose animosity to the papacy had been aroused by the Albigeois crusade: +such invective as that which Guillem Figueira could pour forth would be +useful to him in his struggle against the popes. But the emperor was +himself a man of unusual culture, with a keen interest in literary and +scientific pursuits: he founded a university at Naples, collected +manuscripts and did much to make Arabic learning known to the West. He +was a poet and the importance of the Sicilian school consists in the [106] +fact that while the subject matter of their songs was lifted from +troubadour poetry, the language which they used belonged to the Italian +peninsula. The dialect of these _provenzaleggianti_ was not pure +Sicilian but was probably a literary language containing elements drawn +from other dialects, as happened long before in the case of the +troubadours themselves. The best known representatives of this school, +Pier delle Vigne, Jacopo da Lentini and Guido delle Colonne are familiar +to students of Dante. After their time no one questioned the fact that +lyric poetry written in Italian was a possible achievement. The +influence of the Sicilian school extended to Central Italy and Tuscany; +Dante tells us that all Italian poetry preceding his own age was known +as Sicilian. The early Tuscan poets were, mediately or immediately, +strongly influenced by Provençal. The first examples of the sonnet, by +Dante da Majano, were written in that language. But such poetry was +little more than a rhetorical exercise. It was the revival of learning +and the Universities, in particular that of Bologna, which inspired the +_dolce stil nuovo_, of which the first exponent was Guido Giunicelli. +Love was now treated from a philosophical point of view: hitherto, the +Provençal school had maintained the thesis that "sight is delight," that +love originated from seeing and pleasing, penetrated to the heart and [107] +occupied the thoughts, after passing through the eyes. So Aimeric de +Pegulhan. + + Perque tuit li fin aman + Sapchan qu'amors es fina bevolenza + Que nais del cor e dels huelh, ses duptar. + +"Wherefore let all pure lovers know that love is pure unselfishness +which is born undoubtedly from the heart and from the eyes," a sentiment +thus repeated by Guido delle Colonne of the Sicilian school. + + Dal cor si move un spirito in vedere + D'in ochi'n ochi, di femina e d'omo + Per lo quel si concria uno piacere. + +The philosophical school entirely transformed this conception. Love +seeks the noble heart by affinity, as the bird seeks the tree: the noble +heart cannot but love, and love inflames and purifies its nobility, as +the power of the Deity is transmitted to the heavenly beings. When this +idea had been once evolved, Provençal poetry could no longer be a moving +force; it was studied but was not imitated. Its influence had lasted +some 150 years, and as far as Italy is concerned it was Arabic learning, +Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas who slew the troubadours more certainly +than Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. The day of superficial [108] +prettiness and of the cult of form had passed; love conjoined with +learning, a desire to pierce to the roots of things, a greater depth of +thought and earnestness were the characteristics of the new school. + +Dante's debt to the troubadours, with whose literature he was well +acquainted, is therefore the debt of Italian literature as a whole. Had +not the troubadours developed their theory of courtly love, with its +influence upon human nature, we cannot say what course early Italian +literature might have run. Moreover, the troubadours provided Italy and +other countries also with perfect models of poetical form. The sonnet, +the terza rima and any other form used by Dante are of Provençal origin. +And what is true of Dante and his Beatrice is no less true of Petrarch +and his Laura and of many another who may be sought in histories +specially devoted to this subject. + + + +CHAPTER VIII [109] + + +THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN + +The South of France had been connected with the North of Spain from a +period long antecedent to the first appearance of troubadour poetry. As +early as the Visigoth period, Catalonia had been united to Southern +France; in the case of this province the tie was further strengthened by +community of language. On the western side of the Pyrenees a steady +stream of pilgrims entered the Spanish peninsula on their way to the +shrine of St James of Compostella in Galicia; this road was, indeed, +known in Spain as the "French road." Catalonia was again united with +Provence by the marriage of Raimon Berengar III. with a Provençal +heiress in 1112. As the counts of Barcelona and the kings of Aragon held +possessions in Southern France, communications between the two countries +were naturally frequent. + +We have already had occasion to refer to the visits of various +troubadours to the courts of Spain. The "reconquista," the reconquest of +Spain from the Moors, was in progress during the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, and various crusade poems were written by troubadours [110] +summoning help to the Spaniards in their struggles. Marcabrun was the +author of one of the earliest of these, composed for the benefit of +Alfonso VIII. of Castile and possibly referring to his expedition +against the Moors in 1147, which was undertaken in conjunction with the +kings of Navarre and Aragon. The poem is interesting for its repetition +of the word _lavador_ or piscina, used as an emblem of the crusade in +which the participants would be cleansed of their sins.[32] + + Pax in nomine Domini! + Fetz Marcabrus los motz e·l so. + Aujatz que di: + Cum nos a fait per sa doussor, + Lo Seignorius celestiaus + Probet de nos un lavador + C'ane, fors outramar, no·n' fon taus, + En de lai deves Josaphas: + E d'aquest de sai vos conort. + +"Pax, etc.,---Marcabrun composed the words and the air. Hear what he +says. How, by his goodness, the Lord of Heaven, has made near us a +piscina, such as there never was, except beyond the sea, there by +Josaphat, and for this one near here do I exhort you." + +Alfonso II. of Aragon (1162-1196) was a constant patron of the +troubadours, and himself an exponent of their art. He belonged to the +family of the counts of Barcelona which became in his time one of the [111] +most powerful royal houses in the West of Europe. He was the grandson of +Raimon Berengar III. and united to Barcelona by marriage and diplomacy, +the kingdom of Aragon, Provence and Roussillon. His continual visits to +the French part of his dominions gave every opportunity to the +troubadours to gain his favour: several were continually about him and +there were few who did not praise his liberality. A discordant note is +raised by Bertran de Born, who composed some violent _sirventes_ against +Alfonso; he was actuated by political motives: Alfonso had joined the +King of England in his operations against Raimon V. of Toulouse and +Bertran's other allies and had been present at the capture of Bertran's +castle of Hautefort in 1183. The biography relates that in the course of +the siege, the King of Aragon, who had formerly been in friendly +relations with Bertran, sent a messenger into the fortress asking for +provisions. These Bertran supplied with the request that the king would +secure the removal of the siege engines from a particular piece of wall, +which was on the point of destruction and would keep the information +secret. Alfonso, however, betrayed the message and the fortress was +captured. The _razo_ further relates the touching scene to which we have +already referred when Bertran moved Henry II. to clemency by a reference [112] +to the death of the "young king." The account of Alfonso's supposed +treachery is probably no less unhistorical: the siege lasted only a week +and it is unlikely that the besiegers would have been reduced to want in +so short a time. It was probably invented to explain the hostility on +Bertran's part which dated from the wars between Alfonso and Raimon V. +of Toulouse. This animosity was trumpeted forth in two lampooning +_sirventes_ criticising the public policy and the private life of the +Spanish King. His accusations of meanness and trickery seem to be based +on nothing more reliable than current gossip. + +Peire Vidal, with the majority of the troubadours, shows himself a +vigorous supporter of Alfonso. Referring to this same expedition of 1183 +he asserted "Had I but a speedy horse, the king might sleep in peace at +Balaguer: I would keep Provence and Montpelier in such order that +robbers and freebooters should no longer plunder Venaissin and Crau. +When I have put on my shining cuirass and girded on the sword that Guigo +lately gave me, the earth trembles beneath my feet; no enemy so mighty +who does not forthwith avoid out of my path, so great is their fear of +me when they hear my steps." These boasts in the style of Captain +Matamoros are, of course, not serious: the poet's personal appearance +seems to have been enough to preclude any suppositions of the kind. In [113] +another poem he sings the praises of Sancha, daughter of Alfonso VIII. +of Castile, who married Alfonso II. of Aragon in 1174. With the common +sense in political matters which is so strangely conjoined with the +whimsicality of his actions, he puts his finger upon the weak spot in +Spanish politics when he refers to the disunion between the four kings, +Alfonso II. of Aragon, Alfonso IX. of Leon, Alfonso VIII. of Castile and +Sancho Garcés of Navarre: "little honour is due to the four kings of +Spain for that they cannot keep peace with one another; since in other +respects they are of great worth, dexterous, open, courteous and loyal, +so that they should direct their efforts to better purpose and wage war +elsewhere against the people who do not believe our law, until the whole +of Spain professes one and the same faith." + +The Monk of Montaudon, Peire Raimon of Toulouse, Uc de San Circ, Uc +Brunet and other troubadours of less importance also enjoyed Alfonso's +patronage. Guiraut de Bornelh sent a poem to the Catalonian court in +terms which seemed to show that the simple style of poetry was there +preferred to complicated obscurities. The same troubadour was +sufficiently familiar with Alfonso's successor, Pedro II., to take part +in a _tenso_ with him. + +Pedro II. (1196-1213) was no less popular with the troubadours than his [114] +father. Aimeric de Pegulhan, though more closely connected with the +court of Castile, is loud in his praises of Pedro, "the flower of +courtesy, the green leaf of delight, the fruit of noble deeds." Pedro +supported his brother-in-law, Raimon VI. of Toulouse, against the +crusaders and Simon de Montfort during the Albigeois crusade and was +killed near Toulouse in the battle of Muret. The Chanson de la Croisade +does not underestimate the impression made by his death. + + Mot fo grans lo dampnatges e·l dols e·l perdementz + Cant lo reis d'Arago remas mort e sagnens, + E mot d'autres baros, don fo grans l'aunimens + A tot crestianesme et a trastotas gens. + +"Great was the damage and the grief and the loss when the King of Aragon +remained dead and bleeding with many other barons, whence was great +shame to all Christendom and to all people." + +The Court of Castile attracted the attention and the visits of the +troubadours, chiefly during the reign of Alfonso VIII. (or III.; +1158-1214) the hero of Las Navas de Tolosa, the most decisive defeat +which the Arab power in the West had sustained since the days of Charles +Martel. The preceding defeat of Alfonso's forces at Alarcos in 1195 had +called forth a fine crusade _sirventes_ from Folquet of Marseilles +appealing to Christians in general and the King of Aragon in particular [115] +to join forces against the infidels. The death of Alfonso's son, +Fernando, in 1211 from an illness contracted in the course of a campaign +against the infidels was lamented by Guiraut de Calanso, a Gascon +troubadour. + + Lo larc e·l franc, lo valen e·l grazitz, + Don cuiavon qu'en fos esmendatz + Lo jove reys, e·n Richartz lo prezatz + E·l coms Jaufres, tug li trey valen fraire. + +"The generous and frank, the worthy and attractive of whom men thought +that in him were increased the qualities of the young king, of Richard +the high renowned, and of the Count Godfrey, all the three valiant +brothers." Peire Vidal in one of the poems which he addressed to Alfonso +VIII., speaks of the attractions of Spain. "Spain is a good country; its +kings and lords are kindly and loving, generous and noble, of courteous +company; other barons there are, noble and hospitable, men of sense and +knowledge, valiant and renowned." Raimon Vidal of Bezaudun, a Catalonian +troubadour has given a description of Alfonso's court in one of his +_novelas_. "I wish to relate a story which I heard a joglar tell at the +court of the wisest king that ever was, King Alfonso of Castile, where +were presents and gifts, judgment, worth and courtesy, spirit and +chivalry, though he was not anointed or sacred, but crowned with praise, [116] +sense, worth and prowess. The king gathered many knights to his court, +many _joglars_ and rich barons and when the court was filled Queen +Eleanor came in dressed so that no one saw her body. She came wrapped +closely in a cloak of silken fabric fine and fair called sisclaton; it +was red with a border of silver and had a golden lion broidered on it. +She bowed to the king and took her seat on one side at some distance. +Then, behold, a _joglar_ come before the king, frank and debonair, who +said 'King, noble emperor, I have come to you thus and I pray you of +your goodness that my tale may be heard,'" The scene concludes, "Joglar, +I hold the story which you have related as good, amusing and fair and +you also the teller of it and I will order such reward to be given to +you that you shall know that the story has indeed pleased me." + +The crown of Castile was united with that of Leon by Fernando III. +(1230-1262) the son of Alfonso IX. of Leon. Lanfranc Cigala, the +troubadour of Genoa, excuses the Spaniards at this time for their +abstention from the Crusades to Jerusalem on the ground that they were +fully occupied in their struggles with the Moors. Fernando is one of the +kings to whom Sordello refers in the famous _sirventes_ of the divided +heart, as also is Jaime I. of Aragon (1213-1276), the "Conquistador," of +whom much is heard in the poetry of the troubadours. He was born at [117] +Montpelier and was fond of revisiting his birthplace; troubadours whom +he there met accompanied him to Spain, joined in his expeditions and +enjoyed his generosity. His court became a place of refuge for those who +had been driven out of Southern France by the Albigeois crusade; Peire +Cardenal, Bernard Sicart de Marvejols and N'At de Mons of Toulouse +visited him. His popularity with the troubadours was considerably shaken +by his policy in 1242, when a final attempt was made to throw off the +yoke imposed upon Southern France as the result of the Albigeois +crusade. Isabella of Angoulême, the widow of John of England, had +married the Count de la Marche; she urged him to rise against the French +and induced her son, Henry III. of England, to support him. Henry hoped +to regain his hold of Poitou and was further informed that the Count of +Toulouse and the Spanish kings would join the alliance. There seems to +have been a general belief that Jaime would take the opportunity of +avenging his father's death at Muret. However, no Spanish help was +forthcoming; the allies were defeated at Saintes and at Taillebourg and +this abortive rising ended in 1243. Guillem de Montanhagol says in a +_sirventes_ upon this event, "If King Jaime, with whom we have never +broken faith, had kept the agreement which is said to have been made [118] +between him and us, the French would certainly have had cause to grieve +and lament." Bernard de Rovenhac shows greater bitterness: "the king of +Aragon is undoubtedly well named Jacme (jac from jazer, to lie down) for +he is too fond of lying down and when anyone despoils him of his land, +he is so feeble that he does not offer the least opposition." Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols voices the grief of his class at the failure of the +rising: "In the day I am full of wrath and in the night I sigh betwixt +sleeping and waking; wherever I turn, I hear the courteous people crying +humbly 'Sire' to the French." These outbursts do not seem to have roused +Jaime to any great animosity against the troubadour class. Aimeric de +Belenoi belauds him, Peire Cardenal is said to have enjoyed his favour, +and other minor troubadours refer to him in flattering terms. + +The greatest Spanish patron of the troubadours was undoubtedly Alfonso +X. of Castile (1254-1284). El Sabio earned his title by reason of his +enlightened interest in matters intellectual; he was himself a poet, +procured the translation of many scientific books and provided Castile +with a famous code of laws. The Italian troubadours Bonifaci Calvo and +Bartolomeo Zorzi were welcomed to his court, to which many others came +from Provence. One of his favourites was the troubadour who was the last [119] +representative of the old school, Guiraut Riquier of Narbonne. He was +born between 1230 and 1235, when the Albigeois crusade was practically +over and when troubadour poetry was dying, as much from its own inherent +lack of vitality as from the change of social and political environment +which the upheaval of the previous twenty years had produced. Guiraut +Riquier applied to a Northern patron for protection, a proceeding +unexampled in troubadour history and the patron he selected was the King +of France himself. Neither Saint Louis nor his wife were in the least +likely to provide a market for Guiraut's wares and the Paris of that day +was by no means a centre of literary culture. The troubadour, therefore, +tried his fortune with Alfonso X. whose liberality had become almost +proverbial. There he seems to have remained for some years and to have +been well content, in spite of occasional friction with other suitors +for the king's favour. His description of Catalonia is interesting. + + Pus astres no m'es donatz + Que de mi dons bes m'eschaia, + Ni nulho nos plazers no·l platz, + Ni ay poder que·m n'estraia, + Ops m'es qu'ieu sia fondatz + En via d'amor veraia, + E puesc n'apenre assatz + + En Cataluenha la gaia, [120] + Entrels Catalas valens + E las donas avinens. + + Quar dompneys, pretz e valors, + Joys e gratz e cortesia, + Sens e sabers et honors, + Bels parlars, bella paria, + E largueza et amors, + Conoyssensa e cundia, + Troban manten e socors + + En Cataluenha a tria, + Entrels, etc. + +"Since my star has not granted me that from my lady happiness should +fall to me, since no pleasure that I can give pleases her and I have no +power to forget her, I must needs enter upon the road of true love and I +can learn it well enough in gay Catalonia among the Catalonians, men of +worth, and their kindly ladies. For courtesy, worth, joy, gratitude and +gallantry, sense, knowledge, honour, fair speech, fair company, +liberality and love, learning and grace find maintenance and support in +Catalonia entirely." + +Between thirty and forty poets of Spanish extraction are known to have +written Provençal poetry. Guillem de Tudela of Navarre wrote the first +part of the _Chanson de la Croisade albigeoise_; Serveri de Gerona wrote +didactic and devotional poetry, showing at least ingenuity of technique; +Amanieu des Escas has left love letters and didactic works for the [121] +instruction of young people in the rules of polite behaviour. But the +influence of Provençal upon the native poetry of Spain proper was but +small, in spite of the welcome which the troubadours found at the courts +of Castile, Aragon, Leon and Navarre. Troubadour poetry required a +peaceful and an aristocratic environment, and the former at least of +these conditions was not provided by the later years of Alfonso X. +Northern French influence was also strong: numerous French immigrants +were able to settle in towns newly founded or taken from the Moors. The +warlike and adventurous spirit of Northern and Central Spain preferred +epic to lyric poetry: and the outcome was the _cantar de gesta_ and the +_romance_, the lyrico-narrative or ballad poem. + +This was not the course of development followed either in the Eastern or +Western coasts of the peninsula. Catalonia was as much a part of the +Provençal district as of Spain. To the end of the thirteenth century +Catalonian poets continued to write in the language of the troubadours, +often breaking the strict rules of rime correspondence and of grammar, +but refusing to use their native dialect. Religious poems of popular and +native origin appear to have existed, but even the growth of a native +prose was unable to overcome the preference for Provençal in the [122] +composition of lyrics. Guiraut de Cabreira is remembered for the 213 +lines which he wrote to instruct his _joglar_ Cabra; Guiraut upbraids +this performer for his ignorance, and details a long series of legends +and poems which a competent _joglar_ ought to know. Guiraut de Calanso +wrote an imitation of this diatribe. The best known of the Catalonian +troubadours is Raimon Vidal of Besadun, both for his _novelas_ and also +for his work on Provençal grammar and metre, _Las rasos de trobar_,[33] +which was written for the benefit of his compatriots who desired to +avoid solecisms or mistakes when composing. "For as much as I, Raimon +Vidal, have seen and known that few men know or have known the right +manner of composing poetry (trobar) I desire to make this book that men +may know and understand which of the troubadours have composed best and +given the best instruction to those who wish to learn how they should +follow the right manner of composing.... All Christian people, Jews, +Saracens, emperors, princes, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, vavassors +and all other nobles with clergy, citizens and villeins, small and +great, daily give their minds to composing and singing.... In this +science of composing the troubadours are gone astray and I will tell you +wherefore. The hearers who do not understand anything when they hear a +fine poem will pretend that they understand perfectly... because they [123] +think that men would consider it a fault in them if they said that they +did not understand.... And if when they hear a bad troubadour, they do +understand, they will praise his singing because they understand it; or +if they will not praise, at least they will not blame him; and thus the +troubadours are deceived and the hearers are to blame for it." Raimon +Vidal proceeds to say that the pure language is that of Provence or of +Limousin or of Saintonge or Auvergne or Quercy: "wherefore I tell you, +that when I use the term Limousin, I mean all those lands and those +which border them or are between them." He was apparently the first to +use the term Limousin to describe classical Provençal, and when it +became applied to literary Catalonian, as distinguished from _plá +Catalá_, the vulgar tongue, the result was some confusion. Provençal +influence was more permanent in Catalonia than in any other part of +Spain; in 1393, the Consistorium of the _Gay saber_ was founded in +imitation of the similar association at Toulouse. Most of the troubadour +poetical forms and the doctrines of the Toulouse _Leys d'Amors_ were +retained, until Italian influence began to oust Provençal towards the +close of the fifteenth century. + +On the western side of Spain, Provençal influence evoked a brief and +brilliant literature in the Galician or Portuguese school. Its most [124] +brilliant period was the age of Alfonso X. of Castile, one of its most +illustrious exponents, and that of Denis of Portugal (1280-1325). The +dates generally accepted for the duration of this literature are +1200-1385; it has left to us some 2000 lyric poems, the work of more +than 150 poets, including four kings and a number of nobles of high +rank. French and Provençal culture had made its way gradually and by +various routes to the western side of the Spanish peninsula. + +We have already referred to the pilgrim route to the shrine of +Compostella, by which a steady stream of foreign influence entered the +country. The same effect was produced by crusaders who came to help the +Spaniards in their struggle against the Moors, and by foreign colonists +who helped to Christianise the territories conquered from the +Mohammedans. The capture of Lisbon in 1147 increased maritime +intercourse with the North. Individuals from Portugal also visited +Northern and Southern France, after the example of their Spanish +neighbours. References to Portugal in the poetry of the troubadours are +very scarce, nor is there any definite evidence that any troubadour +visited the country. This fact is in striking contrast with the loud +praises of the Spanish courts. None the less, such visits must have +taken place: Sancho I. had French _jongleurs_ in his pay during [125] +the twelfth century and the Portuguese element in the five-language +_descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras shows that communication between +Provençal poets and Portuguese or Galician districts must have existed. +The general silence of the troubadours may be due to the fact that +communication began at a comparatively late period and was maintained +between Portugal and Spanish courts, and not directly between Portugal +and Southern France. + +Alfonso X. of Castile himself wrote many poems in the Galician or +Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons analogous +to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in +Provençal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form +and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to +an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is +preserved with the accompanying ideas of _amour courtois_, and the lyric +forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provençal manner +took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the +ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric +poetry which was remodelled under Provençal influence. The most popular +of the types thus developed were _Cantigas de amor e de amigo_ and +_Cantigas de_ _escarnho e de maldizer_; the former were love +songs: when the poet speaks the song was one _de amor_; when the lady +speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provençal usage) the song was +_de amigo_. This latter is a type developed independently by the +Portuguese school. _Cantigas de escarnho_ correspond in intention [126] +to the Provençal _sirventes_; if their satire was open and unrestrained +they were _cantigas de maldizer_. They dealt for the most part with +trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy +upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in +taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about +1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty +years. + + + +CHAPTER IX [127] + + +PROVENÇAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND + +Provençal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the +minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically +with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school, +flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the +Rhine school. In the latter case, Provençal influence is not disputed; +but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it, +has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that +the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of +Provençal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry +in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of +development before Provençal influence affected it. Austria undoubtedly +came into touch with this influence at an early date. The Danube valley +was a high road for the armies of crusaders; another route led from +Northern Italy to Vienna, by which Peire Vidal probably found his way to +Hungary. At the same time, though Provençal influence was strong, the [128] +Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or +translation of troubadour productions. Dietmar von Aist, one of the +earliest minnesingers, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth +century has, for instance, the Provençal _alba_ theme. Two lovers part +at daybreak, when awakened by a bird on the linden: if the theme is +Provençal, the simplicity of the poet's treatment is extremely fresh and +natural. This difference is further apparent in the attitude of +minnesingers and troubadours towards the conception of "love." The +minnesong is the literary expression of the social convention known as +"Frauendienst," the term "minne" connoting the code which prescribed the +nature of the relation existing between the lover and his lady; the +dominant principle was a reverence for womanhood as such, and in this +respect the German minnesang is inspired by a less selfish spirit than +the Provençal troubadour poetry. Typical of the difference is Walter von +der Vogelweide's-- + + Swer guotes wîbes minne hât, + der schamt sich aller missetât. + +("He who has a good woman's love is ashamed of every ill deed"), +compared with Bernart de Ventadour's-- + + Non es meravilha s'ieu chan [129] + Melhs de nul autre chantador + Car plus trai mos cors ves Amor + E melhs sui faitz a son coman. + +("It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws nearer to love and I am better made for love's command.") The +troubadour _amor_, especially in its Italian development, eventually +attained the moral power of the _minne_; but in its early stages, it was +a personal and selfish influence. The stanza form and rime distribution +of the minnesinger poems continually betray Provençal influence: the +principle of tripartition is constantly followed and the arrangement of +rimes is often a repetition of that adopted in troubadour stanzas. +Friedrich von Hausen, the Count Rudolf von Fenis, Heinrich von Morungen +and others sometimes translate almost literally from troubadour poetry, +though these imitations do not justify the lines of Uhland. + + In den Thälern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen, + Kind des Frühlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen. + +Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous +lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and +"chansons de toile." Provençal influence here was inevitable. It is +apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel [130] +Provençal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact +that Provençal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics. +Provençal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by +means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by +intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provençal +influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of +Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter, +Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal +code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the _De +arte honeste amandi_ of André le Chapelain, written at the outset of the +thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and +Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly +love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chrétien de Troyes. + +The Provençal school in Northern France began during the latter half of +the twelfth century. The _chanson_ properly so called is naturally most +strongly represented: but the Provençal forms, the _tençon_ (Prov. +_tenso_) and a variant of it, the _jeu-parti_ (Prov. _jocs partitz_ or +_partimens_) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called, +because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his +interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that [131] +he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the +contestants often left the decision in an _envoi_ to one or more +arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of +these _envois_ gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love," +as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest +representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he +took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace +Brulé and the Châtelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to +the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre +(1201-1253), shared in the Albigeois crusade and thus helped in the +destruction of the poetry which he imitated. One of the poems attributed +to him by Dante (_De Vulg. El._) belongs to Gace Brulé; his love affair +with Blanche of Castile is probably legendary. Several crusade songs are +attributed to Thibaut among some thirty poems of the kind that remain to +us from the output of this school. These crusade poems exhibit the +characteristics of their Provençal models: there are exhortations to +take the cross in the form of versified sermons; there are also love +poems which depict the poet's mind divided between his duty as a +crusader and his reluctance to leave his lady; or we find the lady [132] +bewailing her lover's departure, or again, lady and lover lament their +approaching separation in alternate stanzas. There is more real feeling +in some of these poems than is apparent in the ordinary chanson of the +Northern French courtly school: the following stanzas are from a poem by +Guiot de Dijon,[34] the lament of a lady for her absent lover-- + + Chanterai por mon corage + Que je vueill reconforter + Car avec mon grant damage + Ne quier morir n'afoler, + Quant de la terra sauvage + Ne voi nului retorner + Ou cil est qui m'assoage + Le cuer, quant j'en oi parler + Dex, quant crieront outree, + Sire, aidiés au pelerin + Por cui sui espoentee, + Car felon sunt Sarrazin. + + De ce sui bone atente + Que je son homage pris, + E quant la douce ore vente + Qui vient de cel douz païs + Ou cil est qui m'atalente, + Volontiers i tor mon vis: + Adont m'est vis que jel sente + Par desoz mon mantel gris. + Dex, etc. + +"I will sing for my heart which I will comfort, for in spite of my great +loss I do not wish to die, and yet I see no one return from the wild [133] +land where he is who calms my heart when I hear mention of him. God! +when they cry Outre (a pilgrim marching cry), Lord help the pilgrim for +whom I tremble, for wicked are the Saracens. + +"From this fact have I confidence, that I have received his vows and +when the gentle breeze blows which comes from the sweet country where he +is whom I desire, readily do I turn my face thither: then I think I feel +him beneath my grey mantle." + +The idea in the second stanza quoted is borrowed from Bernard de +Ventadour-- + + Quant la douss' aura venta + Deves vostre païs. + Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta + Un ven de Paradis. + +The greater part of this poetry repeats, in another language, the +well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory +references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of +ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from +his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form +and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and +occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that +school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated +emotion and appealed only to a restricted class of the initiated. +Changes in the constitution and customs of society brought this school [134] +to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of +lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache +Deschamps. + +Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject +has hitherto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as +much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was +Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard +followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What +truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his +motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis +emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno +Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo +canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in +orbe." The manuscripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one +referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I. +(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his +imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a +Provençal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's +discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.[35] + +From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant [135] +communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number +of Provençals visited England at different times and especially in the +reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de +Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided +for the entry of Provençal influence during the period when a general +stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman +French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of +that age and it was not until the second half of the thirteenth century +that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provençal +influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry. +But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was +similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas, +Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in +imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte +joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes +effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also +political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly +called _sirventes_, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum, +Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the [136] +principles of the _tenso_ or _partimen_. The use of equivocal and +"derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the +following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in +the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provençal +_trobairitz_; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure +coincidence.[36] + + En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt + E reverdist la matinée + E sil oysel chauntent a poynt + En temps d'avril en la ramée, + Lores est ma dolur dublée + Que jeo sui en si dure poynt + Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt, + Tant me greve la destinée. + + Murnes et pensif m'en depart, + Que trop me greve la partie; + Si n'en puis aler cele part, + Que ele n'eyt a sa partie + Mon quor tot enter saunz partie. + E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part, + E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part + A moi est dure la partie. + +"In the season when the grass springs and the morn is green and the +birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief +doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy +is my fate upon me. + +"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet [137] +I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and +undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of +hers, the division is a hard one to me." + +This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These +lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as +an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples +of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrain of +distinctly popular origin is added to a stanza of courtly and artificial +character. Generally, however, there is a freshness and vigour in these +poems which may be vainly sought in the products of continental +decadence. But Provençal influence, whether exerted directly or +indirectly through the Northern French lyric school, is plainly visible +in many cases. Of the lyrics found in the important MS. Harleian +2253,[37] "Alysoun" has the same rime scheme as a poem by Gaucelm +Faidit: it opens with the conventional appeal to spring; the poet's +feelings deprive him of sleep. The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a +rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut +d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many +troubadour formulae: the concluding lines-- + + He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze, [138] + pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze, + heuene he hevede here. + +are a troubadour commonplace. Many other cases might be quoted. Hymns +and songs to the Virgin exhibit the same characteristics of form. The +few Provençal words which became English are interesting;[38] colander +or cullender (now a vegetable strainer; Prov. colador), funnel, +puncheon, rack, spigot, league, noose are directly derived from +Provençal and not through Northern French and are words connected with +shipping and the wine trade, the port for which was Bordeaux. + + +In the year 1323 a society was formed in Toulouse of seven troubadours, +the "sobregaya companhia," for the purpose of preserving and encouraging +lyric poetry (lo gay saber). The middle class of Toulouse seems at all +times to have felt an interest in poetry and had already produced such +well-known troubadours as Aimeric de Pegulhan, Peire Vidal and Guillem +Figueira. The society offered an annual prize of a golden violet for the +best _chanso_; other prizes were added at a later date for the best +dance song and the best _sirventes_. Competitors found that songs to the +Virgin were given the preference and she eventually became the one +subject of these prize competitions. The society produced a grammatical [139] +work, the Leys d'Amors, under the name of its president, Guillem +Molinier, in 1356,[39] no doubt for the reference and instruction of +intending competitors. The competition produced a few admirable poems, +but anxiety to preserve the old troubadour style resulted generally in +dry and stilted compositions. The _Academie des jeux floraux_[40] +altered the character of the competition by admitting French poems after +1694. At the end of the sixteenth century, Provençal poetry underwent a +revival; in our own time, poets such as Jasmin, Aubanel, Roumanille and +above all, Mistral, have raised their language from a patois to a +literary power. The work of the félibres has been to synthetise the best +elements of the various local dialects and to create a literary language +by a process not wholly dissimilar to that described at the outset of +this book. But the old troubadour spirit had died long before; it had +accomplished its share in the history of European literature and had +given an impulse to the development of lyric poetry, the effects of +which are perceptible even at the present day. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES + + +LITERARY HISTORY + +F. Diez, _Leben und Werke der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., re-edited by K. +Bartsch, Leipsic, 1882. _Die Poesie der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., +re-edited by K. Bartsch, Leipsic, 1883. + +K. Bartsch, _Grundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur_, +Elberfeld, 1872. A new edition of this indispensable work is in +preparation by Prof. A. Pillet of Breslau. The first part of the book +contains a sketch of Provençal literature, and a list of manuscripts. +The second part gives a list of the troubadours in alphabetical order, +with the lyric poems attributed to each troubadour. The first line of +each poem is quoted and followed by a list of the MSS. in which it is +found. Modern editors have generally agreed to follow these lists in +referring to troubadour lyrics: e.g. B. Gr., 202, 4 refers to the fourth +lyric (in alphabetical order) of Guillem Ademar, who is no. 202 in +Bartsch's list. + +A list of corrections to this list is given by Gröber in Böhmer's +_Romanische Studien_, vol. ii. 1875-77, Strassburg. In vol. ix. of the +same is Gröbers' study of troubadour MSS. and the relations between +them. + +A. Stimming, _Provenzaliscke Literatur in Gröber's Grundriss der +Romanischen Philologie_, Strassburg, 1888, vol. ii. part ii. contains +useful bibliographical notices. + +A. Restori, _Letteratura provenzale_, Milan, 1891 (_Manuali Hoepli_), an +excellent little work. + +A. Jeanroy, _Les origines de la poésie lyrique en France_, 2nd edit., +Paris, 1904. + +J. Anglade, _Les troubadours_, Paris, 1908, an excellent and trustworthy +work, in popular style, with a good bibliography. + +J. H. Smith, _The troubadours at Home_, 2 vols., New York, 1899; +popularises scientific knowledge by impressions of travel in Southern +France, photographs, and historical imagination: generally stimulating +and suggestive, Most histories of French literature devote some space to +Provençal; e.g. Suchier & Birch-Hirschfeld, _Geschichte der +französischen Litteratur_, Leipsic, 1900. The works of Millot and +Fauriel are now somewhat antiquated. _Trobador Poets_, Barbara Smythe, +London, 1911, contains an introduction and translations from various +troubadours. + + + +DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS + +F. Raynouard, _Lexique roman_, 6 vols., Paris, 1838-1844, +supplemented by. + +E. Levy, _Provenzalisches supplement-Wörterbuch_, Leipsic, 1894, not +yet completed, but indispensable. + +E. Levy, _Petit dictionnaire provençal-français_, Heidelberg, 1908. + +J. B. Roquefort, _Glossaire de la langue romane_, 3 vols., Paris, 1820. + +W. Meyer-Lübke, _Grammaire des langues romanes_, French translation of +the German, Paris, 1905. + +C. H. Grandgent, _An outline of the phonology and morphology of old +Provençal_, Boston, 1905. + +H. Suchier, _Die französiche und provenzalische Sprache_ in Gröber's +_Grundriss_. A French translation, _Le Français et le Provençal_, Paris, +1891. + + + +TEXTS + +The following chrestomathies contain tables of grammatical forms (except +in the case of Bartsch) texts and vocabularies. + +_Altprovenzalisches Elementarbuch_, O. Schultz-Gora, Heidelberg, 1906, +an excellent work for beginners. + +_Provenzalische Chrestomathie_, C. Appel, Leipsic, 1907, 3rd edit. + +_Manualetto provenzale_, V. Crescini, Padua, 1905, 2nd edit. + +_Chrestomathie provençal_, K. Bartsch, re-edited by Koschwitz, Marburg, +1904. + +The following editions of individual troubadours have been published. + +Alegret. _Annales du Midi_, no. 74. + +Arnaut Daniel. U. A. Canello, Halle, 1883. + +Bernart de Rovenac. G. Borsdorff, Erlangen, 1907. + +Bartolomeo Zorzi. E. Levy, Halle, 1883. + +Bertran d'Alamanon. J. Salverda de Grave, Toulouse, 1902 (_Bibliothèque +Méridionale_). + +Bertran de Born. A. Thomas, Toulouse, 1888 (_Bibliothèque Méridionale_). + +Bertran de Born. A. Stimming, Halle, 1892 (and in the _Romanischz +Bibliothek_, Leipsic). + +Blacatz. O. Soltau, Leipsic, 1890. + +Cercamon. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1905 (_Annales du Midi_, vol. xvii.). + +Elias de Barjols. Stronski, Paris, 1906 (_Bibliothèque Méridionale_ +vi.). + +Folquet de Marselha. Stronski, Cracow, 1911. + +Folquet de Romans. Zenker (_Romanische Bibliothek_). + +Gavaudan. A. Jeanroy, _Romania_, xxxiv., p. 497. + +Guillaume IX. Comte de Poitiers. A. Jeanroy, Toulouse, 1905. + +Guillem Anelier de Toulouse. M. Gisi, Solothurn, 1877. + +Guillem de Cabestanh. F. Hüffer, Berlin, 1869. + +Guillem Figueira. E. Levy, Berlin, 1880. + +Guillem de Montanhagol. J. Coulet, _Bibliothèque Méridionale_, iv., +Toulouse. + +Guiraut de Bornelh. A. Kolsen, Berlin, 1894 and 1911. + +Guiraut d'Espanha. P. Savi-Lopez. _Studj mediaevali_, Fasc. 3, Turin, +1905. + +Guiraut Riquier, Étude sur, etc. J. Anglade, Paris, 1905. + +Jaufre Rudel. A Stimming, Kiel, 1873. + +Marcabrun. Dr Dejeanne. _Bibliothèque Méridionale_, 1910. + +Marcoat. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1903 (_Annales du Midi_, xv.). + +Monk of Montaudon. E. Philippson, Halle, 1873; O. Klein, Marburg, 1885. + +N' At de Mons. Bernhard. _Altfranzösische Bibliothek, Heilbronn_. + +Paulet de Marselha. E. Levy, Paris, 1882. + +Peire d'Alvernhe (d'Auvergne). R. Zenker, Rostock, 1900. + +Peire Vidal. K. Bartsch, Berlin, 1857 (an edition by J. Anglade is about +to appear). + +Peire Rogier. C. Appel, Berlin, 1892. + +Perdigon. H.J. Chaytor, _Annales du Midi_, xxi. + +Pons de Capdoill. M. Napolski, Halle, 1879. + +Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. O. Schultz, Halle, 1893. + +Raimon de Miraval, Etude sur, etc. P. Andraud, Paris, 1902. + +Sordel. De Lollis, Halle, 1896 (_Romanische Bibliothek_). + +Numerous separate pieces have been published in the various periodicals +concerned with Romance philology, as also have diplomatic copies of +several MSS. Of these periodicals, the most important for Provençal are +_Romania, les Annales du Midi, Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, +Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen, Romanische Studien, Studj +di filologia romanza, Revue des langues romanes_. Mahn's _Gedichte der +Troubadours_, 4 vols., Berlin, 1856-71, contains diplomatic copies of +MSS.; his _Werke der Troubadours_, Berlin, 1846-55, contains reprints +from Raynouard, _Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours_, Paris, +1816. Suchier, _Denkmäler provenzalischer Sprache_, Halle, 1883; Appel, +_Provenzalische Inedita_, Leipsic, 1890; Chabaneau, _Poesies inédites +des Troubadours du Perigord_, Paris, 1885; P. Meyer, _Les derniers +troubadours de Provence_, Paris, 1871, should be mentioned. Most of the +pieces in the _Parnasse Occitanien_, Toulouse, 1819, are to be found +better edited elsewhere. Other pieces are to be found in various +_Festschriften_ and occasional or private publications, too numerous to +be detailed here. C. Chabaneau, _Les biographies des Troubadours_, +Toulouse, 1885 (part of the _Histoire générale de Languedoc_) is full of +valuable information. The biographies have been translated by I. +Farnell, _Lives of the Troubadours_, London, 1896. + + + +NOTES + + +CHAPTER I + +1. See maps at the end of Gröber's _Grundriss_, vol. i. + +2. _De Vulg. El._ I., 8: alii oc, alii oïl, alii si affirmando +loquuntur, and _Vita Nuova_, xxv. Dante also knew the term provincialis. + +3. Boethius. F. Hündgen, Oppeln, 1884. For Sainte Foy d'Agen, see +_Romania_ xxxi., p, 177 ff. + +4. P. Meyer in _Romania_ v., p. 257. Bédier, _Les chansons de Croisade_, +Paris, 1909, p. 16. + +5. See P. Maus, _Peire Cardenals Strophenbau_, Marburg, 1884. + +6. See Jeanroy, Origines, etc. + + +CHAPTER II + +7. Provençal has also the feminine _joia_ with the general meaning of +"delight." + +8. See Stimming's article in Gröber's _Grundriss_. + +9. Raynouard, _Les Troubadours et les Cours d'Amour_, Paris, 1817; see +also Diez, _Ãœber die Minnehöfe_, Berlin, 1825. Pio Rajna, _Le Corti +d'Amore_, Milan, 1890. + +10. _Annales du Midi_, xix. p. 364. + +11. _Die provenzalische Tenzone_, R. Zenker, Leipsic, 1888. + + +CHAPTER III + +12. Girart de Roussillon, translation by P. Meyer, Paris, 1884: see also +_Romania_, vii. Diplomatic copies of the MSS. in _Romanische Studien_ V. +_Le Roman de Flamenca_, P. Meyer, Paris, 1901. + +13. J. B. Beck, _Die Melodien der Troubadours_, Strasburg, 1908. _La +Musique des Troubadours_, Paris, 1910, by the same author, who there +promised a selection of songs harmonized for performance: this has not +yet appeared. See also _Quatre poésies de Marcabrun_, Jeanroy, Dejeanne +and Aubry, Paris, 1904, with texts, music, and translations. + +14. Schindler, _Die Kreuzzüge in der altprovenzalischen und +mittelhochdeutschen lyrik._, Dresden, 1889. K. Lewent, _Das +altprovenzalische Kreuzlied_, Berlin, 1905. + +15. A. Pillet, _Studien zur Pastourelle_, Breslau, 1902. Römer, _Die +volkstümlichen Dichtungsarten der altprovenzalischen Lyrik_, Marburg, +1884. + +16. _Quae judicia de litteris fecerint Provinciales_. P. Andraud, Paris, +1902. + +17. From _Si'm sentis fizels amics_, quoted by Dante, _De Vulg. El._ i. 9. + + +CHAPTER IV + +18. "Paubre motz"; also interpreted as "scanty words," i.e. poems with +short lines. On Jaufre Rudel in literature, see a lecture by Carducci, +Bologna 1888. The latest theory of his mysterious love is that she was +the Virgin Mary; see C. Appel, _Archiv für das Studium der neueren +Sprachen_, cvii. 3-4. + +19. Mahn, _Gedichte_, no. 707. An edition of Bernard de Ventadour's +poems is in preparation by Prof. Appel. + +20. _Cp._ Dante, _Par._ xx. 73. + + +CHAPTER V + +21. Dante, _De Vulg. El._ ii. 2. + +22. "Il Provenzale," _Conv._ iv. 11. + +23. _Purg._ xxvi. + +24. On his family see Stronski, _Folquet de Marseille_, p. 15 and +159-172. + +25. See G. Paris, _La Littérature française au moyen âge_, § 128. + + +CHAPTER VI + +26. The best short account of the Albigenses is to be found in vol. i. +of H.C. Lea's _Histoire de L'Inquisition au moyen âge_, Paris, 1903. +This, the French translation, is superior to the English edition as it +contains the author's last corrections, and a number of bibliographical +notes. The Adoptionist theory is stated in the introduction to F.C. +Conybeare's _Key of Truth_, Oxford, 1908. The _Chanson de la Croisade +Albigeoise_, P. Meyer, Paris, 1875, 2 vols., is indispensable to +students of the subject. In these works will be found much of the +extensive bibliography of the heresy and crusade. + +27. Eckbertus, _Serm. adv. Catharos, Migne, Patr. Lat._, tom. 193. p. +73. + +28. _Cf._ Milman, _Latin Christianity_, Book IX. chap. viii. p. 85. + +29. On religious lyric poetry, see Lowinsky, _Zeitschrift für +französische Sprache und Litteratur_, xx. p. 163 ff., and the +bibliographical note to Stimming's article in Gröber's _Grundriss_, vol. +ii. part ii. § 32. + + +CHAPTER VII + +Most histories of Italian literature deal with this subject. See +Gaspary's _Italian Literature to the death of Dante_: H. Oelsner, Bohn's +Libraries. See also the chapter, _La poésie française en Italie_ in +Jeanroy's _Origines_. For Dante, see _Storia letteraria d'Italia, +scritta di una società di professori_, Milan, vol. iii., Dante, by +Zingarelli. _The Troubadours of Dante_, Chaytor, Oxford, 1902. Useful +are A. Thomas, _Francesco da Barberino et la littérature provençale en +Italie au moyen âge_, Paris, 1883. O. Schultz, _Die Lebensverhältnisse +der Italienischen Trobadors_, Berlin, 1883. + +30. Schultz, _Die Briefe des Trobadors Raimbaut de Vaqueiras an Bonifaz +I._, Halle, 1883. + +31. Zingarelli, _Intorno a due Trovatori in Italia_, Florence, 1899. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Milà y Fontañals, _Los trovadores en España_, Barcelona, 1861, remains +the best work on the subject. On Portugal, the article in Gröber's +_Grundriss_, ii. 2, p. 129, by C. Michaelis de Vasconcellos and Th. +Braga is admirable: see the bibliographical references there given and +the introduction to R. Lang, _Das Liederbuch des Königs Denis von +Portugal_, Halle, 1894. + +32. The date of this poem is disputed, see Dr Dejeanne's edition of +Marcabrun, p. 235. + +33. F. Guessard, _Grammaires Provençales_, Paris, 1858; E. Stengel, _Die +beiden ältesten prov. Gram._, Marburg, 1878. + + +CHAPTER IX + +Troubadour influence in Germany is discussed at greater or less length +in most histories of German literature. See Jeanroy, _Origines_, p. 270 +ff. A. Lüderitz, _Die Liebestheorien der Provenzalen bei den +Minnesingern der Slauferzeit_, Literarhistorische Forschungen, Berlin, +1904. + +For France. A. Jeanroy, _De nostratibus medii aevi poetis qui primum +Aquitaniae carmina imitati sint_, Paris, 1889. + +For England. Schofield, _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to +Chaucer_, London, 1906. O. Heider, _Untersuchungen zur mittelenglischen +erotischen Lyrik_, Halle, 1905. A. Brandl, _Spielmann's verhältnisse in +frühmittelenglischer Zeit_, Sitzungs-berichte der Königl. preuss., +Akademie, 1910. + +34. Bédier, _Chansons de Croisade_, Paris, 1909, p. 112. + +35. See introduction to Leo Wiese, _Die Lieder des Blondel de Nesle_, +Dresden, 1904, p. 19 ff. + +36. _Romania_, viii. p. 370. + +37. K. Böddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl._ 2253, Berlin, +1878. + +38. Modern Language Review, vol. 1. p. 285; vol. ii. p. 60, articles by +Prof. Skeat. + +39. P. Leinig, _Grammatik der provenzalischen Leys d'amors verglichen +mit der Sprache der Troubadours_, Breslau, 1890. M. Gatien. Arnoult, +_Monuments de la littérature romane_, Toulouse, 1841. + +40. _Histoire critique de l'Académie des Jeux Floraux_, by F. de Gélis +from the origin to the 17th century will appear shortly in the +Bibliothèque meridionale, Toulouse. Useful anthologies of modern +Provençal are _Flourilège prouvençau_, Toulon, 1909: _Antologia +provenzale_, E Portal, Milan, Hoepli, 1911 (Manuali Hoepli). + + + +INDEX. + + Alamanon, Bertran d', 104 + _Alba_, 33, 128 + Albigeois, 13, 23, 75, ff. + Alcuin, 7 + Alfonso II. of Aragon, 51, 59, 69, 74, 110, 113 + Alfonso VIII. of Castile, 110, 113, 114 + Alfonso X. of Castile, 118, 124 + André le Chapelain, 19, 130 + Aquino, Rinaldo d', 82 + Aquitaine, 42 + Arabs, 8, 105 + Aragon, 54, 71, 110 + ---- Pedro II. of, 78, 83, 113 + Arles, 5 + Aurenga, Raimbaut d', 35, 85, 64 + Auvergne, 3 + ---- Dauphin of, 134 + ---- Peire d', 36, 67, 70, 135 + Azalais, 71, 79 + + + _Ballata_, 33 + Barral, 71, 79 + Belenoi, Aimeric de, 118 + Bethune, Conon de, 131 + Bezaudun, Raimon Vidal of, 115, 122 + Béziers, 50, 78 + Blacatz, 103 + Born, Bertran de, 13, 57, 111, 130 + Bornelh, Giraut de, 23, 35, 37, 53, 68, 86, 113 + Brunei, Uc, 113 + + + Cabestanh, Guillem de, 73 + Cabreira, Guiraut de, 122 + Caen, Raoul de, 6 + Cairel, Elias, 12 + Calanso, Guiraut de, 115, 122 + Calha, Albertet, 12 + Calvo, Bonifacio, 100, 118 + Carcassonne, 78 + Cardenal, Peire, 11, 82, 84, 92, 117, 118 + Castile, 54, 71 + ---- Sancho III. of, 67 + Catalonia, 3, 5, 71, 109, 121 ff. + Cercamon, 9, 42 + Chabaneau, 20 + _Chanso_, 23 + Cigala, Lanfranc, 39, 100, 116 + Circ, Uc de San, 100, 113 + Corbiac, Peire de, 93 + _Comjat_, 23 + Compostella, 109, 124 + Courts of Love, 19 + Cunizza, 101 + + + Daniel, Arnaut, 55 + Dante, 24, 53, 55, 57, 63, 104, 108, 131 + Denis, 124 + _Descort_, 33, 97 + Die, Countess of, 11, 65 + Dietmar von Aist, 128 + Dominic, 77, 80 + + + Ebles II., 46 + Eleanor of Aquitaine, 42, 46, 59, 130 + Escas Amanieu des, 121 + _Escondig_, 33 + Estampida, 33 + Este, 95 + Ezzelino III., 101 + + + Faidit, Gaucelm, 99, 135 + Ferdinand III. of Castile, 104, 116 + Figueira, Guillem, 82, 138 + Flamenca, 23 + Florence, 100 + Frederick II. of Sicily, 88, 105 + Friedrich von Hausen, 129 + + + Galicia, 123 + _Gasson_, 3, 9, 115 + Genoa, 78, 100 + Gerona, Serveri de, 120 + Guido delle Colonne, 106, 107 + Guido Guinicelli, 106 + Guiot de Dijon, 132 + + + Hautefort, 60, 111 + Henry II. of England, 47, 59, 63 + Henry III. of England, 104, 117 + + + Innocent III., 76, 77 + Inquisition, 80 + Isabella of Angoulême, 117 + + + Jaime I. of Aragon, 85 + Jaufre, Roman de, 23 + + + Languedoc, 3 + Lemosin, 5 + Lentino, Jacopo da, 82 + Leys d'Amors, 16, 23, 33, 138 + Limousin, 3, 4, 8, 123 + Louis VII. of France, 60, 69 + Louis VIII. of France, 89 + Lyons, 5, 77 + + + Malaspina, Marquis of, 100 + Malmesbury, William of, 41 + Manfred II., 100, 102 + Mantua, 101 + Marcabrun, 35, 43, 68, 85, 110, 135 + Mareuil, Arnaut de, 50, 53 + Marseilles, 5, 10 + ---- Barral of 71, 79 + ---- Folquet of, 10, 13, 72, 78, 91 + Marie of Champagne, 130 + Marvejols, Bernard Sicart de, 84, 117, 118 + Mauleon, Savaric de, 135 + Minnesingers, 128 + Miraval, RaÃmon de, 39, 83 + Montanhagol, Guillem de, 117 + Montaudon, Monk of, 11, 69, 79, 113 + ---- Beatrice of, 97 + Montpelier, Germonde de, 89 + ---- William VII. of, 51, 79 + Muret 78, 114 + Music, 26 ff. + + + Narbonne, 5, 59, 67 + Navarre, 54, 110 + ---- Guillem de Tudela of, 120 + Nesles, Blondel de, 131, 134 + Nostradamus, 19 + Novara, 102 + + + Orange, William IV. of, 96 + + + _Partimen_, 130 + _Pastorela_, 33 + Pegulhan, Aimeric de, 99, 107, 114, 138 + Perdigon, 11 + Pisa, 100 + _Planh_, 30 + Poitou, 4 + Poitiers, 6, 8 + ---- William of, 6, 41, 65, 90 + Portugal, Denis of, 124 + Provence, 3 + ---- Beatrice of, 102 + Puegsibot, Gausbert de, 14 + Puy, 69 + + + Raynouard, 19 + Richard Coeur de Lion, 55, 58, 69, 72, 134 + Riquier, Guiraut, 92, 118 + Rogier, Peire, 66 + Rovenhac, Bernart de, 118 + Roussillon, 3 + ---- Girart de, 22 + Rudel, Jaufre, 23, 44 + Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg, 82 + + + Savoy, 96 + _Serena_, 33 + Simon de Montfort, 78 + _Sirventes_, 30, 135 + Sordello, 96, 101, 116 + _Stanza_, 24, ff. + + + _Tenso_, 21, 31, 130 + Thibaut IV. of Champagne, 131 + Tor, Guillem de la, 100 + Toronet, 79 + Toulouse, 5, 13, 78, 80, 84, 138 + ---- N'At de Mons of, 117 + ---- Peire Raimon of, 113 + ---- Raimon V. of, 49, 50, 60, 67, 111 + ---- Raimon VI. of, 78, 80, 114 + Tripoli, Countess of, 44 + _Trobar clus_, 34 + Turin, 96 + + + Ussel, Gui d', 14 + + + Vaqueiras, Raimbaut de, 96, 100 + Vaudois, 76 + Venice, 100 + Ventadour, 11 + ---- Bernart of, 11, 13, 46, 68, 128, 130, 133, 135 + Verona, 96 + _Vers_, 23 + Vidal, Peire, 71, 95, 97, 100, 112, 115, 127, 138 + Virgin Mary, 15, 91 + + + Zorzi, Bartolomeo, 100, 118 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Troubadours, by H.J. Chaytor + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12456 *** diff --git a/12456-h/12456-h.htm b/12456-h/12456-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7df17e --- /dev/null +++ b/12456-h/12456-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4100 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title>THE TROUBADOURS</title> + <meta name="author" content="REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A."> + +<style type=text/css> + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} +p {text-align: justify} +blockquote {text-align: justify} + +hr {width: 50%; text-align: center} +hr.full {width: 100%} +hr.short {width: 20%; text-align: center} + +.note {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} +.footnote {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} +.side {padding-left: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 75%; + float: right; margin-left: 10px; border-left: thin dashed; + width: 25%; text-indent: 0px; font-style: italic; text-align: left} + +.dropcap {float: left} + +span.pagenum {font-size: 8pt; right: 91%; left: 1%; position: absolute} + +.poem {margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left} +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em} +.poem .stanza.i {margin: 1em 0em; font-style: italic;} +.poem p {padding-left: 3em; margin: 0px; text-indent: -3em} +.poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em} +.poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em} +.poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em} +.poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em} +.poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em} + + + + +</style> + +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12456 ***</div> + +<div align="center"> +<img src="images/Image1.png" alt=""> +</div> + + + + +<p><i>With the exception of the coat of arms at +the foot, the design on the title page is a +reproduction of one used by the earliest known +Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521</i></p> +<br><br> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + +<p>This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature +of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific +knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the +Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful +for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject +will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The +latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real +importance has been omitted.</p> + +<p>H.J. CHAYTOR.</p> + +<p>THE COLLEGE, +PLYMOUTH, March 1912.</p> +<br><br> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + + +<p>PREFACE</p> + +<p>CHAP.</p> + +<p>I. INTRODUCTORY </p> + +<p>II. THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE</p> + +<p>III. TECHNIQUE</p> + +<p>IV. THE EARLY TROUBADOURS</p> + +<p>V. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD</p> + +<p>VI. THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE</p> + +<p>VII. THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY </p> + +<p>VIII. THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN </p> + +<p>IX. PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND </p> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES </p> + +<p>INDEX</p> + +<br><br> + +<h2>THE TROUBADOURS<span class="pagenum"><a id="p001" name="p001"></a>[1] +</span></h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<p>INTRODUCTORY</p> + +<p>Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary +history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the +highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth +and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provençal poetry was +already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated +the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them +to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is +Provençal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal +and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provençal +until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouvères" in +Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by +troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p002" name="p002"></a>[2] +</span> +early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and +appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of +Provençal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von +Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a +subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative +literature.</p> + +<p>The northern limit of the Provençal language formed a line starting from +the Pointe de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde, passing through +Lesparre, Bordeaux, Libourne, Périgueux, rising northward to Nontron, la +Rochefoucauld, Confolens, Bellac, then turning eastward to Guéret and +Montluçon; it then went south-east to Clermont-Ferrand, Boën, Saint +Georges, Saint Sauveur near Annonay. The Dauphiné above Grenoble, most +of the Franche-Comté, French Switzerland and Savoy, are regarded as a +separate linguistic group known as Franco-Provençal, for the reason that +the dialects of that district display characteristics common to both +French and Provençal.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> On the south-west, Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Isles must also be included in the Provençal region. As +concerns the Northern limit, it must not be regarded as a definite line +of demarcation between the langue d'oil or the Northern French dialects +and the langue d'oc or Provençal. The boundary is, of course, determined +by noting the points at which certain linguistic features peculiar to +Provençal cease and are replaced by the characteristics of Northern <span class="pagenum"><a id="p003" name="p003"></a>[3] +</span> +French. Such a characteristic, for instance, is the Latin tonic <i>a</i> +before a single consonant, and not preceded by a palatal consonant, +which remains in Provençal but becomes <i>e</i> in French; Latin cant<i>a</i>re +becomes chant<i>a</i>r in Provençal but chant<i>e</i>r in French. But north and +south of the boundary thus determined there was, in the absence of any +great mountain range or definite geographical line of demarcation, an +indeterminate zone, in which one dialect probably shaded off by easy +gradations into the other.</p> + +<p>Within the region thus described as Provençal, several separate dialects +existed, as at the present day. Apart from the Franco-Provençal on the +north-east, which we have excluded, there was Gascon in the south-west +and the modern <i>départements</i> of the Basses and Hautes Pyrénées; +Catalonian, the dialect of Roussillon, which was brought into Spain in +the seventh century and still survives in Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Islands. The rest of the country may be subdivided by a line to +the north of which <i>c</i> before <i>a</i> becomes <i>ch</i> as in French, cant<i>a</i>re +producing chant<i>a</i>r, while southwards we find <i>c(k)</i> remaining. The +Southern dialects are those of Languedoc and Provence; north of the line +were the Limousin and Auvergne dialects. At the present day these +dialects have diverged very widely. In the early middle ages the +difference between them was by no means so great. Moreover, a literary <span class="pagenum"><a id="p004" name="p004"></a>[4] +</span> +language grew up by degrees, owing to the wide circulation of poems and +the necessity of using a dialect which could be universally +intelligible. It was the Limousin dialect which became, so to speak, the +backbone of this literary language, now generally known as Provençal, +just as the Tuscan became predominant for literary purposes among the +Italian dialects. It was in Limousin that the earliest troubadour lyrics +known to us were composed, and this district with the adjacent Poitou +and Saintonge may therefore be reasonably regarded as the birthplace of +Provençal lyric poetry.</p> + +<p>Hence the term "Provençal" is not entirely appropriate to describe the +literary language of the troubadours, as it may also be restricted to +denote the dialects spoken in the "Provincia". This difficulty was felt +at an early date. The first troubadours spoke of their language as +<i>roman</i> or <i>lingua romana,</i> a term equally applicable to any other +romance language. <i>Lemosin</i> was also used, which was too restricted a +term, and was also appropriated by the Catalonians to denote their own +dialect. A third term in use was the <i>lingua d'oc,</i> which has the +authority of Dante <a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> and was used by some of the later troubadours; +however, the term "Provençal" has been generally accepted, and must +henceforward be understood to denote the literary language common to the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p005" name="p005"></a>[5] +</span> +south of France and not the dialect of Provence properly so-called.</p> + +<p>For obvious reasons Southern France during the early middle ages had far +outstripped the Northern provinces in art, learning, and the refinements +of civilisation. Roman culture had made its way into Southern Gaul at an +early date and had been readily accepted by the inhabitants, while +Marseilles and Narbonne had also known something of Greek civilisation. +Bordeaux, Toulouse, Arles, Lyons and other towns were flourishing and +brilliant centres of civilisation at a time when Northern France was +struggling with foreign invaders. It was in Southern Gaul, again, that +Christianity first obtained a footing; here the barbarian invasions of +the fifth and sixth centuries proved less destructive to civilisation +than in Northern France, and the Visigoths seem to have been more +amenable to the influences of culture than the Northern Franks. Thus the +towns of Southern Gaul apparently remained centres in which artistic and +literary traditions were preserved more or less successfully until the +revival of classical studies during the age of Charlemagne. The climate, +again, of Southern France is milder and warmer than that of the North, +and these influences produced a difference which may almost be termed +racial. It is a difference visible even to-day and is well expressed by +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p006" name="p006"></a>[6] +</span> +the chronicler Raoul de Caen, who speaks of the Provençal Crusaders, +saying that the French were prouder in bearing and more war-like in +action than the Provençals, who especially contrasted with them by their +skill in procuring food in times of famine: "inde est, quod adhuc +puerorum decantat naenia, Franci ad bella, Provinciales ad victualia".<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> +Only a century and a half later than Charlemagne appeared the first +poetical productions in Provençal which are known to us, a fragment of a +commentary upon the De Consolatione of Boethius<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> and a poem upon St +Foy of Agen. The first troubadour, William, Count of Poitiers, belongs +to the close of the eleventh century.</p> + +<p>Though the Count of Poitiers is the first troubadour known to us, the +relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza +construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing +lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional +lapses into coarseness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was +the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent +in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige +us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable stage of +previous development. At what point this development began and what +influences stimulated its progress are questions which still remain in +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p007" name="p007"></a>[7] +</span> +dispute. Three theories have been proposed. It is, in the first place, +obviously tempting to explain the origin of Provençal poetry as being a +continuation of Latin poetry in its decadence. When the Romans settled +in Gaul they brought with them their amusements as well as their laws +and institutions. Their <i>scurrae</i>, <i>thymelici</i> and <i>joculatores</i>, the +tumblers, clowns and mountebanks, who amused the common people by day +and the nobles after their banquets by night and travelled from town to +town in pursuit of their livelihood, were accustomed to accompany their +performances by some sort of rude song and music. In the uncivilised +North they remained buffoons; but in the South, where the greater +refinement of life demanded more artistic performance, the musical part +of their entertainment became predominant and the <i>joculator</i> became the +<i>joglar</i> (Northern French, <i>jongleur</i>), a wandering musician and +eventually a troubadour, a composer of his own poems. These latter were +no longer the gross and coarse songs of the earlier mountebank age, +which Alcuin characterised as <i>turpissima</i> and <i>vanissima</i>, but the +grave and artificially wrought stanzas of the troubadour <i>chanso</i>.</p> + +<p>Secondly, it has been felt that some explanation is required to account +for the extreme complexity and artificiality of troubadour poetry in its +most highly developed stage. Some nine hundred different forms of stanza +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p008" name="p008"></a>[8] +</span> +construction are to be found in the body of troubadour poetry,<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> and +few, if any schools of lyric poetry in the world, can show a higher +degree of technical perfection in point of metrical diversity, complex +stanza construction and accuracy in the use of rime. This result has +been ascribed to Arabic influence during the eighth century; but no +sufficient proof has ever been produced that the complexities of Arabic +and Provençal poetry have sufficient in common to make this hypothesis +anything more than an ingenious conjecture.</p> + +<p>One important fact stands in contradiction to these theories. All +indications go to prove that the origin of troubadour poetry can be +definitely localised in a particular part of Southern France. We have +seen that the Limousin dialect became the basis of the literary +language, and that the first troubadour known to us belonged to Poitou. +It is also apparent that in the Poitou district, upon the border line of +the French and Provençal languages, popular songs existed and were +current among the country people; these were songs in honour of spring, +pastorals or dialogues between a knight and a shepherdess (our "Where +are you going, my pretty maid?" is of the same type), <i>albas</i> or dawn +songs which represent a friend as watching near the meeting-place of a +lover and his lady and giving him due warning of the approach of dawn or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p009" name="p009"></a>[9] +</span> +of any other danger; there are also <i>ballatas</i> or dance songs of an +obviously popular type.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> Whatever influence may have been exercised by +the Latin poetry of the decadence or by Arab poetry, it is in these +popular and native productions that we must look for the origins of the +troubadour lyrics. This popular poetry with its simple themes and homely +treatment of them is to be found in many countries, and diversity of +race is often no bar to strange coincidence in the matter of this +poetry. It is thus useless to attempt to fix any date for the beginnings +of troubadour poetry; its primitive form doubtless existed as soon as +the language was sufficiently advanced to become a medium of poetical +expression.</p> + +<p>Some of these popular themes were retained by the troubadours, the +<i>alba</i> and <i>pastorela</i> for instance, and were often treated by them in a +direct and simple manner. The Gascon troubadour Cercamon is said to have +composed pastorals in "the old style." But in general, between +troubadour poetry and the popular poetry of folk-lore, a great gulf is +fixed, the gulf of artificiality. The very name "troubadour" points to +this characteristic. <i>Trobador</i> is the oblique case of the nominative +<i>trobaire</i>, a substantive from the verb <i>trobar</i>, in modern French +<i>trouver</i>. The Northern French <i>trouvère</i> is a nominative form, and +<i>trouveor</i> should more properly correspond with <i>trobador</i>. The +accusative form, which should have persisted, was superseded by the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p010" name="p010"></a>[10] +</span> +nominative <i>trouvère</i>, which grammarians brought into fashion at the end +of the eighteenth century. The verb <i>trobar</i> is said to be derived from +the low Latin <i>tropus</i> [Greek: tropus], an air or melody: hence the +primitive meaning of <i>trobador</i> is the "composer" or "inventor," in the +first instance, of new melodies. As such, he differs from the <i>vates</i>, +the inspired bard of the Romans and the [Greek: poeta], poeta, the +creative poet of the Greeks, the "maker" of Germanic literature. Skilful +variation upon a given theme, rather than inspired or creative power, is +generally characteristic of the troubadour.</p> + +<p>Thus, whatever may have been the origin of troubadour poetry, it appears +at the outset of the twelfth century as a poetry essentially +aristocratic, intended for nobles and for courts, appealing but rarely +to the middle classes and to the common people not at all. The +environment which enabled this poetry to exist was provided by the +feudal society of Southern France. Kings, princes and nobles themselves +pursued the art and also became the patrons of troubadours who had risen +from the lower classes. Occasionally troubadours existed with sufficient +resources of their own to remain independent; Folquet of Marseilles +seems to have been a merchant of wealth, above the necessity of seeking +patronage. But troubadours such as Bernart de Ventadour, the son of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p011" name="p011"></a>[11] +</span> +stoker in the castle of Ventadour, Perdigon the son of a fisherman, and +many others of like origin depended for their livelihood and advancement +upon the favour of patrons. Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts +and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, +such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church +looked somewhat askance upon the profession. Women are also numbered +among the troubadours; Beatrice, the Countess of Die, is the most famous +of these.</p> + +<p>A famous troubadour usually circulated his poems by the mouth of a +<i>joglar</i> (Northern French, <i>jongleur</i>), who recited them at different +courts and was often sent long distances by his master for this purpose. +A joglar of originality might rise to the position of a troubadour, and +a troubadour who fell upon evil days might sink to the profession of +joglar. Hence there was naturally some confusion between the troubadour +and the joglar, and poets sometimes combined the two functions. In +course of time the joglar was regarded with some contempt, and like his +forbear, the Roman joculator, was classed with the jugglers, acrobats, +animal tamers and clowns who amused the nobles after their feasts. Nor, +under certain conditions, was the troubadour's position one of dignity; +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p012" name="p012"></a>[12] +</span> +when he was dependent upon his patron's bounty, he would stoop to +threats or to adulation in order to obtain the horse or the garments or +the money of his desire; such largesse, in fact, came to be denoted by a +special term, <i>messio</i>. Jealousy between rival troubadours, accusations +of slander in their poems and quarrels with their patrons were of +constant occurrence. These naturally affected the joglars in their +service, who received a share of any gifts that the troubadour might +obtain.</p> + +<p>The troubadours who were established more or less permanently as court +poets under a patron lord were few; a wandering life and a desire for +change of scene is characteristic of the class. They travelled far and +wide, not only to France, Spain and Italy, but to the Balkan peninsula, +Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and England; Elias Cairel is said to have visited +most of the then known world, and the biographer of Albertet Calha +relates, as an unusual fact, that this troubadour never left his native +district. Not only love, but all social and political questions of the +age attracted their attention. They satirised political and religious +opponents, preached crusades, sang funeral laments upon the death of +famous patrons, and the support of their poetical powers was often in +demand by princes and nobles involved in a struggle. Noteworthy also is +the fact that a considerable number retired to some monastery or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p013" name="p013"></a>[13] +</span> +religious house to end their days (<i>se rendet</i>, was the technical +phrase). So Bertran of Born, Bernart of Ventadour, Peire Rogier, Cadenet +and many others retired from the disappointments of the world to end +their days in peace; Folquet of Marseilles, who similarly entered the +Cistercian order, became abbot of his monastery of Torondet, Bishop of +Toulouse, a leader of the Albigeois crusade and a founder of the +Inquisition.</p> +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="pagenum"><a id="p014" name="p014"></a>[14] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE</h3> + +<p>Troubador poetry dealt with war, politics, personal satire and other +subjects: but the theme which is predominant and in which real +originality was shown, is love. The troubadours were the first lyric +poets in mediaeval Europe to deal exhaustively with this subject, and as +their attitude was imitated with certain modifications by French, +Italian, Portuguese and German poets, the nature of its treatment is a +matter of considerable importance.</p> + +<p>Of the many ladies whose praises were sung or whose favours were desired +by troubadours, the majority were married. Troubadours who made their +songs to a maiden, as did Gui d'Ussel or Gausbert de Puegsibot, are +quite exceptional. Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a +conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object. This +conventional character was derived from the fact that troubadour love +was constituted upon the analogy of feudal relationship. If chivalry was +the outcome of the Germanic theory of knighthood as modified by the +influence of Christianity, it may be said that troubadour love is the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p015" name="p015"></a>[15] +</span> +outcome of the same theory under the influence of mariolatry. In the +eleventh century the worship of the Virgin Mary became widely popular; +the reverence bestowed upon the Virgin was extended to the female sex in +general, and as a vassal owed obedience to his feudal overlord, so did +he owe service and devotion to his lady. Moreover, under the feudal +system, the lady might often be called upon to represent her husband's +suzerainty to his vassals, when she was left in charge of affairs during +his absence in time of war. Unmarried women were inconspicuous figures +in the society of the age.</p> + +<p>Thus there was a service of love as there was a service of vassalage, +and the lover stood to his lady in a position analogous to that of the +vassal to his overlord. He attained this position only by stages; "there +are four stages in love: the first is that of aspirant (<i>fegnedor</i>), the +second that of suppliant (<i>precador</i>), the third that of recognised +suitor (<i>entendedor</i>) and the fourth that of accepted lover (<i>drut</i>)." +The lover was formally installed as such by the lady, took an oath of +fidelity to her and received a kiss to seal it, a ring or some other +personal possession. For practical purposes the contract merely implied +that the lady was prepared to receive the troubadour's homage in poetry +and to be the subject of his song. As secrecy was a duty incumbent upon +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p016" name="p016"></a>[16] +</span> +the troubadour, he usually referred to the lady by a pseudonym +(<i>senhal</i>); naturally, the lady's reputation was increased if her +attraction for a famous troubadour was known, and the <i>senhal</i> was no +doubt an open secret at times. How far or how often the bounds of his +formal and conventional relationship were transgressed is impossible to +say; "en somme, assez immoral" is the judgment of Gaston Paris upon the +society of the age, and is confirmed by expressions of desire occurring +from time to time in various troubadours, which cannot be interpreted as +the outcome of a merely conventional or "platonic" devotion. In the +troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid +by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn +from this source.</p> + +<p>However, transgression was probably exceptional. The idea of troubadour +love was intellectual rather than emotional; love was an art, +restricted, like poetry, by formal rules; the terms "love" and "poetry" +were identified, and the fourteenth century treatise which summarises +the principles of grammar and metre bore the title <i>Leys d'Amors</i>, the +Laws of Love. The pathology of the emotion was studied; it was treated +from a psychological standpoint and a technical vocabulary came into +use, for which it is often impossible to find English equivalents. The +first effect of love is to produce a mental exaltation, a desire to live +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p017" name="p017"></a>[17] +</span> +a life worthy of the beloved lady and redounding to her praise, an +inspiring stimulus known as <i>joi</i> or <i>joi d'amor</i> (<i>amor</i> in Provençal +is usually feminine).<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> Other virtues are produced by the influence of +this affection: the lover must have <i>valor</i>, that is, he must be worthy +of his lady; this worth implies the possession of <i>cortesia</i>, pleasure +in the pleasure of another and the desire to please; this quality is +acquired by the observance of <i>mesura</i>, wisdom and self-restraint in +word and deed.</p> + +<p>The poetry which expresses such a state of mind is usually idealised and +pictures the relationship rather as it might have been than as it was. +The troubadour who knew his business would begin with praises of his +beloved; she is physically and morally perfect, her beauty illuminates +the night, her presence heals the sick, cheers the sad, makes the boor +courteous and so forth. For her the singer's love and devotion is +infinite: separation from her would be worse than death; her death would +leave the world cheerless, and to her he owes any thoughts of good or +beauty that he may have. It is only because he loves her that he can +sing. Hence he would rather suffer any pain or punishment at her hands +than receive the highest favours from another. The effects of this love +are obvious in his person. His voice quavers with supreme delight or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p018" name="p018"></a>[18] +</span> +breaks in dark despair; he sighs and weeps and wakes at night to think +of the one subject of contemplation. Waves of heat and cold pass over +him, and even when he prays, her image is before his eyes. This passion +has transformed his nature: he is a better and stronger man than ever +before, ready to forgive his enemies and to undergo any physical +privations; winter is to him as the cheerful spring, ice and snow as +soft lawns and flowery meads. Yet, if unrequited, his passion may +destroy him; he loses his self-control, does not hear when he is +addressed, cannot eat or sleep, grows thin and feeble, and is sinking +slowly to an early tomb. Even so, he does not regret his love, though it +lead to suffering and death; his passion grows ever stronger, for it is +ever supported by hope. But if his hopes are realised, he will owe +everything to the gracious favour of his lady, for his own merits can +avail nothing. Sometimes he is not prepared for such complete +self-renunciation; he reproaches his lady for her coldness, complains +that she has led him on by a show of kindness, has deceived him and will +be the cause of his death; or his patience is at an end, he will live in +spite of her and try his fortune elsewhere.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a></p> + +<p>Such, in very general terms, is the course that might be followed in +developing a well-worn theme, on which many variations are possible. The +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p019" name="p019"></a>[19] +</span> +most common form of introduction is a reference to the spring or winter, +and to the influence of the seasons upon the poet's frame of mind or the +desire of the lady or of his patron for a song. In song the poet seeks +consolation for his miseries or hopes to increase the renown of his +lady. As will be seen in the following chapter, manner was even more +important than matter in troubadour lyrics, and commonplaces were +revivified by intricate rime-schemes and stanza construction accompanied +by new melodies. The conventional nature of the whole business may be +partly attested by the fact that no undoubted instance of death or +suicide for love has been handed down to us.</p> + +<p>Reference should here be made to a legendary institution which seems to +have gripped the imagination of almost every tourist who writes a book +of travels in Southern France, the so-called <i>Courts of Love</i>.<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> In +modern times the famous Provençal scholar, Raynouard, attempted to +demonstrate the existence of these institutions, relying upon the +evidence of the <i>Art d'Aimer</i> by André le Chapelain, a work written in +the thirteenth century and upon the statements of Nostradamus (<i>Vies des +plus célèbres et anciens poètes provençaux</i>, Lyons 1575). The latter +writer, the younger brother of the famous prophet, was obviously well +acquainted with Provençal literature and had access to sources of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p020" name="p020"></a>[20] +</span> +information which are now lost to us. But instead of attempting to write +history, he embellished the lives of the troubadours by drawing upon his +own extremely fertile imagination when the actual facts seemed too dull +or prosaic to arouse interest. He professed to have derived his +information from a manuscript left by a learned monk, the <i>Moine des +Iles d'Or</i>, of the monastery of St Honorat in the Ile de Lerins. The +late M. Camille Chabaneau has shown that the story is a pure fiction, +and that the monk's pretended name was an anagram upon the name of a +friend of Nostradamus.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> Hence it is almost impossible to separate the +truth from the fiction in this book and any statements made by +Nostradamus must be received with the utmost caution. André le Chapelain +seems to have had no intention to deceive, but his knowledge of +Provençal society was entirely second-hand, and his statements +concerning the Courts of Love are no more worthy of credence than those +of Nostradamus. According to these two unreliable authorities, courts +for the decision of lovers' perplexities existed in Gascony, Provence, +Avignon and elsewhere; the seat of justice was held by some famous lady, +and the courts decided such questions as whether a lover could love two +ladies at the same time, whether lovers or married couples were the more +affectionate, whether love was compatible with avarice, and the like. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p021" name="p021"></a>[21] +</span></p> + +<p>A special poetical form which was popular among the troubadours may have +given rise to the legend. This was the <i>tenso</i>,<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href= +"#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> in which one +troubadour propounded a problem of love in an opening stanza and his +opponent or interlocutor gave his view in a second stanza, which +preserved the metre and rime-scheme of the first. The propounder then +replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was +made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for +settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding +the contest. Raynouard quotes the conclusion of a <i>tenso</i> given by +Nostradamus in which one of the interlocutors says, "I shall overcome +you if the court is loyal: I will send the <i>tenso</i> to Pierrefeu, where +the fair lady holds her court of instruction." The "court" here in +question was a social and not a judicial court. Had any such institution +as a judicial "court of love" ever been an integral part of Provençal +custom, it is scarcely conceivable that we should be informed of its +existence only by a few vague and scattered allusions in the large body +of Provençal literature. For these reasons the theory that such an +institution existed has been generally rejected by all scholars of +repute.</p> + + +<br><br> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="pagenum"><a id="p022" name="p022"></a>[22] +</span></h3> + +<h3>TECHNIQUE</h3> + + +<p>Provençal literature contains examples of almost every poetical <i>genre</i>. +Epic poetry is represented by Girart of Roussillon,<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href= +"#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a> a story of long +struggles between Charles Martel and one of his barons, by the Roman de +Jaufre, the adventures of a knight of the Round Table, by Flamenca, a +love story which provides an admirable picture of the manners and +customs of the time, and by other fragments and <i>novelas</i> or shorter +stories in the same style. Didactic poetry includes historical works +such as the poem of the Albigeois crusade, ethical or moralising +<i>ensenhamens</i> and religious poetry. But the dominating element in +Provençal literature is lyrical, and during the short classical age of +this literature lyric poetry was supreme. Nearly five hundred different +troubadours are known to us at least by name and almost a thousand +different stanza forms have been enumerated. While examples of the fine +careless rapture of inspiration are by no means wanting, artificiality +reigns supreme in the majority of cases. Questions of technique receive +the most sedulous attention, and the principles of stanza construction, +rime correspondence and rime distribution, as evolved by the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p023" name="p023"></a>[23] +</span> +troubadours, exerted so wide an influence upon other European literature +that they deserve a chapter to themselves.</p> + +<p>There was no formal school for poetical training during the best period +of Provençal lyric. When, for instance, Giraut de Bornelli is said to +have gone to "school" during the winter seasons, nothing more is meant +than the pursuit of the trivium and quadrivium, the seven arts, which +formed the usual subjects of instruction. A troubadour learned the +principles of his art from other poets who were well acquainted with the +conventions that had been formulated in course of time, conventions +which were collected and systematised in such treatises as the Leys +d'Amors during the period of the decadence.</p> + +<p>The love song or <i>chanso</i> was composed of five, six or seven stanzas +(<i>coblas</i>) with, one or two <i>tornadas</i> or <i>envois</i>. The stanza varied in +length from two to forty-two lines, though these limits are, of course, +exceptional. An earlier form of the <i>chanso</i> was known as the <i>vers</i>; it +seems to have been in closer relation to the popular poetry than the +more artificial <i>chanso</i>, and to have had shorter stanzas and lines; but +the distinction is not clear. As all poems were intended to be sung, the +poet was also a composer; the biography of Jaufre Rudel, for instance, +says that this troubadour "made many poems with good tunes but poor +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p024" name="p024"></a>[24] +</span> +words." The tune known as <i>son</i> (diminutive sonnet) was as much the +property of a troubadour as his poem, for it implied and would only suit +a special form of stanza; hence if another poet borrowed it, +acknowledgment was generally made. Dante, in his <i>De Vulgari +Eloquentia</i>, informs us concerning the structure of this musical +setting: it might be continuous without repetition or division; or it +might be in two parts, one repeating the other, in which case the stanza +was also divided into two parts, the division being termed by Dante the +<i>diesis</i> or <i>volta</i>; of these two parts one might be subdivided into two +or even more parts, which parts, in the stanza, corresponded both in +rimes and in the arrangement of the lines. If the first part of the +stanza was thus divisible, the parts were called <i>pedes</i>, and the +musical theme or <i>oda</i> of the first <i>pes</i> was repeated for the second; +the rest of the stanza was known as the <i>syrma</i> or <i>coda</i>, and had a +musical theme of its own. Again the first part of the stanza might be +indivisible, when it was called the <i>frons</i>, the divided parts of the +second half being the <i>versus</i>; in this case the <i>frons</i> had its own +musical theme, as did the first <i>versus</i>, the theme of the first +<i>versus</i> being repeated for the second. Or, lastly, a stanza might +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p025" name="p025"></a>[25] +</span> +consist of <i>pedes</i> and <i>versus</i>, one theme being used for the first +<i>pes</i> and repeated for the second and similarly with the <i>versus</i>. +Thus the general principle upon which the stanza was constructed was that of +tripartition in the following three forms:—</p> + + +<div align="center"> +<img src="images/Image2.png" alt=""> +</div> + + + +<p>These forms were rather typical than stringently binding as Dante +himself notes (<i>De Vulg. El.</i>, ii, 11); many variations were +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p026" name="p026"></a>[26] +</span> +possible. The first seems to have been the most popular type. The poem might also +conclude with a half stanza or <i>tornada</i>, (French <i>envoi</i>). Here, as in +the last couplet of the Arabic <i>gazul</i>, were placed the personal +allusions, and when these were unintelligible to the audience the +<i>joglar</i> usually explained the poem before singing it; the explanations, +which in some cases remain prefixed to the poem, were known as the +<i>razos</i>.</p> + +<p>Troubadour poems were composed for singing, not for recitation, and the +music of a poem was an element of no less importance than the words. +Troubadours are described as composing "good" tunes and "poor" words, or +vice versa; the tune was a piece of literary property, and, as we have +said, if a troubadour borrowed a tune he was expected to acknowledge its +origin. Consequently music and words were regarded as forming a unity, +and the structure of the one should be a guide to the structure of the +other. Troubadour music is a subject still beset with difficulties<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href= +"#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a>: +we possess 244 tunes written in Gregorian notation, and as in certain +cases the same poem appears in different MSS. with the tune in +substantial agreement in each one, we may reasonably assume that we have +an authentic record, as far as this could be expressed in Gregorian +notation. The chief difference between Troubadour and Gregorian music +lies in the fact that the former was syllabic in character; in other +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p027" name="p027"></a>[27] +</span> +words, one note was not held over several syllables, though several +notes might be sung upon one syllable. The system of musical time in the +age of the troubadours was based upon the so-called "modes," rhythmical +formulae combining short and long notes in various sequences. Three of +these concern us here. The first mode consists of a long followed by a +short note, the long being equivalent to two short, or in<img src="images/m1.png" alt=""> time +<img src="images/m2.png" alt="">. The second mode is the reverse of +the first <img src="images/m3.png" alt="">. The third mode in modern +<img src="images/m4.png" alt=""> time appears as <img src="images/m5.png" alt="">. The principle of +sub-division is thus ternary; "common" time or <img src="images/m6.png" alt=""> time is a later +modification. So much being admitted, the problem of transposing a tune +written in Gregorian notation without bars, time signature, marks of +expression or other modern devices is obviously a difficult matter. J. +Beck, who has written most recently upon the subject, formulates the +following rules; the musical accent falls upon the tonic syllables of +the words; should the accent fall upon an atonic syllable, the duration +of the note to which the tonic syllable is sung may be increased, to +avoid the apparent discordance between the musical accent and the tonic +syllable. The musical accent must fall upon the rime and the rhythm +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p028" name="p028"></a>[28] +</span> +adopted at the outset will persist throughout the poem.</p> + +<p>Hence a study of the words will give the key to the interpretation of +the tune. If, for instance, the poem shows accented followed by +unaccented syllables or trochees as the prevalent foot, the first "mode" +is indicated as providing the principle to be followed in transposing +the Gregorian to modern notation. When these conditions are reversed the +iambic foot will prevail and the melody will be in the second mode. It +is not possible here to treat this complicated question in full detail +for which reference must be made to the works of J. Beck. But it is +clear that the system above outlined is an improvement upon that +proposed by such earlier students of the subject as Riemann, who assumed +that each syllable was sung to a note or group of notes of equal time +value. There is no evidence that such a rhythm was ever employed in the +middle ages, and the fact that words and music were inseparable in +Provençal lyrics shows that to infer the nature of the musical rhythm +from the rhythm of the words is a perfectly legitimate method of +inquiry.</p> + +<p>A further question arises: how far do the tunes correspond with the +structure of the stanza as given by Dante? In some cases both tune and +stanza correspond in symmetrical form; but in others we find stanzas +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p029" name="p029"></a>[29] +</span> +which may be divided according to rule conjoined with tunes which +present no melodic repetition of any kind; similarly, tunes which may be +divided into pedes and coda are written upon stanzas which have no +relation to that form. On the whole, it seems that the number of tunes +known to us are too few, in comparison with the large body of lyric +poetry existing, to permit any generalisation upon the question. The +singer accompanied himself upon a stringed instrument (<i>viula</i>) or was +accompanied by other performers; various forms of wind instruments were +also in use. Apparently the accompaniment was in unison with the singer; +part writing or contrapuntal music was unknown at the troubadour period.</p> + +<p>As has been said, the stanza (<i>cobla</i>) might vary in length. No poetical +literature has made more use of rime than Provençal lyric poetry. There +were three typical methods of rime disposition: firstly, the rimes might +all find their answer within the stanza, which was thus a self-contained +whole; secondly, the rimes might find their answer within the stanza and +be again repeated in the same order in all following stanzas; and +thirdly, the rimes might find no answer within the stanza, but be +repeated in following stanzas. In this case the rimes were known as +<i>dissolutas</i>, and the stanza as a <i>cobla estrampa</i>. This last +arrangement tended to make the poem a more organic whole than was +possible in the first two cases; in these, stanzas might be omitted +without necessarily impairing the general effect, but, when <i>coblas +estrampas</i> were employed, the ear of the auditor, attentive for the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p030" name="p030"></a>[30] +</span> +answering rimes, would not be satisfied before the conclusion of the +second stanza. A further step towards the provision of closer unity +between the separate stanzas was the <i>chanso redonda</i>, which was +composed of <i>coblas estrampas</i>, the rime order of the second stanza +being an inversion of the rime order of the first; the tendency reaches +its highest point in the <i>sestina</i>, which retained the characteristic of +the <i>chanso redonda</i>, namely, that the last rime of one stanza should +correspond with the first rime of the following stanza, but with the +additional improvement that every rime started a stanza in turn, +whereas, in the <i>chanso redonda</i> the same rime continually recurred at +the beginning of every other stanza.</p> + +<p>Reference has already been made to the <i>chanso</i>. A poetical form of much +importance was the <i>sirventes</i>, which outwardly was indistinguishable +from the <i>chanso</i>. The meaning of the term is unknown; some say that it +originally implied a poem composed by "servants," poets in the service +of an overlord; others, that it was a poem composed to the tune of a +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p031" name="p031"></a>[31] +</span> +<i>chanso</i> which it thus imitated in a "servile" manner. From the <i>chanso</i> +the <i>sirventes</i> is distinguished by its subject matter; it was the +vehicle for satire, moral reproof or political lampooning. The +troubadours were often keenly interested in the political events of +their time; they filled, to some extent, the place of the modern +journalist and were naturally the partisans of the overlord in whose +service or pay they happened to be. They were ready to foment a war, to +lampoon a stingy patron, to ridicule one another, to abuse the morality +of the age as circumstances might dictate. The crusade <i>sirventes</i><a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href= +"#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a> +are important in this connection, and there were often eloquent +exhortations to the leaders of Christianity to come to the rescue of +Palestine and the Holy Sepulchre. Under this heading also falls the +<i>planh</i>, a funeral song lamenting the death of a patron, and here again, +beneath the mask of conventionality, real emotion is often apparent, as +in the famous lament upon Richard Coeur de Lion composed by Gaucelm +Faidit.</p> + +<p>Reference has been already made to the <i>tenso</i>, one of the most +characteristic of Provençal lyric forms. The name (Lat. <i>tentionem</i>) +implies a contention or strife, which was conducted in the form of a +dialogue and possibly owed its origin to the custom in early vogue among +many different peoples of holding poetical tournaments, in which one +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p032" name="p032"></a>[32] +</span> +poet challenged another by uttering a poetical phrase to which the +opponent replied in similar metrical form. Such, at any rate, is the +form of the <i>tenso</i>; a poet propounds a theme in the first stanza and +his interlocutor replies in a stanza of identical metrical form; the +dispute usually continues for some half dozen stanzas. One class of +tenso was obviously fictitious, as the dialogue is carried on with +animals or even lifeless objects, such as a lady's cloak, and it is +possible that some at least of the discussions ostensibly conducted +between two poets may have emanated from the brain of one sole author. +Sometimes three or four interlocutors take part; the subject of +discussion was then known as a <i>joc partit</i>, a divided game, or +<i>partimen</i>, a title eventually transferred to the poem itself. The most +varied questions were discussed in the <i>tenso</i>, but casuistical problems +concerning love are the most frequent: Is the death or the treachery of +a loved one easier to bear? Is a lover's feeling for his lady stronger +before she has accepted him or afterwards? Is a bad noble or a poor but +upright man more worthy to find favour? The discussion of such questions +provided an opportunity of displaying both poetical dexterity and also +dialectical acumen. But rarely did either of the disputants declare +himself convinced or vanquished by his opponents' arguments the question +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p033" name="p033"></a>[33] +</span> +was left undecided or was referred by agreement to an arbitrator.</p> + +<p>A poetical form which preserves some trace of its popular origin is the +<i>pastorela</i><a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href= +"#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> or pastoral which takes its name from the fact that the +heroine of the piece was always a shepherdess. The conventional opening +is a description by a knight of his meeting with a shepherdess, "the +other day" (<i>l'autrier</i>, the word with which the poem usually begins). A +dialogue then follows between the knight and the shepherdess, in which +the former sues for her favours successfully or otherwise. The irony or +sarcasm which enables the shepherdess to hold her own in the encounter +is far removed from the simplicity of popular poetry. The <i>Leys d'Amors</i> +mentions other forms of the same genre such as <i>vaqueira</i> (cowherd), +<i>auqueira</i> (goose girl), of which a specimen of the first-named alone +has survived. Of equal interest is the <i>alba</i> or dawn-song, in which the +word <i>alba</i> reappeared as a refrain in each verse; the subject of the +poem is the parting of the lovers at the dawn, the approach of which is +announced by a watchman or by some faithful friend who has undertaken to +guard their meeting-place throughout the night. The counterpart of this +form, the <i>serena</i>, does not appear until late in the history of +Provençal lyric poetry; in the <i>serena</i> the lover longs for the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p034" name="p034"></a>[34] +</span> +approach of evening, which is to unite him with his beloved.</p> + +<p>Other forms of minor importance were the <i>comjat</i> in which a troubadour +bids a lady a final farewell, and the <i>escondig</i> or justification in +which the lover attempts to excuse his behaviour to a lady whose anger +he had aroused. The troubled state of his feelings might find expression +in the <i>descort</i> (discord), in which each stanza showed a change of +metre and melody. The <i>descort</i> of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras is written in +five dialects, one for each stanza, and the last and sixth stanza of the +poem gives two lines to each dialect, which Babel of strange sounds is +intended, he says, to show how entirely his lady's heart has changed +towards him. The <i>ballata</i> and the <i>estampida</i> were dance-songs, but +very few examples survive. Certain love letters also remain to us, but +as these are written in rimed couplets and in narrative style, they can +hardly be classified as lyric poetry.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, a word must be said concerning the dispute between two +schools of stylists, which is one of the most interesting points in the +literary history of the troubadours.<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href= +"#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a> From the earliest times we find +two poetical schools in opposition, the <i>trobar clus</i> (also known as +<i>car, ric, oscur, sotil, cobert</i>), the obscure, or close, subtle style +of composition, and the <i>trobar clar</i> (leu, leugier, plan), the clear, +light, easy, straightforward style. Two or three causes may have +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p035" name="p035"></a>[35] +</span> +combined to favour the development of obscure writing. The theme of love +with which the <i>chanso</i> dealt is a subject by no means inexhaustible; +there was a continual struggle to revivify the well-worn tale by means +of strange turns of expression, by the use of unusual adjectives and +forced metaphor, by the discovery of difficult rimes (<i>rimes cars</i>) and +stanza schemes of extraordinary complexity. Marcabrun asserts, possibly +in jest, that he could not always understand his own poems. A further +and possibly an earlier cause of obscurity in expression was the fact +that the <i>chanso</i> was a love song addressed to a married lady; and +though in many cases it was the fact that the poem embodied compliments +purely conventional, however exaggerated to our ideas, yet the further +fact remains that the sentiments expressed might as easily be those of +veritable passion, and, in view of a husband's existence, obscurity had +a utility of its own. This point Guiraut de Bornelh advances as an +objection to the use of the easy style: "I should like to send my song +to my lady, if I should find a messenger; but if I made another my +spokesman, I fear she would blame me. For there is no sense in making +another speak out what one wishes to conceal and keep to oneself." The +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p036" name="p036"></a>[36] +</span> +habit of alluding to the lady addressed under a <i>senhal</i>, or pseudonym, +in the course of the poem, is evidence for a need of privacy, though +this custom was also conventionalised, and we find men as well as women +alluded to under a <i>senhal</i>. It was not always the fact that the +<i>senhal</i> was an open secret, although in many cases, where a high-born +dame desired to boast of the accomplished troubadour in her service, his +poems would naturally secure the widest publication which she could +procure. A further reason for complexity of composition is given by the +troubadour Peire d'Auvergne: "He is pleasing and agreeable to me who +proceeds to sing with words shut up and obscure, to which a man is +afraid to do violence." The "violence" apprehended is that of the +<i>joglar</i>, who might garble a song in the performance of it, if he had +not the memory or industry to learn it perfectly, and Peire d'Alvernhe +(1158-80) commends compositions so constructed that the disposition of +the rimes will prevent the interpolation of topical allusions or +careless altercation. The similar safeguard of Dante's <i>terza rima</i> will +occur to every student.</p> + +<p>The social conditions again under which troubadour poetry was produced, +apart from the limitations of its subject matter, tended to foster an +obscure and highly artificial diction. This obscurity was attained, as +we have said, by elevation and preciosity of style, and was not the +result of confusion of thought. Guiraut de Bornelh tells us his method +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p037" name="p037"></a>[37] +</span> +in a passage worth quoting in the original—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Mas per melhs assire </p> +<p class="i2">mon chan,</p> +<p class="i2">vau cercan</p> +<p class="i2">bos motz en fre</p> +<p class="i2">que son tuit cargat e ple</p> +<p class="i2">d'us estranhs sens naturals;</p> +<p class="i2">mas no sabon tuich de cals.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"But for the better foundation of my song I keep on the watch for words +good on the rein (<i>i.e.</i> tractable like horses), which are all loaded +(like pack horses) and full of a meaning which is unusual, and yet is +wholly theirs (naturals); but it is not everyone that knows what that +meaning is".<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href= +"#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a></p> + +<p>Difficulty was thus intentional; in the case of several troubadours it +affected the whole of their writing, no matter what the subject matter. +They desired not to be understood of the people. Dean Gaisford's reputed +address to his divinity lecture illustrates the attitude of those +troubadours who affected the <i>trobar clus</i>: "Gentlemen, a knowledge of +Greek will enable you to read the oracles of God in the original and to +look down from the heights of scholarship upon the vulgar herd." The +inevitable reaction occurred, and a movement in the opposite direction +was begun; of this movement the most distinguished supporter was the +troubadour, Guiraut de Bornelh. He had been one of the most successful +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p038" name="p038"></a>[38] +</span> +exponents of the <i>trobar clus</i>, and afterwards supported the cause of +the <i>trobar clar</i>. Current arguments for either cause are set forth in +the <i>tenso</i> between Guiraut de Bornelh and Linhaure (pseudonym for the +troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga).</p> + +<p>(1) I should like to know, G. de Bornelh, why, and for what reason, you +keep blaming the obscure style. Tell me if you prize so highly that +which is common to all? For then would all be equal.</p> + +<p>(2) Sir Linhaure, I do not take it to heart if each man composes as he +pleases; but judge that song is more loved and prized which is made easy +and simple, and do not be vexed at my opinion.</p> + +<p>(3) Guiraut, I do not like my songs to be so confused, that the base and +good, the small and great be appraised alike; my poetry will never be +praised by fools, for they have no understanding nor care for what is +more precious and valuable.</p> + +<p>(4) Linhaure, if I work late and turn my rest into weariness for that +reason (to make my songs simple), does it seem that I am afraid of work? +Why compose if you do not want all to understand? Song brings no other +advantage.</p> + +<p>(5) Guiraut, provided that I produce what is best at all times, I care +not if it be not so widespread; commonplaces are no good for the +appreciative—that is why gold is more valued than salt, and with song +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p039" name="p039"></a>[39] +</span> +it is even the same.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that the disputants are at cross purposes; the object of +writing poetry, according to the one, is to please a small circle of +highly trained admirers by the display of technical skill. Guiraut de +Bornelh, on the other hand, believes that the poet should have a message +for the people, and that even the fools should be able to understand its +purport. He adds the further statement that composition in the easy +style demands no less skill and power than is required for the +production of obscurity. This latter is a point upon which he repeatedly +insists: "The troubadour who makes his meaning clear is just as clever +as he who cunningly conjoins words." "My opinion is that it is not in +obscure but in clear composition that toil is involved." Later +troubadours of renown supported his arguments; Raimon de Miraval +(1168-1180) declares: "Never should obscure poetry be praised, for it is +composed only for a price, compared with sweet festal songs, easy to +learn, such as I sing." So, too, pronounces the Italian Lanfranc Cigala +(1241-1257): "I could easily compose an obscure, subtle poem if I +wished; but no poem should be so concealed beneath subtlety as not to be +clear as day. For knowledge is of small value if clearness does not +bring light; obscurity has ever been regarded as death, and brightness +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p040" name="p040"></a>[40] +</span> +as life." The fact is thus sufficiently demonstrated that these two +styles existed in opposition, and that any one troubadour might practise +both.</p> + +<p>Enough has now been said to show that troubadour lyric poetry, regarded +as literature, would soon produce a surfeit, if read in bulk. It is +essentially a literature of artificiality and polish. Its importance +consists in the fact that it was the first literature to emphasise the +value of form in poetry, to formulate rules, and, in short, to show that +art must be based upon scientific knowledge. The work of the troubadours +in these respects left an indelible impression upon the general course +of European literature.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="pagenum"><a id="p041" name="p041"></a>[41] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE EARLY TROUBADOURS</h3> + + +<p>The earliest troubadour known to us is William IX, Count of Poitiers +(1071-1127) who led an army of thirty thousand men to the unfortunate +crusade of 1101. He lived an adventurous and often an unedifying life, +and seems to have been a jovial sensualist caring little what kind of +reputation he might obtain in the eyes of the world about him. William +of Malmesbury gives an account of him which is the reverse of +respectable. His poems, of which twelve survive, are, to some extent, a +reflection of this character, and present a mixture of coarseness and +delicate sentiment which are in strangely discordant contrast. His +versification is of an early type; the principle of tripartition, which +became predominant in troubadour poetry at a later date, is hardly +perceptible in his poems. The chief point of interest in them is the +fact that their comparative perfection of form implies a long anterior +course of development for troubadour poetry, while we also find him +employing, though in undeveloped form, the chief ideas which afterwards +became commonplaces among the troubadours. The half mystical exaltation +inspired by love is already known to William IX. as <i>joi</i>, and he is +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p042" name="p042"></a>[42] +</span> +acquainted with the service of love under feudal conditions. The +conventional attitudes of the lady and the lover are also taken for +granted, the lady disdainful and unbending, the lover timid and relying +upon his patience. The lady is praised for her outward qualities, her +"kindly welcome, her gracious and pleasing look" and love for her is +considered to be the inspiration of nobility in the lover. But these +ideas are not carried to the extravagant lengths to which later poets +pushed them; William's sensual leanings are enough to counterbalance any +tendency to such exaggeration. The conventional opening of a love poem +by a description of spring is also in evidence; in short, the +commonplaces, the technical language and formulae of later Provençal +lyrics were in existence during the age of this first troubadour.</p> + +<p>Next in point of time is the troubadour Cercamon, of whom we know very +little; his poems, as we have them, seem to fall between the years 1137 +and 1152; one of them is a lament upon the death of William X. of +Aquitaine, the son of the notorious Count of Poitiers, and another +alludes to the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of William +X. According to the Provençal biography he was the instructor of a more +interesting and original troubadour Marcabrun, whose active life +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p043" name="p043"></a>[43] +</span> +extended from 1150 to 1195. Many of his poems are extremely obscure; he +was one of the first to affect the <i>trobar clus</i>. He was also the author +of violent invectives against the passion of love—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Que anc non amet neguna</p> +<p class="i2">Ni d'autra no fon amatz—</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Who never loved any woman nor was loved of any." This aversion to the +main theme of troubadour poetry is Marcabrun's most striking +characteristic.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Amors es mout de mal avi;</p> +<p class="i2">Mil homes a mortz ses glavi;</p> +<p class="i2">Dieus non fetz tant fort gramavi.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Love is of a detestable lineage; he has killed thousands of men without +a sword. God has created no more terrible enchanter." These invectives +may have been the outcome of personal disappointment; the theory has +also been advanced that the troubadour idea of love had not yet secured +universal recognition, and that Marcabrun is one who strove to prevent +it from becoming the dominant theme of lyric poetry. His best known poem +was the "Starling," which consists of two parts, an unusual form of +composition. In the first part the troubadour sends the starling to his +love to reproach her for unfaithfulness, and to recommend himself to her +favour; the bird returns, and in the second part offers excuses from the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p044" name="p044"></a>[44] +</span> +lady and brings an invitation from her to a meeting the next day. +Marcabrun knows the technical terms <i>cortesia</i> and <i>mesura</i>, which he +defines: <i>mesura</i>, self-control or moderation, "consists in nicety of +speech, courtesy in loving. He may boast of courtesy who can maintain +moderation." The poem concludes with a dedication to Jaufre Rudel—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Lo vers e·l son vueill envier</p> +<p class="i2">A'n Jaufre Rudel outra mar.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"The words and the tune I wish to send to Jaufre Rudel beyond the sea."</p> + +<p>This was the troubadour whom Petrarch has made famous—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Jaufre Rudel che usò la vela e'l remo</p> +<p class="i2">A cercar la sua morte.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>His romantic story is as follows in the words of the Provençal +biography: "Jaufre Rudel of Blaya was a very noble man, the Prince of +Blaya; he fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, though he had never +seen her, for the good report that he had of her from the pilgrims who +came from Antioch, and he made many poems concerning her with good tunes +but poor words.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href= +"#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a> And from desire to see her, he took the cross and +went to sea. And in the ship great illness came upon him so that those +who were with him thought that he was dead in the ship; but they +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p045" name="p045"></a>[45] +</span> +succeeded in bringing him to Tripoli, to an inn, as one dead. And it was +told to the countess, and she came to him, to his bed, and took him in +her arms; and he knew that she was the countess, and recovering his +senses, he praised God and gave thanks that his life had been sustained +until he had seen her; and then he died in the lady's arms. And she gave +him honourable burial in the house of the Temple, and then, on that day, +she took the veil for the grief that she had for him and for his death." +Jaufre's poems contain many references to a "distant love" which he will +never see, "for his destiny is to love without being loved." Those +critics who accept the truth of the story regard Melisanda, daughter of +Raimon I., Count of Tripoli, as the heroine; but the biography must be +used with great caution as a historical source, and the mention of the +house of the order of Templars in which Jaufre is said to have been +buried raises a difficulty; it was erected in 1118, and in the year 1200 +the County of Tripoli was merged in that of Antioch; of the Rudels of +Blaya, historically known to us, there is none who falls reasonably +within these dates. The probability is that the constant references in +Jaufre's poems to an unknown distant love, and the fact of his crusading +expedition to the Holy Land, formed in conjunction the nucleus of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p046" name="p046"></a>[46] +</span> +legend which grew round his name, and which is known to all readers of +Carducci, Uhland and Heine.</p> + +<p>Contemporary with Jaufre Rudel was Bernard de Ventadour, one of the +greatest names in Provençal poetry. According to the biography, which +betrays its untrustworthiness by contradicting the facts of history, +Bernard was the son of the furnace stoker at the castle of Ventadour, +under the Viscount Ebles II., himself a troubadour and a patron of +troubadours. It was from the viscount that Bernard received instruction +in the troubadours' art, and to his patron's interest in his talents he +doubtless owed the opportunities which he enjoyed of learning to read +and write, and of making acquaintance with such Latin authors as were +currently read, or with the anthologies and books of "sentences" then +used for instruction in Latin. He soon outstripped his patron, to whose +wife, Agnes de Montluçon, his early poems were addressed. His relations +with the lady and with his patron were disturbed by the <i>lauzengiers</i>, +the slanderers, the envious, and the backbiters of whom troubadours +constantly complain, and he was obliged to leave Ventadour. He went to +the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the granddaughter of the first +troubadour, Guillaume IX. of Poitiers, who by tradition and temperament +was a patroness of troubadours, many of whom sang her praises. She had +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p047" name="p047"></a>[47] +</span> +been divorced from Louis VII. of France in 1152, and married Henry, Duke +of Normandy, afterwards King of England in the same year. There Bernard +may have remained until 1154, in which year Eleanor went to England as +Queen. Whether Bernard followed her to England is uncertain; the +personal allusions in his poems are generally scanty, and the details of +his life are correspondingly obscure. But one poem seems to indicate +that he may have crossed the Channel. He says that he has kept silence +for two years, but that the autumn season impels him to sing; in spite +of his love, his lady will not deign to reply to him: but his devotion +is unchanged and she may sell him or give him away if she pleases. She +does him wrong in failing to call him to her chamber that he may remove +her shoes humbly upon his knees, when she deigns to stretch forth her +foot. He then continues<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href= +"#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Faitz es lo vers totz a randa,</p> +<p class="i2">Si que motz no y descapduelha.</p> +<p class="i2">outra la terra normanda</p> +<p class="i2">part la fera mar prionda;</p> +<p class="i2">e si·m suy de midons lunhans.</p> +<p class="i2">yes si·m tira cum diamans,</p> +<p class="i2">la belha cui dieus defenda.</p> +<p class="i4">Si·l reys engles el dux normans</p> +<p class="i2">o vol, ieu la veirai, abans</p> +<p class="i2">que l'iverns nos sobreprenda.</p> + </div> </div> + + +<p>"The <i>vers</i> has been composed fully so that not a word is wanting, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p048" name="p048"></a>[48] +</span> +beyond the Norman land and the deep wild sea; and though I am far from +my lady, she attracts me like a magnet, the fair one whom may God +protect. If the English king and Norman duke will, I shall see her +before the winter surprise us."</p> + +<p>How long Bernard remained in Normandy, we cannot conjecture. He is said +to have gone to the court of Raimon V., Count of Toulouse, a well-known +patron of the troubadours. On Raimon's death in 1194, Bernard, who must +himself have been growing old, retired to the abbey of Dalon in his +native province of Limousin, where he died. He is perhaps more deeply +inspired by the true spirit of lyric poetry than any other troubadour; +he insists that love is the only source of song; poetry to be real, must +be lived.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Non es meravelha s'ieu chan</p> +<p class="i2">mielhs de nulh autre chantador;</p> +<p class="i2">que plus mi tra·l cors ves amor</p> +<p class="i2">e mielhs sui faitz a son coman.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer; for my heart +draws me more than others towards love, and I am better made for his +commandments." Hence Bernard gave fuller expression than any other +troubadour to the ennobling power of love, as the only source of real +worth and nobility.</p> + +<p>The subject speedily became exhausted, and ingenuity did but increase +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p049" name="p049"></a>[49] +</span> +the conventionality of its treatment. But in Bernard's hands it retains +its early freshness and sincerity. The description of the seasons of the +year as impelling the troubadour to song was, or became, an entirely +conventional and expected opening to a <i>chanso</i>; but in Bernard's case +these descriptions were marked by the observation and feeling of one who +had a real love for the country and for nature, and the contrast or +comparison between the season of the year and his own feelings is of +real lyrical value. The opening with the description of the lark is +famous—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Quant vey la lauzeta mover</p> +<p class="i2">De joi sas alas contral rai,</p> +<p class="i2">que s'oblida e·s laissa cazer</p> +<p class="i2">per la doussor qu'al cor li vai,</p> +<p class="i2">ai! tan grans enveia m'en ve</p> +<p class="i2">de cui qu'eu veya jauzion!</p> +<p class="i2">meravilhas ai, quar desse</p> +<p class="i2">lo cor de dezirier no·m fon.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"When I see the lark flutter with joy towards the sun, and forget +himself and sing for the sweetness that comes to his heart; alas, such +envy comes upon me of all that I see rejoicing, I wonder that my heart +does not melt forthwith with desire".<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href= +"#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a></p> + +<p>At the same time Bernard's style is simple and clear, though he shows +full mastery of the complex stanza form; to call him the Wordsworth of +the troubadour world is to exaggerate a single point of coincidence; but +he remains the greatest of troubadour poets, as modern taste regards +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p050" name="p050"></a>[50] +</span> +poetry.</p> + +<p>Arnaut de Mareuil (1170-1200 <i>circa</i>) displays many of the +characteristics which distinguished the poetry of Bernard of Ventadour; +there is the same simplicity of style and often no less reality of +feeling: conventionalism had not yet become typical. Arnaut was born in +Périgord of poor parents, and was brought up to the profession of a +scribe or notary. This profession he soon abandoned, and his "good +star," to quote the Provençal biography, led him to the court of +Adelaide, daughter of Raimon V. of Toulouse, who had married in 1171 +Roger II., Viscount of Béziers. There he soon rose into high repute: at +first he is said to have denied his authorship of the songs which he +composed in honour of his mistress, but eventually he betrayed himself +and was recognised as a troubadour of high merit, and definitely +installed as the singer of Adelaide. The story is improbable, as the +troubadour's rewards naturally depended upon the favour of his patrons +to him personally; it is probably an instance of the manner in which the +biographies founded fictions upon a very meagre substratum of fact, the +fact in this instance being a passage in which Arnaut declares his +timidity in singing the praise of so great a beauty as Adelaide.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Mas grans paors m'o tol e grans temensa,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p051" name="p051"></a>[51] +</span> +<p class="i2">Qu'ieu non aus dir, dona, qu'ieu chant de vos.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"But great fear and great apprehension comes upon me, so that I dare not +tell you, lady, that it is I who sing of you."</p> + +<p>Arnaut seems to have introduced a new poetical <i>genre</i> into Provençal +literature, the love-letter. He says that the difficulty of finding a +trustworthy messenger induced him to send a letter sealed with his own +ring; the letter is interesting for the description of feminine beauty +which it contains: "my heart, that is your constant companion, comes to +me as your messenger and portrays for me your noble, graceful form, your +fair light-brown hair, your brow whiter than the lily, your gay laughing +eyes, your straight well-formed nose, your fresh complexion, whiter and +redder than any flower, your little mouth, your fair teeth, whiter than +pure silver,... your fair white hands with the smooth and slender +fingers"; in short, a picture which shows that troubadour ideas of +beauty were much the same as those of any other age. Arnaut was +eventually obliged to leave Béziers, owing, it is said, to the rivalry +of Alfonso II. of Aragon, who may have come forward as a suitor for +Adelaide after Roger's death in 1194. The troubadour betook himself to +the court of William VIII., Count of Montpelier, where he probably spent +the rest of his life. The various allusions in his poems cannot always +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p052" name="p052"></a>[52] +</span> +be identified, and his career is only known to us in vague outline. +Apart from the love-letter, he was, if not the initiator, one of the +earliest writers of the type of didactic poem known as <i>ensenhamen</i>, an +"instruction" containing observations upon the manners and customs of +his age, with precepts for the observance of morality and right conduct +such as should be practised by the ideal character. Arnaut, after a +lengthy and would-be learned introduction, explains that each of the +three estates, the knights, the clergy and the citizens, have their +special and appropriate virtues. The emphasis with which he describes +the good qualities of the citizen class, a compliment unusual in the +aristocratic poetry of the troubadours, may be taken as confirmation of +the statement concerning his own parentage which we find in his +biography.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="pagenum"><a id="p053" name="p053"></a>[53] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE CLASSICAL PERIOD</h3> + + +<p>We now reach a group of three troubadours whom Dante<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href= +"#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a> selected as +typical of certain characteristics: "Bertran de Born sung of arms, +Arnaut Daniel of love, and Guiraut de Bornelh of uprightness, honour and +virtue." The last named, who was a contemporary (1175-1220 <i>circa</i>) and +compatriot of Arnaut de Marueil, is said in his biography to have +enjoyed so great a reputation that he was known as the "Master of the +Troubadours." This title is not awarded to him by any other troubadour; +the jealousy constantly prevailing between the troubadours is enough to +account for their silence on this point. But his reputation is fairly +attested by the number of his poems which have survived and by the +numerous MSS. in which they are preserved; when troubadours were studied +as classics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Guiraut's poems +were so far in harmony with the moralising tendency of that age that his +posthumous reputation was certainly as great as any that he enjoyed in +his life-time.</p> + +<p>Practically nothing is known of his life; allusions in his poems lead us +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p054" name="p054"></a>[54] +</span> +to suppose that he spent some time in Spain at the courts of Navarre, +Castile and Aragon. The real interests of his work are literary and +ethical. To his share in the controversy concerning the <i>trobar clus</i>, +the obscure and difficult style of composition, we have already alluded. +Though in the <i>tenso</i> with Linhaure, Guiraut expresses his preference +for the simple and intelligible style, it must be said that the majority +of his poems are far from attaining this ideal. Their obscurity, +however, is often due rather to the difficulty of the subject matter +than to any intentional attempt at preciosity of style. He was one of +the first troubadours who attempted to analyse the effects of love from +a psychological standpoint; his analysis often proceeds in the form of a +dialogue with himself, an attempt to show the hearer by what methods he +arrived at his conclusions. "How is it, in the name of God, that when I +wish to sing, I weep? Can the reason be that love has conquered me? And +does love bring me no delight? Yes, delight is mine. Then why am I sad +and melancholy? I cannot tell. I have lost my lady's favour and the +delight of love has no more sweetness for me. Had ever a lover such +misfortune? But am I a lover? No! Have I ceased to love passionately? +No! Am I then a lover? Yes, if my lady would suffer my love." Guiraut's +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p055" name="p055"></a>[55] +</span> +moral <i>sirventes</i> are reprobations of the decadence of his age. He saw a +gradual decline of the true spirit of chivalry. The great lords were +fonder of war and pillage than of poetry and courtly state. He had +himself suffered from the change, if his biographer is to be believed; +the Viscount of Limoges had plundered and burnt his house. He compares +the evils of his own day with the splendours of the past, and asks +whether the accident of birth is the real source of nobility; a man must +be judged by himself and his acts and not by the rank of his +forefathers; these were the sentiments that gained him a mention in the +Fourth Book of Dante's <i>Convivio</i>.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href= +"#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a></p> + +<p>The question why Dante should have preferred Arnaut Daniel to Guiraut de +Bornelh<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href= +"#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> has given rise to much discussion. The solution turns upon +Dante's conception of style, which is too large a problem for +consideration here. Dante preferred the difficult and artificial style +of Arnaut to the simple style of the opposition school; from Arnaut he +borrowed the sestina form; and at the end of the canto he puts the +well-known lines, "Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan," into the +troubadour's mouth. We know little of Arnaut's life; he was a noble of +Riberac in Périgord. The biography relates an incident in his life which +is said to have taken place at the court of Richard Coeur de Lion.</p> + +<p>A certain troubadour had boasted before the king that he could compose a +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p056" name="p056"></a>[56] +</span> +better poem than Arnaut. The latter accepted the challenge and the king +confined the poets to their rooms for a certain time at the end of which +they were to recite their composition before him. Arnaut's inspiration +totally failed him, but from his room he could hear his rival singing as +he rehearsed his own composition. Arnaut was able to learn his rival's +poem by heart, and when the time of trial came he asked to be allowed to +sing first, and performed his opponent's song, to the wrath of the +latter, who protested vigorously. Arnaut acknowledged the trick, to the +great amusement of the king.</p> + +<p>Preciosity and artificiality reach their height in Arnaut's poems, which +are, for that reason, excessively difficult. Enigmatic constructions, +word-plays, words used in forced senses, continual alliteration and +difficult rimes produced elaborate form and great obscurity of meaning. +The following stanza may serve as an example—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">L'aur' amara fa·ls bruels brancutz</p> +<p class="i2">clarzir que·l dons espeys' ab fuelhs,</p> +<p class="i2">e·ls letz becxs dels auzels ramencx</p> +<p class="i2">te balbs e mutz pars e non pars.</p> +<p class="i2">per qu'ieu m'esfortz de far e dir plazers</p> +<p class="i2">A manhs? per ley qui m'a virat has d'aut,</p> +<p class="i2">don tern morir si·ls afans no·m asoma.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"The bitter breeze makes light the bosky boughs which the gentle breeze +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p057" name="p057"></a>[57] +</span> +makes thick with leaves, and the joyous beaks of the birds in the +branches it keeps silent and dumb, paired and not paired. Wherefore do I +strive to say and do what is pleasing to many? For her, who has cast me +down from on high, for which I fear to die, if she does not end the +sorrow for me."</p> + +<p>The answers to the seventeen rime-words which occur in this stanza do +not appear till the following stanza, the same rimes being kept +throughout the six stanzas of the poem. To rest the listener's ear, +while he waited for the answering rimes, Arnaut used light assonances +which almost amount to rime in some cases. The Monk of Montaudon in his +satirical <i>sirventes</i> says of Arnaut: "He has sung nothing all his life, +except a few foolish verses which no one understands"; and we may +reasonably suppose that Arnaut's poetry was as obscure to many of his +contemporaries as it is to us.</p> + +<p>Dante placed Bertran de Born in hell, as a sower of strife between +father and son, and there is no need to describe his picture of the +troubadour—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">"Who held the severed member lanternwise</p> +<p class="i2">And said, Ah me!" (<i>Inf.</i> xxviii. 119-142.)</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>The genius of Dante, and the poetical fame of Bertran himself, have +given him a more important position in history than is, perhaps, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p058" name="p058"></a>[58] +</span> +entirely his due. Jaufré, the prior of Vigeois, an abbey of +Saint-Martial of Limoges, is the only chronicler during the reigns of +Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. The +<i>razos</i> prefixed to some of his poems by way of explanation are the work +of an anonymous troubadour (possibly Uc de Saint-CÃre); they constantly +misinterpret the poems they attempt to explain, confuse names and +events, and rather exaggerate the part played by Bertran himself. +Besides these sources we have the cartulary of Dalon, or rather the +extracts made from it by Guignières in 1680 (the original has been +lost), which give us information about Bertran's family and possessions. +From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have +come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed.</p> + +<p>Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and +Périgord. The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary +Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his +brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which +seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family +were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but +scanty. In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known, +except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p059" name="p059"></a>[59] +</span> +wife, and again married a certain Philippe. His warlike and turbulent +character was the natural outcome of the conditions under which he +lived; the feudal system divided the country into a number of fiefs, the +boundaries of which were ill defined, while the lords were constantly at +war with one another. All owed allegiance to the Duke of Aquitaine, the +Count of Poitou, but his suzerainty was, in the majority of cases, +rather a name than a reality. These divisions were further accentuated +by political events; in 1152 Henry II., Count of Anjou and Maine, +married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and mistress +of Aquitaine. Henry became king of England two years later, and his rule +over the barons of Aquitaine, which had never been strict, became the +more relaxed owing to his continual absence in England.</p> + +<p>South of Aquitaine proper the dominions of the Count of Toulouse +stretched from the Garonne to the Alps; this potentate was also called +the Duke of Narbonne, and was not disposed to recognise the suzerainty +of the Duke of Aquitaine. But in 1167 Alfonso II., King of Aragon and +Count of Barcelona, had inherited Provence, to which the Duke of +Toulouse laid claim. Henry and Alfonso thus became natural allies, and +the power of Alfonso in Aragon and Catalonia, was able to keep in check +any serious attempt that the Count of Toulouse might have meditated on +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p060" name="p060"></a>[60] +</span> +Aquitaine. On the other hand, Henry had also to deal with a formidable +adversary in the person of the French king, his lawful suzerain in +France. Louis VII. (or Philippe Auguste) was able to turn the constant +revolts that broke out in Aquitaine to his own ends. These circumstances +are sufficient to account for the warlike nature of Bertran de Born's +poetry. The first <i>sirventes</i> which can be dated with certainty belongs +to 1181, and is a call to the allies of Raimon V, Count of Toulouse, to +aid their master against the King of Aragon. What Bertran's personal +share in the campaign was, we do not know. He was soon involved in a +quarrel with his brother Constantin, with whom he held the castle of +Hautefort in common. Constantin was driven out and succeeded in +persuading the Count of Limoges and Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, to help +him. Richard, however, was occupied elsewhere, and Bertran survived all +attacks upon the castle. In 1182 he went to the court of Henry II., +during a temporary lull in the wars around him; there he proceeded to +pay court to the Princess Matilda, daughter of Henry II., whose husband, +Henry of Saxony, was then on a pilgrimage. He also took part in the +political affairs of the time. Henry II.'s eldest son, Henry "the young +king," had been crowned in 1170 at Westminster, and was anxious to have +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p061" name="p061"></a>[61] +</span> +something more than the title, seeing that his brother Richard was Duke +of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, and practically an independent sovereign. +Bertran had not forgotten Richard's action against him on behalf of his +brother Constantin, and was, moreover, powerfully attracted by the open +and generous nature of the young king. He therefore took his side, and +on his return to Limousin became the central point of the league which +was formed against Richard. Henry II. succeeded in reconciling his two +sons, the young Henry receiving pecuniary compensation in lieu of +political power. But the young Henry seems to have been really moved by +Bertran's reproaches, and at length revolted against his father and +attacked his brother Richard. While he was in Turenne, the young king +fell sick and died on June 11, 1183. Bertran lamented his loss in two +famous poems, and soon felt the material effects of it. On June 29, +Richard and the King of Aragon arrived before Hautefort, which +surrendered after a week's resistance. Richard restored the castle to +Constantin, but Bertran regained possession, as is related in the second +biography.</p> + +<p>Henceforward, Bertran remained faithful to Richard, and directed his +animosity chiefly against the King of Aragon. At the same time it +appears that he would have been equally pleased with any war, which +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p062" name="p062"></a>[62] +</span> +would have brought profit to himself, and attempted to excite Richard +against his father, Henry II. This project came to nothing, but war +broke out between Richard and the French king; a truce of two years was +concluded, and again broken by Richard. The Church, however, interfered +with its efforts to organise the Third Crusade, which called from +Bertran two <i>sirventes</i> in honour of Conrad, son of the Marquis of +Montferrat, who was defending Tyre against Saladin. Bertran remained at +home in Limousin during this Crusade; his means were obviously +insufficient to enable him to share in so distant a campaign; other, and +for him, equally cogent reasons for remaining at home may be gathered +from his poems. There followed the quarrels between Richard and the +French king, the return to France of the latter, and finally Richard's +capture on the Illyrian coast and his imprisonment by Henry VI. of +Austria, which terminated in 1194. Richard then came into Aquitaine, his +return being celebrated by two poems from Bertran.</p> + +<p>The Provençal biography informs us that Bertran finally became a monk in +the Order of Citeaux. The convent where he spent his last years was the +abbey of Dalon, near Hautefort. The cartulary mentions his name at +various intervals from 1197 to 1202. In 1215 we have the entry "<i>octavo,</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p063" name="p063"></a>[63] +</span> +<i>candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bernardo de Born: cera tres solidos +empta est</i>." This is the only notice of the poet's death.</p> + +<p>Dante perhaps exaggerated the part he played in stirring up strife +between Henry II. and his sons; modern writers go to the other extreme. +Bertran is especially famous for his political <i>sirventes</i> and for the +martial note which rings through much of his poetry. He loved war both +for itself and for the profits which it brought: "The powerful are more +generous and open-handed when they have war than when they have peace." +The troubadour's two <i>planhs</i> upon the "young king's" death are inspired +by real feeling, and the story of his reconciliation with Henry after +the capture of his castle can hardly have been known to Dante, who would +surely have modified his judgment upon the troubadour if he had +remembered that scene as related by the biography. Sir Bertran was +summoned with all his people to King Henry's tent, who received him very +harshly and said, "Bertran, you declared that you never needed more than +half your senses; it seems that to-day you will want the whole of them." +"Sire", said Bertran, "it is true that I said so and I said nothing but +the truth." The king replied, "Then you seem to me to have lost your +senses entirely". "I have indeed lost them", said Bertran. "And how?" +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p064" name="p064"></a>[64] +</span> +asked the king. "Sire, on the day that the noble king, your son, died, I +lost sense, knowledge and understanding." When the king heard Bertran +speak of his son with tears, he was deeply moved and overcome with +grief. On recovering himself he cried, weeping, "Ah, Bertran, rightly +did you lose your senses for my son, for there was no one in the world +whom he loved as you. And for love of him, not only do I give you your +life, but also your castle and your goods, and I add with my love five +hundred silver marks to repair the loss which you have suffered."</p> + +<p>The narrative is unhistorical; Henry II. was not present in person at +the siege of Hautefort; but the fact is certain that he regarded Bertran +as the chief sower of discord in his family.</p> + +<p>Mention must now be made of certain troubadours who were less important +than the three last mentioned, but are of interest for various reasons.</p> + +<p>Raimbaut d'Aurenga, Count of Orange from 1150-1173, is interesting +rather by reason of his relations with other troubadours than for his +own achievements in the troubadours' art. He was a follower of the +precious, artificial and obscure style, and prided himself upon his +skill in the combination of difficult rimes and the repetition of +equivocal rimes (the same word used in different senses or grammatical +forms). "Since Adam ate the apple," he says, "there is no poet, loud as +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p065" name="p065"></a>[65] +</span> +he may proclaim himself, whose art is worth a turnip compared with +mine." Apart from these mountebank tricks and certain mild "conceits" +(his lady's smile, for instance, makes him happier than the smile of +four hundred angels could do), the chief characteristic of his poetry is +his constant complaints of slanderers who attempt to undermine his +credit with his lady. But he seems to have aroused a passion in the +heart of a poetess, who expressed her feelings in words which contrast +strongly with Raimbaut's vapid sentimentalities.</p> + +<p>This was Beatrice, Countess of Die and the wife of Count William of +Poitiers. The names, at least, of seventeen poetesses are known to us +and of these the Countess of Die is the most famous. Like the rest of +her sex who essayed the troubadour's art, the Countess knows nothing of +difficult rhymes or obscurity of style. Simplicity and sincerity are the +keynotes of her poetry. The troubadour sang because he was a +professional poet, but the lady who composed poetry did so from love of +the art or from the inspiration of feeling and therefore felt no need of +meretricious adornment for her song. The five poems of the Countess +which remain to us show that her sentiment for Raimbaut was real and +deep. "I am glad to know that the man I love is the worthiest in the +world; may God give great joy to the one who first brought me to him: +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p066" name="p066"></a>[66] +</span> +may he trust only in me, whatever slanders be reported to him: for often +a man plucks the rod with which he beats himself. The woman who values +her good name should set her love upon a noble and valiant knight: when +she knows his worth, let her not hide her love. When a woman loves thus +openly, the noble and worthy speak of her love only with sympathy." +Raimbaut, however, did not reciprocate these feelings: in a <i>tenso</i> with +the countess he shows his real sentiments while excusing his conduct. He +assures her that he has avoided her only because he did not wish to +provide slanderers with matter for gossip; to which the Countess replies +that his care for her reputation is excessive. Peire Rogier whose +poetical career lies between the years 1160 and 1180, also spent some +time at Raimbaut's court. He belonged to Auvergne by birth and was +attached to the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne for some years: here +there is no doubt that we have a case of a troubadour in an official +position and nothing more: possibly Peire Rogier's tendency to +preaching—he had been educated for the church—was enough to stifle any +sentiment on the lady's side. On leaving Narbonne, he visited Raimbaut +at Orange and afterwards travelled to Spain and Toulouse, finally +entering a monastery where he ended his life.</p> + +<p>Auvergne produced a far more important troubadour in the person of Peire +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p067" name="p067"></a>[67] +</span> +d'Auvergne, whose work extended from about 1158 to 1180; he was thus +more or less contemporary with Guiraut de Bornelh and Bernart de +Ventadour. He was, according to the biography, the son of a citizen of +Clermont-Ferrand, and "the first troubadour, who lived beyond the +mountains (i.e. the Pyrenees, which, however, Marcabrun had previously +crossed)... he was regarded as the best troubadour until Guiraut de +Bornelh appeared.... He was very proud of his talents and despised other +troubadours." Other notices state that he was educated for an +ecclesiastical career and was at one time a canon. He had no small idea +of his own powers: "Peire d'Auvergne," he says in his satire upon other +troubadours "has such a voice that he can sing in all tones and his +melodies are sweet and pleasant: he is master of his art, if he would +but put a little clarity into his poems, which are difficult to +understand." The last observation is entirely correct: his poems are +often very obscure. Peire travelled, in the pursuit of his profession, +to the court of Sancho III. of Castile and made some stay in Spain: he +is also found at the courts of Raimon V. of Toulouse and, like Peire +Rogier, at Narbonne. Among his poems, two are especially well known. In +a love poem he makes the nightingale his messenger, as Marcabrun had +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p068" name="p068"></a>[68] +</span> +used the starling and as others used the swallow or parrot. But in +comparison with Marcabrun, Peire d'Auvergne worked out the idea with a +far more delicate poetical touch. The other poem is a <i>sirventes</i> which +is of interest as being the first attempt at literary satire among the +troubadours; the satire is often rather of a personal than of a literary +character; the following quotations referring to troubadours already +named will show Peire's ideas of literary criticism. "Peire Rogier sings +of love without restraint and it would befit him better to carry the +psalter in the church or to bear the lights with the great burning +candles. Guiraut de Bornelh is like a sun-bleached cloth with his thin +miserable song which might suit an old Norman water-carrier. Bernart de +Ventadour is even smaller than Guiraut de Bornelh by a thumb's length; +but he had a servant for his father who shot well with the long bow +while his mother tended the furnace." The satiric <i>sirventes</i> soon found +imitators: the Monk of Montaudon produced a similar composition. Like +many other troubadours, Peire ended his life in a monastery. To this +period of his career probably, belong his religious poems of which we +shall have occasion to speak later.</p> + +<p>We have already observed that the Church contributed members, though +with some reluctance, to the ranks of the troubadours. One of the most +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p069" name="p069"></a>[69] +</span> +striking figures of the kind is the Monk of Montaudon (1180-1200): the +satirical power of his <i>sirventes</i> attracted attention, and he gained +much wealth at the various courts which he visited; this he used for the +benefit of his priory. He enjoyed the favour of Philippe Auguste II. of +France, of Richard Coeur de Lion and of Alfonso II. of Aragon, with that +of many smaller nobles. The biography says of him, "E fo faitz seigner +de la cort del Puoi Santa Maria e de dar l'esparvier. Lone temps ac la +seignoria de la cort del Puoi, tro que la cortz se perdet." "He was made +president of the court of Puy Sainte Marie and of awarding the +sparrow-hawk. For a long time he held the presidency of the court of +Puy, until the court was dissolved." The troubadour Richard de +Barbezieux refers to this court, which seems to have been a periodical +meeting attended by the nobles and troubadours of Southern Prance. +Tournaments and poetical contests were held; the sparrow-hawk or falcon +placed on a pole is often mentioned as the prize awarded to the +tournament victor. Tennyson's version of the incident in his "Geraint +and Enid" will occur to every reader. The monk's reputation must have +been considerable to gain him this position. His love poems are of +little importance; his satire deals with the petty failings of mankind, +for which he had a keen eye and an unsparing and sometimes cynical +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p070" name="p070"></a>[70] +</span> +tongue.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Be·m enoia, s'o auzes dire,</p> +<p class="i2">Parliers quant es avols servire;</p> +<p class="i2">Et hom qui trop vol aut assire</p> +<p class="i2">M'enoia, e cavals que tire.</p> +<p class="i2">Et enoia·m, si Dieus m'aiut</p> +<p class="i2">Joves hom quan trop port' escut,</p> +<p class="i2">Que negun colp no i a agut,</p> +<p class="i2">Capela et mongue barbut,</p> +<p class="i2">E lauzengier bee esmolut.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"These vex me greatly, if I may say so, language when it is base +servility, and a man who wishes too high a place (at table) and a +charger which is put to drawing carts. And, by my hope of salvation, I +am vexed by a young man who bears too openly a shield which has never +received a blow, by a chaplain and monk wearing beards and by the sharp +beak of the slanderer." The monk's satire upon other troubadours is +stated by himself to be a continuation of that by Peire d'Auvergne; the +criticism is, as might be expected, personal. Two <i>tensos</i> deal with the +vanities of women, especially the habit of painting the face: in one of +them the dispute proceeds before God as judge, between the poet and the +women: the scene of the other is laid in Paradise and the interlocutors +are the Almighty and the poet, who, represents that self-adornment is a +habit inherent in female nature. In neither poem is reverence a +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p071" name="p071"></a>[71] +</span> +prominent feature.</p> + +<p>One of the most extraordinary figures in the whole gallery of troubadour +portraits is Peire Vidal, whose career extended, roughly speaking, from +1175 to 1215. He was one of those characters who naturally become the +nucleus of apocryphal stories, and how much truth there may be in some +of the fantastic incidents, in which he figures as the hero, will +probably never be discovered. He was undoubtedly an attractive +character, for he enjoyed the favour of the most distinguished men and +women of his time. He was also a poet of real power: ease and facility +are characteristics of his poems as compared with the ingenious +obscurity of Arnaut Daniel or Peire d'Auvergne. But there was a +whimsical and fantastic strain in his character, which led him often to +conjoin the functions of court-fool with those of court poet: "he was +the most foolish man in the world" says his biographer. His +"foolishness" also induced him to fall in love with every woman he met, +and to believe that his personal attractions made him invincible.</p> + +<p>Peire Vidal was the son of a Toulouse merchant. He began his troubadour +wanderings early and at the outset of his career we find him in +Catalonia, Aragon and Castile. He is then found in the service of Raimon +Gaufridi Barral,<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href= +"#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a> Viscount of Marseilles, a bluff, genial tournament +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p072" name="p072"></a>[72] +</span> +warrior and the husband of Azalais de Porcellet whose praises were sung +by Folquet of Marseilles. It was Barral who was attracted by Peire's +peculiar talents: his wife seems to have tolerated the troubadour from +deference to her husband. Peire, however, says in one of his poems that +husbands feared him more than fire or sword, and believing himself +irresistible interpreted Azalais' favours as seriously meant. When he +stole a kiss from her as she slept, she insisted upon Peire's departure, +though her husband seems to have regarded the matter as a jest and the +troubadour took refuge in Genoa. Eventually, Azalais pardoned him and he +was able to return to Marseilles. Peire is said to have followed Richard +Coeur de Lion on his crusade; it was in 1190 that Richard embarked at +Marseilles for the Holy Land, and as a patron of troubadours, he was no +doubt personally acquainted with Peire. The troubadour, however, is said +to have gone no farther than Cyprus. There he married a Greek woman and +was somehow persuaded that his wife was a daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople, and that he, therefore, had a claim to the throne of +Greece. He assumed royal state, added a throne to his personal +possessions and began to raise a fleet for the conquest of his kingdom. +How long this farce continued is unknown. Barral died in 1192 and Peire +transferred his affections to a lady of Carcassonne, Loba de Pennautier. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p073" name="p073"></a>[73] +</span> +The biography relates that her name Loba (wolf) induced the troubadour +to approach her in a wolf's skin, which disguise was so successful that +he was attacked by a pack of dogs and seriously mauled. Probably the +story that an outraged husband had the troubadour's tongue cut out at an +earlier period of his life contains an equal substratum of truth. The +last period of his career was spent in Hungary and Lombardy. His +political <i>sirventes</i> show an insight into the affairs of his age, which +is in strong contrast to the whimsicality which seems to have misguided +his own life.</p> + +<p>Guillem de Cabestanh (between 1181 and 1196) deserves mention for the +story which the Provençal biography has attached to his name, a +Provençal variation of the thirteenth century romance of the <i>Châtelaine +de Coucy</i>.<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href= +"#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a> He belonged to the Roussillon district, on the borders of +Catalonia and fell in love with the wife of his overlord, Raimon of +Roussillon. Margarida or Seremonda, as she is respectively named in the +two versions of the story, was attracted by Guillem's songs, with the +result that Raimon's jealousy was aroused and meeting the troubadour one +day, when he was out hunting, he killed him. The Provençal version +proceeds as follows: he then took out the heart and sent it by a squire +to the castle. He caused it to be roasted with pepper and gave it to his +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p074" name="p074"></a>[74] +</span> +wife to eat. And when she had eaten it, her lord told her what it was +and she lost the power of sight and hearing. And when she came to +herself, she said, "my lord, you have given me such good meat that never +will I eat such meat again." He made at her to strike her but she threw +herself from the window and was killed. Thereupon the barons of +Catalonia and Aragon, led by King Alfonso, are said to have made a +combined attack upon Raimon and to have ravaged his lands, in +indignation at his barbarity.</p> + +<p>The Provençal biography, like the romance of the <i>Châtelain de Coucy</i>, +belongs to the thirteenth century, and the story cannot be accepted as +authentic. But the period of decadence had begun. By the close of the +twelfth century the golden age of troubadour poetry was over. Guiraut de +Bornelh's complaints that refinement was vanishing and that nobles were +growing hard-hearted and avaricious soon became common-places in +troubadour poetry. The extravagances of the previous age and the rise of +a strong middle and commercial class diminished both the wealth and the +influence of the nobles, while the peace of the country was further +disturbed by theological disputes and by the rise of the Albigeois +heresy.</p> + +<br><br> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="pagenum"><a id="p075" name="p075"></a>[75] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE</h3> + + +<p>The feudal society in which troubadour poetry had flourished, and by +which alone it could be maintained, was already showing signs of +decadence. Its downfall was precipitated by the religious and political +movement, the Albigeois Crusade, which was the first step towards the +unification of France, but which also broke up the local fiefs, +destroyed the conditions under which the troubadours had flourished and +scattered them abroad in other lands or forced them to seek other means +of livelihood. This is not the place to discuss the origin and the +nature of the Albigeois heresy.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href= +"#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> The general opinion has almost +invariably considered the heretics as dualists and their belief as a +variation of Manicheism: but a plausible case has been made out for +regarding the heresy as a variant of the Adoptionism which is found +successively in Armenia, in the Balkan peninsula and in Spain, and +perhaps sporadically in Italy and Germany. Whatever its real nature was, +the following facts are clear: it was not an isolated movement, but was +in continuity with beliefs prevalent in many other parts of Europe. It +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p076" name="p076"></a>[76] +</span> +was largely a poor man's heresy and therefore emerges into the light of +history only when it happens to attract aristocratic adherents or large +masses of people. It was also a pre-Reformation movement and essentially +in opposition to Roman Catholicism. Albi was the first head-quarters of +the heresy, though Toulouse speedily rivalled its importance in this +respect. The Vaudois heresy which became notorious at Lyons about the +same time was a schismatic, not a heretic movement. The Vaudois objected +to the profligacy and worldliness of the Roman Catholic clergy, but did +not quarrel with church doctrine. The Albigenses were no less zealous +than the Vaudois in reproving the church clergy and setting an example +of purity and unselfishness of life. But they also differed profoundly +from the church in matters of doctrine.</p> + +<p>Upon the election of Otho as Emperor, in 1208, Germany and Rome were at +peace, and Pope Innocent III. found himself at liberty to devote some +attention to affairs in Southern France. He had already made some +efforts to oppose the growth of heresy: his first emissaries were unable +to produce the least effect and in 1208 he had sent Arnaut of Citeaux +and two Cistercian monks into Southern France with full powers to act. +Their efforts proved fruitless, because Philippe Auguste was no less +indifferent than the provincial lords, who actually favoured the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p077" name="p077"></a>[77] +</span> +heretics in many cases; the Roman Catholic bishops also were jealous of +the pope's legates and refused to support them. Not only the laity but +many of the clergy had been seduced: the heretics had translated large +portions of scripture (translations which still remain to us) and +constantly appealed to the scriptures in opposition to the canon laws +and the immorality of Rome. They had a full parochial and diocesan +organisation and were in regular communication with the heretics of +other countries. It was clear that the authority of Southern France was +doomed, unless some vigorous steps to assert her authority were speedily +taken. "Ita per omnes terras multiplicati sunt ut grande periculum +patiatur ecclesia Dei." <a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href= +"#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> The efforts of St Dominic were followed by +the murder of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in 1208, which +created an excitement comparable with that aroused by the murder of +Thomas à Becket, thirty-eight years before, and gave Innocent III. his +opportunity. In the summer of 1209 a great army of crusaders assembled +at Lyons, and Southern France was invaded by a horde composed partly of +religious fanatics, of men who were anxious to gain the indulgences +awarded to crusaders without the danger of a journey overseas, and of +men who were simply bent on plunder. The last stage in the development +of the crusade movement was thereby reached: originally begun to recover +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p078" name="p078"></a>[78] +</span> +the Holy Sepulchre, it had been extended to other countries against the +avowed enemies of Christianity. Now the movement was to be turned +against erring members of the Christian Church and in the terms of a +metaphor much abused at that period, the Crusader was not only to +destroy the wolf, but to drive the vagrant sheep back into the fold.<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href= +"#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> +Beziers and Carcassonne were captured with massacre; Toulouse was spared +upon the humiliating submission of Raimon VI., and little organised +opposition was offered to the crusading forces under Simon de Montfort. +The following years saw the revolt of Toulouse and the excommunication +of Raimon VI. (1211), the battle of Muret in which Raimon was defeated +and his supporter Pedro of Aragon, was killed (1213), the Lateran +Council (1215), the siege of Toulouse and the death of Simon de Montfort +(1218). The foundation of the Dominican order and of the Inquisition +marked the close of the struggle.</p> + +<p>Folquet of Marseilles is a troubadour whose life belongs to these years +of turmoil. He was the son of a Genoese merchant by name Anfos, who +apparently settled in Marseilles for business reasons: Genoa was in +close commercial relations with the South of France during the twelfth +century, as is attested by treaties concluded with Marseilles in 1138 +and with Raimon of Toulouse in 1174. Folquet (or Fulco in Latin form) +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p079" name="p079"></a>[79] +</span> +seems to have carried on his father's business and to have amused his +leisure hours by poetical composition. The Monk of Montandon refers to +him as a merchant in his <i>sirventes</i> upon other troubadours. He is +placed in Paradise by Dante and is the only troubadour who there +appears, no doubt because of his services to the Church. His earliest +poems, written after 1180, were composed in honour of Azalais, the lady +whose favour was sought by Peire Vidal, and to whom Folquet refers by +the <i>senhal</i> of Aimant (magnet). His poems are ingenious dissertations +upon love and we catch little trace of real feeling in them. The stories +of the jealousy of Azalais' sister which drove Folquet to leave +Marseilles are probably apocryphal. Folquet also addressed poems to the +wife of the Count of Montpelier, the daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople. He wrote a fine <i>planh</i> on the death of Barral of +Marseilles in 1192 and it was about this time that he resolved to enter +the church. His last poem belongs to the year 1195. No doubt the wealth +which he may have brought to the Church as a successful merchant +contributed to his advancement, but Folquet was also an indomitably +energetic character.</p> + +<p>Unlike so many of his fellow poets, who retired to monasteries and there +lived out their lives in seclusion, Folquet displayed special talents or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p080" name="p080"></a>[80] +</span> +special enthusiasm for the order which he joined. Of the Cistercian +abbey of Toronet in the diocese of Fréjus he became abbot, and in 1205 +was made Bishop of Toulouse. He then, in company with St Dominic, +becomes one of the great figures of the Albigeois crusade: in 1209 he +was acting with Simon de Montfort against Raimon VI., the son of his old +patron and benefactor, and persuaded the count to surrender the citadel +of Toulouse to de Montfort and the papal legate. He travelled in +Northern France in order to stir up enthusiasm for the crusade. The +legend is related that, hearing one of his love songs sung by a minstrel +at Paris, he imposed penance upon himself. He helped to establish the +Inquisition in Languedoc, and at the Lateran council of 1215 was the +most violent opponent of Count Raimon. To enter into his history in +detail during this period would be to recount a large portion of the +somewhat intricate history of the crusade. Of his fanaticism, and of the +cruelty with which he waged war upon the heretics, the Count Raimon +Roger of Foix speaks at the Lateran council, when defending himself +against the accusation of heresy.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">E die vos de l'avesque, que tant n'es afortitz,</p> +<p class="i2">qu'en la sua semblansa es Dieus e nos trazitz,</p> +<p class="i2">que ab cansos messongeiras e ab motz coladitz,</p> +<p class="i2">dont totz horn es perdutz qui·ls canta ni los ditz,</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p081" name="p081"></a>[81] +</span> +<p class="i2">ez ab sos reproverbis afilatz e forbitz</p> +<p class="i2">ez ab los nostres dos, don fo eniotglaritz,</p> +<p class="i2">ez ab mala doctrina es tant fort enriquitz</p> +<p class="i2">c'om non auza ren dire a so qu'el contraditz.</p> +<p class="i2">Pero cant el fo abas ni monges revestitz</p> +<p class="i2">en la sua abadia fo si·l lums eseurzitz</p> +<p class="i2">qu'anc no i ac be ni pauza, tro qu'el ne fo ichitz;</p> +<p class="i2">e cant fo de Tholosa avesques elegitz</p> +<p class="i2">per trastota la terra es tals focs espanditz</p> +<p class="i2">que ia mais per nulha aiga no sira escantitz;</p> +<p class="i2">que plus de D.M., que de grans que petitz,</p> +<p class="i2">i fe perdre las vidas e·ls cors e·ls esperitz.</p> +<p class="i2">Per la fe qu'icu vos deg, als sous faitz e als ditz</p> +<p class="i2">ez a la captenensa sembla mielhs Antecritz</p> +<p class="i2">que messatges de Roma.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"And of the bishop, who is so zealous, I tell you that in him both God +and we ourselves are betrayed; for with lying songs and insinuating +words, which are the damnation of any who sings or speaks them, and by +his keen polished admonitions, and by our presents wherewith he +maintained himself as <i>joglar</i>, and by his evil doctrine, he has risen +so high, that one dare say nothing to that which he opposes. So when he +was vested as abbot and monk, was the light in his abbey put out in such +wise that therein was no comfort or rest, until that he was gone forth +from thence; and when he was chosen bishop of Toulouse such a fire was +spread throughout the land that never for any water will it be quenched; +for there did he bring destruction of life and body and soul upon more +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p082" name="p082"></a>[82] +</span> +than fifteen hundred of high and low. By the faith which I owe to you, +by his deeds and his words and his dealings, more like is he to +Anti-Christ than to an envoy of Rome." (<i>Chanson de la croisade contre +les Albigeois</i>, v. 3309.)</p> + +<p>Folquet died on December 25, 1231, and was buried at the Cistercian +Abbey of Grandselve, some thirty miles north-west of Toulouse. Such +troubadours as Guilhem Figueira and Peire Cardenal, who inveighed +against the action of the Church during the crusade, say nothing of him, +and upon their silence and that of the biography as regards his +ecclesiastical life the argument has been founded that Folquet the +troubadour and Folquet the bishop were two different persons. There is +no evidence to support this theory. Folquet's poems enjoyed a high +reputation. The minnesinger, Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg (end of the +twelfth century) imitated him, as also did the Italians Rinaldo d'Aquino +and Jacopo da Lentino.</p> + +<p>The troubadours as a rule stood aloof from the religious quarrels of the +age. But few seem to have joined the crusaders, as Perdigon did. Most of +their patrons were struggling for their existence: when the invaders +succeeded in establishing themselves, they had no desire for court +poetry. The troubadour's occupation was gone, and those who wished for +an audience were obliged to seek beyond the borders of France. Hence it +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p083" name="p083"></a>[83] +</span> +is somewhat remarkable to find the troubadour Raimon de Miraval, of +Carcassonne, continuing to sing, as though perfect tranquillity +prevailed. His wife, Gaudairenca, was a poetess, and Paul Heyse has made +her the central figure of one of his charming <i>Troubadour Novellen</i>. +Raimon's poems betray no forebodings of the coming storm; when it broke, +he lost his estate and fled to Raimon of Toulouse for shelter. The +arrival of Pedro II. of Aragon at Toulouse in 1213 and his alliance with +the Count of Toulouse cheered the troubadour's spirits: he thought there +was a chance that he might recover his estate. He compliments Pedro on +his determination in one poem and in another tells his lady, "the king +has promised me that in a short time, I shall have Miraval again and my +Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will +regain their lost delights." Such was the attitude of many troubadours +towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain +section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of +patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of +their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole +acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no +attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p084" name="p084"></a>[84] +</span> +attempts was forth-coming.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real +courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in +maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first +energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse +been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to +reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty +lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as +little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy. +His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the <i>Chanson de +la Croisade</i> reflects their hopes and fears and describes their +struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic +splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in +the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders +who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest +poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within +the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that +he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a noble +and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he +was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p085" name="p085"></a>[85] +</span> +went from court to court, accompanied by a <i>joglar</i>: he was especially +favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a +hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his <i>chansos</i> +that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case +of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral <i>sirventes</i>: he +was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and +immorality and the special objects of his animosity are the Roman +Catholic clergy and the high nobles. "The clergy call themselves +shepherds and are murderers under a show of saintliness: when I look +upon their dress I remember Isengrin (the wolf in the romance of +Reynard, the Fox) who wished one day to break into the sheep-fold: but +for fear of the dogs he dressed himself in a sheepskin and then devoured +as many as he would. Kings and emperors, dukes, counts and knights used +to rule the world; now the priests have the power which they have gained +by robbery and treachery, by hypocrisy, force and preaching." "Eagles +and vultures smell not the carrion so readily as priests and preachers +smell out the rich: a rich man is their friend and should a sickness +strike him down, he must make them presents to the loss of his +relations. Frenchmen and priests are reputed bad and rightly so: usurers +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p086" name="p086"></a>[86] +</span> [86] +and traitors possess the whole world, for with deceit have they so +confounded the world that there is no class to whom their doctrine is +unknown." Peire inveighs against the disgraces of particular orders; the +Preaching Friars or Jacobin monks who discuss the relative merits of +special wines after their feasts, whose lives are spent in disputes and +who declare all who differ from them to be Vaudois heretics, who worm +men's private affairs out of them, that they may make themselves feared: +some of his charges against the monastic orders are quite unprintable.</p> + +<p>No less vigorous are his invectives against the rich and the social +evils of his time. The tone of regret that underlies Guiraut de +Bornelh's satires in this theme is replaced in Peire Cardenal's +<i>sirventes</i> by a burning sense of injustice. Covetousness, the love of +pleasure, injustice to the poor, treachery and deceit and moral laxity +are among his favourite themes. "He who abhors truth and hates the +right, careers to hell and directs his course to the abyss: for many a +man builds walls and palaces with the goods of others and yet the +witless world says that he is on the right path, because he is clever +and prosperous. As silver is refined in the fire, so the patient poor +are purified under grievous oppression: and with what splendour the +shameless rich man may feed and clothe himself, his riches bring him +nought but pain, grief and vexation of spirit. But that affrights him +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p087" name="p087"></a>[87] +</span> +not: capons and game, good wine and the dainties of the earth console +him and cheer his heart. Then he prays to God and says 'I am poor and in +misery.' Were God to answer him He would say, 'thou liest!'" To +illustrate the degeneracy of the age, Peire relates a fable, perhaps the +only instance of this literary form among the troubadours, upon the +theme that if all the world were mad, the one sane man would be in a +lunatic asylum: "there was a certain town, I know not where, upon which +a rain fell of such a nature that all the inhabitants upon whom it fell, +lost their reason. All lost their reason except one, who escaped because +he was asleep in his house when the rain came. When he awoke, he rose: +the rain had ceased, and he went out among the people who were all +committing follies. One was clothed, another naked, another was spitting +at the sky: some were throwing sticks and stones, tearing their coats, +striking and pushing... The sane man was deeply surprised and saw that +they were mad; nor could he find a single man in his senses. Yet greater +was their surprise at him, and as they saw that he did not follow their +example, they concluded that he had lost his senses.... So one strikes +him in front, another behind; he is dashed to the ground and trampled +under foot... at length he flees to his house covered with mud, bruised +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p088" name="p088"></a>[88] +</span> +and half dead and thankful for his escape": The mad town, says Peire +Cardenal, is the present world: the highest form of intelligence is the +love and fear of God, but this has been replaced by greed, pride and +malice; consequently the "sense of God" seems madness to the world and +he who refuses to follow the "sense of the world" is treated as a +madman.</p> + +<p>Peire Cardenal is thus by temperament a moral preacher; he is not merely +critical of errors, but has also a positive faith to propound. He is not +an opponent of the papacy as an institution: the confession of faith +which he utters in one of his <i>sirventes</i> shows that he would have been +perfectly satisfied with the Roman ecclesiastical and doctrinal system, +had it been properly worked. In this respect he differs from a +contemporary troubadour, Guillem Figueira, whose violent satire against +Rome shows him as opposed to the whole system from the papacy downwards. +He was a native of Toulouse and migrated to Lombardy and to the court of +Frederick II. when the crusade drove him from his home. "I wonder not, +Rome, that men go astray, for thou hast cast the world into strife and +misery; virtue and good works die and are buried because of thee, +treacherous Rome, thou guiding-star, thou root and branch of all +iniquity... Greed blindeth thy eyes, and too close dost thou shear thy +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p089" name="p089"></a>[89] +</span> +sheep... thou forgivest sins for money, thou loadest thyself with a +shameful burden. Rome, we know of a truth that with the bait of false +forgiveness, thou hast snared in misery the nobility of France, the +people of Paris and the noble King Louis (VIII., who died in the course +of the Albigeois crusade); thou didst bring him to his death, for thy +false preaching enticed him from his land. Rome, thou has the outward +semblance of a lamb, so innocent is thy countenance, but within thou are +a ravening wolf, a crowned snake begotten of a viper and therefore the +devil greeteth thee as the friend of his bosom." This sirventes was +answered by a <i>trobairitz</i>, Germonde of Montpelier, but her reply lacks +the vigour and eloquence of the attack.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that the troubadours turned to religious poetry +simply because the Albigeois crusade had raised the religious question. +Purely devotional poetry is found at an earlier period.<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href= +"#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a> It appears +at first only sporadically, and some of the greatest troubadours have +left no religious poems that have reached us. The fact is, that the +nature of troubadour poetry and its homage to the married woman were +incompatible with the highest standard of religious devotion. The famous +<i>alba</i> of Guiraut de Bornelh invokes the "glorious king, true light and +splendour, Lord Almighty," for the purpose of praying that the lovers +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p090" name="p090"></a>[90] +</span> +for whom the speaker is keeping watch may be undisturbed in interchange +of their affections. Prayer for the success of attempted adultery is a +contradiction in terms. For a theory of religion which could regard the +Deity as a possible accomplice in crime, the Church of Southern France +in the twelfth century is to blame: we cannot expect that the +troubadours in general should be more religious than the professional +exponents of religion. On the other hand, poems of real devotional +feeling are found, even from the earliest times: the sensual Count of +Poitiers, the first troubadour known to us, concludes his career with a +poem of resignation bidding farewell to the world, "leaving all that I +love, the brilliant life of chivalry, but since it pleases God, I resign +myself and pray Him to keep me among His own." Many troubadours, as has +been said, ended their lives in monasteries and the disappointments or +griefs which drove them to this course often aroused religious feelings, +regrets for past follies and resolutions of repentance, which found +expression in poetry. Peire d'Auvergne wrote several religious hymns +after his retirement from the world; these are largely composed of +reiterated articles of the Christian faith in metrical form and are as +unpoetical as they are orthodox, Crusade poems and <i>planhs</i> upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p091" name="p091"></a>[91] +</span> +deaths of famous nobles or patrons are religious only in a secondary +sense. A fine religious <i>alba</i> is ascribed to Folquet of Marseilles—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Vers Dieus, e·l vostre nom e de sancta Maria</p> +<p class="i4">m'esvelherai hueimais, pus l'estela del dia</p> +<p class="i4">ven daus Jerusalem que' m'ensenha qu'ien dia:</p> +<p class="i10">estatz sus e levatz,</p> +<p class="i10">senhor, que Dieu amatz! </p> +<p class="i10">que·l jorns es aprosmatz</p> +<p class="i10">e la nuech ten sa via;</p> +<p class="i10">e sia·n Dieus lauzatz</p> +<p class="i10">per nos e adoratz,</p> +<p class="i10">e·l preguem que·ens don patz</p> +<p class="i10">a tota nostra via.</p> +<p class="i10">La nuech vai e·l jorns ve</p> +<p class="i10">ab elar eel e sere,</p> +<p class="i10">e l'alba no's rete</p> +<p class="i10">ans ven belh' e complia.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"True God, in Thy name and in the name of Saint Mary will I awake +henceforth, since the star of day rises from o'er Jerusalem, bidding me +say, 'Up and arise, sirs, who love God! For the day is nigh, and the +night departs; and let God be praised and adored by us and let us pray +Him that He give us peace for all our lives. Night goes and day comes +with clear serene sky, and the dawn delays not but comes fair and +perfect.'"</p> + +<p>At the close of the Albigeois crusade the Virgin Mary becomes the theme +of an increasing number of lyric poems. These are not like the farewells +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p092" name="p092"></a>[92] +</span> +to the world, uttered by weary troubadours, and dictated by individual +circumstances, but are inspired by an increase of religious feeling in +the public to whom the troubadours appealed. Peire Cardenal began the +series and a similar poem is attributed to Perdigon, a troubadour who +joined the crusaders and fought against his old patrons; though the poem +is probably not his, it belongs to a time but little posterior to the +crusade. The cult of the Virgin had obvious attractions as a subject for +troubadours whose profane songs would not have been countenanced by St +Dominic and his preachers and religious poetry dealing with the subject +could easily borrow not only the metrical forms but also many technical +expressions which troubadours had used in singing of worldly love. They +could be the servants of a heavenly mistress and attribute to her all +the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that +the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the +supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut +Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new +<i>genre</i>: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem +admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many +poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with +classical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p093" name="p093"></a>[93] +</span> +the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea +of the character of this poetry.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Domna, rosa ses espina,</p> +<p class="i2">sobre totas flors olens,</p> +<p class="i2">verga seca frug fazens,</p> +<p class="i2">terra que ses labor grana,</p> +<p class="i2">estela, del solelh maire,</p> +<p class="i2">noirissa del vostre paire,</p> +<p class="i2">el mon nulha no·us semelha</p> +<p class="i2">ni londana ni vezina.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Domna, verge pura e fina,</p> +<p class="i2">ans que fos l'enfantamens,</p> +<p class="i2">et apres tot eissamens,</p> +<p class="i2">receup en vos carn humana</p> +<p class="i2">Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire,</p> +<p class="i2">si com ses trencamen faire</p> +<p class="i2">intra·l bels rais, quan solelha,</p> +<p class="i2">per la fenestra veirina.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Domna, estela marina</p> +<p class="i2">de las autras plus luzens,</p> +<p class="i2">la mars nos combat e·l vens;</p> +<p class="i2">mostra nos via certana;</p> +<p class="i2">car si·ns vols a bon port traire</p> +<p class="i2">non tem nau ni governaire</p> +<p class="i2">ni tempest que·ns destorbelha</p> +<p class="i2">ni·l sobern de la marina.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing +fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun, +nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p094" name="p094"></a>[94] +</span> +neither far nor near.</p> + +<p>Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same, +Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without +causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun +shines.</p> + +<p>Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the +wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to +a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it +trouble us."</p> + + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="pagenum"><a id="p095" name="p095"></a>[95] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY</h3> + + +<p>To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of +its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The +movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and +the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the very existence of its lyric +poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations +between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early +period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean +was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local nobles were +connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman +Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and <i>joglars</i> to visit the +Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian +dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their +poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to +troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal +was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the +Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p096" name="p096"></a>[96] +</span> +Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less +importance offered a welcome to Provençal poets. More than twenty +troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to +have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their +poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provençal became +the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of +troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure.</p> + +<p>Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career +(1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour +quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor +noble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of +Orange; he exchanged <i>tensos</i> with his patron with whom he seems to have +been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym +Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time +later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence +of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a +wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of +Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in +which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady.</p> + +<p>"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p097" name="p097"></a>[97] +</span> +is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded +if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than +if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up." +The lady then replies in her own Genoese dialect: she knows nothing of +the conventions of courtly love, and informs the troubadour that her +husband is a better man than he and that she will have nothing to do +with him. The poem is nothing but a <i>jeu d'esprit</i> based upon the +contrast between troubadour sentiments and the honest but unpoetical +views of the middle class; it is interesting to philologists as +containing one of the earliest known specimens of Italian dialect. An +example of the Tuscan dialect is also found in the <i>descort</i> by +Raimbaut. This is a poem in irregular metre, intended to show the +perturbation of the poet's mind. Raimbaut increased this effect by +writing in five different languages. He found a ready welcome from +Bonifacio II. at the court of Montferrat which Peire Vidal also visited. +The marquis dubbed him knight and made him his brother in arms. Raimbaut +fell in love with Beatrice, the sister of the marquis, an intimacy which +proceeded upon the regular lines of courtly love. He soon found an +opportunity of showing his devotion to the marquis. In 1194 Henry VI. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p098" name="p098"></a>[98] +</span> +made an expedition to Sicily to secure the claims of his wife, +Constance, to that kingdom: the Marquis Boniface as a vassal of the +imperial house followed the Emperor and Raimbaut accompanied his +contingent. He refers to his share in the campaign in a later letter to +the marquis.<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href= +"#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Et ai per vos estat en greu preyzo</p> +<p class="i2">Per vostra guerra e n'ai a vostro pro</p> +<p class="i2">Fag maynt assaut et ars maynta maiso</p> +<p class="i2">Et a Messina vos cobri del blizo;</p> +<p class="i2">En la batalha vos vinc en tal sazo</p> +<p class="i2">Que·us ferion pel pietz e pel mento</p> +<p class="i2">Dartz e cairels, sagetas e trenso.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"For your sake I have been in hard captivity in your war, and to do you +service I have made many an assault and burned many a house. At Messina +I covered you with the shield; I came to you in the battle at the moment +when they hurled at your breast and chin darts and quarrels, arrows and +lance-shafts." The captivity was endured in the course of the marquis's +wars in Italy, and the troubadour refers to a seafight between the +forces of Genoa and Pisa in the Sicilian campaign. In 1202 he followed +his master upon the crusade which practically ended at Constantinople. +He had composed a vigorous <i>sirventes</i> urging Christian men to join the +movement, but he does not himself show any great enthusiasm to take the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p099" name="p099"></a>[99] +</span> [99] +cross. "I would rather, if it please you, die in that land than live and +remain here. For us God was raised upon the cross, received death, +suffered the passion, was scourged and loaded with chains and crowned +with thorns upon the cross.... Fair Cavalier (i.e. Beatrice) I know not +whether I shall stay for your sake or take the cross; I know not whether +I shall go or remain, for I die with grief if I see you and I am like to +die if I am far from you." So also in the letter quoted above.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> E cant anetz per crozar a Saysso,</p> +<p class="i2"> Ieu non avia cor—Dieus m'o perdo—</p> +<p class="i2"> Que passes mar, mas per vostre resso</p> +<p class="i2"> Levey la crotz e pris confessio.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"And when you went to Soissons to take the cross, I did not intend—may +God forgive me—to cross the sea, but to increase your fame I took the +cross and made confession." The count lost his life, as Villehardouin +relates, in a skirmish with the Bulgarians in 1207. Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras probably fell at the same time.</p> + +<p>This is enough to show that troubadours who came to Italy could make the +country a second home, and find as much occupation in love, war and +politics as they had ever found in Southern France. Aimeric de Pegulhan, +Gaucelm Faidit, Uc de Saint-Circ,<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href= +"#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> the author of some troubadour +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p100" name="p100"></a>[100] +</span> +biographies, were among the best known of those who visited Italy. The +last named is known to have visited Pisa and another troubadour of minor +importance, Guillem de la Tor, was in Florence. Thus the visits of the +troubadours were by no means confined to the north.</p> + +<p>It was, therefore, natural that Italians should imitate the troubadours +whose art proved so successful at Italian courts and some thirty Italian +troubadours are known to us. Count Manfred II. and Albert, the Marquis +of Malaspina, engaged in <i>tensos</i> with Peire Vidal and Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras respectively and are the first Italians known to have written +in Provençal. Genoa produced a number of Italian troubadours of whom the +best were Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo. The latter was a wanderer +and spent some time in Castile at the court of Alfonso X. Lanfranc +Cigala was a judge in his native town: from him survive a <i>sirventes</i> +against Bonifacio III. of Montferrat who had abandoned the cause of +Frederick II., crusade poems and a <i>sirventes</i> against the obscure +style. The Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi was a prisoner at Genoa from 1266 +to 1273, having been captured by the Genoese. The troubadour of Genoa, +Bonifacio Calvo, had written a vigorous invective against Venice, to +which the captive troubadour composed an equally strong reply addressed +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p101" name="p101"></a>[101] +</span> +to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours +became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is +certainly Sordello.</p> + +<p>There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he +was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of noble family. His name is not +to be derived from <i>sordidus</i>, but from <i>Surdus</i>, a not uncommon +patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early +years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court +of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell +in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, <i>Par.</i> ix. +32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely +obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a +family feud, while others assert that the elopement took place with the +connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (<i>Inf</i>. +xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and +Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the +Provençal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his +flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He +thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France, +where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p102" name="p102"></a>[102] +</span> +penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is +the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose <i>sirventes</i> speaks of him +as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso +IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this +no date can be assigned. Allusions in his poems show that he was in +Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of +the Countess Beatrice (<i>Par.</i> vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar, +Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have +been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur +and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady +cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin +treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known nobles, +and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is +uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in +1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Charles on his +Italian expedition against Manfred in 1265, and seems to have been +captured by the Ghibellines before reaching Naples. At any rate, he was +a prisoner at Novara in September 1266; Pope Clement IV. induced Charles +to ransom him, and in 1269, as a recompense for his services, he +received five castles in the Abruzzi, near the river Pescara: shortly +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p103" name="p103"></a>[103] +</span> +afterwards he died. The circumstances of his death are unknown, but from +the fact that he is placed by Dante among those who were cut off before +they could repent it has been conjectured that he came to a violent end.</p> + +<p>Sordello's restless life and his intrigues could be exemplified from the +history of many another troubadour and neither his career nor his +poetry, which with two exceptions, is of no special originality, seems +to justify the portrait drawn of him by Dante; while Browning's famous +poem has nothing in common with the troubadour except the name. These +exceptions, however, are notable. The first is a <i>sirventes</i> composed by +Sordello on the death of his patron Blacatz in 1237. He invites to the +funeral feast the Roman emperor, Frederick II., the kings of France, +England and Aragon, the counts of Champagne, Toulouse and Provence. They +are urged to eat of the dead man's heart, that they may gain some +tincture of his courage and nobility. Each is invited in a separate +stanza in which the poet reprehends the failings of the several +potentates.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Del rey engles me platz, quar es paue coratjos,</p> +<p class="i2">Que manje pro del cor, pueys er valens e bos,</p> +<p class="i2">E cobrara la terra, per que viu de pretz blos,</p> +<p class="i2">Que·l tol lo reys de Fransa, quar lo sap nualhos;</p> +<p class="i2">E lo reys castelas tanh qu'en manje per dos,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p104" name="p104"></a>[104] +</span> +<p class="i2">Quar dos regismes ten, e per l'un non es pros;</p> +<p class="i2">Mas, s'elh en vol manjar, tanh qu'en manj'a rescos,</p> +<p class="i2">Que, si·l mair'o sabra, batria·l ab bastos.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"As concerns the English King (Henry III.) it pleases me, for he is +little courageous, that he should eat well of the heart; then he will be +valiant and good and will recover the land (for loss of which he lives +bereft of worth), which the King of France took from him, for he knows +him to be of no account. And the King of Castile (Ferdinand III. of +Castile and Leon), it is fitting that he eat of it for two, for he holds +two realms and he is not sufficient for one; but if he will eat of it, +'twere well that he eat in secret: for if his mother were to know it, +she would beat him with staves."</p> + +<p>This idea, which is a commonplace in the folklore of many countries, +attracted attention. Two contemporary troubadours attempted to improve +upon it. Bertran d'Alamanon said that the heart should not be divided +among the cowards, enumerated by Sordello, but given to the noble ladies +of the age: Peire Bremen proposed a division of the body. The point is +that Dante in the Purgatorio represents Sordello as showing to Virgil +the souls of those who, while singing <i>Salve Regina</i>, ask to be pardoned +for their neglect of duty and among them appear the rulers whom Sordello +had satirised in his <i>sirventes</i>. Hence it seems that it was this +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p105" name="p105"></a>[105] +</span> +composition which attracted Dante's attention to Sordello. The other +important poem is the <i>Ensenhamen</i>, a didactic work of instruction upon +the manner and conduct proper to a courtier and a lover. Here, and also +in some of his lyric poems, Sordello represents the transition to a new +idea of love which was more fully developed by the school of Guido +Guinicelli and found its highest expression in Dante's lyrics and Vita +Nuova. Love is now rather a mystical idea than a direct affection for a +particular lady: the lover is swayed by a spiritual and intellectual +ideal, and the motive of physical attraction recedes to the background. +The cause of love, however, remains unchanged: love enters through the +eyes; sight is delight.</p> + +<p>We must now turn southwards. A school of poetry had grown up in Sicily +at the court of Frederick II. No doubt he favoured those troubadours +whose animosity to the papacy had been aroused by the Albigeois crusade: +such invective as that which Guillem Figueira could pour forth would be +useful to him in his struggle against the popes. But the emperor was +himself a man of unusual culture, with a keen interest in literary and +scientific pursuits: he founded a university at Naples, collected +manuscripts and did much to make Arabic learning known to the West. He +was a poet and the importance of the Sicilian school consists in the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p106" name="p106"></a>[106] +</span> +fact that while the subject matter of their songs was lifted from +troubadour poetry, the language which they used belonged to the Italian +peninsula. The dialect of these <i>provenzaleggianti</i> was not pure +Sicilian but was probably a literary language containing elements drawn +from other dialects, as happened long before in the case of the +troubadours themselves. The best known representatives of this school, +Pier delle Vigne, Jacopo da Lentini and Guido delle Colonne are familiar +to students of Dante. After their time no one questioned the fact that +lyric poetry written in Italian was a possible achievement. The +influence of the Sicilian school extended to Central Italy and Tuscany; +Dante tells us that all Italian poetry preceding his own age was known +as Sicilian. The early Tuscan poets were, mediately or immediately, +strongly influenced by Provençal. The first examples of the sonnet, by +Dante da Majano, were written in that language. But such poetry was +little more than a rhetorical exercise. It was the revival of learning +and the Universities, in particular that of Bologna, which inspired the +<i>dolce stil nuovo</i>, of which the first exponent was Guido Giunicelli. +Love was now treated from a philosophical point of view: hitherto, the +Provençal school had maintained the thesis that "sight is delight," that +love originated from seeing and pleasing, penetrated to the heart and +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p107" name="p107"></a>[107] +</span> +occupied the thoughts, after passing through the eyes. So Aimeric de +Pegulhan.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Perque tuit li fin aman</p> +<p class="i2">Sapchan qu'amors es fina bevolenza</p> +<p class="i2">Que nais del cor e dels huelh, ses duptar.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Wherefore let all pure lovers know that love is pure unselfishness +which is born undoubtedly from the heart and from the eyes," a sentiment +thus repeated by Guido delle Colonne of the Sicilian school.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Dal cor si move un spirito in vedere</p> +<p class="i2">D'in ochi'n ochi, di femina e d'omo</p> +<p class="i2">Per lo quel si concria uno piacere.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>The philosophical school entirely transformed this conception. Love +seeks the noble heart by affinity, as the bird seeks the tree: the noble +heart cannot but love, and love inflames and purifies its nobility, as +the power of the Deity is transmitted to the heavenly beings. When this +idea had been once evolved, Provençal poetry could no longer be a moving +force; it was studied but was not imitated. Its influence had lasted +some 150 years, and as far as Italy is concerned it was Arabic learning, +Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas who slew the troubadours more certainly +than Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. The day of superficial +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p108" name="p108"></a>[108] +</span> +prettiness and of the cult of form had passed; love conjoined with +learning, a desire to pierce to the roots of things, a greater depth of +thought and earnestness were the characteristics of the new school.</p> + +<p>Dante's debt to the troubadours, with whose literature he was well +acquainted, is therefore the debt of Italian literature as a whole. Had +not the troubadours developed their theory of courtly love, with its +influence upon human nature, we cannot say what course early Italian +literature might have run. Moreover, the troubadours provided Italy and +other countries also with perfect models of poetical form. The sonnet, +the terza rima and any other form used by Dante are of Provençal origin. +And what is true of Dante and his Beatrice is no less true of Petrarch +and his Laura and of many another who may be sought in histories +specially devoted to this subject.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="pagenum"><a id="p109" name="p109"></a>[109] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN</h3> + +<p>The South of France had been connected with the North of Spain from a +period long antecedent to the first appearance of troubadour poetry. As +early as the Visigoth period, Catalonia had been united to Southern +France; in the case of this province the tie was further strengthened by +community of language. On the western side of the Pyrenees a steady +stream of pilgrims entered the Spanish peninsula on their way to the +shrine of St James of Compostella in Galicia; this road was, indeed, +known in Spain as the "French road." Catalonia was again united with +Provence by the marriage of Raimon Berengar III. with a Provençal +heiress in 1112. As the counts of Barcelona and the kings of Aragon held +possessions in Southern France, communications between the two countries +were naturally frequent.</p> + +<p>We have already had occasion to refer to the visits of various +troubadours to the courts of Spain. The "reconquista," the reconquest of +Spain from the Moors, was in progress during the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, and various crusade poems were written by troubadours +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p110" name="p110"></a>[110] +</span> +summoning help to the Spaniards in their struggles. Marcabrun was the +author of one of the earliest of these, composed for the benefit of +Alfonso VIII. of Castile and possibly referring to his expedition +against the Moors in 1147, which was undertaken in conjunction with the +kings of Navarre and Aragon. The poem is interesting for its repetition +of the word <i>lavador</i> or piscina, used as an emblem of the crusade in +which the participants would be cleansed of their sins.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href= +"#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Pax in nomine Domini!</p> +<p class="i2">Fetz Marcabrus los motz e·l so.</p> +<p class="i6">Aujatz que di:</p> +<p class="i2">Cum nos a fait per sa doussor,</p> +<p class="i2">Lo Seignorius celestiaus</p> +<p class="i2">Probet de nos un lavador</p> +<p class="i2">C'ane, fors outramar, no·n' fon taus,</p> +<p class="i2">En de lai deves Josaphas:</p> +<p class="i2">E d'aquest de sai vos conort.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Pax, etc.,—-Marcabrun composed the words and the air. Hear what he +says. How, by his goodness, the Lord of Heaven, has made near us a +piscina, such as there never was, except beyond the sea, there by +Josaphat, and for this one near here do I exhort you."</p> + +<p>Alfonso II. of Aragon (1162-1196) was a constant patron of the +troubadours, and himself an exponent of their art. He belonged to the +family of the counts of Barcelona which became in his time one of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p111" name="p111"></a>[111] +</span> +most powerful royal houses in the West of Europe. He was the grandson of +Raimon Berengar III. and united to Barcelona by marriage and diplomacy, +the kingdom of Aragon, Provence and Roussillon. His continual visits to +the French part of his dominions gave every opportunity to the +troubadours to gain his favour: several were continually about him and +there were few who did not praise his liberality. A discordant note is +raised by Bertran de Born, who composed some violent <i>sirventes</i> against +Alfonso; he was actuated by political motives: Alfonso had joined the +King of England in his operations against Raimon V. of Toulouse and +Bertran's other allies and had been present at the capture of Bertran's +castle of Hautefort in 1183. The biography relates that in the course of +the siege, the King of Aragon, who had formerly been in friendly +relations with Bertran, sent a messenger into the fortress asking for +provisions. These Bertran supplied with the request that the king would +secure the removal of the siege engines from a particular piece of wall, +which was on the point of destruction and would keep the information +secret. Alfonso, however, betrayed the message and the fortress was +captured. The <i>razo</i> further relates the touching scene to which we have +already referred when Bertran moved Henry II. to clemency by a reference +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p112" name="p112"></a>[112] +</span> +to the death of the "young king." The account of Alfonso's supposed +treachery is probably no less unhistorical: the siege lasted only a week +and it is unlikely that the besiegers would have been reduced to want in +so short a time. It was probably invented to explain the hostility on +Bertran's part which dated from the wars between Alfonso and Raimon V. +of Toulouse. This animosity was trumpeted forth in two lampooning +<i>sirventes</i> criticising the public policy and the private life of the +Spanish King. His accusations of meanness and trickery seem to be based +on nothing more reliable than current gossip.</p> + +<p>Peire Vidal, with the majority of the troubadours, shows himself a +vigorous supporter of Alfonso. Referring to this same expedition of 1183 +he asserted "Had I but a speedy horse, the king might sleep in peace at +Balaguer: I would keep Provence and Montpelier in such order that +robbers and freebooters should no longer plunder Venaissin and Crau. +When I have put on my shining cuirass and girded on the sword that Guigo +lately gave me, the earth trembles beneath my feet; no enemy so mighty +who does not forthwith avoid out of my path, so great is their fear of +me when they hear my steps." These boasts in the style of Captain +Matamoros are, of course, not serious: the poet's personal appearance +seems to have been enough to preclude any suppositions of the kind. In +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p113" name="p113"></a>[113] +</span> +another poem he sings the praises of Sancha, daughter of Alfonso VIII. +of Castile, who married Alfonso II. of Aragon in 1174. With the common +sense in political matters which is so strangely conjoined with the +whimsicality of his actions, he puts his finger upon the weak spot in +Spanish politics when he refers to the disunion between the four kings, +Alfonso II. of Aragon, Alfonso IX. of Leon, Alfonso VIII. of Castile and +Sancho Garcés of Navarre: "little honour is due to the four kings of +Spain for that they cannot keep peace with one another; since in other +respects they are of great worth, dexterous, open, courteous and loyal, +so that they should direct their efforts to better purpose and wage war +elsewhere against the people who do not believe our law, until the whole +of Spain professes one and the same faith."</p> + +<p>The Monk of Montaudon, Peire Raimon of Toulouse, Uc de San Circ, Uc +Brunet and other troubadours of less importance also enjoyed Alfonso's +patronage. Guiraut de Bornelh sent a poem to the Catalonian court in +terms which seemed to show that the simple style of poetry was there +preferred to complicated obscurities. The same troubadour was +sufficiently familiar with Alfonso's successor, Pedro II., to take part +in a <i>tenso</i> with him.</p> + +<p>Pedro II. (1196-1213) was no less popular with the troubadours than his +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p114" name="p114"></a>[114] +</span> +father. Aimeric de Pegulhan, though more closely connected with the +court of Castile, is loud in his praises of Pedro, "the flower of +courtesy, the green leaf of delight, the fruit of noble deeds." Pedro +supported his brother-in-law, Raimon VI. of Toulouse, against the +crusaders and Simon de Montfort during the Albigeois crusade and was +killed near Toulouse in the battle of Muret. The Chanson de la Croisade +does not underestimate the impression made by his death.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Mot fo grans lo dampnatges e·l dols e·l perdementz</p> +<p class="i2">Cant lo reis d'Arago remas mort e sagnens,</p> +<p class="i2">E mot d'autres baros, don fo grans l'aunimens</p> +<p class="i2">A tot crestianesme et a trastotas gens.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Great was the damage and the grief and the loss when the King of Aragon +remained dead and bleeding with many other barons, whence was great +shame to all Christendom and to all people."</p> + +<p>The Court of Castile attracted the attention and the visits of the +troubadours, chiefly during the reign of Alfonso VIII. (or III.; +1158-1214) the hero of Las Navas de Tolosa, the most decisive defeat +which the Arab power in the West had sustained since the days of Charles +Martel. The preceding defeat of Alfonso's forces at Alarcos in 1195 had +called forth a fine crusade <i>sirventes</i> from Folquet of Marseilles +appealing to Christians in general and the King of Aragon in particular +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p115" name="p115"></a>[115] +</span> +to join forces against the infidels. The death of Alfonso's son, +Fernando, in 1211 from an illness contracted in the course of a campaign +against the infidels was lamented by Guiraut de Calanso, a Gascon +troubadour.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Lo larc e·l franc, lo valen e·l grazitz,</p> +<p class="i2">Don cuiavon qu'en fos esmendatz</p> +<p class="i2">Lo jove reys, e·n Richartz lo prezatz</p> +<p class="i2">E·l coms Jaufres, tug li trey valen fraire.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"The generous and frank, the worthy and attractive of whom men thought +that in him were increased the qualities of the young king, of Richard +the high renowned, and of the Count Godfrey, all the three valiant +brothers." Peire Vidal in one of the poems which he addressed to Alfonso +VIII., speaks of the attractions of Spain. "Spain is a good country; its +kings and lords are kindly and loving, generous and noble, of courteous +company; other barons there are, noble and hospitable, men of sense and +knowledge, valiant and renowned." Raimon Vidal of Bezaudun, a Catalonian +troubadour has given a description of Alfonso's court in one of his +<i>novelas</i>. "I wish to relate a story which I heard a joglar tell at the +court of the wisest king that ever was, King Alfonso of Castile, where +were presents and gifts, judgment, worth and courtesy, spirit and +chivalry, though he was not anointed or sacred, but crowned with praise, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p116" name="p116"></a>[116] +</span> +sense, worth and prowess. The king gathered many knights to his court, +many <i>joglars</i> and rich barons and when the court was filled Queen +Eleanor came in dressed so that no one saw her body. She came wrapped +closely in a cloak of silken fabric fine and fair called sisclaton; it +was red with a border of silver and had a golden lion broidered on it. +She bowed to the king and took her seat on one side at some distance. +Then, behold, a <i>joglar</i> come before the king, frank and debonair, who +said 'King, noble emperor, I have come to you thus and I pray you of +your goodness that my tale may be heard,'" The scene concludes, "Joglar, +I hold the story which you have related as good, amusing and fair and +you also the teller of it and I will order such reward to be given to +you that you shall know that the story has indeed pleased me."</p> + +<p>The crown of Castile was united with that of Leon by Fernando III. +(1230-1262) the son of Alfonso IX. of Leon. Lanfranc Cigala, the +troubadour of Genoa, excuses the Spaniards at this time for their +abstention from the Crusades to Jerusalem on the ground that they were +fully occupied in their struggles with the Moors. Fernando is one of the +kings to whom Sordello refers in the famous <i>sirventes</i> of the divided +heart, as also is Jaime I. of Aragon (1213-1276), the "Conquistador," of +whom much is heard in the poetry of the troubadours. He was born at +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p117" name="p117"></a>[117] +</span> +Montpelier and was fond of revisiting his birthplace; troubadours whom +he there met accompanied him to Spain, joined in his expeditions and +enjoyed his generosity. His court became a place of refuge for those who +had been driven out of Southern France by the Albigeois crusade; Peire +Cardenal, Bernard Sicart de Marvejols and N'At de Mons of Toulouse +visited him. His popularity with the troubadours was considerably shaken +by his policy in 1242, when a final attempt was made to throw off the +yoke imposed upon Southern France as the result of the Albigeois +crusade. Isabella of Angoulême, the widow of John of England, had +married the Count de la Marche; she urged him to rise against the French +and induced her son, Henry III. of England, to support him. Henry hoped +to regain his hold of Poitou and was further informed that the Count of +Toulouse and the Spanish kings would join the alliance. There seems to +have been a general belief that Jaime would take the opportunity of +avenging his father's death at Muret. However, no Spanish help was +forthcoming; the allies were defeated at Saintes and at Taillebourg and +this abortive rising ended in 1243. Guillem de Montanhagol says in a +<i>sirventes</i> upon this event, "If King Jaime, with whom we have never +broken faith, had kept the agreement which is said to have been made +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p118" name="p118"></a>[118] +</span> +between him and us, the French would certainly have had cause to grieve +and lament." Bernard de Rovenhac shows greater bitterness: "the king of +Aragon is undoubtedly well named Jacme (jac from jazer, to lie down) for +he is too fond of lying down and when anyone despoils him of his land, +he is so feeble that he does not offer the least opposition." Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols voices the grief of his class at the failure of the +rising: "In the day I am full of wrath and in the night I sigh betwixt +sleeping and waking; wherever I turn, I hear the courteous people crying +humbly 'Sire' to the French." These outbursts do not seem to have roused +Jaime to any great animosity against the troubadour class. Aimeric de +Belenoi belauds him, Peire Cardenal is said to have enjoyed his favour, +and other minor troubadours refer to him in flattering terms.</p> + +<p>The greatest Spanish patron of the troubadours was undoubtedly Alfonso +X. of Castile (1254-1284). El Sabio earned his title by reason of his +enlightened interest in matters intellectual; he was himself a poet, +procured the translation of many scientific books and provided Castile +with a famous code of laws. The Italian troubadours Bonifaci Calvo and +Bartolomeo Zorzi were welcomed to his court, to which many others came +from Provence. One of his favourites was the troubadour who was the last +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p119" name="p119"></a>[119] +</span> +representative of the old school, Guiraut Riquier of Narbonne. He was +born between 1230 and 1235, when the Albigeois crusade was practically +over and when troubadour poetry was dying, as much from its own inherent +lack of vitality as from the change of social and political environment +which the upheaval of the previous twenty years had produced. Guiraut +Riquier applied to a Northern patron for protection, a proceeding +unexampled in troubadour history and the patron he selected was the King +of France himself. Neither Saint Louis nor his wife were in the least +likely to provide a market for Guiraut's wares and the Paris of that day +was by no means a centre of literary culture. The troubadour, therefore, +tried his fortune with Alfonso X. whose liberality had become almost +proverbial. There he seems to have remained for some years and to have +been well content, in spite of occasional friction with other suitors +for the king's favour. His description of Catalonia is interesting.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">Pus astres no m'es donatz</p> +<p class="i2">Que de mi dons bes m'eschaia,</p> +<p class="i2">Ni nulho nos plazers no·l platz,</p> +<p class="i2">Ni ay poder que·m n'estraia,</p> +<p class="i2">Ops m'es qu'ieu sia fondatz</p> +<p class="i2">En via d'amor veraia,</p> +<p class="i2">E puesc n'apenre assatz</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">En Cataluenha la gaia,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p120" name="p120"></a>[120] +</span> +<p class="i2">Entrels Catalas valens</p> +<p class="i2">E las donas avinens.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">Quar dompneys, pretz e valors,</p> +<p class="i2">Joys e gratz e cortesia,</p> +<p class="i2">Sens e sabers et honors,</p> +<p class="i2">Bels parlars, bella paria,</p> +<p class="i2">E largueza et amors,</p> +<p class="i2">Conoyssensa e cundia,</p> +<p class="i2">Troban manten e socors</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">En Cataluenha a tria,</p> +<p class="i2">Entrels, etc.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Since my star has not granted me that from my lady happiness should +fall to me, since no pleasure that I can give pleases her and I have no +power to forget her, I must needs enter upon the road of true love and I +can learn it well enough in gay Catalonia among the Catalonians, men of +worth, and their kindly ladies. For courtesy, worth, joy, gratitude and +gallantry, sense, knowledge, honour, fair speech, fair company, +liberality and love, learning and grace find maintenance and support in +Catalonia entirely."</p> + +<p>Between thirty and forty poets of Spanish extraction are known to have +written Provençal poetry. Guillem de Tudela of Navarre wrote the first +part of the <i>Chanson de la Croisade albigeoise</i>; Serveri de Gerona wrote +didactic and devotional poetry, showing at least ingenuity of technique; +Amanieu des Escas has left love letters and didactic works for the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p121" name="p121"></a>[121] +</span> +instruction of young people in the rules of polite behaviour. But the +influence of Provençal upon the native poetry of Spain proper was but +small, in spite of the welcome which the troubadours found at the courts +of Castile, Aragon, Leon and Navarre. Troubadour poetry required a +peaceful and an aristocratic environment, and the former at least of +these conditions was not provided by the later years of Alfonso X. +Northern French influence was also strong: numerous French immigrants +were able to settle in towns newly founded or taken from the Moors. The +warlike and adventurous spirit of Northern and Central Spain preferred +epic to lyric poetry: and the outcome was the <i>cantar de gesta</i> and the +<i>romance</i>, the lyrico-narrative or ballad poem.</p> + +<p>This was not the course of development followed either in the Eastern or +Western coasts of the peninsula. Catalonia was as much a part of the +Provençal district as of Spain. To the end of the thirteenth century +Catalonian poets continued to write in the language of the troubadours, +often breaking the strict rules of rime correspondence and of grammar, +but refusing to use their native dialect. Religious poems of popular and +native origin appear to have existed, but even the growth of a native +prose was unable to overcome the preference for Provençal in the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p122" name="p122"></a>[122] +</span> +composition of lyrics. Guiraut de Cabreira is remembered for the 213 +lines which he wrote to instruct his <i>joglar</i> Cabra; Guiraut upbraids +this performer for his ignorance, and details a long series of legends +and poems which a competent <i>joglar</i> ought to know. Guiraut de Calanso +wrote an imitation of this diatribe. The best known of the Catalonian +troubadours is Raimon Vidal of Besadun, both for his <i>novelas</i> and also +for his work on Provençal grammar and metre, <i>Las rasos de trobar</i>,<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a> +which was written for the benefit of his compatriots who desired to +avoid solecisms or mistakes when composing. "For as much as I, Raimon +Vidal, have seen and known that few men know or have known the right +manner of composing poetry (trobar) I desire to make this book that men +may know and understand which of the troubadours have composed best and +given the best instruction to those who wish to learn how they should +follow the right manner of composing.... All Christian people, Jews, +Saracens, emperors, princes, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, vavassors +and all other nobles with clergy, citizens and villeins, small and +great, daily give their minds to composing and singing.... In this +science of composing the troubadours are gone astray and I will tell you +wherefore. The hearers who do not understand anything when they hear a +fine poem will pretend that they understand perfectly... because they +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p123" name="p123"></a>[123] +</span> +think that men would consider it a fault in them if they said that they +did not understand.... And if when they hear a bad troubadour, they do +understand, they will praise his singing because they understand it; or +if they will not praise, at least they will not blame him; and thus the +troubadours are deceived and the hearers are to blame for it." Raimon +Vidal proceeds to say that the pure language is that of Provence or of +Limousin or of Saintonge or Auvergne or Quercy: "wherefore I tell you, +that when I use the term Limousin, I mean all those lands and those +which border them or are between them." He was apparently the first to +use the term Limousin to describe classical Provençal, and when it +became applied to literary Catalonian, as distinguished from <i>plá +Catalá</i>, the vulgar tongue, the result was some confusion. Provençal +influence was more permanent in Catalonia than in any other part of +Spain; in 1393, the Consistorium of the <i>Gay saber</i> was founded in +imitation of the similar association at Toulouse. Most of the troubadour +poetical forms and the doctrines of the Toulouse <i>Leys d'Amors</i> were +retained, until Italian influence began to oust Provençal towards the +close of the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>On the western side of Spain, Provençal influence evoked a brief and +brilliant literature in the Galician or Portuguese school. Its most +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p124" name="p124"></a>[124] +</span> +brilliant period was the age of Alfonso X. of Castile, one of its most +illustrious exponents, and that of Denis of Portugal (1280-1325). The +dates generally accepted for the duration of this literature are +1200-1385; it has left to us some 2000 lyric poems, the work of more +than 150 poets, including four kings and a number of nobles of high +rank. French and Provençal culture had made its way gradually and by +various routes to the western side of the Spanish peninsula.</p> + +<p>We have already referred to the pilgrim route to the shrine of +Compostella, by which a steady stream of foreign influence entered the +country. The same effect was produced by crusaders who came to help the +Spaniards in their struggle against the Moors, and by foreign colonists +who helped to Christianise the territories conquered from the +Mohammedans. The capture of Lisbon in 1147 increased maritime +intercourse with the North. Individuals from Portugal also visited +Northern and Southern France, after the example of their Spanish +neighbours. References to Portugal in the poetry of the troubadours are +very scarce, nor is there any definite evidence that any troubadour +visited the country. This fact is in striking contrast with the loud +praises of the Spanish courts. None the less, such visits must have +taken place: Sancho I. had French <i>jongleurs</i> in his pay during +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p125" name="p125"></a>[125] +</span> +the twelfth century and the Portuguese element in the five-language +<i>descort</i> of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras shows that communication between +Provençal poets and Portuguese or Galician districts must have existed. +The general silence of the troubadours may be due to the fact that +communication began at a comparatively late period and was maintained +between Portugal and Spanish courts, and not directly between Portugal +and Southern France.</p> + +<p>Alfonso X. of Castile himself wrote many poems in the Galician or +Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons analogous +to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in +Provençal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form +and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to +an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is +preserved with the accompanying ideas of <i>amour courtois</i>, and the lyric +forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provençal manner +took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the +ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric +poetry which was remodelled under Provençal influence. The most popular +of the types thus developed were <i>Cantigas de amor e de amigo</i> and +<i>Cantigas de</i> <i>escarnho e de maldizer</i>; the former were love +songs: when the poet speaks the song was one <i>de amor</i>; when the lady +speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provençal usage) the song was +<i>de amigo</i>. This latter is a type developed independently by the +Portuguese school. <i>Cantigas de escarnho</i> correspond in intention +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p126" name="p126"></a>[126] +</span> +to the Provençal <i>sirventes</i>; if their satire was open and unrestrained +they were <i>cantigas de maldizer</i>. They dealt for the most part with +trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy +upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in +taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about +1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty +years.</p> + + +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="pagenum"><a id="p127" name="p127"></a>[127] +</span></h3> + +<h3>PROVENÇAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND</h3> + + +<p>Provençal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the +minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically +with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school, +flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the +Rhine school. In the latter case, Provençal influence is not disputed; +but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it, +has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that +the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of +Provençal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry +in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of +development before Provençal influence affected it. Austria undoubtedly +came into touch with this influence at an early date. The Danube valley +was a high road for the armies of crusaders; another route led from +Northern Italy to Vienna, by which Peire Vidal probably found his way to +Hungary. At the same time, though Provençal influence was strong, the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p128" name="p128"></a>[128] +</span> +Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or +translation of troubadour productions. Dietmar von Aist, one of the +earliest minnesingers, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth +century has, for instance, the Provençal <i>alba</i> theme. Two lovers part +at daybreak, when awakened by a bird on the linden: if the theme is +Provençal, the simplicity of the poet's treatment is extremely fresh and +natural. This difference is further apparent in the attitude of +minnesingers and troubadours towards the conception of "love." The +minnesong is the literary expression of the social convention known as +"Frauendienst," the term "minne" connoting the code which prescribed the +nature of the relation existing between the lover and his lady; the +dominant principle was a reverence for womanhood as such, and in this +respect the German minnesang is inspired by a less selfish spirit than +the Provençal troubadour poetry. Typical of the difference is Walter von +der Vogelweide's—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Swer guotes wîbes minne hât,</p> +<p class="i2">der schamt sich aller missetât.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>("He who has a good woman's love is ashamed of every ill deed"), +compared with Bernart de Ventadour's—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Non es meravilha s'ieu chan</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p129" name="p129"></a>[129] +</span> +<p class="i2">Melhs de nul autre chantador</p> +<p class="i2">Car plus trai mos cors ves Amor</p> +<p class="i2">E melhs sui faitz a son coman.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>("It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws nearer to love and I am better made for love's command.") The +troubadour <i>amor</i>, especially in its Italian development, eventually +attained the moral power of the <i>minne</i>; but in its early stages, it was +a personal and selfish influence. The stanza form and rime distribution +of the minnesinger poems continually betray Provençal influence: the +principle of tripartition is constantly followed and the arrangement of +rimes is often a repetition of that adopted in troubadour stanzas. +Friedrich von Hausen, the Count Rudolf von Fenis, Heinrich von Morungen +and others sometimes translate almost literally from troubadour poetry, +though these imitations do not justify the lines of Uhland.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">In den Thälern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen,</p> +<p class="i2">Kind des Frühlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous +lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and +"chansons de toile." Provençal influence here was inevitable. It is +apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p130" name="p130"></a>[130] +</span> +Provençal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact +that Provençal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics. +Provençal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by +means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by +intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provençal +influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of +Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter, +Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal +code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the <i>De +arte honeste amandi</i> of André le Chapelain, written at the outset of the +thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and +Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly +love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chrétien de Troyes.</p> + +<p>The Provençal school in Northern France began during the latter half of +the twelfth century. The <i>chanson</i> properly so called is naturally most +strongly represented: but the Provençal forms, the <i>tençon</i> (Prov. +<i>tenso</i>) and a variant of it, the <i>jeu-parti</i> (Prov. <i>jocs partitz</i> or +<i>partimens</i>) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called, +because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his +interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p131" name="p131"></a>[131] +</span> +he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the +contestants often left the decision in an <i>envoi</i> to one or more +arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of +these <i>envois</i> gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love," +as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest +representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he +took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace +Brulé and the Châtelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to +the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre +(1201-1253), shared in the Albigeois crusade and thus helped in the +destruction of the poetry which he imitated. One of the poems attributed +to him by Dante (<i>De Vulg. El.</i>) belongs to Gace Brulé; his love affair +with Blanche of Castile is probably legendary. Several crusade songs are +attributed to Thibaut among some thirty poems of the kind that remain to +us from the output of this school. These crusade poems exhibit the +characteristics of their Provençal models: there are exhortations to +take the cross in the form of versified sermons; there are also love +poems which depict the poet's mind divided between his duty as a +crusader and his reluctance to leave his lady; or we find the lady +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p132" name="p132"></a>[132] +</span> +bewailing her lover's departure, or again, lady and lover lament their +approaching separation in alternate stanzas. There is more real feeling +in some of these poems than is apparent in the ordinary chanson of the +Northern French courtly school: the following stanzas are from a poem by +Guiot de Dijon,<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href= +"#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a> the lament of a lady for her absent lover—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Chanterai por mon corage </p> +<p class="i2">Que je vueill reconforter</p> +<p class="i2">Car avec mon grant damage</p> +<p class="i2">Ne quier morir n'afoler,</p> +<p class="i2">Quant de la terra sauvage</p> +<p class="i2">Ne voi nului retorner</p> +<p class="i2">Ou cil est qui m'assoage</p> +<p class="i2">Le cuer, quant j'en oi parler</p> +<p class="i6">Dex, quant crieront outree,</p> +<p class="i6">Sire, aidiés au pelerin</p> +<p class="i6">Por cui sui espoentee,</p> +<p class="i6">Car felon sunt Sarrazin.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">De ce sui bone atente</p> +<p class="i2">Que je son homage pris, </p> +<p class="i2">E quant la douce ore vente</p> +<p class="i2">Qui vient de cel douz païs</p> +<p class="i2">Ou cil est qui m'atalente,</p> +<p class="i2">Volontiers i tor mon vis:</p> +<p class="i2">Adont m'est vis que jel sente</p> +<p class="i2">Par desoz mon mantel gris.</p> +<p class="i6">Dex, etc.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"I will sing for my heart which I will comfort, for in spite of my great +loss I do not wish to die, and yet I see no one return from the wild +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p133" name="p133"></a>[133] +</span> +land where he is who calms my heart when I hear mention of him. God! +when they cry Outre (a pilgrim marching cry), Lord help the pilgrim for +whom I tremble, for wicked are the Saracens.</p> + +<p>"From this fact have I confidence, that I have received his vows and +when the gentle breeze blows which comes from the sweet country where he +is whom I desire, readily do I turn my face thither: then I think I feel +him beneath my grey mantle."</p> + +<p>The idea in the second stanza quoted is borrowed from Bernard de +Ventadour—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Quant la douss' aura venta</p> +<p class="i6">Deves vostre païs.</p> +<p class="i2">Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta</p> +<p class="i6">Un ven de Paradis.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>The greater part of this poetry repeats, in another language, the +well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory +references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of +ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from +his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form +and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and +occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that +school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated +emotion and appealed only to a restricted class of the initiated. +Changes in the constitution and customs of society brought this school +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p134" name="p134"></a>[134] +</span> +to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of +lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache +Deschamps.</p> + +<p>Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject +has hitherto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as +much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was +Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard +followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What +truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his +motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis +emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno +Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo +canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in +orbe." The manuscripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one +referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I. +(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his +imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a +Provençal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's +discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href= +"#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a></p> + +<p>From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p135" name="p135"></a>[135] +</span> +communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number +of Provençals visited England at different times and especially in the +reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de +Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided +for the entry of Provençal influence during the period when a general +stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman +French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of +that age and it was not until the second half of the thirteenth century +that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provençal +influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry. +But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was +similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas, +Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in +imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte +joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes +effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also +political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly +called <i>sirventes</i>, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum, +Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p136" name="p136"></a>[136] +</span> +principles of the <i>tenso</i> or <i>partimen</i>. The use of equivocal and +"derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the +following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in +the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provençal +<i>trobairitz</i>; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure +coincidence.<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href= +"#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt</p> +<p class="i2">E reverdist la matinée</p> +<p class="i2">E sil oysel chauntent a poynt</p> +<p class="i2">En temps d'avril en la ramée,</p> +<p class="i2">Lores est ma dolur dublée</p> +<p class="i2">Que jeo sui en si dure poynt</p> +<p class="i2">Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt,</p> +<p class="i2">Tant me greve la destinée.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Murnes et pensif m'en depart,</p> +<p class="i2">Que trop me greve la partie;</p> +<p class="i2">Si n'en puis aler cele part,</p> +<p class="i2">Que ele n'eyt a sa partie</p> +<p class="i2">Mon quor tot enter saunz partie.</p> +<p class="i2">E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part,</p> +<p class="i2">E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part</p> +<p class="i2">A moi est dure la partie.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"In the season when the grass springs and the morn is green and the +birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief +doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy +is my fate upon me.</p> + +<p>"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p137" name="p137"></a>[137] +</span> +I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and +undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of +hers, the division is a hard one to me."</p> + +<p>This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These +lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as +an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples +of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrain of +distinctly popular origin is added to a stanza of courtly and artificial +character. Generally, however, there is a freshness and vigour in these +poems which may be vainly sought in the products of continental +decadence. But Provençal influence, whether exerted directly or +indirectly through the Northern French lyric school, is plainly visible +in many cases. Of the lyrics found in the important MS. Harleian +2253,<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href= +"#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a> "Alysoun" has the same rime scheme as a poem by Gaucelm +Faidit: it opens with the conventional appeal to spring; the poet's +feelings deprive him of sleep. The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a +rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut +d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many +troubadour formulae: the concluding lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p138" name="p138"></a>[138] +</span> +<p class="i2">pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze,</p> +<p class="i4">heuene he hevede here.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>are a troubadour commonplace. Many other cases might be quoted. Hymns +and songs to the Virgin exhibit the same characteristics of form. The +few Provençal words which became English are interesting;<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href= +"#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a> colander +or cullender (now a vegetable strainer; Prov. colador), funnel, +puncheon, rack, spigot, league, noose are directly derived from +Provençal and not through Northern French and are words connected with +shipping and the wine trade, the port for which was Bordeaux.</p> + + +<p>In the year 1323 a society was formed in Toulouse of seven troubadours, +the "sobregaya companhia," for the purpose of preserving and encouraging +lyric poetry (lo gay saber). The middle class of Toulouse seems at all +times to have felt an interest in poetry and had already produced such +well-known troubadours as Aimeric de Pegulhan, Peire Vidal and Guillem +Figueira. The society offered an annual prize of a golden violet for the +best <i>chanso</i>; other prizes were added at a later date for the best +dance song and the best <i>sirventes</i>. Competitors found that songs to the +Virgin were given the preference and she eventually became the one +subject of these prize competitions. The society produced a grammatical +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p139" name="p139"></a>[139] +</span> +work, the Leys d'Amors, under the name of its president, Guillem +Molinier, in 1356,<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href= +"#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a> no doubt for the reference and instruction of +intending competitors. The competition produced a few admirable poems, +but anxiety to preserve the old troubadour style resulted generally in +dry and stilted compositions. The <i>Academie des jeux floraux</i><a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href= +"#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a> +altered the character of the competition by admitting French poems after +1694. At the end of the sixteenth century, Provençal poetry underwent a +revival; in our own time, poets such as Jasmin, Aubanel, Roumanille and +above all, Mistral, have raised their language from a patois to a +literary power. The work of the félibres has been to synthetise the best +elements of the various local dialects and to create a literary language +by a process not wholly dissimilar to that described at the outset of +this book. But the old troubadour spirit had died long before; it had +accomplished its share in the history of European literature and had +given an impulse to the development of lyric poetry, the effects of +which are perceptible even at the present day.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES</h3> + +<h4>LITERARY HISTORY</h4> + +<p>F. Diez, <i>Leben und Werke der Troubadours</i>, 2nd edit., re-edited by K. +Bartsch, Leipsic, 1882. <i>Die Poesie der Troubadours</i>, 2nd edit., +re-edited by K. Bartsch, Leipsic, 1883.</p> + +<p>K. Bartsch, <i>Grundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur</i>, +Elberfeld, 1872. A new edition of this indispensable work is in +preparation by Prof. A. Pillet of Breslau. The first part of the book +contains a sketch of Provençal literature, and a list of manuscripts. +The second part gives a list of the troubadours in alphabetical order, +with the lyric poems attributed to each troubadour. The first line of +each poem is quoted and followed by a list of the MSS. in which it is +found. Modern editors have generally agreed to follow these lists in +referring to troubadour lyrics: e.g. B. Gr., 202, 4 refers to the fourth +lyric (in alphabetical order) of Guillem Ademar, who is no. 202 in +Bartsch's list.</p> + +<p>A list of corrections to this list is given by Gröber in Böhmer's +<i>Romanische Studien</i>, vol. ii. 1875-77, Strassburg. In vol. ix. of the +same is Gröbers' study of troubadour MSS. and the relations between +them.</p> + +<p>A. Stimming, <i>Provenzaliscke Literatur in Gröber's Grundriss der +Romanischen Philologie</i>, Strassburg, 1888, vol. ii. part ii. contains +useful bibliographical notices.</p> + +<p>A. Restori, <i>Letteratura provenzale</i>, Milan, 1891 (<i>Manuali Hoepli</i>), an +excellent little work.</p> + +<p>A. Jeanroy, <i>Les origines de la poésie lyrique en France</i>, 2nd edit., +Paris, 1904.</p> + +<p>J. Anglade, <i>Les troubadours</i>, Paris, 1908, an excellent and trustworthy +work, in popular style, with a good bibliography.</p> + +<p>J. H. Smith, <i>The troubadours at Home</i>, 2 vols., New York, 1899; +popularises scientific knowledge by impressions of travel in Southern +France, photographs, and historical imagination: generally stimulating +and suggestive, Most histories of French literature devote some space to +Provençal; e.g. Suchier & Birch-Hirschfeld, <i>Geschichte der +französischen Litteratur</i>, Leipsic, 1900. The works of Millot and +Fauriel are now somewhat antiquated. <i>Trobador Poets</i>, Barbara Smythe, +London, 1911, contains an introduction and translations from various +troubadours.</p> + + +<h4>DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS</h4> + + +<p>F. Raynouard, <I>Lexique roman</I>, 6 vols., Paris, 1838-1844, +supplemented by.</p> + +<p>E. Levy, <I>Provenzalisches supplement-Wörterbuch</i>, Leipsic, 1894, not +yet completed, but indispensable.</p> + +<p>E. Levy, <i>Petit dictionnaire provençal-français</i>, Heidelberg, 1908.</p> + +<p>J. B. Roquefort, <i>Glossaire de la langue romane</i>, 3 vols., Paris, 1820.</p> + +<p>W. Meyer-Lübke, <i>Grammaire des langues romanes</i>, French translation of +the German, Paris, 1905.</p> + +<p>C. H. Grandgent, <i>An outline of the phonology and morphology of old +Provençal</i>, Boston, 1905.</p> + +<p>H. Suchier, <i>Die französiche und provenzalische Sprache</i> in Gröber's +<i>Grundriss</i>. A French translation, <i>Le Français et le Provençal</i>, Paris, +1891.</p> + + +<h4>TEXTS</h4> + + +<p>The following chrestomathies contain tables of grammatical forms (except +in the case of Bartsch) texts and vocabularies.</p> + +<p><i>Altprovenzalisches Elementarbuch</i>, O. Schultz-Gora, Heidelberg, 1906, +an excellent work for beginners.</p> + +<p><i>Provenzalische Chrestomathie</i>, C. Appel, Leipsic, 1907, 3rd edit.</p> + +<p><i>Manualetto provenzale</i>, V. Crescini, Padua, 1905, 2nd edit.</p> + +<p><i>Chrestomathie provençal</i>, K. Bartsch, re-edited by Koschwitz, Marburg, +1904.</p> + +<p>The following editions of individual troubadours have been published.</p> + +<p>Alegret. <i>Annales du Midi</i>, no. 74.</p> + +<p>Arnaut Daniel. U. A. Canello, Halle, 1883.</p> + +<p>Bernart de Rovenac. G. Borsdorff, Erlangen, 1907.</p> + +<p>Bartolomeo Zorzi. E. Levy, Halle, 1883.</p> + +<p>Bertran d'Alamanon. J. Salverda de Grave, Toulouse, 1902 (<i>Bibliothèque +Méridionale</i>).</p> + +<p>Bertran de Born. A. Thomas, Toulouse, 1888 (<i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i>).</p> + +<p>Bertran de Born. A. Stimming, Halle, 1892 (and in the <i>Romanischz +Bibliothek</i>, Leipsic).</p> + +<p>Blacatz. O. Soltau, Leipsic, 1890.</p> + +<p>Cercamon. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1905 (<i>Annales du Midi</i>, vol. xvii.).</p> + +<p>Elias de Barjols. Stronski, Paris, 1906 (<i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i> +vi.).</p> + +<p>Folquet de Marselha. Stronski, Cracow, 1911.</p> + +<p>Folquet de Romans. Zenker (<i>Romanische Bibliothek</i>).</p> + +<p>Gavaudan. A. Jeanroy, <i>Romania</i>, xxxiv., p. 497.</p> + +<p>Guillaume IX. Comte de Poitiers. A. Jeanroy, Toulouse, 1905.</p> + +<p>Guillem Anelier de Toulouse. M. Gisi, Solothurn, 1877.</p> + +<p>Guillem de Cabestanh. F. Hüffer, Berlin, 1869.</p> + +<p>Guillem Figueira. E. Levy, Berlin, 1880.</p> + +<p>Guillem de Montanhagol. J. Coulet, <i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i>, iv., +Toulouse.</p> + +<p>Guiraut de Bornelh. A. Kolsen, Berlin, 1894 and 1911.</p> + +<p>Guiraut d'Espanha. P. Savi-Lopez. <i>Studj mediaevali</i>, Fasc. 3, Turin, +1905.</p> + +<p>Guiraut Riquier, Étude sur, etc. J. Anglade, Paris, 1905.</p> + +<p>Jaufre Rudel. A Stimming, Kiel, 1873.</p> + +<p>Marcabrun. Dr Dejeanne. <i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i>, 1910.</p> + +<p>Marcoat. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1903 (<i>Annales du Midi</i>, xv.).</p> + +<p>Monk of Montaudon. E. Philippson, Halle, 1873; O. Klein, Marburg, 1885.</p> + +<p>N' At de Mons. Bernhard. <i>Altfranzösische Bibliothek, Heilbronn</i>.</p> + +<p>Paulet de Marselha. E. Levy, Paris, 1882.</p> + +<p>Peire d'Alvernhe (d'Auvergne). R. Zenker, Rostock, 1900.</p> + +<p>Peire Vidal. K. Bartsch, Berlin, 1857 (an edition by J. Anglade is about +to appear).</p> + +<p>Peire Rogier. C. Appel, Berlin, 1892.</p> + +<p>Perdigon. H.J. Chaytor, <i>Annales du Midi</i>, xxi.</p> + +<p>Pons de Capdoill. M. Napolski, Halle, 1879.</p> + +<p>Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. O. Schultz, Halle, 1893.</p> + +<p>Raimon de Miraval, Etude sur, etc. P. Andraud, Paris, 1902.</p> + +<p>Sordel. De Lollis, Halle, 1896 (<i>Romanische Bibliothek</i>).</p> + +<p>Numerous separate pieces have been published in the various periodicals +concerned with Romance philology, as also have diplomatic copies of +several MSS. Of these periodicals, the most important for Provençal are +<i>Romania, les Annales du Midi, Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, +Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen, Romanische Studien, Studj +di filologia romanza, Revue des langues romanes</i>. Mahn's <i>Gedichte der +Troubadours</i>, 4 vols., Berlin, 1856-71, contains diplomatic copies of +MSS.; his <i>Werke der Troubadours</i>, Berlin, 1846-55, contains reprints +from Raynouard, <i>Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours</i>, Paris, +1816. Suchier, <i>Denkmäler provenzalischer Sprache</i>, Halle, 1883; Appel, +<i>Provenzalische Inedita</i>, Leipsic, 1890; Chabaneau, <i>Poesies inédites +des Troubadours du Perigord</i>, Paris, 1885; P. Meyer, <i>Les derniers +troubadours de Provence</i>, Paris, 1871, should be mentioned. Most of the +pieces in the <i>Parnasse Occitanien</i>, Toulouse, 1819, are to be found +better edited elsewhere. Other pieces are to be found in various +<i>Festschriften</i> and occasional or private publications, too numerous to +be detailed here. C. Chabaneau, <i>Les biographies des Troubadours</i>, +Toulouse, 1885 (part of the <i>Histoire générale de Languedoc</i>) is full of +valuable information. The biographies have been translated by I. +Farnell, <i>Lives of the Troubadours</i>, London, 1896.</p> +<br><br> +<h3>NOTES</h3> + +<p><b>CHAPTER I</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a>1. See maps at the end of Gröber's <i>Grundriss</i>, vol. i.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a>2. <i>De Vulg. El.</i> I., 8: alii oc, alii oïl, alii si affirmando +loquuntur, and <i>Vita Nuova</i>, xxv. Dante also knew the term provincialis.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a>3. Boethius. F. Hündgen, Oppeln, 1884. For Sainte Foy d'Agen, see +<i>Romania</i> xxxi., p, 177 ff.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a>4. P. Meyer in <i>Romania</i> v., p. 257. Bédier, <i>Les chansons de Croisade</i>, +Paris, 1909, p. 16.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name= +"footnote5"></a>5. See P. Maus, <i>Peire Cardenals Strophenbau</i>, Marburg, 1884.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name= +"footnote6"></a>6. See Jeanroy, Origines, etc.</blockquote> + +<p><b>CHAPTER II</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name= +"footnote7"></a>7. Provençal has also the feminine <i>joia</i> with the general meaning of +"delight."</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name= +"footnote8"></a>8. See Stimming's article in Gröber's <i>Grundriss</i>.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name= +"footnote9"></a>9. Raynouard, <i>Les Troubadours et les Cours d'Amour</i>, Paris, 1817; see +also Diez, <i>Ãœber die Minnehöfe</i>, Berlin, 1825. Pio Rajna, <i>Le Corti +d'Amore</i>, Milan, 1890.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name= +"footnote10"></a>10. <i>Annales du Midi</i>, xix. p. 364.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name= +"footnote11"></a>11. <i>Die provenzalische Tenzone</i>, R. Zenker, Leipsic, 1888.</blockquote> + +<p><b>CHAPTER III</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name= +"footnote12"></a>12. Girart de Roussillon, translation by P. Meyer, Paris, 1884: see also +<i>Romania</i>, vii. Diplomatic copies of the MSS. in <i>Romanische Studien</i> V. +<i>Le Roman de Flamenca</i>, P. Meyer, Paris, 1901.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name= +"footnote13"></a>13. J. B. Beck, <i>Die Melodien der Troubadours</i>, Strasburg, 1908. <i>La +Musique des Troubadours</i>, Paris, 1910, by the same author, who there +promised a selection of songs harmonized for performance: this has not +yet appeared. See also <i>Quatre poésies de Marcabrun</i>, Jeanroy, Dejeanne +and Aubry, Paris, 1904, with texts, music, and translations.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name= +"footnote14"></a>14. Schindler, <i>Die Kreuzzüge in der altprovenzalischen und +mittelhochdeutschen lyrik.</i>, Dresden, 1889. K. Lewent, <i>Das +altprovenzalische Kreuzlied</i>, Berlin, 1905.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name= +"footnote15"></a>15. A. Pillet, <i>Studien zur Pastourelle</i>, Breslau, 1902. Römer, <i>Die +volkstümlichen Dichtungsarten der altprovenzalischen Lyrik</i>, Marburg, +1884.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name= +"footnote16"></a>16. <i>Quae judicia de litteris fecerint Provinciales</i>. P. Andraud, Paris, +1902.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name= +"footnote17"></a>17. From <i>Si'm sentis fizels amics</i>, quoted by Dante, <i>De Vulg. El.</i> i. 9.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER IV</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name= +"footnote18"></a>18. "Paubre motz"; also interpreted as "scanty words," i.e. poems with +short lines. On Jaufre Rudel in literature, see a lecture by Carducci, +Bologna 1888. The latest theory of his mysterious love is that she was +the Virgin Mary; see C. Appel, <i>Archiv für das Studium der neueren +Sprachen</i>, cvii. 3-4.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name= +"footnote19"></a>19. Mahn, <i>Gedichte</i>, no. 707. An edition of Bernard de Ventadour's +poems is in preparation by Prof. Appel.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name= +"footnote20"></a>20. <i>Cp.</i> Dante, <i>Par.</i> xx. 73.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER V</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name= +"footnote21"></a>21. Dante, <i>De Vulg. El.</i> ii. 2.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name= +"footnote22"></a>22. "Il Provenzale," <i>Conv.</i> iv. 11.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name= +"footnote23"></a>23. <i>Purg.</i> xxvi.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name= +"footnote24"></a>24. On his family see Stronski, <i>Folquet de Marseille</i>, p. 15 and +159-172.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name= +"footnote25"></a>25. See G. Paris, <i>La Littérature française au moyen âge</i>, § 128.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER VI</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name= +"footnote26"></a>26. The best short account of the Albigenses is to be found in vol. i. +of H.C. Lea's <i>Histoire de L'Inquisition au moyen âge</i>, Paris, 1903. +This, the French translation, is superior to the English edition as it +contains the author's last corrections, and a number of bibliographical +notes. The Adoptionist theory is stated in the introduction to F.C. +Conybeare's <i>Key of Truth</i>, Oxford, 1908. The <i>Chanson de la Croisade +Albigeoise</i>, P. Meyer, Paris, 1875, 2 vols., is indispensable to +students of the subject. In these works will be found much of the +extensive bibliography of the heresy and crusade.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name= +"footnote27"></a>27. Eckbertus, <i>Serm. adv. Catharos, Migne, Patr. Lat.</i>, tom. 193. p. +73.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name= +"footnote28"></a>28. <i>Cf.</i> Milman, <i>Latin Christianity</i>, Book IX. chap. viii. p. 85.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name= +"footnote29"></a>29. On religious lyric poetry, see Lowinsky, <i>Zeitschrift für +französische Sprache und Litteratur</i>, xx. p. 163 ff., and the +bibliographical note to Stimming's article in Gröber's <i>Grundriss</i>, vol. +ii. part ii. § 32.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER VII</b></p> + +<p>Most histories of Italian literature deal with this subject. See +Gaspary's <i>Italian Literature to the death of Dante</i>: H. Oelsner, Bohn's +Libraries. See also the chapter, <i>La poésie française en Italie</i> in +Jeanroy's <i>Origines</i>. For Dante, see <i>Storia letteraria d'Italia, +scritta di una società di professori</i>, Milan, vol. iii., Dante, by +Zingarelli. <i>The Troubadours of Dante</i>, Chaytor, Oxford, 1902. Useful +are A. Thomas, <i>Francesco da Barberino et la littérature provençale en +Italie au moyen âge</i>, Paris, 1883. O. Schultz, <i>Die Lebensverhältnisse +der Italienischen Trobadors</i>, Berlin, 1883.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name= +"footnote30"></a>30. Schultz, <i>Die Briefe des Trobadors Raimbaut de Vaqueiras an Bonifaz +I.</i>, Halle, 1883.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name= +"footnote31"></a>31. Zingarelli, <i>Intorno a due Trovatori in Italia</i>, Florence, 1899.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></p> + +<p>Milà y Fontañals, <i>Los trovadores en España</i>, Barcelona, 1861, remains +the best work on the subject. On Portugal, the article in Gröber's +<i>Grundriss</i>, ii. 2, p. 129, by C. Michaelis de Vasconcellos and Th. +Braga is admirable: see the bibliographical references there given and +the introduction to R. Lang, <i>Das Liederbuch des Königs Denis von +Portugal</i>, Halle, 1894.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote32" name= +"footnote32"></a>32. The date of this poem is disputed, see Dr Dejeanne's edition of +Marcabrun, p. 235.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote33" name= +"footnote33"></a>33. F. Guessard, <i>Grammaires Provençales</i>, Paris, 1858; E. Stengel, <i>Die +beiden ältesten prov. Gram.</i>, Marburg, 1878.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER IX</b></p> + +<p>Troubadour influence in Germany is discussed at greater or less length +in most histories of German literature. See Jeanroy, <i>Origines</i>, p. 270 +ff. A. Lüderitz, <i>Die Liebestheorien der Provenzalen bei den +Minnesingern der Slauferzeit</i>, Literarhistorische Forschungen, Berlin, +1904.</p> + +<p>For France. A. Jeanroy, <i>De nostratibus medii aevi poetis qui primum +Aquitaniae carmina imitati sint</i>, Paris, 1889.</p> + +<p>For England. Schofield, <i>English Literature from the Norman Conquest to +Chaucer</i>, London, 1906. O. Heider, <i>Untersuchungen zur mittelenglischen +erotischen Lyrik</i>, Halle, 1905. A. Brandl, <i>Spielmann's verhältnisse in +frühmittelenglischer Zeit</i>, Sitzungs-berichte der Königl. preuss., +Akademie, 1910.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote34" name= +"footnote34"></a>34. Bédier, <i>Chansons de Croisade</i>, Paris, 1909, p. 112.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote35" name= +"footnote35"></a>35. See introduction to Leo Wiese, <i>Die Lieder des Blondel de Nesle</i>, +Dresden, 1904, p. 19 ff.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote36" name= +"footnote36"></a>36. <i>Romania</i>, viii. p. 370.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote37" name= +"footnote37"></a>37. K. Böddeker, <i>Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl.</i> 2253, Berlin, +1878.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote38" name= +"footnote38"></a>38. Modern Language Review, vol. 1. p. 285; vol. ii. p. 60, articles by +Prof. Skeat.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote39" name= +"footnote39"></a>39. P. Leinig, <i>Grammatik der provenzalischen Leys d'amors verglichen +mit der Sprache der Troubadours</i>, Breslau, 1890. M. Gatien. Arnoult, +<i>Monuments de la littérature romane</i>, Toulouse, 1841.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote40" name= +"footnote40"></a>40. <i>Histoire critique de l'Académie des Jeux Floraux</i>, by F. de Gélis +from the origin to the 17th century will appear shortly in the +Bibliothèque meridionale, Toulouse. Useful anthologies of modern +Provençal are <i>Flourilège prouvençau</i>, Toulon, 1909: <i>Antologia +provenzale</i>, E Portal, Milan, Hoepli, 1911 (Manuali Hoepli).</blockquote> + +<br><br> + +<h3>INDEX.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Alamanon, Bertran d', <a href="#p104">104</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Alba</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p128">128</a></p> +<p class="i2">Albigeois, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p075">75</a>, ff.</p> +<p class="i2">Alcuin, <a href="#p007">7</a></p> +<p class="i2">Alfonso II. of Aragon, <a href="#p051">51</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p074">74</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Alfonso VIII. of Castile, <a href="#p110">110</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a></p> +<p class="i2">Alfonso X. of Castile, <a href="#p118">118</a>, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2">André le Chapelain, <a href="#p019">19</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aquino, Rinaldo d', <a href="#p082">82</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aquitaine, <a href="#p042">42</a></p> +<p class="i2">Arabs, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#p105">105</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aragon, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Pedro II. of, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p083">83</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Arles, <a href="#p005">5</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aurenga, Raimbaut d', <a href="#p035">35</a>, <a href="#p085">85</a>, <a href="#p064">64</a></p> +<p class="i2">Auvergne, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Dauphin of, <a href="#p134">134</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Peire d', <a href="#p036">36</a>, <a href="#p067">67</a>, <a href="#p070">70</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Azalais, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>Ballata</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Barral, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">Belenoi, Aimeric de, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Bethune, Conon de, <a href="#p131">131</a></p> +<p class="i2">Bezaudun, Raimon Vidal of, <a href="#p115">115</a>, <a href="#p122">122</a></p> +<p class="i2">Béziers, <a href="#p050">50</a>, <a href="#p078">78</a></p> +<p class="i2">Blacatz, <a href="#p103">103</a></p> +<p class="i2">Born, Bertran de, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p057">57</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Bornelh, Giraut de, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p035">35</a>, <a href="#p037">37</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a>, <a href="#p068">68</a>, <a href="#p086">86</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Brunei, Uc, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Cabestanh, Guillem de, <a href="#p073">73</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cabreira, Guiraut de, <a href="#p122">122</a></p> +<p class="i2">Caen, Raoul de, <a href="#p006">6</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cairel, Elias, <a href="#p012">12</a></p> +<p class="i2">Calanso, Guiraut de, <a href="#p115">115</a>, <a href="#p122">122</a></p> +<p class="i2">Calha, Albertet, <a href="#p012">12</a></p> +<p class="i2">Calvo, Bonifacio, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Carcassonne, <a href="#p078">78</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cardenal, Peire, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p082">82</a>, <a href="#p084">84</a>, <a href="#p092">92</a>, <a href="#p117">117</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Castile, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p071">71</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Sancho III. of, <a href="#p067">67</a></p> +<p class="i2">Catalonia, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p109">109</a>, <a href="#p121">121</a> ff.</p> +<p class="i2">Cercamon, <a href="#p009">9</a>, <a href="#p042">42</a></p> +<p class="i2">Chabaneau, <a href="#p020">20</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Chanso</i>, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cigala, Lanfranc, <a href="#p039">39</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p116">116</a></p> +<p class="i2">Circ, Uc de San, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Corbiac, Peire de, <a href="#p093">93</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Comjat</i>, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Compostella, <a href="#p109">109</a>, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2">Courts of Love, <a href="#p019">19</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cunizza, <a href="#p101">101</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Daniel, Arnaut, <a href="#p055">55</a></p> +<p class="i2">Dante, <a href="#p024">24</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a>, <a href="#p055">55</a>, <a href="#p057">57</a>, <a href="#p063">63</a>, <a href="#p104">104</a>, <a href="#p108">108</a>, <a href="#p131">131</a></p> +<p class="i2">Denis, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Descort</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p097">97</a></p> +<p class="i2">Die, Countess of, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p065">65</a></p> +<p class="i2">Dietmar von Aist, <a href="#p128">128</a></p> +<p class="i2">Dominic, <a href="#p077">77</a>, <a href="#p080">80</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Ebles II., <a href="#p046">46</a></p> +<p class="i2">Eleanor of Aquitaine, <a href="#p042">42</a>, <a href="#p046">46</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Escas Amanieu des, <a href="#p121">121</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Escondig</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Estampida, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Este, <a href="#p095">95</a></p> +<p class="i2">Ezzelino III., <a href="#p101">101</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Faidit, Gaucelm, <a href="#p099">99</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Ferdinand III. of Castile, <a href="#p104">104</a>, <a href="#p116">116</a></p> +<p class="i2">Figueira, Guillem, <a href="#p082">82</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Flamenca, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Florence, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Frederick II. of Sicily, <a href="#p088">88</a>, <a href="#p105">105</a></p> +<p class="i2">Friedrich von Hausen, <a href="#p129">129</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> </p> +<p class="i2">Galicia, <a href="#p123">123</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Gasson</i>, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p009">9</a>, <a href="#p115">115</a></p> +<p class="i2">Genoa, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Gerona, Serveri de, <a href="#p120">120</a></p> +<p class="i2">Guido delle Colonne, <a href="#p106">106</a>, <a href="#p107">107</a></p> +<p class="i2">Guido Guinicelli, <a href="#p106">106</a></p> +<p class="i2">Guiot de Dijon, <a href="#p132">132</a></p> +<p class="i2"> </p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Hautefort, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a></p> +<p class="i2">Henry II. of England, <a href="#p047">47</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p063">63</a></p> +<p class="i2">Henry III. of England, <a href="#p104">104</a>, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Innocent III., <a href="#p076">76</a>, <a href="#p077">77</a></p> +<p class="i2">Inquisition, <a href="#p080">80</a></p> +<p class="i2">Isabella of Angoulême, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Jaime I. of Aragon, <a href="#p085">85</a></p> +<p class="i2">Jaufre, Roman de, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Languedoc, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">Lemosin, <a href="#p005">5</a></p> +<p class="i2">Lentino, Jacopo da, <a href="#p082">82</a></p> +<p class="i2">Leys d'Amors, <a href="#p016">16</a>, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Limousin, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p004">4</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#p123">123</a></p> +<p class="i2">Louis VII. of France, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a></p> +<p class="i2">Louis VIII. of France, <a href="#p089">89</a></p> +<p class="i2">Lyons, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p077">77</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Malaspina, Marquis of, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Malmesbury, William of, <a href="#p041">41</a></p> +<p class="i2">Manfred II., <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p102">102</a></p> +<p class="i2">Mantua, <a href="#p101">101</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marcabrun, <a href="#p035">35</a>, <a href="#p043">43</a>, <a href="#p068">68</a>, <a href="#p085">85</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Mareuil, Arnaut de, <a href="#p050">50</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marseilles, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p010">10</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Barral of <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Folquet of, <a href="#p010">10</a>, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p072">72</a>, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p091">91</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marie of Champagne, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marvejols, Bernard Sicart de, <a href="#p084">84</a>, <a href="#p117">117</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Mauleon, Savaric de, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Minnesingers, <a href="#p128">128</a></p> +<p class="i2">Miraval, RaÃmon de, <a href="#p039">39</a>, <a href="#p083">83</a></p> +<p class="i2">Montanhagol, Guillem de, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> +<p class="i2">Montaudon, Monk of, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Beatrice of, <a href="#p097">97</a></p> +<p class="i2">Montpelier, Germonde de, <a href="#p089">89</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— William VII. of, <a href="#p051">51</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">Muret <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a></p> +<p class="i2">Music, <a href="#p026">26</a> ff.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Narbonne, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p067">67</a></p> +<p class="i2">Navarre, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Guillem de Tudela of, <a href="#p120">120</a></p> +<p class="i2">Nesles, Blondel de, <a href="#p131">131</a>, <a href="#p134">134</a></p> +<p class="i2">Nostradamus, <a href="#p019">19</a></p> +<p class="i2">Novara, <a href="#p102">102</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Orange, William IV. of, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>Partimen</i>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Pastorela</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Pegulhan, Aimeric de, <a href="#p099">99</a>, <a href="#p107">107</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Perdigon, <a href="#p011">11</a></p> +<p class="i2">Pisa, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Planh</i>, <a href="#p030">30</a></p> +<p class="i2">Poitou, <a href="#p004">4</a></p> +<p class="i2">Poitiers, <a href="#p006">6</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— William of, <a href="#p006">6</a>, <a href="#p041">41</a>, <a href="#p065">65</a>, <a href="#p090">90</a></p> +<p class="i2">Portugal, Denis of, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2">Provence, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Beatrice of, <a href="#p102">102</a></p> +<p class="i2">Puegsibot, Gausbert de, <a href="#p014">14</a></p> +<p class="i2">Puy, <a href="#p069">69</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Raynouard, <a href="#p019">19</a></p> +<p class="i2">Richard Coeur de Lion, <a href="#p055">55</a>, <a href="#p058">58</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p072">72</a>, <a href="#p134">134</a></p> +<p class="i2">Riquier, Guiraut, <a href="#p092">92</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rogier, Peire, <a href="#p066">66</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rovenhac, Bernart de, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Roussillon, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Girart de, <a href="#p022">22</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rudel, Jaufre, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p044">44</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg, <a href="#p082">82</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Savoy, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Serena</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Simon de Montfort, <a href="#p078">78</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Sirventes</i>, <a href="#p030">30</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Sordello, <a href="#p096">96</a>, <a href="#p101">101</a>, <a href="#p116">116</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Stanza</i>, <a href="#p024">24</a>, ff.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>Tenso</i>, <a href="#p021">21</a>, <a href="#p031">31</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Thibaut IV. of Champagne, <a href="#p131">131</a></p> +<p class="i2">Tor, Guillem de la, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Toronet, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">Toulouse, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p080">80</a>, <a href="#p084">84</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— N'At de Mons of, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Peire Raimon of, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Raimon V. of, <a href="#p049">49</a>, <a href="#p050">50</a>, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p067">67</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Raimon VI. of, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p080">80</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a></p> +<p class="i2">Tripoli, Countess of, <a href="#p044">44</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Trobar clus</i>, <a href="#p034">34</a></p> +<p class="i2">Turin, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Ussel, Gui d', <a href="#p014">14</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Vaqueiras, Raimbaut de, <a href="#p096">96</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Vaudois, <a href="#p076">76</a></p> +<p class="i2">Venice, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Ventadour, <a href="#p011">11</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Bernart of, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p046">46</a>, <a href="#p068">68</a>, <a href="#p128">128</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a>, <a href="#p133">133</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Verona, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Vers</i>, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Vidal, Peire, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p095">95</a>, <a href="#p097">97</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p112">112</a>, <a href="#p115">115</a>, <a href="#p127">127</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Virgin Mary, <a href="#p015">15</a>, <a href="#p091">91</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Zorzi, Bartolomeo, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> + </div> </div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12456 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/12456-h/images/Image1.png b/12456-h/images/Image1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12527dc --- /dev/null +++ b/12456-h/images/Image1.png diff --git a/12456-h/images/Image2.png b/12456-h/images/Image2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d298cb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/12456-h/images/Image2.png diff --git a/12456-h/images/m1.png b/12456-h/images/m1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 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@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b144cbf --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12456 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12456) diff --git a/old/12456-8.txt b/old/12456-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec0636d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12456-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4141 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Troubadours, by H.J. Chaytor + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Troubadours + +Author: H.J. Chaytor + +Release Date: May 27, 2004 [EBook #12456] + +Language: English and French + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TROUBADOURS *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE TROUBADOURS + +BY + +REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. + + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE TROUBADOURS OF DANTE" +ETC. + +Cambridge: +at the University Press +1912 + + +_With the exception of the coat of arms at +the foot, the design on the title page is a +reproduction of one used by the earliest known +Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_ + + + +PREFACE + +This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature +of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific +knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the +Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful +for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject +will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The +latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real +importance has been omitted. + +H.J. CHAYTOR. + +THE COLLEGE, +PLYMOUTH, March 1912. + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +CHAP. + +I. INTRODUCTORY + +II. THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE + +III. TECHNIQUE + +IV. THE EARLY TROUBADOURS + +V. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD + +VI. THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE + +VII. THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY + +VIII. THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN + +IX. PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND + +BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES + +INDEX + +[Transcriptor's note: Page numbers from the original document have +been posted in the right margin to maintain the relevance of the +index references.} + +THE TROUBADOURS [1] + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + +Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary +history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the +highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth +and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provençal poetry was +already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated +the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them +to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is +Provençal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal +and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provençal +until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouvères" in +Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by +troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in [2] +early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and +appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of +Provençal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von +Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a +subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative +literature. + +The northern limit of the Provençal language formed a line starting from +the Pointe de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde, passing through +Lesparre, Bordeaux, Libourne, Périgueux, rising northward to Nontron, la +Rochefoucauld, Confolens, Bellac, then turning eastward to Guéret and +Montluçon; it then went south-east to Clermont-Ferrand, Boën, Saint +Georges, Saint Sauveur near Annonay. The Dauphiné above Grenoble, most +of the Franche-Comté, French Switzerland and Savoy, are regarded as a +separate linguistic group known as Franco-Provençal, for the reason that +the dialects of that district display characteristics common to both +French and Provençal.[1] On the south-west, Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Isles must also be included in the Provençal region. As +concerns the Northern limit, it must not be regarded as a definite line +of demarcation between the langue d'oil or the Northern French dialects +and the langue d'oc or Provençal. The boundary is, of course, determined +by noting the points at which certain linguistic features peculiar to +Provençal cease and are replaced by the characteristics of Northern [3] +French. Such a characteristic, for instance, is the Latin tonic _a_ +before a single consonant, and not preceded by a palatal consonant, +which remains in Provençal but becomes _e_ in French; Latin cant_a_re +becomes chant_a_r in Provençal but chant_e_r in French. But north and +south of the boundary thus determined there was, in the absence of any +great mountain range or definite geographical line of demarcation, an +indeterminate zone, in which one dialect probably shaded off by easy +gradations into the other. + +Within the region thus described as Provençal, several separate dialects +existed, as at the present day. Apart from the Franco-Provençal on the +north-east, which we have excluded, there was Gascon in the south-west +and the modern _départements_ of the Basses and Hautes Pyrénées; +Catalonian, the dialect of Roussillon, which was brought into Spain in +the seventh century and still survives in Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Islands. The rest of the country may be subdivided by a line to +the north of which _c_ before _a_ becomes _ch_ as in French, cant_a_re +producing chant_a_r, while southwards we find _c(k)_ remaining. The +Southern dialects are those of Languedoc and Provence; north of the line +were the Limousin and Auvergne dialects. At the present day these +dialects have diverged very widely. In the early middle ages the +difference between them was by no means so great. Moreover, a literary [4] +language grew up by degrees, owing to the wide circulation of poems and +the necessity of using a dialect which could be universally +intelligible. It was the Limousin dialect which became, so to speak, the +backbone of this literary language, now generally known as Provençal, +just as the Tuscan became predominant for literary purposes among the +Italian dialects. It was in Limousin that the earliest troubadour lyrics +known to us were composed, and this district with the adjacent Poitou +and Saintonge may therefore be reasonably regarded as the birthplace of +Provençal lyric poetry. + +Hence the term "Provençal" is not entirely appropriate to describe the +literary language of the troubadours, as it may also be restricted to +denote the dialects spoken in the "Provincia". This difficulty was felt +at an early date. The first troubadours spoke of their language as +_roman_ or _lingua romana,_ a term equally applicable to any other +romance language. _Lemosin_ was also used, which was too restricted a +term, and was also appropriated by the Catalonians to denote their own +dialect. A third term in use was the _lingua d'oc,_ which has the +authority of Dante [2] and was used by some of the later troubadours; +however, the term "Provençal" has been generally accepted, and must +henceforward be understood to denote the literary language common to the [5] +south of France and not the dialect of Provence properly so-called. + +For obvious reasons Southern France during the early middle ages had far +outstripped the Northern provinces in art, learning, and the refinements +of civilisation. Roman culture had made its way into Southern Gaul at an +early date and had been readily accepted by the inhabitants, while +Marseilles and Narbonne had also known something of Greek civilisation. +Bordeaux, Toulouse, Arles, Lyons and other towns were flourishing and +brilliant centres of civilisation at a time when Northern France was +struggling with foreign invaders. It was in Southern Gaul, again, that +Christianity first obtained a footing; here the barbarian invasions of +the fifth and sixth centuries proved less destructive to civilisation +than in Northern France, and the Visigoths seem to have been more +amenable to the influences of culture than the Northern Franks. Thus the +towns of Southern Gaul apparently remained centres in which artistic and +literary traditions were preserved more or less successfully until the +revival of classical studies during the age of Charlemagne. The climate, +again, of Southern France is milder and warmer than that of the North, +and these influences produced a difference which may almost be termed +racial. It is a difference visible even to-day and is well expressed by [6] +the chronicler Raoul de Caen, who speaks of the Provençal Crusaders, +saying that the French were prouder in bearing and more war-like in +action than the Provençals, who especially contrasted with them by their +skill in procuring food in times of famine: "inde est, quod adhuc +puerorum decantat naenia, Franci ad bella, Provinciales ad victualia".[3] +Only a century and a half later than Charlemagne appeared the first +poetical productions in Provençal which are known to us, a fragment of a +commentary upon the De Consolatione of Boethius[4] and a poem upon St +Foy of Agen. The first troubadour, William, Count of Poitiers, belongs +to the close of the eleventh century. + +Though the Count of Poitiers is the first troubadour known to us, the +relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza +construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing +lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional +lapses into coarseness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was +the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent +in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige +us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable stage of +previous development. At what point this development began and what +influences stimulated its progress are questions which still remain in [7] +dispute. Three theories have been proposed. It is, in the first place, +obviously tempting to explain the origin of Provençal poetry as being a +continuation of Latin poetry in its decadence. When the Romans settled +in Gaul they brought with them their amusements as well as their laws +and institutions. Their _scurrae_, _thymelici_ and _joculatores_, the +tumblers, clowns and mountebanks, who amused the common people by day +and the nobles after their banquets by night and travelled from town to +town in pursuit of their livelihood, were accustomed to accompany their +performances by some sort of rude song and music. In the uncivilised +North they remained buffoons; but in the South, where the greater +refinement of life demanded more artistic performance, the musical part +of their entertainment became predominant and the _joculator_ became the +_joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), a wandering musician and +eventually a troubadour, a composer of his own poems. These latter were +no longer the gross and coarse songs of the earlier mountebank age, +which Alcuin characterised as _turpissima_ and _vanissima_, but the +grave and artificially wrought stanzas of the troubadour _chanso_. + +Secondly, it has been felt that some explanation is required to account +for the extreme complexity and artificiality of troubadour poetry in its +most highly developed stage. Some nine hundred different forms of stanza [8] +construction are to be found in the body of troubadour poetry,[5] and +few, if any schools of lyric poetry in the world, can show a higher +degree of technical perfection in point of metrical diversity, complex +stanza construction and accuracy in the use of rime. This result has +been ascribed to Arabic influence during the eighth century; but no +sufficient proof has ever been produced that the complexities of Arabic +and Provençal poetry have sufficient in common to make this hypothesis +anything more than an ingenious conjecture. + +One important fact stands in contradiction to these theories. All +indications go to prove that the origin of troubadour poetry can be +definitely localised in a particular part of Southern France. We have +seen that the Limousin dialect became the basis of the literary +language, and that the first troubadour known to us belonged to Poitou. +It is also apparent that in the Poitou district, upon the border line of +the French and Provençal languages, popular songs existed and were +current among the country people; these were songs in honour of spring, +pastorals or dialogues between a knight and a shepherdess (our "Where +are you going, my pretty maid?" is of the same type), _albas_ or dawn +songs which represent a friend as watching near the meeting-place of a +lover and his lady and giving him due warning of the approach of dawn or [9] +of any other danger; there are also _ballatas_ or dance songs of an +obviously popular type.[6] Whatever influence may have been exercised by +the Latin poetry of the decadence or by Arab poetry, it is in these +popular and native productions that we must look for the origins of the +troubadour lyrics. This popular poetry with its simple themes and homely +treatment of them is to be found in many countries, and diversity of +race is often no bar to strange coincidence in the matter of this +poetry. It is thus useless to attempt to fix any date for the beginnings +of troubadour poetry; its primitive form doubtless existed as soon as +the language was sufficiently advanced to become a medium of poetical +expression. + +Some of these popular themes were retained by the troubadours, the +_alba_ and _pastorela_ for instance, and were often treated by them in a +direct and simple manner. The Gascon troubadour Cercamon is said to have +composed pastorals in "the old style." But in general, between +troubadour poetry and the popular poetry of folk-lore, a great gulf is +fixed, the gulf of artificiality. The very name "troubadour" points to +this characteristic. _Trobador_ is the oblique case of the nominative +_trobaire_, a substantive from the verb _trobar_, in modern French +_trouver_. The Northern French _trouvère_ is a nominative form, and +_trouveor_ should more properly correspond with _trobador_. The +accusative form, which should have persisted, was superseded by the [10] +nominative _trouvère_, which grammarians brought into fashion at the end +of the eighteenth century. The verb _trobar_ is said to be derived from +the low Latin _tropus_ [Greek: tropus], an air or melody: hence the +primitive meaning of _trobador_ is the "composer" or "inventor," in the +first instance, of new melodies. As such, he differs from the _vates_, +the inspired bard of the Romans and the [Greek: poeta], poeta, the +creative poet of the Greeks, the "maker" of Germanic literature. Skilful +variation upon a given theme, rather than inspired or creative power, is +generally characteristic of the troubadour. + +Thus, whatever may have been the origin of troubadour poetry, it appears +at the outset of the twelfth century as a poetry essentially +aristocratic, intended for nobles and for courts, appealing but rarely +to the middle classes and to the common people not at all. The +environment which enabled this poetry to exist was provided by the +feudal society of Southern France. Kings, princes and nobles themselves +pursued the art and also became the patrons of troubadours who had risen +from the lower classes. Occasionally troubadours existed with sufficient +resources of their own to remain independent; Folquet of Marseilles +seems to have been a merchant of wealth, above the necessity of seeking +patronage. But troubadours such as Bernart de Ventadour, the son of the [11] +stoker in the castle of Ventadour, Perdigon the son of a fisherman, and +many others of like origin depended for their livelihood and advancement +upon the favour of patrons. Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts +and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, +such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church +looked somewhat askance upon the profession. Women are also numbered +among the troubadours; Beatrice, the Countess of Die, is the most famous +of these. + +A famous troubadour usually circulated his poems by the mouth of a +_joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), who recited them at different +courts and was often sent long distances by his master for this purpose. +A joglar of originality might rise to the position of a troubadour, and +a troubadour who fell upon evil days might sink to the profession of +joglar. Hence there was naturally some confusion between the troubadour +and the joglar, and poets sometimes combined the two functions. In +course of time the joglar was regarded with some contempt, and like his +forbear, the Roman joculator, was classed with the jugglers, acrobats, +animal tamers and clowns who amused the nobles after their feasts. Nor, +under certain conditions, was the troubadour's position one of dignity; [12] +when he was dependent upon his patron's bounty, he would stoop to +threats or to adulation in order to obtain the horse or the garments or +the money of his desire; such largesse, in fact, came to be denoted by a +special term, _messio_. Jealousy between rival troubadours, accusations +of slander in their poems and quarrels with their patrons were of +constant occurrence. These naturally affected the joglars in their +service, who received a share of any gifts that the troubadour might +obtain. + +The troubadours who were established more or less permanently as court +poets under a patron lord were few; a wandering life and a desire for +change of scene is characteristic of the class. They travelled far and +wide, not only to France, Spain and Italy, but to the Balkan peninsula, +Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and England; Elias Cairel is said to have visited +most of the then known world, and the biographer of Albertet Calha +relates, as an unusual fact, that this troubadour never left his native +district. Not only love, but all social and political questions of the +age attracted their attention. They satirised political and religious +opponents, preached crusades, sang funeral laments upon the death of +famous patrons, and the support of their poetical powers was often in +demand by princes and nobles involved in a struggle. Noteworthy also is +the fact that a considerable number retired to some monastery or [13] +religious house to end their days (_se rendet_, was the technical +phrase). So Bertran of Born, Bernart of Ventadour, Peire Rogier, Cadenet +and many others retired from the disappointments of the world to end +their days in peace; Folquet of Marseilles, who similarly entered the +Cistercian order, became abbot of his monastery of Torondet, Bishop of +Toulouse, a leader of the Albigeois crusade and a founder of the +Inquisition. + + + +CHAPTER II [14] + + +THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE + +Troubador poetry dealt with war, politics, personal satire and other +subjects: but the theme which is predominant and in which real +originality was shown, is love. The troubadours were the first lyric +poets in mediaeval Europe to deal exhaustively with this subject, and as +their attitude was imitated with certain modifications by French, +Italian, Portuguese and German poets, the nature of its treatment is a +matter of considerable importance. + +Of the many ladies whose praises were sung or whose favours were desired +by troubadours, the majority were married. Troubadours who made their +songs to a maiden, as did Gui d'Ussel or Gausbert de Puegsibot, are +quite exceptional. Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a +conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object. This +conventional character was derived from the fact that troubadour love +was constituted upon the analogy of feudal relationship. If chivalry was +the outcome of the Germanic theory of knighthood as modified by the +influence of Christianity, it may be said that troubadour love is the [15] +outcome of the same theory under the influence of mariolatry. In the +eleventh century the worship of the Virgin Mary became widely popular; +the reverence bestowed upon the Virgin was extended to the female sex in +general, and as a vassal owed obedience to his feudal overlord, so did +he owe service and devotion to his lady. Moreover, under the feudal +system, the lady might often be called upon to represent her husband's +suzerainty to his vassals, when she was left in charge of affairs during +his absence in time of war. Unmarried women were inconspicuous figures +in the society of the age. + +Thus there was a service of love as there was a service of vassalage, +and the lover stood to his lady in a position analogous to that of the +vassal to his overlord. He attained this position only by stages; "there +are four stages in love: the first is that of aspirant (_fegnedor_), the +second that of suppliant (_precador_), the third that of recognised +suitor (_entendedor_) and the fourth that of accepted lover (_drut_)." +The lover was formally installed as such by the lady, took an oath of +fidelity to her and received a kiss to seal it, a ring or some other +personal possession. For practical purposes the contract merely implied +that the lady was prepared to receive the troubadour's homage in poetry +and to be the subject of his song. As secrecy was a duty incumbent upon [16] +the troubadour, he usually referred to the lady by a pseudonym +(_senhal_); naturally, the lady's reputation was increased if her +attraction for a famous troubadour was known, and the _senhal_ was no +doubt an open secret at times. How far or how often the bounds of his +formal and conventional relationship were transgressed is impossible to +say; "en somme, assez immoral" is the judgment of Gaston Paris upon the +society of the age, and is confirmed by expressions of desire occurring +from time to time in various troubadours, which cannot be interpreted as +the outcome of a merely conventional or "platonic" devotion. In the +troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid +by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn +from this source. + +However, transgression was probably exceptional. The idea of troubadour +love was intellectual rather than emotional; love was an art, +restricted, like poetry, by formal rules; the terms "love" and "poetry" +were identified, and the fourteenth century treatise which summarises +the principles of grammar and metre bore the title _Leys d'Amors_, the +Laws of Love. The pathology of the emotion was studied; it was treated +from a psychological standpoint and a technical vocabulary came into +use, for which it is often impossible to find English equivalents. The +first effect of love is to produce a mental exaltation, a desire to live [17] +a life worthy of the beloved lady and redounding to her praise, an +inspiring stimulus known as _joi_ or _joi d'amor_ (_amor_ in Provençal +is usually feminine).[7] Other virtues are produced by the influence of +this affection: the lover must have _valor_, that is, he must be worthy +of his lady; this worth implies the possession of _cortesia_, pleasure +in the pleasure of another and the desire to please; this quality is +acquired by the observance of _mesura_, wisdom and self-restraint in +word and deed. + +The poetry which expresses such a state of mind is usually idealised and +pictures the relationship rather as it might have been than as it was. +The troubadour who knew his business would begin with praises of his +beloved; she is physically and morally perfect, her beauty illuminates +the night, her presence heals the sick, cheers the sad, makes the boor +courteous and so forth. For her the singer's love and devotion is +infinite: separation from her would be worse than death; her death would +leave the world cheerless, and to her he owes any thoughts of good or +beauty that he may have. It is only because he loves her that he can +sing. Hence he would rather suffer any pain or punishment at her hands +than receive the highest favours from another. The effects of this love +are obvious in his person. His voice quavers with supreme delight or [18] +breaks in dark despair; he sighs and weeps and wakes at night to think +of the one subject of contemplation. Waves of heat and cold pass over +him, and even when he prays, her image is before his eyes. This passion +has transformed his nature: he is a better and stronger man than ever +before, ready to forgive his enemies and to undergo any physical +privations; winter is to him as the cheerful spring, ice and snow as +soft lawns and flowery meads. Yet, if unrequited, his passion may +destroy him; he loses his self-control, does not hear when he is +addressed, cannot eat or sleep, grows thin and feeble, and is sinking +slowly to an early tomb. Even so, he does not regret his love, though it +lead to suffering and death; his passion grows ever stronger, for it is +ever supported by hope. But if his hopes are realised, he will owe +everything to the gracious favour of his lady, for his own merits can +avail nothing. Sometimes he is not prepared for such complete +self-renunciation; he reproaches his lady for her coldness, complains +that she has led him on by a show of kindness, has deceived him and will +be the cause of his death; or his patience is at an end, he will live in +spite of her and try his fortune elsewhere.[8] + +Such, in very general terms, is the course that might be followed in +developing a well-worn theme, on which many variations are possible. The [19] +most common form of introduction is a reference to the spring or winter, +and to the influence of the seasons upon the poet's frame of mind or the +desire of the lady or of his patron for a song. In song the poet seeks +consolation for his miseries or hopes to increase the renown of his +lady. As will be seen in the following chapter, manner was even more +important than matter in troubadour lyrics, and commonplaces were +revivified by intricate rime-schemes and stanza construction accompanied +by new melodies. The conventional nature of the whole business may be +partly attested by the fact that no undoubted instance of death or +suicide for love has been handed down to us. + +Reference should here be made to a legendary institution which seems to +have gripped the imagination of almost every tourist who writes a book +of travels in Southern France, the so-called _Courts of Love_.[9] In +modern times the famous Provençal scholar, Raynouard, attempted to +demonstrate the existence of these institutions, relying upon the +evidence of the _Art d'Aimer_ by André le Chapelain, a work written in +the thirteenth century and upon the statements of Nostradamus (_Vies des +plus célèbres et anciens poètes provençaux_, Lyons 1575). The latter +writer, the younger brother of the famous prophet, was obviously well +acquainted with Provençal literature and had access to sources of [20] +information which are now lost to us. But instead of attempting to write +history, he embellished the lives of the troubadours by drawing upon his +own extremely fertile imagination when the actual facts seemed too dull +or prosaic to arouse interest. He professed to have derived his +information from a manuscript left by a learned monk, the _Moine des +Iles d'Or_, of the monastery of St Honorat in the Ile de Lerins. The +late M. Camille Chabaneau has shown that the story is a pure fiction, +and that the monk's pretended name was an anagram upon the name of a +friend of Nostradamus.[10] Hence it is almost impossible to separate the +truth from the fiction in this book and any statements made by +Nostradamus must be received with the utmost caution. André le Chapelain +seems to have had no intention to deceive, but his knowledge of +Provençal society was entirely second-hand, and his statements +concerning the Courts of Love are no more worthy of credence than those +of Nostradamus. According to these two unreliable authorities, courts +for the decision of lovers' perplexities existed in Gascony, Provence, +Avignon and elsewhere; the seat of justice was held by some famous lady, +and the courts decided such questions as whether a lover could love two +ladies at the same time, whether lovers or married couples were the more +affectionate, whether love was compatible with avarice, and the like. [21] + +A special poetical form which was popular among the troubadours may have +given rise to the legend. This was the _tenso_,[11] in which one +troubadour propounded a problem of love in an opening stanza and his +opponent or interlocutor gave his view in a second stanza, which +preserved the metre and rime-scheme of the first. The propounder then +replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was +made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for +settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding +the contest. Raynouard quotes the conclusion of a _tenso_ given by +Nostradamus in which one of the interlocutors says, "I shall overcome +you if the court is loyal: I will send the _tenso_ to Pierrefeu, where +the fair lady holds her court of instruction." The "court" here in +question was a social and not a judicial court. Had any such institution +as a judicial "court of love" ever been an integral part of Provençal +custom, it is scarcely conceivable that we should be informed of its +existence only by a few vague and scattered allusions in the large body +of Provençal literature. For these reasons the theory that such an +institution existed has been generally rejected by all scholars of +repute. + + + +CHAPTER III [22] + + +TECHNIQUE + +Provençal literature contains examples of almost every poetical _genre_. +Epic poetry is represented by Girart of Roussillon,[12] a story of long +struggles between Charles Martel and one of his barons, by the Roman de +Jaufre, the adventures of a knight of the Round Table, by Flamenca, a +love story which provides an admirable picture of the manners and +customs of the time, and by other fragments and _novelas_ or shorter +stories in the same style. Didactic poetry includes historical works +such as the poem of the Albigeois crusade, ethical or moralising +_ensenhamens_ and religious poetry. But the dominating element in +Provençal literature is lyrical, and during the short classical age of +this literature lyric poetry was supreme. Nearly five hundred different +troubadours are known to us at least by name and almost a thousand +different stanza forms have been enumerated. While examples of the fine +careless rapture of inspiration are by no means wanting, artificiality +reigns supreme in the majority of cases. Questions of technique receive +the most sedulous attention, and the principles of stanza construction, +rime correspondence and rime distribution, as evolved by the [23] +troubadours, exerted so wide an influence upon other European literature +that they deserve a chapter to themselves. + +There was no formal school for poetical training during the best period +of Provençal lyric. When, for instance, Giraut de Bornelli is said to +have gone to "school" during the winter seasons, nothing more is meant +than the pursuit of the trivium and quadrivium, the seven arts, which +formed the usual subjects of instruction. A troubadour learned the +principles of his art from other poets who were well acquainted with the +conventions that had been formulated in course of time, conventions +which were collected and systematised in such treatises as the Leys +d'Amors during the period of the decadence. + +The love song or _chanso_ was composed of five, six or seven stanzas +(_coblas_) with, one or two _tornadas_ or _envois_. The stanza varied in +length from two to forty-two lines, though these limits are, of course, +exceptional. An earlier form of the _chanso_ was known as the _vers_; it +seems to have been in closer relation to the popular poetry than the +more artificial _chanso_, and to have had shorter stanzas and lines; but +the distinction is not clear. As all poems were intended to be sung, the +poet was also a composer; the biography of Jaufre Rudel, for instance, +says that this troubadour "made many poems with good tunes but poor [24] +words." The tune known as _son_ (diminutive sonnet) was as much the +property of a troubadour as his poem, for it implied and would only suit +a special form of stanza; hence if another poet borrowed it, +acknowledgment was generally made. Dante, in his _De Vulgari +Eloquentia_, informs us concerning the structure of this musical +setting: it might be continuous without repetition or division; or it +might be in two parts, one repeating the other, in which case the stanza +was also divided into two parts, the division being termed by Dante the +_diesis_ or _volta_; of these two parts one might be subdivided into two +or even more parts, which parts, in the stanza, corresponded both in +rimes and in the arrangement of the lines. If the first part of the +stanza was thus divisible, the parts were called _pedes_, and the +musical theme or _oda_ of the first _pes_ was repeated for the second; +the rest of the stanza was known as the _syrma_ or _coda_, and had a +musical theme of its own. Again the first part of the stanza might be +indivisible, when it was called the _frons_, the divided parts of the +second half being the _versus_; in this case the _frons_ had its own +musical theme, as did the first _versus_, the theme of the first +_versus_ being repeated for the second. Or, lastly, a stanza might [25] +consist of _pedes_ and _versus_, one theme being used for the first +_pes_ and repeated for the second and similarly with the _versus_. +Thus the general principle upon which the stanza was constructed was that of +tripartition in the following three forms:-- + + +I + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } Syrma +2nd " } or Coda +3rd " etc. } + + +II + +1st line } +2nd " } Frons +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } +2nd " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd. " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + + +III + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } +2nd " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd. " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + + +These forms were rather typical than stringently binding as Dante +himself notes (_De Vulg. El._, ii, 11); many variations were [26] +possible. The first seems to have been the most popular type. The poem might also +conclude with a half stanza or _tornada_, (French _envoi_). Here, as in +the last couplet of the Arabic _gazul_, were placed the personal +allusions, and when these were unintelligible to the audience the +_joglar_ usually explained the poem before singing it; the explanations, +which in some cases remain prefixed to the poem, were known as the +_razos_. + +Troubadour poems were composed for singing, not for recitation, and the +music of a poem was an element of no less importance than the words. +Troubadours are described as composing "good" tunes and "poor" words, or +vice versa; the tune was a piece of literary property, and, as we have +said, if a troubadour borrowed a tune he was expected to acknowledge its +origin. Consequently music and words were regarded as forming a unity, +and the structure of the one should be a guide to the structure of the +other. Troubadour music is a subject still beset with difficulties[13]: +we possess 244 tunes written in Gregorian notation, and as in certain +cases the same poem appears in different MSS. with the tune in +substantial agreement in each one, we may reasonably assume that we have +an authentic record, as far as this could be expressed in Gregorian +notation. The chief difference between Troubadour and Gregorian music +lies in the fact that the former was syllabic in character; in other [27] +words, one note was not held over several syllables, though several +notes might be sung upon one syllable. The system of musical time in the +age of the troubadours was based upon the so-called "modes," rhythmical +formulae combining short and long notes in various sequences. Three of +these concern us here. The first mode consists of a long followed by a +short note, the long being equivalent to two short, or in 3/4 time +[Illustration: musical notation.]. The second mode is the reverse of +the first [Illustration: musical notation.]. The third mode in modern +6/8 time appears as [Illustration: musical notation.]. The principle of +sub-division is thus ternary; "common" time or 2/4 time is a later +modification. So much being admitted, the problem of transposing a tune +written in Gregorian notation without bars, time signature, marks of +expression or other modern devices is obviously a difficult matter. J. +Beck, who has written most recently upon the subject, formulates the +following rules; the musical accent falls upon the tonic syllables of +the words; should the accent fall upon an atonic syllable, the duration +of the note to which the tonic syllable is sung may be increased, to +avoid the apparent discordance between the musical accent and the tonic +syllable. The musical accent must fall upon the rime and the rhythm [28] +adopted at the outset will persist throughout the poem. + +Hence a study of the words will give the key to the interpretation of +the tune. If, for instance, the poem shows accented followed by +unaccented syllables or trochees as the prevalent foot, the first "mode" +is indicated as providing the principle to be followed in transposing +the Gregorian to modern notation. When these conditions are reversed the +iambic foot will prevail and the melody will be in the second mode. It +is not possible here to treat this complicated question in full detail +for which reference must be made to the works of J. Beck. But it is +clear that the system above outlined is an improvement upon that +proposed by such earlier students of the subject as Riemann, who assumed +that each syllable was sung to a note or group of notes of equal time +value. There is no evidence that such a rhythm was ever employed in the +middle ages, and the fact that words and music were inseparable in +Provençal lyrics shows that to infer the nature of the musical rhythm +from the rhythm of the words is a perfectly legitimate method of +inquiry. + +A further question arises: how far do the tunes correspond with the +structure of the stanza as given by Dante? In some cases both tune and +stanza correspond in symmetrical form; but in others we find stanzas [29] +which may be divided according to rule conjoined with tunes which +present no melodic repetition of any kind; similarly, tunes which may be +divided into pedes and coda are written upon stanzas which have no +relation to that form. On the whole, it seems that the number of tunes +known to us are too few, in comparison with the large body of lyric +poetry existing, to permit any generalisation upon the question. The +singer accompanied himself upon a stringed instrument (_viula_) or was +accompanied by other performers; various forms of wind instruments were +also in use. Apparently the accompaniment was in unison with the singer; +part writing or contrapuntal music was unknown at the troubadour period. + +As has been said, the stanza (_cobla_) might vary in length. No poetical +literature has made more use of rime than Provençal lyric poetry. There +were three typical methods of rime disposition: firstly, the rimes might +all find their answer within the stanza, which was thus a self-contained +whole; secondly, the rimes might find their answer within the stanza and +be again repeated in the same order in all following stanzas; and +thirdly, the rimes might find no answer within the stanza, but be +repeated in following stanzas. In this case the rimes were known as +_dissolutas_, and the stanza as a _cobla estrampa_. This last +arrangement tended to make the poem a more organic whole than was +possible in the first two cases; in these, stanzas might be omitted +without necessarily impairing the general effect, but, when _coblas +estrampas_ were employed, the ear of the auditor, attentive for the [30] +answering rimes, would not be satisfied before the conclusion of the +second stanza. A further step towards the provision of closer unity +between the separate stanzas was the _chanso redonda_, which was +composed of _coblas estrampas_, the rime order of the second stanza +being an inversion of the rime order of the first; the tendency reaches +its highest point in the _sestina_, which retained the characteristic of +the _chanso redonda_, namely, that the last rime of one stanza should +correspond with the first rime of the following stanza, but with the +additional improvement that every rime started a stanza in turn, +whereas, in the _chanso redonda_ the same rime continually recurred at +the beginning of every other stanza. + +Reference has already been made to the _chanso_. A poetical form of much +importance was the _sirventes_, which outwardly was indistinguishable +from the _chanso_. The meaning of the term is unknown; some say that it +originally implied a poem composed by "servants," poets in the service +of an overlord; others, that it was a poem composed to the tune of a [31] +_chanso_ which it thus imitated in a "servile" manner. From the _chanso_ +the _sirventes_ is distinguished by its subject matter; it was the +vehicle for satire, moral reproof or political lampooning. The +troubadours were often keenly interested in the political events of +their time; they filled, to some extent, the place of the modern +journalist and were naturally the partisans of the overlord in whose +service or pay they happened to be. They were ready to foment a war, to +lampoon a stingy patron, to ridicule one another, to abuse the morality +of the age as circumstances might dictate. The crusade _sirventes_[14] +are important in this connection, and there were often eloquent +exhortations to the leaders of Christianity to come to the rescue of +Palestine and the Holy Sepulchre. Under this heading also falls the +_planh_, a funeral song lamenting the death of a patron, and here again, +beneath the mask of conventionality, real emotion is often apparent, as +in the famous lament upon Richard Coeur de Lion composed by Gaucelm +Faidit. + +Reference has been already made to the _tenso_, one of the most +characteristic of Provençal lyric forms. The name (Lat. _tentionem_) +implies a contention or strife, which was conducted in the form of a +dialogue and possibly owed its origin to the custom in early vogue among +many different peoples of holding poetical tournaments, in which one [32] +poet challenged another by uttering a poetical phrase to which the +opponent replied in similar metrical form. Such, at any rate, is the +form of the _tenso_; a poet propounds a theme in the first stanza and +his interlocutor replies in a stanza of identical metrical form; the +dispute usually continues for some half dozen stanzas. One class of +tenso was obviously fictitious, as the dialogue is carried on with +animals or even lifeless objects, such as a lady's cloak, and it is +possible that some at least of the discussions ostensibly conducted +between two poets may have emanated from the brain of one sole author. +Sometimes three or four interlocutors take part; the subject of +discussion was then known as a _joc partit_, a divided game, or +_partimen_, a title eventually transferred to the poem itself. The most +varied questions were discussed in the _tenso_, but casuistical problems +concerning love are the most frequent: Is the death or the treachery of +a loved one easier to bear? Is a lover's feeling for his lady stronger +before she has accepted him or afterwards? Is a bad noble or a poor but +upright man more worthy to find favour? The discussion of such questions +provided an opportunity of displaying both poetical dexterity and also +dialectical acumen. But rarely did either of the disputants declare +himself convinced or vanquished by his opponents' arguments the question [33] +was left undecided or was referred by agreement to an arbitrator. + +A poetical form which preserves some trace of its popular origin is the +_pastorela_[15] or pastoral which takes its name from the fact that the +heroine of the piece was always a shepherdess. The conventional opening +is a description by a knight of his meeting with a shepherdess, "the +other day" (_l'autrier_, the word with which the poem usually begins). A +dialogue then follows between the knight and the shepherdess, in which +the former sues for her favours successfully or otherwise. The irony or +sarcasm which enables the shepherdess to hold her own in the encounter +is far removed from the simplicity of popular poetry. The _Leys d'Amors_ +mentions other forms of the same genre such as _vaqueira_ (cowherd), +_auqueira_ (goose girl), of which a specimen of the first-named alone +has survived. Of equal interest is the _alba_ or dawn-song, in which the +word _alba_ reappeared as a refrain in each verse; the subject of the +poem is the parting of the lovers at the dawn, the approach of which is +announced by a watchman or by some faithful friend who has undertaken to +guard their meeting-place throughout the night. The counterpart of this +form, the _serena_, does not appear until late in the history of +Provençal lyric poetry; in the _serena_ the lover longs for the [34] +approach of evening, which is to unite him with his beloved. + +Other forms of minor importance were the _comjat_ in which a troubadour +bids a lady a final farewell, and the _escondig_ or justification in +which the lover attempts to excuse his behaviour to a lady whose anger +he had aroused. The troubled state of his feelings might find expression +in the _descort_ (discord), in which each stanza showed a change of +metre and melody. The _descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras is written in +five dialects, one for each stanza, and the last and sixth stanza of the +poem gives two lines to each dialect, which Babel of strange sounds is +intended, he says, to show how entirely his lady's heart has changed +towards him. The _ballata_ and the _estampida_ were dance-songs, but +very few examples survive. Certain love letters also remain to us, but +as these are written in rimed couplets and in narrative style, they can +hardly be classified as lyric poetry. + +In conclusion, a word must be said concerning the dispute between two +schools of stylists, which is one of the most interesting points in the +literary history of the troubadours.[16] From the earliest times we find +two poetical schools in opposition, the _trobar clus_ (also known as +_car, ric, oscur, sotil, cobert_), the obscure, or close, subtle style +of composition, and the _trobar clar (leu, leugier, plan), the clear, +light, easy, straightforward style. Two or three causes may have [35] +combined to favour the development of obscure writing. The theme of love +with which the _chanso_ dealt is a subject by no means inexhaustible; +there was a continual struggle to revivify the well-worn tale by means +of strange turns of expression, by the use of unusual adjectives and +forced metaphor, by the discovery of difficult rimes (_rimes cars_) and +stanza schemes of extraordinary complexity. Marcabrun asserts, possibly +in jest, that he could not always understand his own poems. A further +and possibly an earlier cause of obscurity in expression was the fact +that the _chanso_ was a love song addressed to a married lady; and +though in many cases it was the fact that the poem embodied compliments +purely conventional, however exaggerated to our ideas, yet the further +fact remains that the sentiments expressed might as easily be those of +veritable passion, and, in view of a husband's existence, obscurity had +a utility of its own. This point Guiraut de Bornelh advances as an +objection to the use of the easy style: "I should like to send my song +to my lady, if I should find a messenger; but if I made another my +spokesman, I fear she would blame me. For there is no sense in making +another speak out what one wishes to conceal and keep to oneself." The [36] +habit of alluding to the lady addressed under a _senhal_, or pseudonym, +in the course of the poem, is evidence for a need of privacy, though +this custom was also conventionalised, and we find men as well as women +alluded to under a _senhal_. It was not always the fact that the +_senhal_ was an open secret, although in many cases, where a high-born +dame desired to boast of the accomplished troubadour in her service, his +poems would naturally secure the widest publication which she could +procure. A further reason for complexity of composition is given by the +troubadour Peire d'Auvergne: "He is pleasing and agreeable to me who +proceeds to sing with words shut up and obscure, to which a man is +afraid to do violence." The "violence" apprehended is that of the +_joglar_, who might garble a song in the performance of it, if he had +not the memory or industry to learn it perfectly, and Peire d'Alvernhe +(1158-80) commends compositions so constructed that the disposition of +the rimes will prevent the interpolation of topical allusions or +careless altercation. The similar safeguard of Dante's _terza rima_ will +occur to every student. + +The social conditions again under which troubadour poetry was produced, +apart from the limitations of its subject matter, tended to foster an +obscure and highly artificial diction. This obscurity was attained, as +we have said, by elevation and preciosity of style, and was not the +result of confusion of thought. Guiraut de Bornelh tells us his method [37] +in a passage worth quoting in the original-- + + Mas per melhs assire + mon chan, + vau cercan + bos motz en fre + que son tuit cargat e ple + d'us estranhs sens naturals; + mas no sabon tuich de cals. + +"But for the better foundation of my song I keep on the watch for words +good on the rein (_i.e._ tractable like horses), which are all loaded +(like pack horses) and full of a meaning which is unusual, and yet is +wholly theirs (naturals); but it is not everyone that knows what that +meaning is".[17] + +Difficulty was thus intentional; in the case of several troubadours it +affected the whole of their writing, no matter what the subject matter. +They desired not to be understood of the people. Dean Gaisford's reputed +address to his divinity lecture illustrates the attitude of those +troubadours who affected the _trobar clus_: "Gentlemen, a knowledge of +Greek will enable you to read the oracles of God in the original and to +look down from the heights of scholarship upon the vulgar herd." The +inevitable reaction occurred, and a movement in the opposite direction +was begun; of this movement the most distinguished supporter was the +troubadour, Guiraut de Bornelh. He had been one of the most successful [38] +exponents of the _trobar clus_, and afterwards supported the cause of +the _trobar clar_. Current arguments for either cause are set forth in +the _tenso_ between Guiraut de Bornelh and Linhaure (pseudonym for the +troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga). + +(1) I should like to know, G. de Bornelh, why, and for what reason, you +keep blaming the obscure style. Tell me if you prize so highly that +which is common to all? For then would all be equal. + +(2) Sir Linhaure, I do not take it to heart if each man composes as he +pleases; but judge that song is more loved and prized which is made easy +and simple, and do not be vexed at my opinion. + +(3) Guiraut, I do not like my songs to be so confused, that the base and +good, the small and great be appraised alike; my poetry will never be +praised by fools, for they have no understanding nor care for what is +more precious and valuable. + +(4) Linhaure, if I work late and turn my rest into weariness for that +reason (to make my songs simple), does it seem that I am afraid of work? +Why compose if you do not want all to understand? Song brings no other +advantage. + +(5) Guiraut, provided that I produce what is best at all times, I care +not if it be not so widespread; commonplaces are no good for the +appreciative--that is why gold is more valued than salt, and with song [39] +it is even the same. + +It is obvious that the disputants are at cross purposes; the object of +writing poetry, according to the one, is to please a small circle of +highly trained admirers by the display of technical skill. Guiraut de +Bornelh, on the other hand, believes that the poet should have a message +for the people, and that even the fools should be able to understand its +purport. He adds the further statement that composition in the easy +style demands no less skill and power than is required for the +production of obscurity. This latter is a point upon which he repeatedly +insists: "The troubadour who makes his meaning clear is just as clever +as he who cunningly conjoins words." "My opinion is that it is not in +obscure but in clear composition that toil is involved." Later +troubadours of renown supported his arguments; Raimon de Miraval +(1168-1180) declares: "Never should obscure poetry be praised, for it is +composed only for a price, compared with sweet festal songs, easy to +learn, such as I sing." So, too, pronounces the Italian Lanfranc Cigala +(1241-1257): "I could easily compose an obscure, subtle poem if I +wished; but no poem should be so concealed beneath subtlety as not to be +clear as day. For knowledge is of small value if clearness does not +bring light; obscurity has ever been regarded as death, and brightness [40] +as life." The fact is thus sufficiently demonstrated that these two +styles existed in opposition, and that any one troubadour might practise +both. + +Enough has now been said to show that troubadour lyric poetry, regarded +as literature, would soon produce a surfeit, if read in bulk. It is +essentially a literature of artificiality and polish. Its importance +consists in the fact that it was the first literature to emphasise the +value of form in poetry, to formulate rules, and, in short, to show that +art must be based upon scientific knowledge. The work of the troubadours +in these respects left an indelible impression upon the general course +of European literature. + + + +CHAPTER IV [41] + + +THE EARLY TROUBADOURS + +The earliest troubadour known to us is William IX, Count of Poitiers +(1071-1127) who led an army of thirty thousand men to the unfortunate +crusade of 1101. He lived an adventurous and often an unedifying life, +and seems to have been a jovial sensualist caring little what kind of +reputation he might obtain in the eyes of the world about him. William +of Malmesbury gives an account of him which is the reverse of +respectable. His poems, of which twelve survive, are, to some extent, a +reflection of this character, and present a mixture of coarseness and +delicate sentiment which are in strangely discordant contrast. His +versification is of an early type; the principle of tripartition, which +became predominant in troubadour poetry at a later date, is hardly +perceptible in his poems. The chief point of interest in them is the +fact that their comparative perfection of form implies a long anterior +course of development for troubadour poetry, while we also find him +employing, though in undeveloped form, the chief ideas which afterwards +became commonplaces among the troubadours. The half mystical exaltation +inspired by love is already known to William IX. as _joi_, and he is [42] +acquainted with the service of love under feudal conditions. The +conventional attitudes of the lady and the lover are also taken for +granted, the lady disdainful and unbending, the lover timid and relying +upon his patience. The lady is praised for her outward qualities, her +"kindly welcome, her gracious and pleasing look" and love for her is +considered to be the inspiration of nobility in the lover. But these +ideas are not carried to the extravagant lengths to which later poets +pushed them; William's sensual leanings are enough to counterbalance any +tendency to such exaggeration. The conventional opening of a love poem +by a description of spring is also in evidence; in short, the +commonplaces, the technical language and formulae of later Provençal +lyrics were in existence during the age of this first troubadour. + +Next in point of time is the troubadour Cercamon, of whom we know very +little; his poems, as we have them, seem to fall between the years 1137 +and 1152; one of them is a lament upon the death of William X. of +Aquitaine, the son of the notorious Count of Poitiers, and another +alludes to the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of William +X. According to the Provençal biography he was the instructor of a more +interesting and original troubadour Marcabrun, whose active life [43] +extended from 1150 to 1195. Many of his poems are extremely obscure; he +was one of the first to affect the _trobar clus_. He was also the author +of violent invectives against the passion of love-- + + Que anc non amet neguna + Ni d'autra no fon amatz-- + +"Who never loved any woman nor was loved of any." This aversion to the +main theme of troubadour poetry is Marcabrun's most striking +characteristic. + + Amors es mout de mal avi; + Mil homes a mortz ses glavi; + Dieus non fetz tant fort gramavi. + +"Love is of a detestable lineage; he has killed thousands of men without +a sword. God has created no more terrible enchanter." These invectives +may have been the outcome of personal disappointment; the theory has +also been advanced that the troubadour idea of love had not yet secured +universal recognition, and that Marcabrun is one who strove to prevent +it from becoming the dominant theme of lyric poetry. His best known poem +was the "Starling," which consists of two parts, an unusual form of +composition. In the first part the troubadour sends the starling to his +love to reproach her for unfaithfulness, and to recommend himself to her +favour; the bird returns, and in the second part offers excuses from the [44] +lady and brings an invitation from her to a meeting the next day. +Marcabrun knows the technical terms _cortesia_ and _mesura_, which he +defines: _mesura_, self-control or moderation, "consists in nicety of +speech, courtesy in loving. He may boast of courtesy who can maintain +moderation." The poem concludes with a dedication to Jaufre Rudel-- + + Lo vers e·l son vueill envier + A'n Jaufre Rudel outra mar. + +"The words and the tune I wish to send to Jaufre Rudel beyond the sea." + +This was the troubadour whom Petrarch has made famous-- + + Jaufre Rudel che usò la vela e'l remo + A cercar la sua morte. + +His romantic story is as follows in the words of the Provençal +biography: "Jaufre Rudel of Blaya was a very noble man, the Prince of +Blaya; he fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, though he had never +seen her, for the good report that he had of her from the pilgrims who +came from Antioch, and he made many poems concerning her with good tunes +but poor words.[18] And from desire to see her, he took the cross and +went to sea. And in the ship great illness came upon him so that those +who were with him thought that he was dead in the ship; but they [45] +succeeded in bringing him to Tripoli, to an inn, as one dead. And it was +told to the countess, and she came to him, to his bed, and took him in +her arms; and he knew that she was the countess, and recovering his +senses, he praised God and gave thanks that his life had been sustained +until he had seen her; and then he died in the lady's arms. And she gave +him honourable burial in the house of the Temple, and then, on that day, +she took the veil for the grief that she had for him and for his death." +Jaufre's poems contain many references to a "distant love" which he will +never see, "for his destiny is to love without being loved." Those +critics who accept the truth of the story regard Melisanda, daughter of +Raimon I., Count of Tripoli, as the heroine; but the biography must be +used with great caution as a historical source, and the mention of the +house of the order of Templars in which Jaufre is said to have been +buried raises a difficulty; it was erected in 1118, and in the year 1200 +the County of Tripoli was merged in that of Antioch; of the Rudels of +Blaya, historically known to us, there is none who falls reasonably +within these dates. The probability is that the constant references in +Jaufre's poems to an unknown distant love, and the fact of his crusading +expedition to the Holy Land, formed in conjunction the nucleus of the [46] +legend which grew round his name, and which is known to all readers of +Carducci, Uhland and Heine. + +Contemporary with Jaufre Rudel was Bernard de Ventadour, one of the +greatest names in Provençal poetry. According to the biography, which +betrays its untrustworthiness by contradicting the facts of history, +Bernard was the son of the furnace stoker at the castle of Ventadour, +under the Viscount Ebles II., himself a troubadour and a patron of +troubadours. It was from the viscount that Bernard received instruction +in the troubadours' art, and to his patron's interest in his talents he +doubtless owed the opportunities which he enjoyed of learning to read +and write, and of making acquaintance with such Latin authors as were +currently read, or with the anthologies and books of "sentences" then +used for instruction in Latin. He soon outstripped his patron, to whose +wife, Agnes de Montluçon, his early poems were addressed. His relations +with the lady and with his patron were disturbed by the _lauzengiers_, +the slanderers, the envious, and the backbiters of whom troubadours +constantly complain, and he was obliged to leave Ventadour. He went to +the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the granddaughter of the first +troubadour, Guillaume IX. of Poitiers, who by tradition and temperament +was a patroness of troubadours, many of whom sang her praises. She had [47] +been divorced from Louis VII. of France in 1152, and married Henry, Duke +of Normandy, afterwards King of England in the same year. There Bernard +may have remained until 1154, in which year Eleanor went to England as +Queen. Whether Bernard followed her to England is uncertain; the +personal allusions in his poems are generally scanty, and the details of +his life are correspondingly obscure. But one poem seems to indicate +that he may have crossed the Channel. He says that he has kept silence +for two years, but that the autumn season impels him to sing; in spite +of his love, his lady will not deign to reply to him: but his devotion +is unchanged and she may sell him or give him away if she pleases. She +does him wrong in failing to call him to her chamber that he may remove +her shoes humbly upon his knees, when she deigns to stretch forth her +foot. He then continues[19] + + Faitz es lo vers totz a randa, + Si que motz no y descapduelha. + outra la terra normanda + part la fera mar prionda; + e si·m suy de midons lunhans. + ves si·m tira cum diamans, + la belha cui dieus defenda. + Si·l reys engles el dux normans + o vol, ieu la veirai, abans + que l'iverns nos sobreprenda. + [48] +"The _vers_ has been composed fully so that not a word is wanting, +beyond the Norman land and the deep wild sea; and though I am far from +my lady, she attracts me like a magnet, the fair one whom may God +protect. If the English king and Norman duke will, I shall see her +before the winter surprise us." + +How long Bernard remained in Normandy, we cannot conjecture. He is said +to have gone to the court of Raimon V., Count of Toulouse, a well-known +patron of the troubadours. On Raimon's death in 1194, Bernard, who must +himself have been growing old, retired to the abbey of Dalon in his +native province of Limousin, where he died. He is perhaps more deeply +inspired by the true spirit of lyric poetry than any other troubadour; +he insists that love is the only source of song; poetry to be real, must +be lived. + + Non es meravelha s'ieu chan + mielhs de nulh autre chantador; + que plus mi tra·l cors ves amor + e mielhs sui faitz a son coman. + +"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer; for my heart +draws me more than others towards love, and I am better made for his +commandments." Hence Bernard gave fuller expression than any other +troubadour to the ennobling power of love, as the only source of real +worth and nobility. + +The subject speedily became exhausted, and ingenuity did but increase [49] +the conventionality of its treatment. But in Bernard's hands it retains +its early freshness and sincerity. The description of the seasons of the +year as impelling the troubadour to song was, or became, an entirely +conventional and expected opening to a _chanso_; but in Bernard's case +these descriptions were marked by the observation and feeling of one who +had a real love for the country and for nature, and the contrast or +comparison between the season of the year and his own feelings is of +real lyrical value. The opening with the description of the lark is +famous-- + + Quant vey la lauzeta mover + De joi sas alas contral rai, + que s'oblida e·s laissa cazer + per la doussor qu'al cor li vai, + ai! tan grans enveia m'en ve + de cui qu'eu veya jauzion! + meravilhas ai, quar desse + lo cor de dezirier no·m fon. + +"When I see the lark flutter with joy towards the sun, and forget +himself and sing for the sweetness that comes to his heart; alas, such +envy comes upon me of all that I see rejoicing, I wonder that my heart +does not melt forthwith with desire".[20] + +At the same time Bernard's style is simple and clear, though he shows +full mastery of the complex stanza form; to call him the Wordsworth of +the troubadour world is to exaggerate a single point of coincidence; but +he remains the greatest of troubadour poets, as modern taste regards [50] +poetry. + +Arnaut de Mareuil (1170-1200 _circa_) displays many of the +characteristics which distinguished the poetry of Bernard of Ventadour; +there is the same simplicity of style and often no less reality of +feeling: conventionalism had not yet become typical. Arnaut was born in +Périgord of poor parents, and was brought up to the profession of a +scribe or notary. This profession he soon abandoned, and his "good +star," to quote the Provençal biography, led him to the court of +Adelaide, daughter of Raimon V. of Toulouse, who had married in 1171 +Roger II., Viscount of Béziers. There he soon rose into high repute: at +first he is said to have denied his authorship of the songs which he +composed in honour of his mistress, but eventually he betrayed himself +and was recognised as a troubadour of high merit, and definitely +installed as the singer of Adelaide. The story is improbable, as the +troubadour's rewards naturally depended upon the favour of his patrons +to him personally; it is probably an instance of the manner in which the +biographies founded fictions upon a very meagre substratum of fact, the +fact in this instance being a passage in which Arnaut declares his +timidity in singing the praise of so great a beauty as Adelaide. + + Mas grans paors m'o tol e grans temensa, [51] + Qu'ieu non aus dir, dona, qu'ieu chant de vos. + +"But great fear and great apprehension comes upon me, so that I dare not +tell you, lady, that it is I who sing of you." + +Arnaut seems to have introduced a new poetical _genre_ into Provençal +literature, the love-letter. He says that the difficulty of finding a +trustworthy messenger induced him to send a letter sealed with his own +ring; the letter is interesting for the description of feminine beauty +which it contains: "my heart, that is your constant companion, comes to +me as your messenger and portrays for me your noble, graceful form, your +fair light-brown hair, your brow whiter than the lily, your gay laughing +eyes, your straight well-formed nose, your fresh complexion, whiter and +redder than any flower, your little mouth, your fair teeth, whiter than +pure silver,... your fair white hands with the smooth and slender +fingers"; in short, a picture which shows that troubadour ideas of +beauty were much the same as those of any other age. Arnaut was +eventually obliged to leave Béziers, owing, it is said, to the rivalry +of Alfonso II. of Aragon, who may have come forward as a suitor for +Adelaide after Roger's death in 1194. The troubadour betook himself to +the court of William VIII., Count of Montpelier, where he probably spent +the rest of his life. The various allusions in his poems cannot always [52] +be identified, and his career is only known to us in vague outline. +Apart from the love-letter, he was, if not the initiator, one of the +earliest writers of the type of didactic poem known as _ensenhamen_, an +"instruction" containing observations upon the manners and customs of +his age, with precepts for the observance of morality and right conduct +such as should be practised by the ideal character. Arnaut, after a +lengthy and would-be learned introduction, explains that each of the +three estates, the knights, the clergy and the citizens, have their +special and appropriate virtues. The emphasis with which he describes +the good qualities of the citizen class, a compliment unusual in the +aristocratic poetry of the troubadours, may be taken as confirmation of +the statement concerning his own parentage which we find in his +biography. + + [53] + +CHAPTER V + + +THE CLASSICAL PERIOD + +We now reach a group of three troubadours whom Dante[21] selected as +typical of certain characteristics: "Bertran de Born sung of arms, +Arnaut Daniel of love, and Guiraut de Bornelh of uprightness, honour and +virtue." The last named, who was a contemporary (1175-1220 _circa_) and +compatriot of Arnaut de Marueil, is said in his biography to have +enjoyed so great a reputation that he was known as the "Master of the +Troubadours." This title is not awarded to him by any other troubadour; +the jealousy constantly prevailing between the troubadours is enough to +account for their silence on this point. But his reputation is fairly +attested by the number of his poems which have survived and by the +numerous MSS. in which they are preserved; when troubadours were studied +as classics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Guiraut's poems +were so far in harmony with the moralising tendency of that age that his +posthumous reputation was certainly as great as any that he enjoyed in +his life-time. + +Practically nothing is known of his life; allusions in his poems lead us [54] +to suppose that he spent some time in Spain at the courts of Navarre, +Castile and Aragon. The real interests of his work are literary and +ethical. To his share in the controversy concerning the _trobar clus_, +the obscure and difficult style of composition, we have already alluded. +Though in the _tenso_ with Linhaure, Guiraut expresses his preference +for the simple and intelligible style, it must be said that the majority +of his poems are far from attaining this ideal. Their obscurity, +however, is often due rather to the difficulty of the subject matter +than to any intentional attempt at preciosity of style. He was one of +the first troubadours who attempted to analyse the effects of love from +a psychological standpoint; his analysis often proceeds in the form of a +dialogue with himself, an attempt to show the hearer by what methods he +arrived at his conclusions. "How is it, in the name of God, that when I +wish to sing, I weep? Can the reason be that love has conquered me? And +does love bring me no delight? Yes, delight is mine. Then why am I sad +and melancholy? I cannot tell. I have lost my lady's favour and the +delight of love has no more sweetness for me. Had ever a lover such +misfortune? But am I a lover? No! Have I ceased to love passionately? +No! Am I then a lover? Yes, if my lady would suffer my love." Guiraut's [55] +moral _sirventes_ are reprobations of the decadence of his age. He saw a +gradual decline of the true spirit of chivalry. The great lords were +fonder of war and pillage than of poetry and courtly state. He had +himself suffered from the change, if his biographer is to be believed; +the Viscount of Limoges had plundered and burnt his house. He compares +the evils of his own day with the splendours of the past, and asks +whether the accident of birth is the real source of nobility; a man must +be judged by himself and his acts and not by the rank of his +forefathers; these were the sentiments that gained him a mention in the +Fourth Book of Dante's _Convivio_.[22] + +The question why Dante should have preferred Arnaut Daniel to Guiraut de +Bornelh[23] has given rise to much discussion. The solution turns upon +Dante's conception of style, which is too large a problem for +consideration here. Dante preferred the difficult and artificial style +of Arnaut to the simple style of the opposition school; from Arnaut he +borrowed the sestina form; and at the end of the canto he puts the +well-known lines, "Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan," into the +troubadour's mouth. We know little of Arnaut's life; he was a noble of +Riberac in Périgord. The biography relates an incident in his life which +is said to have taken place at the court of Richard Coeur de Lion. + +A certain troubadour had boasted before the king that he could compose a [56] +better poem than Arnaut. The latter accepted the challenge and the king +confined the poets to their rooms for a certain time at the end of which +they were to recite their composition before him. Arnaut's inspiration +totally failed him, but from his room he could hear his rival singing as +he rehearsed his own composition. Arnaut was able to learn his rival's +poem by heart, and when the time of trial came he asked to be allowed to +sing first, and performed his opponent's song, to the wrath of the +latter, who protested vigorously. Arnaut acknowledged the trick, to the +great amusement of the king. + +Preciosity and artificiality reach their height in Arnaut's poems, which +are, for that reason, excessively difficult. Enigmatic constructions, +word-plays, words used in forced senses, continual alliteration and +difficult rimes produced elaborate form and great obscurity of meaning. +The following stanza may serve as an example-- + + L'aur' amara fa·ls bruels brancutz + clarzir que·l dons espeys' ab fuelhs, + e·ls letz becxs dels auzels ramencx + te balbs e mutz pars e non pars. + per qu'ieu m'esfortz de far e dir plazers + A manhs? per ley qui m'a virat has d'aut, + don tern morir si·ls afans no·m asoma. + +"The bitter breeze makes light the bosky boughs which the gentle breeze [57] +makes thick with leaves, and the joyous beaks of the birds in the +branches it keeps silent and dumb, paired and not paired. Wherefore do I +strive to say and do what is pleasing to many? For her, who has cast me +down from on high, for which I fear to die, if she does not end the +sorrow for me." + +The answers to the seventeen rime-words which occur in this stanza do +not appear till the following stanza, the same rimes being kept +throughout the six stanzas of the poem. To rest the listener's ear, +while he waited for the answering rimes, Arnaut used light assonances +which almost amount to rime in some cases. The Monk of Montaudon in his +satirical _sirventes_ says of Arnaut: "He has sung nothing all his life, +except a few foolish verses which no one understands"; and we may +reasonably suppose that Arnaut's poetry was as obscure to many of his +contemporaries as it is to us. + +Dante placed Bertran de Born in hell, as a sower of strife between +father and son, and there is no need to describe his picture of the +troubadour-- + + "Who held the severed member lanternwise + And said, Ah me!" (_Inf._ xxviii. 119-142.) + +The genius of Dante, and the poetical fame of Bertran himself, have +given him a more important position in history than is, perhaps, [58] +entirely his due. Jaufré, the prior of Vigeois, an abbey of +Saint-Martial of Limoges, is the only chronicler during the reigns of +Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. The +_razos_ prefixed to some of his poems by way of explanation are the work +of an anonymous troubadour (possibly Uc de Saint-Círe); they constantly +misinterpret the poems they attempt to explain, confuse names and +events, and rather exaggerate the part played by Bertran himself. +Besides these sources we have the cartulary of Dalon, or rather the +extracts made from it by Guignières in 1680 (the original has been +lost), which give us information about Bertran's family and possessions. +From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have +come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed. + +Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and +Périgord. The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary +Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his +brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which +seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family +were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but +scanty. In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known, +except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first [59] +wife, and again married a certain Philippe. His warlike and turbulent +character was the natural outcome of the conditions under which he +lived; the feudal system divided the country into a number of fiefs, the +boundaries of which were ill defined, while the lords were constantly at +war with one another. All owed allegiance to the Duke of Aquitaine, the +Count of Poitou, but his suzerainty was, in the majority of cases, +rather a name than a reality. These divisions were further accentuated +by political events; in 1152 Henry II., Count of Anjou and Maine, +married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and mistress +of Aquitaine. Henry became king of England two years later, and his rule +over the barons of Aquitaine, which had never been strict, became the +more relaxed owing to his continual absence in England. + +South of Aquitaine proper the dominions of the Count of Toulouse +stretched from the Garonne to the Alps; this potentate was also called +the Duke of Narbonne, and was not disposed to recognise the suzerainty +of the Duke of Aquitaine. But in 1167 Alfonso II., King of Aragon and +Count of Barcelona, had inherited Provence, to which the Duke of +Toulouse laid claim. Henry and Alfonso thus became natural allies, and +the power of Alfonso in Aragon and Catalonia, was able to keep in check +any serious attempt that the Count of Toulouse might have meditated on [60] +Aquitaine. On the other hand, Henry had also to deal with a formidable +adversary in the person of the French king, his lawful suzerain in +France. Louis VII. (or Philippe Auguste) was able to turn the constant +revolts that broke out in Aquitaine to his own ends. These circumstances +are sufficient to account for the warlike nature of Bertran de Born's +poetry. The first _sirventes_ which can be dated with certainty belongs +to 1181, and is a call to the allies of Raimon V, Count of Toulouse, to +aid their master against the King of Aragon. What Bertran's personal +share in the campaign was, we do not know. He was soon involved in a +quarrel with his brother Constantin, with whom he held the castle of +Hautefort in common. Constantin was driven out and succeeded in +persuading the Count of Limoges and Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, to help +him. Richard, however, was occupied elsewhere, and Bertran survived all +attacks upon the castle. In 1182 he went to the court of Henry II., +during a temporary lull in the wars around him; there he proceeded to +pay court to the Princess Matilda, daughter of Henry II., whose husband, +Henry of Saxony, was then on a pilgrimage. He also took part in the +political affairs of the time. Henry II.'s eldest son, Henry "the young +king," had been crowned in 1170 at Westminster, and was anxious to have [61] +something more than the title, seeing that his brother Richard was Duke +of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, and practically an independent sovereign. +Bertran had not forgotten Richard's action against him on behalf of his +brother Constantin, and was, moreover, powerfully attracted by the open +and generous nature of the young king. He therefore took his side, and +on his return to Limousin became the central point of the league which +was formed against Richard. Henry II. succeeded in reconciling his two +sons, the young Henry receiving pecuniary compensation in lieu of +political power. But the young Henry seems to have been really moved by +Bertran's reproaches, and at length revolted against his father and +attacked his brother Richard. While he was in Turenne, the young king +fell sick and died on June 11, 1183. Bertran lamented his loss in two +famous poems, and soon felt the material effects of it. On June 29, +Richard and the King of Aragon arrived before Hautefort, which +surrendered after a week's resistance. Richard restored the castle to +Constantin, but Bertran regained possession, as is related in the second +biography. + +Henceforward, Bertran remained faithful to Richard, and directed his +animosity chiefly against the King of Aragon. At the same time it +appears that he would have been equally pleased with any war, which [62] +would have brought profit to himself, and attempted to excite Richard +against his father, Henry II. This project came to nothing, but war +broke out between Richard and the French king; a truce of two years was +concluded, and again broken by Richard. The Church, however, interfered +with its efforts to organise the Third Crusade, which called from +Bertran two _sirventes_ in honour of Conrad, son of the Marquis of +Montferrat, who was defending Tyre against Saladin. Bertran remained at +home in Limousin during this Crusade; his means were obviously +insufficient to enable him to share in so distant a campaign; other, and +for him, equally cogent reasons for remaining at home may be gathered +from his poems. There followed the quarrels between Richard and the +French king, the return to France of the latter, and finally Richard's +capture on the Illyrian coast and his imprisonment by Henry VI. of +Austria, which terminated in 1194. Richard then came into Aquitaine, his +return being celebrated by two poems from Bertran. + +The Provençal biography informs us that Bertran finally became a monk in +the Order of Citeaux. The convent where he spent his last years was the +abbey of Dalon, near Hautefort. The cartulary mentions his name at +various intervals from 1197 to 1202. In 1215 we have the entry "_octavo,[63] +candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bernardo de Born: cera tres solidos +empta est_." This is the only notice of the poet's death. + +Dante perhaps exaggerated the part he played in stirring up strife +between Henry II. and his sons; modern writers go to the other extreme. +Bertran is especially famous for his political _sirventes_ and for the +martial note which rings through much of his poetry. He loved war both +for itself and for the profits which it brought: "The powerful are more +generous and open-handed when they have war than when they have peace." +The troubadour's two _planhs_ upon the "young king's" death are inspired +by real feeling, and the story of his reconciliation with Henry after +the capture of his castle can hardly have been known to Dante, who would +surely have modified his judgment upon the troubadour if he had +remembered that scene as related by the biography. Sir Bertran was +summoned with all his people to King Henry's tent, who received him very +harshly and said, "Bertran, you declared that you never needed more than +half your senses; it seems that to-day you will want the whole of them." +"Sire", said Bertran, "it is true that I said so and I said nothing but +the truth." The king replied, "Then you seem to me to have lost your +senses entirely". "I have indeed lost them", said Bertran. "And how?" [64] +asked the king. "Sire, on the day that the noble king, your son, died, I +lost sense, knowledge and understanding." When the king heard Bertran +speak of his son with tears, he was deeply moved and overcome with +grief. On recovering himself he cried, weeping, "Ah, Bertran, rightly +did you lose your senses for my son, for there was no one in the world +whom he loved as you. And for love of him, not only do I give you your +life, but also your castle and your goods, and I add with my love five +hundred silver marks to repair the loss which you have suffered." + +The narrative is unhistorical; Henry II. was not present in person at +the siege of Hautefort; but the fact is certain that he regarded Bertran +as the chief sower of discord in his family. + +Mention must now be made of certain troubadours who were less important +than the three last mentioned, but are of interest for various reasons. + +Raimbaut d'Aurenga, Count of Orange from 1150-1173, is interesting +rather by reason of his relations with other troubadours than for his +own achievements in the troubadours' art. He was a follower of the +precious, artificial and obscure style, and prided himself upon his +skill in the combination of difficult rimes and the repetition of +equivocal rimes (the same word used in different senses or grammatical +forms). "Since Adam ate the apple," he says, "there is no poet, loud as [65] +he may proclaim himself, whose art is worth a turnip compared with +mine." Apart from these mountebank tricks and certain mild "conceits" +(his lady's smile, for instance, makes him happier than the smile of +four hundred angels could do), the chief characteristic of his poetry is +his constant complaints of slanderers who attempt to undermine his +credit with his lady. But he seems to have aroused a passion in the +heart of a poetess, who expressed her feelings in words which contrast +strongly with Raimbaut's vapid sentimentalities. + +This was Beatrice, Countess of Die and the wife of Count William of +Poitiers. The names, at least, of seventeen poetesses are known to us +and of these the Countess of Die is the most famous. Like the rest of +her sex who essayed the troubadour's art, the Countess knows nothing of +difficult rhymes or obscurity of style. Simplicity and sincerity are the +keynotes of her poetry. The troubadour sang because he was a +professional poet, but the lady who composed poetry did so from love of +the art or from the inspiration of feeling and therefore felt no need of +meretricious adornment for her song. The five poems of the Countess +which remain to us show that her sentiment for Raimbaut was real and +deep. "I am glad to know that the man I love is the worthiest in the +world; may God give great joy to the one who first brought me to him: [66] +may he trust only in me, whatever slanders be reported to him: for often +a man plucks the rod with which he beats himself. The woman who values +her good name should set her love upon a noble and valiant knight: when +she knows his worth, let her not hide her love. When a woman loves thus +openly, the noble and worthy speak of her love only with sympathy." +Raimbaut, however, did not reciprocate these feelings: in a _tenso_ with +the countess he shows his real sentiments while excusing his conduct. He +assures her that he has avoided her only because he did not wish to +provide slanderers with matter for gossip; to which the Countess replies +that his care for her reputation is excessive. Peire Rogier whose +poetical career lies between the years 1160 and 1180, also spent some +time at Raimbaut's court. He belonged to Auvergne by birth and was +attached to the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne for some years: here +there is no doubt that we have a case of a troubadour in an official +position and nothing more: possibly Peire Rogier's tendency to +preaching--he had been educated for the church--was enough to stifle any +sentiment on the lady's side. On leaving Narbonne, he visited Raimbaut +at Orange and afterwards travelled to Spain and Toulouse, finally +entering a monastery where he ended his life. + +Auvergne produced a far more important troubadour in the person of Peire [67] +d'Auvergne, whose work extended from about 1158 to 1180; he was thus +more or less contemporary with Guiraut de Bornelh and Bernart de +Ventadour. He was, according to the biography, the son of a citizen of +Clermont-Ferrand, and "the first troubadour, who lived beyond the +mountains (i.e. the Pyrenees, which, however, Marcabrun had previously +crossed)... he was regarded as the best troubadour until Guiraut de +Bornelh appeared.... He was very proud of his talents and despised other +troubadours." Other notices state that he was educated for an +ecclesiastical career and was at one time a canon. He had no small idea +of his own powers: "Peire d'Auvergne," he says in his satire upon other +troubadours "has such a voice that he can sing in all tones and his +melodies are sweet and pleasant: he is master of his art, if he would +but put a little clarity into his poems, which are difficult to +understand." The last observation is entirely correct: his poems are +often very obscure. Peire travelled, in the pursuit of his profession, +to the court of Sancho III. of Castile and made some stay in Spain: he +is also found at the courts of Raimon V. of Toulouse and, like Peire +Rogier, at Narbonne. Among his poems, two are especially well known. In +a love poem he makes the nightingale his messenger, as Marcabrun had [68] +used the starling and as others used the swallow or parrot. But in +comparison with Marcabrun, Peire d'Auvergne worked out the idea with a +far more delicate poetical touch. The other poem is a _sirventes_ which +is of interest as being the first attempt at literary satire among the +troubadours; the satire is often rather of a personal than of a literary +character; the following quotations referring to troubadours already +named will show Peire's ideas of literary criticism. "Peire Rogier sings +of love without restraint and it would befit him better to carry the +psalter in the church or to bear the lights with the great burning +candles. Guiraut de Bornelh is like a sun-bleached cloth with his thin +miserable song which might suit an old Norman water-carrier. Bernart de +Ventadour is even smaller than Guiraut de Bornelh by a thumb's length; +but he had a servant for his father who shot well with the long bow +while his mother tended the furnace." The satiric _sirventes_ soon found +imitators: the Monk of Montaudon produced a similar composition. Like +many other troubadours, Peire ended his life in a monastery. To this +period of his career probably, belong his religious poems of which we +shall have occasion to speak later. + +We have already observed that the Church contributed members, though +with some reluctance, to the ranks of the troubadours. One of the most [69] +striking figures of the kind is the Monk of Montaudon (1180-1200): the +satirical power of his _sirventes_ attracted attention, and he gained +much wealth at the various courts which he visited; this he used for the +benefit of his priory. He enjoyed the favour of Philippe Auguste II. of +France, of Richard Coeur de Lion and of Alfonso II. of Aragon, with that +of many smaller nobles. The biography says of him, "E fo faitz seigner +de la cort del Puoi Santa Maria e de dar l'esparvier. Lone temps ac la +seignoria de la cort del Puoi, tro que la cortz se perdet." "He was made +president of the court of Puy Sainte Marie and of awarding the +sparrow-hawk. For a long time he held the presidency of the court of +Puy, until the court was dissolved." The troubadour Richard de +Barbezieux refers to this court, which seems to have been a periodical +meeting attended by the nobles and troubadours of Southern Prance. +Tournaments and poetical contests were held; the sparrow-hawk or falcon +placed on a pole is often mentioned as the prize awarded to the +tournament victor. Tennyson's version of the incident in his "Geraint +and Enid" will occur to every reader. The monk's reputation must have +been considerable to gain him this position. His love poems are of +little importance; his satire deals with the petty failings of mankind, +for which he had a keen eye and an unsparing and sometimes cynical [70] +tongue. + + Be·m enoia, s'o auzes dire, + Parliers quant es avols servire; + Et hom qui trop vol aut assire + M'enoia, e cavals que tire. + Et enoia·m, si Dieus m'aiut + Joves hom quan trop port' escut, + Que negun colp no i a agut, + Capela et mongue barbut, + E lauzengier bee esmolut. + +"These vex me greatly, if I may say so, language when it is base +servility, and a man who wishes too high a place (at table) and a +charger which is put to drawing carts. And, by my hope of salvation, I +am vexed by a young man who bears too openly a shield which has never +received a blow, by a chaplain and monk wearing beards and by the sharp +beak of the slanderer." The monk's satire upon other troubadours is +stated by himself to be a continuation of that by Peire d'Auvergne; the +criticism is, as might be expected, personal. Two _tensos_ deal with the +vanities of women, especially the habit of painting the face: in one of +them the dispute proceeds before God as judge, between the poet and the +women: the scene of the other is laid in Paradise and the interlocutors +are the Almighty and the poet, who, represents that self-adornment is a +habit inherent in female nature. In neither poem is reverence a [71] +prominent feature. + +One of the most extraordinary figures in the whole gallery of troubadour +portraits is Peire Vidal, whose career extended, roughly speaking, from +1175 to 1215. He was one of those characters who naturally become the +nucleus of apocryphal stories, and how much truth there may be in some +of the fantastic incidents, in which he figures as the hero, will +probably never be discovered. He was undoubtedly an attractive +character, for he enjoyed the favour of the most distinguished men and +women of his time. He was also a poet of real power: ease and facility +are characteristics of his poems as compared with the ingenious +obscurity of Arnaut Daniel or Peire d'Auvergne. But there was a +whimsical and fantastic strain in his character, which led him often to +conjoin the functions of court-fool with those of court poet: "he was +the most foolish man in the world" says his biographer. His +"foolishness" also induced him to fall in love with every woman he met, +and to believe that his personal attractions made him invincible. + +Peire Vidal was the son of a Toulouse merchant. He began his troubadour +wanderings early and at the outset of his career we find him in +Catalonia, Aragon and Castile. He is then found in the service of Raimon +Gaufridi Barral,[24] Viscount of Marseilles, a bluff, genial tournament [72] +warrior and the husband of Azalais de Porcellet whose praises were sung +by Folquet of Marseilles. It was Barral who was attracted by Peire's +peculiar talents: his wife seems to have tolerated the troubadour from +deference to her husband. Peire, however, says in one of his poems that +husbands feared him more than fire or sword, and believing himself +irresistible interpreted Azalais' favours as seriously meant. When he +stole a kiss from her as she slept, she insisted upon Peire's departure, +though her husband seems to have regarded the matter as a jest and the +troubadour took refuge in Genoa. Eventually, Azalais pardoned him and he +was able to return to Marseilles. Peire is said to have followed Richard +Coeur de Lion on his crusade; it was in 1190 that Richard embarked at +Marseilles for the Holy Land, and as a patron of troubadours, he was no +doubt personally acquainted with Peire. The troubadour, however, is said +to have gone no farther than Cyprus. There he married a Greek woman and +was somehow persuaded that his wife was a daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople, and that he, therefore, had a claim to the throne of +Greece. He assumed royal state, added a throne to his personal +possessions and began to raise a fleet for the conquest of his kingdom. +How long this farce continued is unknown. Barral died in 1192 and Peire +transferred his affections to a lady of Carcassonne, Loba de Pennautier. [73] +The biography relates that her name Loba (wolf) induced the troubadour +to approach her in a wolf's skin, which disguise was so successful that +he was attacked by a pack of dogs and seriously mauled. Probably the +story that an outraged husband had the troubadour's tongue cut out at an +earlier period of his life contains an equal substratum of truth. The +last period of his career was spent in Hungary and Lombardy. His +political _sirventes_ show an insight into the affairs of his age, which +is in strong contrast to the whimsicality which seems to have misguided +his own life. + +Guillem de Cabestanh (between 1181 and 1196) deserves mention for the +story which the Provençal biography has attached to his name, a +Provençal variation of the thirteenth century romance of the _Châtelaine +de Coucy_.[25] He belonged to the Roussillon district, on the borders of +Catalonia and fell in love with the wife of his overlord, Raimon of +Roussillon. Margarida or Seremonda, as she is respectively named in the +two versions of the story, was attracted by Guillem's songs, with the +result that Raimon's jealousy was aroused and meeting the troubadour one +day, when he was out hunting, he killed him. The Provençal version +proceeds as follows: he then took out the heart and sent it by a squire +to the castle. He caused it to be roasted with pepper and gave it to his [74] +wife to eat. And when she had eaten it, her lord told her what it was +and she lost the power of sight and hearing. And when she came to +herself, she said, "my lord, you have given me such good meat that never +will I eat such meat again." He made at her to strike her but she threw +herself from the window and was killed. Thereupon the barons of +Catalonia and Aragon, led by King Alfonso, are said to have made a +combined attack upon Raimon and to have ravaged his lands, in +indignation at his barbarity. + +The Provençal biography, like the romance of the _Châtelain de Coucy_, +belongs to the thirteenth century, and the story cannot be accepted as +authentic. But the period of decadence had begun. By the close of the +twelfth century the golden age of troubadour poetry was over. Guiraut de +Bornelh's complaints that refinement was vanishing and that nobles were +growing hard-hearted and avaricious soon became common-places in +troubadour poetry. The extravagances of the previous age and the rise of +a strong middle and commercial class diminished both the wealth and the +influence of the nobles, while the peace of the country was further +disturbed by theological disputes and by the rise of the Albigeois +heresy. + + + +CHAPTER VI [75] + + +THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE + +The feudal society in which troubadour poetry had flourished, and by +which alone it could be maintained, was already showing signs of +decadence. Its downfall was precipitated by the religious and political +movement, the Albigeois Crusade, which was the first step towards the +unification of France, but which also broke up the local fiefs, +destroyed the conditions under which the troubadours had flourished and +scattered them abroad in other lands or forced them to seek other means +of livelihood. This is not the place to discuss the origin and the +nature of the Albigeois heresy.[26] The general opinion has almost +invariably considered the heretics as dualists and their belief as a +variation of Manicheism: but a plausible case has been made out for +regarding the heresy as a variant of the Adoptionism which is found +successively in Armenia, in the Balkan peninsula and in Spain, and +perhaps sporadically in Italy and Germany. Whatever its real nature was, +the following facts are clear: it was not an isolated movement, but was +in continuity with beliefs prevalent in many other parts of Europe. It [76] +was largely a poor man's heresy and therefore emerges into the light of +history only when it happens to attract aristocratic adherents or large +masses of people. It was also a pre-Reformation movement and essentially +in opposition to Roman Catholicism. Albi was the first head-quarters of +the heresy, though Toulouse speedily rivalled its importance in this +respect. The Vaudois heresy which became notorious at Lyons about the +same time was a schismatic, not a heretic movement. The Vaudois objected +to the profligacy and worldliness of the Roman Catholic clergy, but did +not quarrel with church doctrine. The Albigenses were no less zealous +than the Vaudois in reproving the church clergy and setting an example +of purity and unselfishness of life. But they also differed profoundly +from the church in matters of doctrine. + +Upon the election of Otho as Emperor, in 1208, Germany and Rome were at +peace, and Pope Innocent III. found himself at liberty to devote some +attention to affairs in Southern France. He had already made some +efforts to oppose the growth of heresy: his first emissaries were unable +to produce the least effect and in 1208 he had sent Arnaut of Citeaux +and two Cistercian monks into Southern France with full powers to act. +Their efforts proved fruitless, because Philippe Auguste was no less +indifferent than the provincial lords, who actually favoured the [77] +heretics in many cases; the Roman Catholic bishops also were jealous of +the pope's legates and refused to support them. Not only the laity but +many of the clergy had been seduced: the heretics had translated large +portions of scripture (translations which still remain to us) and +constantly appealed to the scriptures in opposition to the canon laws +and the immorality of Rome. They had a full parochial and diocesan +organisation and were in regular communication with the heretics of +other countries. It was clear that the authority of Southern France was +doomed, unless some vigorous steps to assert her authority were speedily +taken. "Ita per omnes terras multiplicati sunt ut grande periculum +patiatur ecclesia Dei." [27] The efforts of St Dominic were followed by +the murder of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in 1208, which +created an excitement comparable with that aroused by the murder of +Thomas à Becket, thirty-eight years before, and gave Innocent III. his +opportunity. In the summer of 1209 a great army of crusaders assembled +at Lyons, and Southern France was invaded by a horde composed partly of +religious fanatics, of men who were anxious to gain the indulgences +awarded to crusaders without the danger of a journey overseas, and of +men who were simply bent on plunder. The last stage in the development +of the crusade movement was thereby reached: originally begun to recover [78] +the Holy Sepulchre, it had been extended to other countries against the +avowed enemies of Christianity. Now the movement was to be turned +against erring members of the Christian Church and in the terms of a +metaphor much abused at that period, the Crusader was not only to +destroy the wolf, but to drive the vagrant sheep back into the fold.[28] +Beziers and Carcassonne were captured with massacre; Toulouse was spared +upon the humiliating submission of Raimon VI., and little organised +opposition was offered to the crusading forces under Simon de Montfort. +The following years saw the revolt of Toulouse and the excommunication +of Raimon VI. (1211), the battle of Muret in which Raimon was defeated +and his supporter Pedro of Aragon, was killed (1213), the Lateran +Council (1215), the siege of Toulouse and the death of Simon de Montfort +(1218). The foundation of the Dominican order and of the Inquisition +marked the close of the struggle. + +Folquet of Marseilles is a troubadour whose life belongs to these years +of turmoil. He was the son of a Genoese merchant by name Anfos, who +apparently settled in Marseilles for business reasons: Genoa was in +close commercial relations with the South of France during the twelfth +century, as is attested by treaties concluded with Marseilles in 1138 +and with Raimon of Toulouse in 1174. Folquet (or Fulco in Latin form) [79] +seems to have carried on his father's business and to have amused his +leisure hours by poetical composition. The Monk of Montandon refers to +him as a merchant in his _sirventes_ upon other troubadours. He is +placed in Paradise by Dante and is the only troubadour who there +appears, no doubt because of his services to the Church. His earliest +poems, written after 1180, were composed in honour of Azalais, the lady +whose favour was sought by Peire Vidal, and to whom Folquet refers by +the _senhal_ of Aimant (magnet). His poems are ingenious dissertations +upon love and we catch little trace of real feeling in them. The stories +of the jealousy of Azalais' sister which drove Folquet to leave +Marseilles are probably apocryphal. Folquet also addressed poems to the +wife of the Count of Montpelier, the daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople. He wrote a fine _planh_ on the death of Barral of +Marseilles in 1192 and it was about this time that he resolved to enter +the church. His last poem belongs to the year 1195. No doubt the wealth +which he may have brought to the Church as a successful merchant +contributed to his advancement, but Folquet was also an indomitably +energetic character. + +Unlike so many of his fellow poets, who retired to monasteries and there +lived out their lives in seclusion, Folquet displayed special talents or [80] +special enthusiasm for the order which he joined. Of the Cistercian +abbey of Toronet in the diocese of Fréjus he became abbot, and in 1205 +was made Bishop of Toulouse. He then, in company with St Dominic, +becomes one of the great figures of the Albigeois crusade: in 1209 he +was acting with Simon de Montfort against Raimon VI., the son of his old +patron and benefactor, and persuaded the count to surrender the citadel +of Toulouse to de Montfort and the papal legate. He travelled in +Northern France in order to stir up enthusiasm for the crusade. The +legend is related that, hearing one of his love songs sung by a minstrel +at Paris, he imposed penance upon himself. He helped to establish the +Inquisition in Languedoc, and at the Lateran council of 1215 was the +most violent opponent of Count Raimon. To enter into his history in +detail during this period would be to recount a large portion of the +somewhat intricate history of the crusade. Of his fanaticism, and of the +cruelty with which he waged war upon the heretics, the Count Raimon +Roger of Foix speaks at the Lateran council, when defending himself +against the accusation of heresy. + + E die vos de l'avesque, que tant n'es afortitz, + qu'en la sua semblansa es Dieus e nos trazitz, + que ab cansos messongeiras e ab motz coladitz, + dont totz horn es perdutz qui·ls canta ni los ditz, [81] + ez ab sos reproverbis afilatz e forbitz + ez ab los nostres dos, don fo eniotglaritz, + ez ab mala doctrina es tant fort enriquitz + c'om non auza ren dire a so qu'el contraditz. + Pero cant el fo abas ni monges revestitz + en la sua abadia fo si·l lums eseurzitz + qu'anc no i ac be ni pauza, tro qu'el ne fo ichitz; + e cant fo de Tholosa avesques elegitz + per trastota la terra es tals focs espanditz + que ia mais per nulha aiga no sira escantitz; + que plus de D.M., que de grans que petitz, + i fe perdre las vidas e·ls cors e·ls esperitz. + Per la fe qu'icu vos deg, als sous faitz e als ditz + ez a la captenensa sembla mielhs Antecritz + que messatges de Roma. + +"And of the bishop, who is so zealous, I tell you that in him both God +and we ourselves are betrayed; for with lying songs and insinuating +words, which are the damnation of any who sings or speaks them, and by +his keen polished admonitions, and by our presents wherewith he +maintained himself as _joglar_, and by his evil doctrine, he has risen +so high, that one dare say nothing to that which he opposes. So when he +was vested as abbot and monk, was the light in his abbey put out in such +wise that therein was no comfort or rest, until that he was gone forth +from thence; and when he was chosen bishop of Toulouse such a fire was +spread throughout the land that never for any water will it be quenched; +for there did he bring destruction of life and body and soul upon more [82] +than fifteen hundred of high and low. By the faith which I owe to you, +by his deeds and his words and his dealings, more like is he to +Anti-Christ than to an envoy of Rome." (_Chanson de la croisade contre +les Albigeois_, v. 3309.) + +Folquet died on December 25, 1231, and was buried at the Cistercian +Abbey of Grandselve, some thirty miles north-west of Toulouse. Such +troubadours as Guilhem Figueira and Peire Cardenal, who inveighed +against the action of the Church during the crusade, say nothing of him, +and upon their silence and that of the biography as regards his +ecclesiastical life the argument has been founded that Folquet the +troubadour and Folquet the bishop were two different persons. There is +no evidence to support this theory. Folquet's poems enjoyed a high +reputation. The minnesinger, Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg (end of the +twelfth century) imitated him, as also did the Italians Rinaldo d'Aquino +and Jacopo da Lentino. + +The troubadours as a rule stood aloof from the religious quarrels of the +age. But few seem to have joined the crusaders, as Perdigon did. Most of +their patrons were struggling for their existence: when the invaders +succeeded in establishing themselves, they had no desire for court +poetry. The troubadour's occupation was gone, and those who wished for +an audience were obliged to seek beyond the borders of France. Hence it [83] +is somewhat remarkable to find the troubadour Raimon de Miraval, of +Carcassonne, continuing to sing, as though perfect tranquillity +prevailed. His wife, Gaudairenca, was a poetess, and Paul Heyse has made +her the central figure of one of his charming _Troubadour Novellen_. +Raimon's poems betray no forebodings of the coming storm; when it broke, +he lost his estate and fled to Raimon of Toulouse for shelter. The +arrival of Pedro II. of Aragon at Toulouse in 1213 and his alliance with +the Count of Toulouse cheered the troubadour's spirits: he thought there +was a chance that he might recover his estate. He compliments Pedro on +his determination in one poem and in another tells his lady, "the king +has promised me that in a short time, I shall have Miraval again and my +Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will +regain their lost delights." Such was the attitude of many troubadours +towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain +section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of +patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of +their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole +acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no +attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such [84] +attempts was forth-coming. + +On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real +courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in +maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first +energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse +been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to +reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty +lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as +little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy. +His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the _Chanson de +la Croisade_ reflects their hopes and fears and describes their +struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic +splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in +the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders +who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest +poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within +the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that +he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a noble +and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he +was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and [85] +went from court to court, accompanied by a _joglar_: he was especially +favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a +hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his _chansos_ +that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case +of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral _sirventes_: he +was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and +immorality and the special objects of his animosity are the Roman +Catholic clergy and the high nobles. "The clergy call themselves +shepherds and are murderers under a show of saintliness: when I look +upon their dress I remember Isengrin (the wolf in the romance of +Reynard, the Fox) who wished one day to break into the sheep-fold: but +for fear of the dogs he dressed himself in a sheepskin and then devoured +as many as he would. Kings and emperors, dukes, counts and knights used +to rule the world; now the priests have the power which they have gained +by robbery and treachery, by hypocrisy, force and preaching." "Eagles +and vultures smell not the carrion so readily as priests and preachers +smell out the rich: a rich man is their friend and should a sickness +strike him down, he must make them presents to the loss of his +relations. Frenchmen and priests are reputed bad and rightly so: usurers [86] +and traitors possess the whole world, for with deceit have they so +confounded the world that there is no class to whom their doctrine is +unknown." Peire inveighs against the disgraces of particular orders; the +Preaching Friars or Jacobin monks who discuss the relative merits of +special wines after their feasts, whose lives are spent in disputes and +who declare all who differ from them to be Vaudois heretics, who worm +men's private affairs out of them, that they may make themselves feared: +some of his charges against the monastic orders are quite unprintable. + +No less vigorous are his invectives against the rich and the social +evils of his time. The tone of regret that underlies Guiraut de +Bornelh's satires in this theme is replaced in Peire Cardenal's +_sirventes_ by a burning sense of injustice. Covetousness, the love of +pleasure, injustice to the poor, treachery and deceit and moral laxity +are among his favourite themes. "He who abhors truth and hates the +right, careers to hell and directs his course to the abyss: for many a +man builds walls and palaces with the goods of others and yet the +witless world says that he is on the right path, because he is clever +and prosperous. As silver is refined in the fire, so the patient poor +are purified under grievous oppression: and with what splendour the +shameless rich man may feed and clothe himself, his riches bring him +nought but pain, grief and vexation of spirit. But that affrights him [87] +not: capons and game, good wine and the dainties of the earth console +him and cheer his heart. Then he prays to God and says 'I am poor and in +misery.' Were God to answer him He would say, 'thou liest!'" To +illustrate the degeneracy of the age, Peire relates a fable, perhaps the +only instance of this literary form among the troubadours, upon the +theme that if all the world were mad, the one sane man would be in a +lunatic asylum: "there was a certain town, I know not where, upon which +a rain fell of such a nature that all the inhabitants upon whom it fell, +lost their reason. All lost their reason except one, who escaped because +he was asleep in his house when the rain came. When he awoke, he rose: +the rain had ceased, and he went out among the people who were all +committing follies. One was clothed, another naked, another was spitting +at the sky: some were throwing sticks and stones, tearing their coats, +striking and pushing... The sane man was deeply surprised and saw that +they were mad; nor could he find a single man in his senses. Yet greater +was their surprise at him, and as they saw that he did not follow their +example, they concluded that he had lost his senses.... So one strikes +him in front, another behind; he is dashed to the ground and trampled +under foot... at length he flees to his house covered with mud, bruised [88] +and half dead and thankful for his escape": The mad town, says Peire +Cardenal, is the present world: the highest form of intelligence is the +love and fear of God, but this has been replaced by greed, pride and +malice; consequently the "sense of God" seems madness to the world and +he who refuses to follow the "sense of the world" is treated as a +madman. + +Peire Cardenal is thus by temperament a moral preacher; he is not merely +critical of errors, but has also a positive faith to propound. He is not +an opponent of the papacy as an institution: the confession of faith +which he utters in one of his _sirventes_ shows that he would have been +perfectly satisfied with the Roman ecclesiastical and doctrinal system, +had it been properly worked. In this respect he differs from a +contemporary troubadour, Guillem Figueira, whose violent satire against +Rome shows him as opposed to the whole system from the papacy downwards. +He was a native of Toulouse and migrated to Lombardy and to the court of +Frederick II. when the crusade drove him from his home. "I wonder not, +Rome, that men go astray, for thou hast cast the world into strife and +misery; virtue and good works die and are buried because of thee, +treacherous Rome, thou guiding-star, thou root and branch of all +iniquity... Greed blindeth thy eyes, and too close dost thou shear thy [89] +sheep... thou forgivest sins for money, thou loadest thyself with a +shameful burden. Rome, we know of a truth that with the bait of false +forgiveness, thou hast snared in misery the nobility of France, the +people of Paris and the noble King Louis (VIII., who died in the course +of the Albigeois crusade); thou didst bring him to his death, for thy +false preaching enticed him from his land. Rome, thou has the outward +semblance of a lamb, so innocent is thy countenance, but within thou are +a ravening wolf, a crowned snake begotten of a viper and therefore the +devil greeteth thee as the friend of his bosom." This sirventes was +answered by a _trobairitz_, Germonde of Montpelier, but her reply lacks +the vigour and eloquence of the attack. + +It is not to be supposed that the troubadours turned to religious poetry +simply because the Albigeois crusade had raised the religious question. +Purely devotional poetry is found at an earlier period.[29] It appears +at first only sporadically, and some of the greatest troubadours have +left no religious poems that have reached us. The fact is, that the +nature of troubadour poetry and its homage to the married woman were +incompatible with the highest standard of religious devotion. The famous +_alba_ of Guiraut de Bornelh invokes the "glorious king, true light and +splendour, Lord Almighty," for the purpose of praying that the lovers [90] +for whom the speaker is keeping watch may be undisturbed in interchange +of their affections. Prayer for the success of attempted adultery is a +contradiction in terms. For a theory of religion which could regard the +Deity as a possible accomplice in crime, the Church of Southern France +in the twelfth century is to blame: we cannot expect that the +troubadours in general should be more religious than the professional +exponents of religion. On the other hand, poems of real devotional +feeling are found, even from the earliest times: the sensual Count of +Poitiers, the first troubadour known to us, concludes his career with a +poem of resignation bidding farewell to the world, "leaving all that I +love, the brilliant life of chivalry, but since it pleases God, I resign +myself and pray Him to keep me among His own." Many troubadours, as has +been said, ended their lives in monasteries and the disappointments or +griefs which drove them to this course often aroused religious feelings, +regrets for past follies and resolutions of repentance, which found +expression in poetry. Peire d'Auvergne wrote several religious hymns +after his retirement from the world; these are largely composed of +reiterated articles of the Christian faith in metrical form and are as +unpoetical as they are orthodox, Crusade poems and _planhs_ upon the [91] +deaths of famous nobles or patrons are religious only in a secondary +sense. A fine religious _alba_ is ascribed to Folquet of Marseilles-- + + Vers Dieus, e·l vostre nom e de sancta Maria + m'esvelherai hueimais, pus l'estela del dia + ven daus Jerusalem que' m'ensenha qu'ien dia: + estatz sus e levatz, + senhor, que Dieu amatz! + que·l jorns es aprosmatz + e la nuech ten sa via; + e sia·n Dieus lauzatz + per nos e adoratz, + e·l preguem que·ens don patz + a tota nostra via. + La nuech vai e·l jorns ve + ab elar eel e sere, + e l'alba no's rete + ans ven belh' e complia. + +"True God, in Thy name and in the name of Saint Mary will I awake +henceforth, since the star of day rises from o'er Jerusalem, bidding me +say, 'Up and arise, sirs, who love God! For the day is nigh, and the +night departs; and let God be praised and adored by us and let us pray +Him that He give us peace for all our lives. Night goes and day comes +with clear serene sky, and the dawn delays not but comes fair and +perfect.'" + +At the close of the Albigeois crusade the Virgin Mary becomes the theme +of an increasing number of lyric poems. These are not like the farewells [92] +to the world, uttered by weary troubadours, and dictated by individual +circumstances, but are inspired by an increase of religious feeling in +the public to whom the troubadours appealed. Peire Cardenal began the +series and a similar poem is attributed to Perdigon, a troubadour who +joined the crusaders and fought against his old patrons; though the poem +is probably not his, it belongs to a time but little posterior to the +crusade. The cult of the Virgin had obvious attractions as a subject for +troubadours whose profane songs would not have been countenanced by St +Dominic and his preachers and religious poetry dealing with the subject +could easily borrow not only the metrical forms but also many technical +expressions which troubadours had used in singing of worldly love. They +could be the servants of a heavenly mistress and attribute to her all +the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that +the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the +supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut +Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new +_genre_: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem +admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many +poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with +classical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from [93] +the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea +of the character of this poetry. + + Domna, rosa ses espina, + sobre totas flors olens, + verga seca frug fazens, + terra que ses labor grana, + estela, del solelh maire, + noirissa del vostre paire, + el mon nulha no·us semelha + ni londana ni vezina. + + Domna, verge pura e fina, + ans que fos l'enfantamens, + et apres tot eissamens, + receup en vos carn humana + Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire, + si com ses trencamen faire + intra·l bels rais, quan solelha, + per la fenestra veirina. + + Domna, estela marina + de las autras plus luzens, + la mars nos combat e·l vens; + mostra nos via certana; + car si·ns vols a bon port traire + non tem nau ni governaire + ni tempest que·ns destorbelha + ni·l sobern de la marina. + +"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing +fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun, +nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, [94] +neither far nor near. + +Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same, +Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without +causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun +shines. + +Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the +wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to +a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it +trouble us." + + + +CHAPTER VII [95] + + +THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY + +To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of +its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The +movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and +the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the very existence of its lyric +poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations +between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early +period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean +was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local nobles were +connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman +Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and _joglars_ to visit the +Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian +dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their +poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to +troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal +was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the +Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of [96] +Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less +importance offered a welcome to Provençal poets. More than twenty +troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to +have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their +poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provençal became +the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of +troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure. + +Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career +(1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour +quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor +noble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of +Orange; he exchanged _tensos_ with his patron with whom he seems to have +been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym +Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time +later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence +of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a +wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of +Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in +which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady. + +"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart [97] +is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded +if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than +if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up." +The lady then replies in her own Genoese dialect: she knows nothing of +the conventions of courtly love, and informs the troubadour that her +husband is a better man than he and that she will have nothing to do +with him. The poem is nothing but a _jeu d'esprit_ based upon the +contrast between troubadour sentiments and the honest but unpoetical +views of the middle class; it is interesting to philologists as +containing one of the earliest known specimens of Italian dialect. An +example of the Tuscan dialect is also found in the _descort_ by +Raimbaut. This is a poem in irregular metre, intended to show the +perturbation of the poet's mind. Raimbaut increased this effect by +writing in five different languages. He found a ready welcome from +Bonifacio II. at the court of Montferrat which Peire Vidal also visited. +The marquis dubbed him knight and made him his brother in arms. Raimbaut +fell in love with Beatrice, the sister of the marquis, an intimacy which +proceeded upon the regular lines of courtly love. He soon found an +opportunity of showing his devotion to the marquis. In 1194 Henry VI. [98] +made an expedition to Sicily to secure the claims of his wife, +Constance, to that kingdom: the Marquis Boniface as a vassal of the +imperial house followed the Emperor and Raimbaut accompanied his +contingent. He refers to his share in the campaign in a later letter to +the marquis.[30] + + Et ai per vos estat en greu preyzo + Per vostra guerra e n'ai a vostro pro + Fag maynt assaut et ars maynta maiso + Et a Messina vos cobri del blizo; + En la batalha vos vinc en tal sazo + Que·us ferion pel pietz e pel mento + Dartz e cairels, sagetas e trenso. + +"For your sake I have been in hard captivity in your war, and to do you +service I have made many an assault and burned many a house. At Messina +I covered you with the shield; I came to you in the battle at the moment +when they hurled at your breast and chin darts and quarrels, arrows and +lance-shafts." The captivity was endured in the course of the marquis's +wars in Italy, and the troubadour refers to a seafight between the +forces of Genoa and Pisa in the Sicilian campaign. In 1202 he followed +his master upon the crusade which practically ended at Constantinople. +He had composed a vigorous _sirventes_ urging Christian men to join the +movement, but he does not himself show any great enthusiasm to take the [99] +cross. "I would rather, if it please you, die in that land than live and +remain here. For us God was raised upon the cross, received death, +suffered the passion, was scourged and loaded with chains and crowned +with thorns upon the cross.... Fair Cavalier (i.e. Beatrice) I know not +whether I shall stay for your sake or take the cross; I know not whether +I shall go or remain, for I die with grief if I see you and I am like to +die if I am far from you." So also in the letter quoted above. + + E cant anetz per crozar a Saysso, + Ieu non avia cor--Dieus m'o perdo-- + Que passes mar, mas per vostre resso + Levey la crotz e pris confessio. + +"And when you went to Soissons to take the cross, I did not intend--may +God forgive me--to cross the sea, but to increase your fame I took the +cross and made confession." The count lost his life, as Villehardouin +relates, in a skirmish with the Bulgarians in 1207. Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras probably fell at the same time. + +This is enough to show that troubadours who came to Italy could make the +country a second home, and find as much occupation in love, war and +politics as they had ever found in Southern France. Aimeric de Pegulhan, +Gaucelm Faidit, Uc de Saint-Circ,[31] the author of some troubadour [100] +biographies, were among the best known of those who visited Italy. The +last named is known to have visited Pisa and another troubadour of minor +importance, Guillem de la Tor, was in Florence. Thus the visits of the +troubadours were by no means confined to the north. + +It was, therefore, natural that Italians should imitate the troubadours +whose art proved so successful at Italian courts and some thirty Italian +troubadours are known to us. Count Manfred II. and Albert, the Marquis +of Malaspina, engaged in _tensos_ with Peire Vidal and Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras respectively and are the first Italians known to have written +in Provençal. Genoa produced a number of Italian troubadours of whom the +best were Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo. The latter was a wanderer +and spent some time in Castile at the court of Alfonso X. Lanfranc +Cigala was a judge in his native town: from him survive a _sirventes_ +against Bonifacio III. of Montferrat who had abandoned the cause of +Frederick II., crusade poems and a _sirventes_ against the obscure +style. The Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi was a prisoner at Genoa from 1266 +to 1273, having been captured by the Genoese. The troubadour of Genoa, +Bonifacio Calvo, had written a vigorous invective against Venice, to +which the captive troubadour composed an equally strong reply addressed [101] +to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours +became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is +certainly Sordello. + +There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he +was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of noble family. His name is not +to be derived from _sordidus_, but from _Surdus_, a not uncommon +patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early +years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court +of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell +in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, _Par._ ix. +32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely +obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a +family feud, while others assert that the elopement took place with the +connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (_Inf_. +xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and +Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the +Provençal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his +flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He +thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France, +where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, [102] +penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is +the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose _sirventes_ speaks of him +as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso +IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this +no date can be assigned. Allusions in his poems show that he was in +Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of +the Countess Beatrice (_Par._ vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar, +Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have +been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur +and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady +cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin +treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known nobles, +and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is +uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in +1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Charles on his +Italian expedition against Manfred in 1265, and seems to have been +captured by the Ghibellines before reaching Naples. At any rate, he was +a prisoner at Novara in September 1266; Pope Clement IV. induced Charles +to ransom him, and in 1269, as a recompense for his services, he +received five castles in the Abruzzi, near the river Pescara: shortly [103] +afterwards he died. The circumstances of his death are unknown, but from +the fact that he is placed by Dante among those who were cut off before +they could repent it has been conjectured that he came to a violent end. + +Sordello's restless life and his intrigues could be exemplified from the +history of many another troubadour and neither his career nor his +poetry, which with two exceptions, is of no special originality, seems +to justify the portrait drawn of him by Dante; while Browning's famous +poem has nothing in common with the troubadour except the name. These +exceptions, however, are notable. The first is a _sirventes_ composed by +Sordello on the death of his patron Blacatz in 1237. He invites to the +funeral feast the Roman emperor, Frederick II., the kings of France, +England and Aragon, the counts of Champagne, Toulouse and Provence. They +are urged to eat of the dead man's heart, that they may gain some +tincture of his courage and nobility. Each is invited in a separate +stanza in which the poet reprehends the failings of the several +potentates. + + Del rey engles me platz, quar es paue coratjos, + Que manje pro del cor, pueys er valens e bos, + E cobrara la terra, per que viu de pretz blos, + Que·l tol lo reys de Fransa, quar lo sap nualhos; + E lo reys castelas tanh qu'en manje per dos, [104] + Quar dos regismes ten, e per l'un non es pros; + Mas, s'elh en vol manjar, tanh qu'en manj'a rescos, + Que, si·l mair'o sabra, batria·l ab bastos. + +"As concerns the English King (Henry III.) it pleases me, for he is +little courageous, that he should eat well of the heart; then he will be +valiant and good and will recover the land (for loss of which he lives +bereft of worth), which the King of France took from him, for he knows +him to be of no account. And the King of Castile (Ferdinand III. of +Castile and Leon), it is fitting that he eat of it for two, for he holds +two realms and he is not sufficient for one; but if he will eat of it, +'twere well that he eat in secret: for if his mother were to know it, +she would beat him with staves." + +This idea, which is a commonplace in the folklore of many countries, +attracted attention. Two contemporary troubadours attempted to improve +upon it. Bertran d'Alamanon said that the heart should not be divided +among the cowards, enumerated by Sordello, but given to the noble ladies +of the age: Peire Bremen proposed a division of the body. The point is +that Dante in the Purgatorio represents Sordello as showing to Virgil +the souls of those who, while singing _Salve Regina_, ask to be pardoned +for their neglect of duty and among them appear the rulers whom Sordello +had satirised in his _sirventes_. Hence it seems that it was this [105] +composition which attracted Dante's attention to Sordello. The other +important poem is the _Ensenhamen_, a didactic work of instruction upon +the manner and conduct proper to a courtier and a lover. Here, and also +in some of his lyric poems, Sordello represents the transition to a new +idea of love which was more fully developed by the school of Guido +Guinicelli and found its highest expression in Dante's lyrics and Vita +Nuova. Love is now rather a mystical idea than a direct affection for a +particular lady: the lover is swayed by a spiritual and intellectual +ideal, and the motive of physical attraction recedes to the background. +The cause of love, however, remains unchanged: love enters through the +eyes; sight is delight. + +We must now turn southwards. A school of poetry had grown up in Sicily +at the court of Frederick II. No doubt he favoured those troubadours +whose animosity to the papacy had been aroused by the Albigeois crusade: +such invective as that which Guillem Figueira could pour forth would be +useful to him in his struggle against the popes. But the emperor was +himself a man of unusual culture, with a keen interest in literary and +scientific pursuits: he founded a university at Naples, collected +manuscripts and did much to make Arabic learning known to the West. He +was a poet and the importance of the Sicilian school consists in the [106] +fact that while the subject matter of their songs was lifted from +troubadour poetry, the language which they used belonged to the Italian +peninsula. The dialect of these _provenzaleggianti_ was not pure +Sicilian but was probably a literary language containing elements drawn +from other dialects, as happened long before in the case of the +troubadours themselves. The best known representatives of this school, +Pier delle Vigne, Jacopo da Lentini and Guido delle Colonne are familiar +to students of Dante. After their time no one questioned the fact that +lyric poetry written in Italian was a possible achievement. The +influence of the Sicilian school extended to Central Italy and Tuscany; +Dante tells us that all Italian poetry preceding his own age was known +as Sicilian. The early Tuscan poets were, mediately or immediately, +strongly influenced by Provençal. The first examples of the sonnet, by +Dante da Majano, were written in that language. But such poetry was +little more than a rhetorical exercise. It was the revival of learning +and the Universities, in particular that of Bologna, which inspired the +_dolce stil nuovo_, of which the first exponent was Guido Giunicelli. +Love was now treated from a philosophical point of view: hitherto, the +Provençal school had maintained the thesis that "sight is delight," that +love originated from seeing and pleasing, penetrated to the heart and [107] +occupied the thoughts, after passing through the eyes. So Aimeric de +Pegulhan. + + Perque tuit li fin aman + Sapchan qu'amors es fina bevolenza + Que nais del cor e dels huelh, ses duptar. + +"Wherefore let all pure lovers know that love is pure unselfishness +which is born undoubtedly from the heart and from the eyes," a sentiment +thus repeated by Guido delle Colonne of the Sicilian school. + + Dal cor si move un spirito in vedere + D'in ochi'n ochi, di femina e d'omo + Per lo quel si concria uno piacere. + +The philosophical school entirely transformed this conception. Love +seeks the noble heart by affinity, as the bird seeks the tree: the noble +heart cannot but love, and love inflames and purifies its nobility, as +the power of the Deity is transmitted to the heavenly beings. When this +idea had been once evolved, Provençal poetry could no longer be a moving +force; it was studied but was not imitated. Its influence had lasted +some 150 years, and as far as Italy is concerned it was Arabic learning, +Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas who slew the troubadours more certainly +than Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. The day of superficial [108] +prettiness and of the cult of form had passed; love conjoined with +learning, a desire to pierce to the roots of things, a greater depth of +thought and earnestness were the characteristics of the new school. + +Dante's debt to the troubadours, with whose literature he was well +acquainted, is therefore the debt of Italian literature as a whole. Had +not the troubadours developed their theory of courtly love, with its +influence upon human nature, we cannot say what course early Italian +literature might have run. Moreover, the troubadours provided Italy and +other countries also with perfect models of poetical form. The sonnet, +the terza rima and any other form used by Dante are of Provençal origin. +And what is true of Dante and his Beatrice is no less true of Petrarch +and his Laura and of many another who may be sought in histories +specially devoted to this subject. + + + +CHAPTER VIII [109] + + +THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN + +The South of France had been connected with the North of Spain from a +period long antecedent to the first appearance of troubadour poetry. As +early as the Visigoth period, Catalonia had been united to Southern +France; in the case of this province the tie was further strengthened by +community of language. On the western side of the Pyrenees a steady +stream of pilgrims entered the Spanish peninsula on their way to the +shrine of St James of Compostella in Galicia; this road was, indeed, +known in Spain as the "French road." Catalonia was again united with +Provence by the marriage of Raimon Berengar III. with a Provençal +heiress in 1112. As the counts of Barcelona and the kings of Aragon held +possessions in Southern France, communications between the two countries +were naturally frequent. + +We have already had occasion to refer to the visits of various +troubadours to the courts of Spain. The "reconquista," the reconquest of +Spain from the Moors, was in progress during the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, and various crusade poems were written by troubadours [110] +summoning help to the Spaniards in their struggles. Marcabrun was the +author of one of the earliest of these, composed for the benefit of +Alfonso VIII. of Castile and possibly referring to his expedition +against the Moors in 1147, which was undertaken in conjunction with the +kings of Navarre and Aragon. The poem is interesting for its repetition +of the word _lavador_ or piscina, used as an emblem of the crusade in +which the participants would be cleansed of their sins.[32] + + Pax in nomine Domini! + Fetz Marcabrus los motz e·l so. + Aujatz que di: + Cum nos a fait per sa doussor, + Lo Seignorius celestiaus + Probet de nos un lavador + C'ane, fors outramar, no·n' fon taus, + En de lai deves Josaphas: + E d'aquest de sai vos conort. + +"Pax, etc.,---Marcabrun composed the words and the air. Hear what he +says. How, by his goodness, the Lord of Heaven, has made near us a +piscina, such as there never was, except beyond the sea, there by +Josaphat, and for this one near here do I exhort you." + +Alfonso II. of Aragon (1162-1196) was a constant patron of the +troubadours, and himself an exponent of their art. He belonged to the +family of the counts of Barcelona which became in his time one of the [111] +most powerful royal houses in the West of Europe. He was the grandson of +Raimon Berengar III. and united to Barcelona by marriage and diplomacy, +the kingdom of Aragon, Provence and Roussillon. His continual visits to +the French part of his dominions gave every opportunity to the +troubadours to gain his favour: several were continually about him and +there were few who did not praise his liberality. A discordant note is +raised by Bertran de Born, who composed some violent _sirventes_ against +Alfonso; he was actuated by political motives: Alfonso had joined the +King of England in his operations against Raimon V. of Toulouse and +Bertran's other allies and had been present at the capture of Bertran's +castle of Hautefort in 1183. The biography relates that in the course of +the siege, the King of Aragon, who had formerly been in friendly +relations with Bertran, sent a messenger into the fortress asking for +provisions. These Bertran supplied with the request that the king would +secure the removal of the siege engines from a particular piece of wall, +which was on the point of destruction and would keep the information +secret. Alfonso, however, betrayed the message and the fortress was +captured. The _razo_ further relates the touching scene to which we have +already referred when Bertran moved Henry II. to clemency by a reference [112] +to the death of the "young king." The account of Alfonso's supposed +treachery is probably no less unhistorical: the siege lasted only a week +and it is unlikely that the besiegers would have been reduced to want in +so short a time. It was probably invented to explain the hostility on +Bertran's part which dated from the wars between Alfonso and Raimon V. +of Toulouse. This animosity was trumpeted forth in two lampooning +_sirventes_ criticising the public policy and the private life of the +Spanish King. His accusations of meanness and trickery seem to be based +on nothing more reliable than current gossip. + +Peire Vidal, with the majority of the troubadours, shows himself a +vigorous supporter of Alfonso. Referring to this same expedition of 1183 +he asserted "Had I but a speedy horse, the king might sleep in peace at +Balaguer: I would keep Provence and Montpelier in such order that +robbers and freebooters should no longer plunder Venaissin and Crau. +When I have put on my shining cuirass and girded on the sword that Guigo +lately gave me, the earth trembles beneath my feet; no enemy so mighty +who does not forthwith avoid out of my path, so great is their fear of +me when they hear my steps." These boasts in the style of Captain +Matamoros are, of course, not serious: the poet's personal appearance +seems to have been enough to preclude any suppositions of the kind. In [113] +another poem he sings the praises of Sancha, daughter of Alfonso VIII. +of Castile, who married Alfonso II. of Aragon in 1174. With the common +sense in political matters which is so strangely conjoined with the +whimsicality of his actions, he puts his finger upon the weak spot in +Spanish politics when he refers to the disunion between the four kings, +Alfonso II. of Aragon, Alfonso IX. of Leon, Alfonso VIII. of Castile and +Sancho Garcés of Navarre: "little honour is due to the four kings of +Spain for that they cannot keep peace with one another; since in other +respects they are of great worth, dexterous, open, courteous and loyal, +so that they should direct their efforts to better purpose and wage war +elsewhere against the people who do not believe our law, until the whole +of Spain professes one and the same faith." + +The Monk of Montaudon, Peire Raimon of Toulouse, Uc de San Circ, Uc +Brunet and other troubadours of less importance also enjoyed Alfonso's +patronage. Guiraut de Bornelh sent a poem to the Catalonian court in +terms which seemed to show that the simple style of poetry was there +preferred to complicated obscurities. The same troubadour was +sufficiently familiar with Alfonso's successor, Pedro II., to take part +in a _tenso_ with him. + +Pedro II. (1196-1213) was no less popular with the troubadours than his [114] +father. Aimeric de Pegulhan, though more closely connected with the +court of Castile, is loud in his praises of Pedro, "the flower of +courtesy, the green leaf of delight, the fruit of noble deeds." Pedro +supported his brother-in-law, Raimon VI. of Toulouse, against the +crusaders and Simon de Montfort during the Albigeois crusade and was +killed near Toulouse in the battle of Muret. The Chanson de la Croisade +does not underestimate the impression made by his death. + + Mot fo grans lo dampnatges e·l dols e·l perdementz + Cant lo reis d'Arago remas mort e sagnens, + E mot d'autres baros, don fo grans l'aunimens + A tot crestianesme et a trastotas gens. + +"Great was the damage and the grief and the loss when the King of Aragon +remained dead and bleeding with many other barons, whence was great +shame to all Christendom and to all people." + +The Court of Castile attracted the attention and the visits of the +troubadours, chiefly during the reign of Alfonso VIII. (or III.; +1158-1214) the hero of Las Navas de Tolosa, the most decisive defeat +which the Arab power in the West had sustained since the days of Charles +Martel. The preceding defeat of Alfonso's forces at Alarcos in 1195 had +called forth a fine crusade _sirventes_ from Folquet of Marseilles +appealing to Christians in general and the King of Aragon in particular [115] +to join forces against the infidels. The death of Alfonso's son, +Fernando, in 1211 from an illness contracted in the course of a campaign +against the infidels was lamented by Guiraut de Calanso, a Gascon +troubadour. + + Lo larc e·l franc, lo valen e·l grazitz, + Don cuiavon qu'en fos esmendatz + Lo jove reys, e·n Richartz lo prezatz + E·l coms Jaufres, tug li trey valen fraire. + +"The generous and frank, the worthy and attractive of whom men thought +that in him were increased the qualities of the young king, of Richard +the high renowned, and of the Count Godfrey, all the three valiant +brothers." Peire Vidal in one of the poems which he addressed to Alfonso +VIII., speaks of the attractions of Spain. "Spain is a good country; its +kings and lords are kindly and loving, generous and noble, of courteous +company; other barons there are, noble and hospitable, men of sense and +knowledge, valiant and renowned." Raimon Vidal of Bezaudun, a Catalonian +troubadour has given a description of Alfonso's court in one of his +_novelas_. "I wish to relate a story which I heard a joglar tell at the +court of the wisest king that ever was, King Alfonso of Castile, where +were presents and gifts, judgment, worth and courtesy, spirit and +chivalry, though he was not anointed or sacred, but crowned with praise, [116] +sense, worth and prowess. The king gathered many knights to his court, +many _joglars_ and rich barons and when the court was filled Queen +Eleanor came in dressed so that no one saw her body. She came wrapped +closely in a cloak of silken fabric fine and fair called sisclaton; it +was red with a border of silver and had a golden lion broidered on it. +She bowed to the king and took her seat on one side at some distance. +Then, behold, a _joglar_ come before the king, frank and debonair, who +said 'King, noble emperor, I have come to you thus and I pray you of +your goodness that my tale may be heard,'" The scene concludes, "Joglar, +I hold the story which you have related as good, amusing and fair and +you also the teller of it and I will order such reward to be given to +you that you shall know that the story has indeed pleased me." + +The crown of Castile was united with that of Leon by Fernando III. +(1230-1262) the son of Alfonso IX. of Leon. Lanfranc Cigala, the +troubadour of Genoa, excuses the Spaniards at this time for their +abstention from the Crusades to Jerusalem on the ground that they were +fully occupied in their struggles with the Moors. Fernando is one of the +kings to whom Sordello refers in the famous _sirventes_ of the divided +heart, as also is Jaime I. of Aragon (1213-1276), the "Conquistador," of +whom much is heard in the poetry of the troubadours. He was born at [117] +Montpelier and was fond of revisiting his birthplace; troubadours whom +he there met accompanied him to Spain, joined in his expeditions and +enjoyed his generosity. His court became a place of refuge for those who +had been driven out of Southern France by the Albigeois crusade; Peire +Cardenal, Bernard Sicart de Marvejols and N'At de Mons of Toulouse +visited him. His popularity with the troubadours was considerably shaken +by his policy in 1242, when a final attempt was made to throw off the +yoke imposed upon Southern France as the result of the Albigeois +crusade. Isabella of Angoulême, the widow of John of England, had +married the Count de la Marche; she urged him to rise against the French +and induced her son, Henry III. of England, to support him. Henry hoped +to regain his hold of Poitou and was further informed that the Count of +Toulouse and the Spanish kings would join the alliance. There seems to +have been a general belief that Jaime would take the opportunity of +avenging his father's death at Muret. However, no Spanish help was +forthcoming; the allies were defeated at Saintes and at Taillebourg and +this abortive rising ended in 1243. Guillem de Montanhagol says in a +_sirventes_ upon this event, "If King Jaime, with whom we have never +broken faith, had kept the agreement which is said to have been made [118] +between him and us, the French would certainly have had cause to grieve +and lament." Bernard de Rovenhac shows greater bitterness: "the king of +Aragon is undoubtedly well named Jacme (jac from jazer, to lie down) for +he is too fond of lying down and when anyone despoils him of his land, +he is so feeble that he does not offer the least opposition." Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols voices the grief of his class at the failure of the +rising: "In the day I am full of wrath and in the night I sigh betwixt +sleeping and waking; wherever I turn, I hear the courteous people crying +humbly 'Sire' to the French." These outbursts do not seem to have roused +Jaime to any great animosity against the troubadour class. Aimeric de +Belenoi belauds him, Peire Cardenal is said to have enjoyed his favour, +and other minor troubadours refer to him in flattering terms. + +The greatest Spanish patron of the troubadours was undoubtedly Alfonso +X. of Castile (1254-1284). El Sabio earned his title by reason of his +enlightened interest in matters intellectual; he was himself a poet, +procured the translation of many scientific books and provided Castile +with a famous code of laws. The Italian troubadours Bonifaci Calvo and +Bartolomeo Zorzi were welcomed to his court, to which many others came +from Provence. One of his favourites was the troubadour who was the last [119] +representative of the old school, Guiraut Riquier of Narbonne. He was +born between 1230 and 1235, when the Albigeois crusade was practically +over and when troubadour poetry was dying, as much from its own inherent +lack of vitality as from the change of social and political environment +which the upheaval of the previous twenty years had produced. Guiraut +Riquier applied to a Northern patron for protection, a proceeding +unexampled in troubadour history and the patron he selected was the King +of France himself. Neither Saint Louis nor his wife were in the least +likely to provide a market for Guiraut's wares and the Paris of that day +was by no means a centre of literary culture. The troubadour, therefore, +tried his fortune with Alfonso X. whose liberality had become almost +proverbial. There he seems to have remained for some years and to have +been well content, in spite of occasional friction with other suitors +for the king's favour. His description of Catalonia is interesting. + + Pus astres no m'es donatz + Que de mi dons bes m'eschaia, + Ni nulho nos plazers no·l platz, + Ni ay poder que·m n'estraia, + Ops m'es qu'ieu sia fondatz + En via d'amor veraia, + E puesc n'apenre assatz + + En Cataluenha la gaia, [120] + Entrels Catalas valens + E las donas avinens. + + Quar dompneys, pretz e valors, + Joys e gratz e cortesia, + Sens e sabers et honors, + Bels parlars, bella paria, + E largueza et amors, + Conoyssensa e cundia, + Troban manten e socors + + En Cataluenha a tria, + Entrels, etc. + +"Since my star has not granted me that from my lady happiness should +fall to me, since no pleasure that I can give pleases her and I have no +power to forget her, I must needs enter upon the road of true love and I +can learn it well enough in gay Catalonia among the Catalonians, men of +worth, and their kindly ladies. For courtesy, worth, joy, gratitude and +gallantry, sense, knowledge, honour, fair speech, fair company, +liberality and love, learning and grace find maintenance and support in +Catalonia entirely." + +Between thirty and forty poets of Spanish extraction are known to have +written Provençal poetry. Guillem de Tudela of Navarre wrote the first +part of the _Chanson de la Croisade albigeoise_; Serveri de Gerona wrote +didactic and devotional poetry, showing at least ingenuity of technique; +Amanieu des Escas has left love letters and didactic works for the [121] +instruction of young people in the rules of polite behaviour. But the +influence of Provençal upon the native poetry of Spain proper was but +small, in spite of the welcome which the troubadours found at the courts +of Castile, Aragon, Leon and Navarre. Troubadour poetry required a +peaceful and an aristocratic environment, and the former at least of +these conditions was not provided by the later years of Alfonso X. +Northern French influence was also strong: numerous French immigrants +were able to settle in towns newly founded or taken from the Moors. The +warlike and adventurous spirit of Northern and Central Spain preferred +epic to lyric poetry: and the outcome was the _cantar de gesta_ and the +_romance_, the lyrico-narrative or ballad poem. + +This was not the course of development followed either in the Eastern or +Western coasts of the peninsula. Catalonia was as much a part of the +Provençal district as of Spain. To the end of the thirteenth century +Catalonian poets continued to write in the language of the troubadours, +often breaking the strict rules of rime correspondence and of grammar, +but refusing to use their native dialect. Religious poems of popular and +native origin appear to have existed, but even the growth of a native +prose was unable to overcome the preference for Provençal in the [122] +composition of lyrics. Guiraut de Cabreira is remembered for the 213 +lines which he wrote to instruct his _joglar_ Cabra; Guiraut upbraids +this performer for his ignorance, and details a long series of legends +and poems which a competent _joglar_ ought to know. Guiraut de Calanso +wrote an imitation of this diatribe. The best known of the Catalonian +troubadours is Raimon Vidal of Besadun, both for his _novelas_ and also +for his work on Provençal grammar and metre, _Las rasos de trobar_,[33] +which was written for the benefit of his compatriots who desired to +avoid solecisms or mistakes when composing. "For as much as I, Raimon +Vidal, have seen and known that few men know or have known the right +manner of composing poetry (trobar) I desire to make this book that men +may know and understand which of the troubadours have composed best and +given the best instruction to those who wish to learn how they should +follow the right manner of composing.... All Christian people, Jews, +Saracens, emperors, princes, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, vavassors +and all other nobles with clergy, citizens and villeins, small and +great, daily give their minds to composing and singing.... In this +science of composing the troubadours are gone astray and I will tell you +wherefore. The hearers who do not understand anything when they hear a +fine poem will pretend that they understand perfectly... because they [123] +think that men would consider it a fault in them if they said that they +did not understand.... And if when they hear a bad troubadour, they do +understand, they will praise his singing because they understand it; or +if they will not praise, at least they will not blame him; and thus the +troubadours are deceived and the hearers are to blame for it." Raimon +Vidal proceeds to say that the pure language is that of Provence or of +Limousin or of Saintonge or Auvergne or Quercy: "wherefore I tell you, +that when I use the term Limousin, I mean all those lands and those +which border them or are between them." He was apparently the first to +use the term Limousin to describe classical Provençal, and when it +became applied to literary Catalonian, as distinguished from _plá +Catalá_, the vulgar tongue, the result was some confusion. Provençal +influence was more permanent in Catalonia than in any other part of +Spain; in 1393, the Consistorium of the _Gay saber_ was founded in +imitation of the similar association at Toulouse. Most of the troubadour +poetical forms and the doctrines of the Toulouse _Leys d'Amors_ were +retained, until Italian influence began to oust Provençal towards the +close of the fifteenth century. + +On the western side of Spain, Provençal influence evoked a brief and +brilliant literature in the Galician or Portuguese school. Its most [124] +brilliant period was the age of Alfonso X. of Castile, one of its most +illustrious exponents, and that of Denis of Portugal (1280-1325). The +dates generally accepted for the duration of this literature are +1200-1385; it has left to us some 2000 lyric poems, the work of more +than 150 poets, including four kings and a number of nobles of high +rank. French and Provençal culture had made its way gradually and by +various routes to the western side of the Spanish peninsula. + +We have already referred to the pilgrim route to the shrine of +Compostella, by which a steady stream of foreign influence entered the +country. The same effect was produced by crusaders who came to help the +Spaniards in their struggle against the Moors, and by foreign colonists +who helped to Christianise the territories conquered from the +Mohammedans. The capture of Lisbon in 1147 increased maritime +intercourse with the North. Individuals from Portugal also visited +Northern and Southern France, after the example of their Spanish +neighbours. References to Portugal in the poetry of the troubadours are +very scarce, nor is there any definite evidence that any troubadour +visited the country. This fact is in striking contrast with the loud +praises of the Spanish courts. None the less, such visits must have +taken place: Sancho I. had French _jongleurs_ in his pay during [125] +the twelfth century and the Portuguese element in the five-language +_descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras shows that communication between +Provençal poets and Portuguese or Galician districts must have existed. +The general silence of the troubadours may be due to the fact that +communication began at a comparatively late period and was maintained +between Portugal and Spanish courts, and not directly between Portugal +and Southern France. + +Alfonso X. of Castile himself wrote many poems in the Galician or +Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons analogous +to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in +Provençal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form +and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to +an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is +preserved with the accompanying ideas of _amour courtois_, and the lyric +forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provençal manner +took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the +ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric +poetry which was remodelled under Provençal influence. The most popular +of the types thus developed were _Cantigas de amor e de amigo_ and +_Cantigas de_ _escarnho e de maldizer_; the former were love +songs: when the poet speaks the song was one _de amor_; when the lady +speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provençal usage) the song was +_de amigo_. This latter is a type developed independently by the +Portuguese school. _Cantigas de escarnho_ correspond in intention [126] +to the Provençal _sirventes_; if their satire was open and unrestrained +they were _cantigas de maldizer_. They dealt for the most part with +trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy +upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in +taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about +1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty +years. + + + +CHAPTER IX [127] + + +PROVENÇAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND + +Provençal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the +minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically +with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school, +flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the +Rhine school. In the latter case, Provençal influence is not disputed; +but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it, +has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that +the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of +Provençal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry +in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of +development before Provençal influence affected it. Austria undoubtedly +came into touch with this influence at an early date. The Danube valley +was a high road for the armies of crusaders; another route led from +Northern Italy to Vienna, by which Peire Vidal probably found his way to +Hungary. At the same time, though Provençal influence was strong, the [128] +Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or +translation of troubadour productions. Dietmar von Aist, one of the +earliest minnesingers, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth +century has, for instance, the Provençal _alba_ theme. Two lovers part +at daybreak, when awakened by a bird on the linden: if the theme is +Provençal, the simplicity of the poet's treatment is extremely fresh and +natural. This difference is further apparent in the attitude of +minnesingers and troubadours towards the conception of "love." The +minnesong is the literary expression of the social convention known as +"Frauendienst," the term "minne" connoting the code which prescribed the +nature of the relation existing between the lover and his lady; the +dominant principle was a reverence for womanhood as such, and in this +respect the German minnesang is inspired by a less selfish spirit than +the Provençal troubadour poetry. Typical of the difference is Walter von +der Vogelweide's-- + + Swer guotes wîbes minne hât, + der schamt sich aller missetât. + +("He who has a good woman's love is ashamed of every ill deed"), +compared with Bernart de Ventadour's-- + + Non es meravilha s'ieu chan [129] + Melhs de nul autre chantador + Car plus trai mos cors ves Amor + E melhs sui faitz a son coman. + +("It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws nearer to love and I am better made for love's command.") The +troubadour _amor_, especially in its Italian development, eventually +attained the moral power of the _minne_; but in its early stages, it was +a personal and selfish influence. The stanza form and rime distribution +of the minnesinger poems continually betray Provençal influence: the +principle of tripartition is constantly followed and the arrangement of +rimes is often a repetition of that adopted in troubadour stanzas. +Friedrich von Hausen, the Count Rudolf von Fenis, Heinrich von Morungen +and others sometimes translate almost literally from troubadour poetry, +though these imitations do not justify the lines of Uhland. + + In den Thälern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen, + Kind des Frühlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen. + +Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous +lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and +"chansons de toile." Provençal influence here was inevitable. It is +apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel [130] +Provençal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact +that Provençal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics. +Provençal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by +means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by +intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provençal +influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of +Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter, +Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal +code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the _De +arte honeste amandi_ of André le Chapelain, written at the outset of the +thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and +Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly +love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chrétien de Troyes. + +The Provençal school in Northern France began during the latter half of +the twelfth century. The _chanson_ properly so called is naturally most +strongly represented: but the Provençal forms, the _tençon_ (Prov. +_tenso_) and a variant of it, the _jeu-parti_ (Prov. _jocs partitz_ or +_partimens_) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called, +because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his +interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that [131] +he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the +contestants often left the decision in an _envoi_ to one or more +arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of +these _envois_ gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love," +as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest +representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he +took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace +Brulé and the Châtelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to +the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre +(1201-1253), shared in the Albigeois crusade and thus helped in the +destruction of the poetry which he imitated. One of the poems attributed +to him by Dante (_De Vulg. El._) belongs to Gace Brulé; his love affair +with Blanche of Castile is probably legendary. Several crusade songs are +attributed to Thibaut among some thirty poems of the kind that remain to +us from the output of this school. These crusade poems exhibit the +characteristics of their Provençal models: there are exhortations to +take the cross in the form of versified sermons; there are also love +poems which depict the poet's mind divided between his duty as a +crusader and his reluctance to leave his lady; or we find the lady [132] +bewailing her lover's departure, or again, lady and lover lament their +approaching separation in alternate stanzas. There is more real feeling +in some of these poems than is apparent in the ordinary chanson of the +Northern French courtly school: the following stanzas are from a poem by +Guiot de Dijon,[34] the lament of a lady for her absent lover-- + + Chanterai por mon corage + Que je vueill reconforter + Car avec mon grant damage + Ne quier morir n'afoler, + Quant de la terra sauvage + Ne voi nului retorner + Ou cil est qui m'assoage + Le cuer, quant j'en oi parler + Dex, quant crieront outree, + Sire, aidiés au pelerin + Por cui sui espoentee, + Car felon sunt Sarrazin. + + De ce sui bone atente + Que je son homage pris, + E quant la douce ore vente + Qui vient de cel douz païs + Ou cil est qui m'atalente, + Volontiers i tor mon vis: + Adont m'est vis que jel sente + Par desoz mon mantel gris. + Dex, etc. + +"I will sing for my heart which I will comfort, for in spite of my great +loss I do not wish to die, and yet I see no one return from the wild [133] +land where he is who calms my heart when I hear mention of him. God! +when they cry Outre (a pilgrim marching cry), Lord help the pilgrim for +whom I tremble, for wicked are the Saracens. + +"From this fact have I confidence, that I have received his vows and +when the gentle breeze blows which comes from the sweet country where he +is whom I desire, readily do I turn my face thither: then I think I feel +him beneath my grey mantle." + +The idea in the second stanza quoted is borrowed from Bernard de +Ventadour-- + + Quant la douss' aura venta + Deves vostre païs. + Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta + Un ven de Paradis. + +The greater part of this poetry repeats, in another language, the +well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory +references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of +ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from +his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form +and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and +occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that +school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated +emotion and appealed only to a restricted class of the initiated. +Changes in the constitution and customs of society brought this school [134] +to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of +lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache +Deschamps. + +Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject +has hitherto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as +much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was +Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard +followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What +truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his +motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis +emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno +Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo +canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in +orbe." The manuscripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one +referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I. +(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his +imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a +Provençal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's +discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.[35] + +From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant [135] +communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number +of Provençals visited England at different times and especially in the +reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de +Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided +for the entry of Provençal influence during the period when a general +stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman +French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of +that age and it was not until the second half of the thirteenth century +that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provençal +influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry. +But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was +similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas, +Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in +imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte +joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes +effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also +political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly +called _sirventes_, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum, +Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the [136] +principles of the _tenso_ or _partimen_. The use of equivocal and +"derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the +following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in +the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provençal +_trobairitz_; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure +coincidence.[36] + + En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt + E reverdist la matinée + E sil oysel chauntent a poynt + En temps d'avril en la ramée, + Lores est ma dolur dublée + Que jeo sui en si dure poynt + Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt, + Tant me greve la destinée. + + Murnes et pensif m'en depart, + Que trop me greve la partie; + Si n'en puis aler cele part, + Que ele n'eyt a sa partie + Mon quor tot enter saunz partie. + E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part, + E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part + A moi est dure la partie. + +"In the season when the grass springs and the morn is green and the +birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief +doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy +is my fate upon me. + +"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet [137] +I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and +undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of +hers, the division is a hard one to me." + +This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These +lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as +an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples +of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrain of +distinctly popular origin is added to a stanza of courtly and artificial +character. Generally, however, there is a freshness and vigour in these +poems which may be vainly sought in the products of continental +decadence. But Provençal influence, whether exerted directly or +indirectly through the Northern French lyric school, is plainly visible +in many cases. Of the lyrics found in the important MS. Harleian +2253,[37] "Alysoun" has the same rime scheme as a poem by Gaucelm +Faidit: it opens with the conventional appeal to spring; the poet's +feelings deprive him of sleep. The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a +rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut +d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many +troubadour formulae: the concluding lines-- + + He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze, [138] + pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze, + heuene he hevede here. + +are a troubadour commonplace. Many other cases might be quoted. Hymns +and songs to the Virgin exhibit the same characteristics of form. The +few Provençal words which became English are interesting;[38] colander +or cullender (now a vegetable strainer; Prov. colador), funnel, +puncheon, rack, spigot, league, noose are directly derived from +Provençal and not through Northern French and are words connected with +shipping and the wine trade, the port for which was Bordeaux. + + +In the year 1323 a society was formed in Toulouse of seven troubadours, +the "sobregaya companhia," for the purpose of preserving and encouraging +lyric poetry (lo gay saber). The middle class of Toulouse seems at all +times to have felt an interest in poetry and had already produced such +well-known troubadours as Aimeric de Pegulhan, Peire Vidal and Guillem +Figueira. The society offered an annual prize of a golden violet for the +best _chanso_; other prizes were added at a later date for the best +dance song and the best _sirventes_. Competitors found that songs to the +Virgin were given the preference and she eventually became the one +subject of these prize competitions. The society produced a grammatical [139] +work, the Leys d'Amors, under the name of its president, Guillem +Molinier, in 1356,[39] no doubt for the reference and instruction of +intending competitors. The competition produced a few admirable poems, +but anxiety to preserve the old troubadour style resulted generally in +dry and stilted compositions. The _Academie des jeux floraux_[40] +altered the character of the competition by admitting French poems after +1694. At the end of the sixteenth century, Provençal poetry underwent a +revival; in our own time, poets such as Jasmin, Aubanel, Roumanille and +above all, Mistral, have raised their language from a patois to a +literary power. The work of the félibres has been to synthetise the best +elements of the various local dialects and to create a literary language +by a process not wholly dissimilar to that described at the outset of +this book. But the old troubadour spirit had died long before; it had +accomplished its share in the history of European literature and had +given an impulse to the development of lyric poetry, the effects of +which are perceptible even at the present day. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES + + +LITERARY HISTORY + +F. Diez, _Leben und Werke der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., re-edited by K. +Bartsch, Leipsic, 1882. _Die Poesie der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., +re-edited by K. Bartsch, Leipsic, 1883. + +K. Bartsch, _Grundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur_, +Elberfeld, 1872. A new edition of this indispensable work is in +preparation by Prof. A. Pillet of Breslau. The first part of the book +contains a sketch of Provençal literature, and a list of manuscripts. +The second part gives a list of the troubadours in alphabetical order, +with the lyric poems attributed to each troubadour. The first line of +each poem is quoted and followed by a list of the MSS. in which it is +found. Modern editors have generally agreed to follow these lists in +referring to troubadour lyrics: e.g. B. Gr., 202, 4 refers to the fourth +lyric (in alphabetical order) of Guillem Ademar, who is no. 202 in +Bartsch's list. + +A list of corrections to this list is given by Gröber in Böhmer's +_Romanische Studien_, vol. ii. 1875-77, Strassburg. In vol. ix. of the +same is Gröbers' study of troubadour MSS. and the relations between +them. + +A. Stimming, _Provenzaliscke Literatur in Gröber's Grundriss der +Romanischen Philologie_, Strassburg, 1888, vol. ii. part ii. contains +useful bibliographical notices. + +A. Restori, _Letteratura provenzale_, Milan, 1891 (_Manuali Hoepli_), an +excellent little work. + +A. Jeanroy, _Les origines de la poésie lyrique en France_, 2nd edit., +Paris, 1904. + +J. Anglade, _Les troubadours_, Paris, 1908, an excellent and trustworthy +work, in popular style, with a good bibliography. + +J. H. Smith, _The troubadours at Home_, 2 vols., New York, 1899; +popularises scientific knowledge by impressions of travel in Southern +France, photographs, and historical imagination: generally stimulating +and suggestive, Most histories of French literature devote some space to +Provençal; e.g. Suchier & Birch-Hirschfeld, _Geschichte der +französischen Litteratur_, Leipsic, 1900. The works of Millot and +Fauriel are now somewhat antiquated. _Trobador Poets_, Barbara Smythe, +London, 1911, contains an introduction and translations from various +troubadours. + + + +DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS + +F. Raynouard, _Lexique roman_, 6 vols., Paris, 1838-1844, +supplemented by. + +E. Levy, _Provenzalisches supplement-Wörterbuch_, Leipsic, 1894, not +yet completed, but indispensable. + +E. Levy, _Petit dictionnaire provençal-français_, Heidelberg, 1908. + +J. B. Roquefort, _Glossaire de la langue romane_, 3 vols., Paris, 1820. + +W. Meyer-Lübke, _Grammaire des langues romanes_, French translation of +the German, Paris, 1905. + +C. H. Grandgent, _An outline of the phonology and morphology of old +Provençal_, Boston, 1905. + +H. Suchier, _Die französiche und provenzalische Sprache_ in Gröber's +_Grundriss_. A French translation, _Le Français et le Provençal_, Paris, +1891. + + + +TEXTS + +The following chrestomathies contain tables of grammatical forms (except +in the case of Bartsch) texts and vocabularies. + +_Altprovenzalisches Elementarbuch_, O. Schultz-Gora, Heidelberg, 1906, +an excellent work for beginners. + +_Provenzalische Chrestomathie_, C. Appel, Leipsic, 1907, 3rd edit. + +_Manualetto provenzale_, V. Crescini, Padua, 1905, 2nd edit. + +_Chrestomathie provençal_, K. Bartsch, re-edited by Koschwitz, Marburg, +1904. + +The following editions of individual troubadours have been published. + +Alegret. _Annales du Midi_, no. 74. + +Arnaut Daniel. U. A. Canello, Halle, 1883. + +Bernart de Rovenac. G. Borsdorff, Erlangen, 1907. + +Bartolomeo Zorzi. E. Levy, Halle, 1883. + +Bertran d'Alamanon. J. Salverda de Grave, Toulouse, 1902 (_Bibliothèque +Méridionale_). + +Bertran de Born. A. Thomas, Toulouse, 1888 (_Bibliothèque Méridionale_). + +Bertran de Born. A. Stimming, Halle, 1892 (and in the _Romanischz +Bibliothek_, Leipsic). + +Blacatz. O. Soltau, Leipsic, 1890. + +Cercamon. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1905 (_Annales du Midi_, vol. xvii.). + +Elias de Barjols. Stronski, Paris, 1906 (_Bibliothèque Méridionale_ +vi.). + +Folquet de Marselha. Stronski, Cracow, 1911. + +Folquet de Romans. Zenker (_Romanische Bibliothek_). + +Gavaudan. A. Jeanroy, _Romania_, xxxiv., p. 497. + +Guillaume IX. Comte de Poitiers. A. Jeanroy, Toulouse, 1905. + +Guillem Anelier de Toulouse. M. Gisi, Solothurn, 1877. + +Guillem de Cabestanh. F. Hüffer, Berlin, 1869. + +Guillem Figueira. E. Levy, Berlin, 1880. + +Guillem de Montanhagol. J. Coulet, _Bibliothèque Méridionale_, iv., +Toulouse. + +Guiraut de Bornelh. A. Kolsen, Berlin, 1894 and 1911. + +Guiraut d'Espanha. P. Savi-Lopez. _Studj mediaevali_, Fasc. 3, Turin, +1905. + +Guiraut Riquier, Étude sur, etc. J. Anglade, Paris, 1905. + +Jaufre Rudel. A Stimming, Kiel, 1873. + +Marcabrun. Dr Dejeanne. _Bibliothèque Méridionale_, 1910. + +Marcoat. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1903 (_Annales du Midi_, xv.). + +Monk of Montaudon. E. Philippson, Halle, 1873; O. Klein, Marburg, 1885. + +N' At de Mons. Bernhard. _Altfranzösische Bibliothek, Heilbronn_. + +Paulet de Marselha. E. Levy, Paris, 1882. + +Peire d'Alvernhe (d'Auvergne). R. Zenker, Rostock, 1900. + +Peire Vidal. K. Bartsch, Berlin, 1857 (an edition by J. Anglade is about +to appear). + +Peire Rogier. C. Appel, Berlin, 1892. + +Perdigon. H.J. Chaytor, _Annales du Midi_, xxi. + +Pons de Capdoill. M. Napolski, Halle, 1879. + +Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. O. Schultz, Halle, 1893. + +Raimon de Miraval, Etude sur, etc. P. Andraud, Paris, 1902. + +Sordel. De Lollis, Halle, 1896 (_Romanische Bibliothek_). + +Numerous separate pieces have been published in the various periodicals +concerned with Romance philology, as also have diplomatic copies of +several MSS. Of these periodicals, the most important for Provençal are +_Romania, les Annales du Midi, Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, +Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen, Romanische Studien, Studj +di filologia romanza, Revue des langues romanes_. Mahn's _Gedichte der +Troubadours_, 4 vols., Berlin, 1856-71, contains diplomatic copies of +MSS.; his _Werke der Troubadours_, Berlin, 1846-55, contains reprints +from Raynouard, _Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours_, Paris, +1816. Suchier, _Denkmäler provenzalischer Sprache_, Halle, 1883; Appel, +_Provenzalische Inedita_, Leipsic, 1890; Chabaneau, _Poesies inédites +des Troubadours du Perigord_, Paris, 1885; P. Meyer, _Les derniers +troubadours de Provence_, Paris, 1871, should be mentioned. Most of the +pieces in the _Parnasse Occitanien_, Toulouse, 1819, are to be found +better edited elsewhere. Other pieces are to be found in various +_Festschriften_ and occasional or private publications, too numerous to +be detailed here. C. Chabaneau, _Les biographies des Troubadours_, +Toulouse, 1885 (part of the _Histoire générale de Languedoc_) is full of +valuable information. The biographies have been translated by I. +Farnell, _Lives of the Troubadours_, London, 1896. + + + +NOTES + + +CHAPTER I + +1. See maps at the end of Gröber's _Grundriss_, vol. i. + +2. _De Vulg. El._ I., 8: alii oc, alii oïl, alii si affirmando +loquuntur, and _Vita Nuova_, xxv. Dante also knew the term provincialis. + +3. Boethius. F. Hündgen, Oppeln, 1884. For Sainte Foy d'Agen, see +_Romania_ xxxi., p, 177 ff. + +4. P. Meyer in _Romania_ v., p. 257. Bédier, _Les chansons de Croisade_, +Paris, 1909, p. 16. + +5. See P. Maus, _Peire Cardenals Strophenbau_, Marburg, 1884. + +6. See Jeanroy, Origines, etc. + + +CHAPTER II + +7. Provençal has also the feminine _joia_ with the general meaning of +"delight." + +8. See Stimming's article in Gröber's _Grundriss_. + +9. Raynouard, _Les Troubadours et les Cours d'Amour_, Paris, 1817; see +also Diez, _Über die Minnehöfe_, Berlin, 1825. Pio Rajna, _Le Corti +d'Amore_, Milan, 1890. + +10. _Annales du Midi_, xix. p. 364. + +11. _Die provenzalische Tenzone_, R. Zenker, Leipsic, 1888. + + +CHAPTER III + +12. Girart de Roussillon, translation by P. Meyer, Paris, 1884: see also +_Romania_, vii. Diplomatic copies of the MSS. in _Romanische Studien_ V. +_Le Roman de Flamenca_, P. Meyer, Paris, 1901. + +13. J. B. Beck, _Die Melodien der Troubadours_, Strasburg, 1908. _La +Musique des Troubadours_, Paris, 1910, by the same author, who there +promised a selection of songs harmonized for performance: this has not +yet appeared. See also _Quatre poésies de Marcabrun_, Jeanroy, Dejeanne +and Aubry, Paris, 1904, with texts, music, and translations. + +14. Schindler, _Die Kreuzzüge in der altprovenzalischen und +mittelhochdeutschen lyrik._, Dresden, 1889. K. Lewent, _Das +altprovenzalische Kreuzlied_, Berlin, 1905. + +15. A. Pillet, _Studien zur Pastourelle_, Breslau, 1902. Römer, _Die +volkstümlichen Dichtungsarten der altprovenzalischen Lyrik_, Marburg, +1884. + +16. _Quae judicia de litteris fecerint Provinciales_. P. Andraud, Paris, +1902. + +17. From _Si'm sentis fizels amics_, quoted by Dante, _De Vulg. El._ i. 9. + + +CHAPTER IV + +18. "Paubre motz"; also interpreted as "scanty words," i.e. poems with +short lines. On Jaufre Rudel in literature, see a lecture by Carducci, +Bologna 1888. The latest theory of his mysterious love is that she was +the Virgin Mary; see C. Appel, _Archiv für das Studium der neueren +Sprachen_, cvii. 3-4. + +19. Mahn, _Gedichte_, no. 707. An edition of Bernard de Ventadour's +poems is in preparation by Prof. Appel. + +20. _Cp._ Dante, _Par._ xx. 73. + + +CHAPTER V + +21. Dante, _De Vulg. El._ ii. 2. + +22. "Il Provenzale," _Conv._ iv. 11. + +23. _Purg._ xxvi. + +24. On his family see Stronski, _Folquet de Marseille_, p. 15 and +159-172. + +25. See G. Paris, _La Littérature française au moyen âge_, § 128. + + +CHAPTER VI + +26. The best short account of the Albigenses is to be found in vol. i. +of H.C. Lea's _Histoire de L'Inquisition au moyen âge_, Paris, 1903. +This, the French translation, is superior to the English edition as it +contains the author's last corrections, and a number of bibliographical +notes. The Adoptionist theory is stated in the introduction to F.C. +Conybeare's _Key of Truth_, Oxford, 1908. The _Chanson de la Croisade +Albigeoise_, P. Meyer, Paris, 1875, 2 vols., is indispensable to +students of the subject. In these works will be found much of the +extensive bibliography of the heresy and crusade. + +27. Eckbertus, _Serm. adv. Catharos, Migne, Patr. Lat._, tom. 193. p. +73. + +28. _Cf._ Milman, _Latin Christianity_, Book IX. chap. viii. p. 85. + +29. On religious lyric poetry, see Lowinsky, _Zeitschrift für +französische Sprache und Litteratur_, xx. p. 163 ff., and the +bibliographical note to Stimming's article in Gröber's _Grundriss_, vol. +ii. part ii. § 32. + + +CHAPTER VII + +Most histories of Italian literature deal with this subject. See +Gaspary's _Italian Literature to the death of Dante_: H. Oelsner, Bohn's +Libraries. See also the chapter, _La poésie française en Italie_ in +Jeanroy's _Origines_. For Dante, see _Storia letteraria d'Italia, +scritta di una società di professori_, Milan, vol. iii., Dante, by +Zingarelli. _The Troubadours of Dante_, Chaytor, Oxford, 1902. Useful +are A. Thomas, _Francesco da Barberino et la littérature provençale en +Italie au moyen âge_, Paris, 1883. O. Schultz, _Die Lebensverhältnisse +der Italienischen Trobadors_, Berlin, 1883. + +30. Schultz, _Die Briefe des Trobadors Raimbaut de Vaqueiras an Bonifaz +I._, Halle, 1883. + +31. Zingarelli, _Intorno a due Trovatori in Italia_, Florence, 1899. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Milà y Fontañals, _Los trovadores en España_, Barcelona, 1861, remains +the best work on the subject. On Portugal, the article in Gröber's +_Grundriss_, ii. 2, p. 129, by C. Michaelis de Vasconcellos and Th. +Braga is admirable: see the bibliographical references there given and +the introduction to R. Lang, _Das Liederbuch des Königs Denis von +Portugal_, Halle, 1894. + +32. The date of this poem is disputed, see Dr Dejeanne's edition of +Marcabrun, p. 235. + +33. F. Guessard, _Grammaires Provençales_, Paris, 1858; E. Stengel, _Die +beiden ältesten prov. Gram._, Marburg, 1878. + + +CHAPTER IX + +Troubadour influence in Germany is discussed at greater or less length +in most histories of German literature. See Jeanroy, _Origines_, p. 270 +ff. A. Lüderitz, _Die Liebestheorien der Provenzalen bei den +Minnesingern der Slauferzeit_, Literarhistorische Forschungen, Berlin, +1904. + +For France. A. Jeanroy, _De nostratibus medii aevi poetis qui primum +Aquitaniae carmina imitati sint_, Paris, 1889. + +For England. Schofield, _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to +Chaucer_, London, 1906. O. Heider, _Untersuchungen zur mittelenglischen +erotischen Lyrik_, Halle, 1905. A. Brandl, _Spielmann's verhältnisse in +frühmittelenglischer Zeit_, Sitzungs-berichte der Königl. preuss., +Akademie, 1910. + +34. Bédier, _Chansons de Croisade_, Paris, 1909, p. 112. + +35. See introduction to Leo Wiese, _Die Lieder des Blondel de Nesle_, +Dresden, 1904, p. 19 ff. + +36. _Romania_, viii. p. 370. + +37. K. Böddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl._ 2253, Berlin, +1878. + +38. Modern Language Review, vol. 1. p. 285; vol. ii. p. 60, articles by +Prof. Skeat. + +39. P. Leinig, _Grammatik der provenzalischen Leys d'amors verglichen +mit der Sprache der Troubadours_, Breslau, 1890. M. Gatien. Arnoult, +_Monuments de la littérature romane_, Toulouse, 1841. + +40. _Histoire critique de l'Académie des Jeux Floraux_, by F. de Gélis +from the origin to the 17th century will appear shortly in the +Bibliothèque meridionale, Toulouse. Useful anthologies of modern +Provençal are _Flourilège prouvençau_, Toulon, 1909: _Antologia +provenzale_, E Portal, Milan, Hoepli, 1911 (Manuali Hoepli). + + + +INDEX. + + Alamanon, Bertran d', 104 + _Alba_, 33, 128 + Albigeois, 13, 23, 75, ff. + Alcuin, 7 + Alfonso II. of Aragon, 51, 59, 69, 74, 110, 113 + Alfonso VIII. of Castile, 110, 113, 114 + Alfonso X. of Castile, 118, 124 + André le Chapelain, 19, 130 + Aquino, Rinaldo d', 82 + Aquitaine, 42 + Arabs, 8, 105 + Aragon, 54, 71, 110 + ---- Pedro II. of, 78, 83, 113 + Arles, 5 + Aurenga, Raimbaut d', 35, 85, 64 + Auvergne, 3 + ---- Dauphin of, 134 + ---- Peire d', 36, 67, 70, 135 + Azalais, 71, 79 + + + _Ballata_, 33 + Barral, 71, 79 + Belenoi, Aimeric de, 118 + Bethune, Conon de, 131 + Bezaudun, Raimon Vidal of, 115, 122 + Béziers, 50, 78 + Blacatz, 103 + Born, Bertran de, 13, 57, 111, 130 + Bornelh, Giraut de, 23, 35, 37, 53, 68, 86, 113 + Brunei, Uc, 113 + + + Cabestanh, Guillem de, 73 + Cabreira, Guiraut de, 122 + Caen, Raoul de, 6 + Cairel, Elias, 12 + Calanso, Guiraut de, 115, 122 + Calha, Albertet, 12 + Calvo, Bonifacio, 100, 118 + Carcassonne, 78 + Cardenal, Peire, 11, 82, 84, 92, 117, 118 + Castile, 54, 71 + ---- Sancho III. of, 67 + Catalonia, 3, 5, 71, 109, 121 ff. + Cercamon, 9, 42 + Chabaneau, 20 + _Chanso_, 23 + Cigala, Lanfranc, 39, 100, 116 + Circ, Uc de San, 100, 113 + Corbiac, Peire de, 93 + _Comjat_, 23 + Compostella, 109, 124 + Courts of Love, 19 + Cunizza, 101 + + + Daniel, Arnaut, 55 + Dante, 24, 53, 55, 57, 63, 104, 108, 131 + Denis, 124 + _Descort_, 33, 97 + Die, Countess of, 11, 65 + Dietmar von Aist, 128 + Dominic, 77, 80 + + + Ebles II., 46 + Eleanor of Aquitaine, 42, 46, 59, 130 + Escas Amanieu des, 121 + _Escondig_, 33 + Estampida, 33 + Este, 95 + Ezzelino III., 101 + + + Faidit, Gaucelm, 99, 135 + Ferdinand III. of Castile, 104, 116 + Figueira, Guillem, 82, 138 + Flamenca, 23 + Florence, 100 + Frederick II. of Sicily, 88, 105 + Friedrich von Hausen, 129 + + + Galicia, 123 + _Gasson_, 3, 9, 115 + Genoa, 78, 100 + Gerona, Serveri de, 120 + Guido delle Colonne, 106, 107 + Guido Guinicelli, 106 + Guiot de Dijon, 132 + + + Hautefort, 60, 111 + Henry II. of England, 47, 59, 63 + Henry III. of England, 104, 117 + + + Innocent III., 76, 77 + Inquisition, 80 + Isabella of Angoulême, 117 + + + Jaime I. of Aragon, 85 + Jaufre, Roman de, 23 + + + Languedoc, 3 + Lemosin, 5 + Lentino, Jacopo da, 82 + Leys d'Amors, 16, 23, 33, 138 + Limousin, 3, 4, 8, 123 + Louis VII. of France, 60, 69 + Louis VIII. of France, 89 + Lyons, 5, 77 + + + Malaspina, Marquis of, 100 + Malmesbury, William of, 41 + Manfred II., 100, 102 + Mantua, 101 + Marcabrun, 35, 43, 68, 85, 110, 135 + Mareuil, Arnaut de, 50, 53 + Marseilles, 5, 10 + ---- Barral of 71, 79 + ---- Folquet of, 10, 13, 72, 78, 91 + Marie of Champagne, 130 + Marvejols, Bernard Sicart de, 84, 117, 118 + Mauleon, Savaric de, 135 + Minnesingers, 128 + Miraval, Raímon de, 39, 83 + Montanhagol, Guillem de, 117 + Montaudon, Monk of, 11, 69, 79, 113 + ---- Beatrice of, 97 + Montpelier, Germonde de, 89 + ---- William VII. of, 51, 79 + Muret 78, 114 + Music, 26 ff. + + + Narbonne, 5, 59, 67 + Navarre, 54, 110 + ---- Guillem de Tudela of, 120 + Nesles, Blondel de, 131, 134 + Nostradamus, 19 + Novara, 102 + + + Orange, William IV. of, 96 + + + _Partimen_, 130 + _Pastorela_, 33 + Pegulhan, Aimeric de, 99, 107, 114, 138 + Perdigon, 11 + Pisa, 100 + _Planh_, 30 + Poitou, 4 + Poitiers, 6, 8 + ---- William of, 6, 41, 65, 90 + Portugal, Denis of, 124 + Provence, 3 + ---- Beatrice of, 102 + Puegsibot, Gausbert de, 14 + Puy, 69 + + + Raynouard, 19 + Richard Coeur de Lion, 55, 58, 69, 72, 134 + Riquier, Guiraut, 92, 118 + Rogier, Peire, 66 + Rovenhac, Bernart de, 118 + Roussillon, 3 + ---- Girart de, 22 + Rudel, Jaufre, 23, 44 + Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg, 82 + + + Savoy, 96 + _Serena_, 33 + Simon de Montfort, 78 + _Sirventes_, 30, 135 + Sordello, 96, 101, 116 + _Stanza_, 24, ff. + + + _Tenso_, 21, 31, 130 + Thibaut IV. of Champagne, 131 + Tor, Guillem de la, 100 + Toronet, 79 + Toulouse, 5, 13, 78, 80, 84, 138 + ---- N'At de Mons of, 117 + ---- Peire Raimon of, 113 + ---- Raimon V. of, 49, 50, 60, 67, 111 + ---- Raimon VI. of, 78, 80, 114 + Tripoli, Countess of, 44 + _Trobar clus_, 34 + Turin, 96 + + + Ussel, Gui d', 14 + + + Vaqueiras, Raimbaut de, 96, 100 + Vaudois, 76 + Venice, 100 + Ventadour, 11 + ---- Bernart of, 11, 13, 46, 68, 128, 130, 133, 135 + Verona, 96 + _Vers_, 23 + Vidal, Peire, 71, 95, 97, 100, 112, 115, 127, 138 + Virgin Mary, 15, 91 + + + Zorzi, Bartolomeo, 100, 118 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Troubadours, by H.J. 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CHAYTOR, M.A."> + +<style type=text/css> + +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} +p {text-align: justify} +blockquote {text-align: justify} + +hr {width: 50%; text-align: center} +hr.full {width: 100%} +hr.short {width: 20%; text-align: center} + +.note {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} +.footnote {font-size: 0.8em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} +.side {padding-left: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-size: 75%; + float: right; margin-left: 10px; border-left: thin dashed; + width: 25%; text-indent: 0px; font-style: italic; text-align: left} + +.dropcap {float: left} + +span.pagenum {font-size: 8pt; right: 91%; left: 1%; position: absolute} + +.poem {margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left} +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em} +.poem .stanza.i {margin: 1em 0em; font-style: italic;} +.poem p {padding-left: 3em; margin: 0px; text-indent: -3em} +.poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em} +.poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em} +.poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em} +.poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em} +.poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em} + + + + +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Troubadours, by H.J. Chaytor + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Troubadours + +Author: H.J. Chaytor + +Release Date: May 27, 2004 [EBook #12456] + +Language: English and French + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TROUBADOURS *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div align="center"> +<img src="images/Image1.png" alt=""> +</div> + + + + +<p><i>With the exception of the coat of arms at +the foot, the design on the title page is a +reproduction of one used by the earliest known +Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521</i></p> +<br><br> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + +<p>This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature +of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific +knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the +Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful +for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject +will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The +latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real +importance has been omitted.</p> + +<p>H.J. CHAYTOR.</p> + +<p>THE COLLEGE, +PLYMOUTH, March 1912.</p> +<br><br> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + + +<p>PREFACE</p> + +<p>CHAP.</p> + +<p>I. INTRODUCTORY </p> + +<p>II. THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE</p> + +<p>III. TECHNIQUE</p> + +<p>IV. THE EARLY TROUBADOURS</p> + +<p>V. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD</p> + +<p>VI. THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE</p> + +<p>VII. THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY </p> + +<p>VIII. THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN </p> + +<p>IX. PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND </p> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES </p> + +<p>INDEX</p> + +<br><br> + +<h2>THE TROUBADOURS<span class="pagenum"><a id="p001" name="p001"></a>[1] +</span></h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<p>INTRODUCTORY</p> + +<p>Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary +history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the +highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth +and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provençal poetry was +already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated +the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them +to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is +Provençal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal +and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provençal +until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouvères" in +Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by +troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p002" name="p002"></a>[2] +</span> +early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and +appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of +Provençal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von +Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a +subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative +literature.</p> + +<p>The northern limit of the Provençal language formed a line starting from +the Pointe de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde, passing through +Lesparre, Bordeaux, Libourne, Périgueux, rising northward to Nontron, la +Rochefoucauld, Confolens, Bellac, then turning eastward to Guéret and +Montluçon; it then went south-east to Clermont-Ferrand, Boën, Saint +Georges, Saint Sauveur near Annonay. The Dauphiné above Grenoble, most +of the Franche-Comté, French Switzerland and Savoy, are regarded as a +separate linguistic group known as Franco-Provençal, for the reason that +the dialects of that district display characteristics common to both +French and Provençal.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> On the south-west, Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Isles must also be included in the Provençal region. As +concerns the Northern limit, it must not be regarded as a definite line +of demarcation between the langue d'oil or the Northern French dialects +and the langue d'oc or Provençal. The boundary is, of course, determined +by noting the points at which certain linguistic features peculiar to +Provençal cease and are replaced by the characteristics of Northern <span class="pagenum"><a id="p003" name="p003"></a>[3] +</span> +French. Such a characteristic, for instance, is the Latin tonic <i>a</i> +before a single consonant, and not preceded by a palatal consonant, +which remains in Provençal but becomes <i>e</i> in French; Latin cant<i>a</i>re +becomes chant<i>a</i>r in Provençal but chant<i>e</i>r in French. But north and +south of the boundary thus determined there was, in the absence of any +great mountain range or definite geographical line of demarcation, an +indeterminate zone, in which one dialect probably shaded off by easy +gradations into the other.</p> + +<p>Within the region thus described as Provençal, several separate dialects +existed, as at the present day. Apart from the Franco-Provençal on the +north-east, which we have excluded, there was Gascon in the south-west +and the modern <i>départements</i> of the Basses and Hautes Pyrénées; +Catalonian, the dialect of Roussillon, which was brought into Spain in +the seventh century and still survives in Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Islands. The rest of the country may be subdivided by a line to +the north of which <i>c</i> before <i>a</i> becomes <i>ch</i> as in French, cant<i>a</i>re +producing chant<i>a</i>r, while southwards we find <i>c(k)</i> remaining. The +Southern dialects are those of Languedoc and Provence; north of the line +were the Limousin and Auvergne dialects. At the present day these +dialects have diverged very widely. In the early middle ages the +difference between them was by no means so great. Moreover, a literary <span class="pagenum"><a id="p004" name="p004"></a>[4] +</span> +language grew up by degrees, owing to the wide circulation of poems and +the necessity of using a dialect which could be universally +intelligible. It was the Limousin dialect which became, so to speak, the +backbone of this literary language, now generally known as Provençal, +just as the Tuscan became predominant for literary purposes among the +Italian dialects. It was in Limousin that the earliest troubadour lyrics +known to us were composed, and this district with the adjacent Poitou +and Saintonge may therefore be reasonably regarded as the birthplace of +Provençal lyric poetry.</p> + +<p>Hence the term "Provençal" is not entirely appropriate to describe the +literary language of the troubadours, as it may also be restricted to +denote the dialects spoken in the "Provincia". This difficulty was felt +at an early date. The first troubadours spoke of their language as +<i>roman</i> or <i>lingua romana,</i> a term equally applicable to any other +romance language. <i>Lemosin</i> was also used, which was too restricted a +term, and was also appropriated by the Catalonians to denote their own +dialect. A third term in use was the <i>lingua d'oc,</i> which has the +authority of Dante <a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> and was used by some of the later troubadours; +however, the term "Provençal" has been generally accepted, and must +henceforward be understood to denote the literary language common to the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p005" name="p005"></a>[5] +</span> +south of France and not the dialect of Provence properly so-called.</p> + +<p>For obvious reasons Southern France during the early middle ages had far +outstripped the Northern provinces in art, learning, and the refinements +of civilisation. Roman culture had made its way into Southern Gaul at an +early date and had been readily accepted by the inhabitants, while +Marseilles and Narbonne had also known something of Greek civilisation. +Bordeaux, Toulouse, Arles, Lyons and other towns were flourishing and +brilliant centres of civilisation at a time when Northern France was +struggling with foreign invaders. It was in Southern Gaul, again, that +Christianity first obtained a footing; here the barbarian invasions of +the fifth and sixth centuries proved less destructive to civilisation +than in Northern France, and the Visigoths seem to have been more +amenable to the influences of culture than the Northern Franks. Thus the +towns of Southern Gaul apparently remained centres in which artistic and +literary traditions were preserved more or less successfully until the +revival of classical studies during the age of Charlemagne. The climate, +again, of Southern France is milder and warmer than that of the North, +and these influences produced a difference which may almost be termed +racial. It is a difference visible even to-day and is well expressed by +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p006" name="p006"></a>[6] +</span> +the chronicler Raoul de Caen, who speaks of the Provençal Crusaders, +saying that the French were prouder in bearing and more war-like in +action than the Provençals, who especially contrasted with them by their +skill in procuring food in times of famine: "inde est, quod adhuc +puerorum decantat naenia, Franci ad bella, Provinciales ad victualia".<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> +Only a century and a half later than Charlemagne appeared the first +poetical productions in Provençal which are known to us, a fragment of a +commentary upon the De Consolatione of Boethius<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> and a poem upon St +Foy of Agen. The first troubadour, William, Count of Poitiers, belongs +to the close of the eleventh century.</p> + +<p>Though the Count of Poitiers is the first troubadour known to us, the +relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza +construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing +lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional +lapses into coarseness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was +the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent +in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige +us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable stage of +previous development. At what point this development began and what +influences stimulated its progress are questions which still remain in +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p007" name="p007"></a>[7] +</span> +dispute. Three theories have been proposed. It is, in the first place, +obviously tempting to explain the origin of Provençal poetry as being a +continuation of Latin poetry in its decadence. When the Romans settled +in Gaul they brought with them their amusements as well as their laws +and institutions. Their <i>scurrae</i>, <i>thymelici</i> and <i>joculatores</i>, the +tumblers, clowns and mountebanks, who amused the common people by day +and the nobles after their banquets by night and travelled from town to +town in pursuit of their livelihood, were accustomed to accompany their +performances by some sort of rude song and music. In the uncivilised +North they remained buffoons; but in the South, where the greater +refinement of life demanded more artistic performance, the musical part +of their entertainment became predominant and the <i>joculator</i> became the +<i>joglar</i> (Northern French, <i>jongleur</i>), a wandering musician and +eventually a troubadour, a composer of his own poems. These latter were +no longer the gross and coarse songs of the earlier mountebank age, +which Alcuin characterised as <i>turpissima</i> and <i>vanissima</i>, but the +grave and artificially wrought stanzas of the troubadour <i>chanso</i>.</p> + +<p>Secondly, it has been felt that some explanation is required to account +for the extreme complexity and artificiality of troubadour poetry in its +most highly developed stage. Some nine hundred different forms of stanza +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p008" name="p008"></a>[8] +</span> +construction are to be found in the body of troubadour poetry,<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> and +few, if any schools of lyric poetry in the world, can show a higher +degree of technical perfection in point of metrical diversity, complex +stanza construction and accuracy in the use of rime. This result has +been ascribed to Arabic influence during the eighth century; but no +sufficient proof has ever been produced that the complexities of Arabic +and Provençal poetry have sufficient in common to make this hypothesis +anything more than an ingenious conjecture.</p> + +<p>One important fact stands in contradiction to these theories. All +indications go to prove that the origin of troubadour poetry can be +definitely localised in a particular part of Southern France. We have +seen that the Limousin dialect became the basis of the literary +language, and that the first troubadour known to us belonged to Poitou. +It is also apparent that in the Poitou district, upon the border line of +the French and Provençal languages, popular songs existed and were +current among the country people; these were songs in honour of spring, +pastorals or dialogues between a knight and a shepherdess (our "Where +are you going, my pretty maid?" is of the same type), <i>albas</i> or dawn +songs which represent a friend as watching near the meeting-place of a +lover and his lady and giving him due warning of the approach of dawn or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p009" name="p009"></a>[9] +</span> +of any other danger; there are also <i>ballatas</i> or dance songs of an +obviously popular type.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> Whatever influence may have been exercised by +the Latin poetry of the decadence or by Arab poetry, it is in these +popular and native productions that we must look for the origins of the +troubadour lyrics. This popular poetry with its simple themes and homely +treatment of them is to be found in many countries, and diversity of +race is often no bar to strange coincidence in the matter of this +poetry. It is thus useless to attempt to fix any date for the beginnings +of troubadour poetry; its primitive form doubtless existed as soon as +the language was sufficiently advanced to become a medium of poetical +expression.</p> + +<p>Some of these popular themes were retained by the troubadours, the +<i>alba</i> and <i>pastorela</i> for instance, and were often treated by them in a +direct and simple manner. The Gascon troubadour Cercamon is said to have +composed pastorals in "the old style." But in general, between +troubadour poetry and the popular poetry of folk-lore, a great gulf is +fixed, the gulf of artificiality. The very name "troubadour" points to +this characteristic. <i>Trobador</i> is the oblique case of the nominative +<i>trobaire</i>, a substantive from the verb <i>trobar</i>, in modern French +<i>trouver</i>. The Northern French <i>trouvère</i> is a nominative form, and +<i>trouveor</i> should more properly correspond with <i>trobador</i>. The +accusative form, which should have persisted, was superseded by the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p010" name="p010"></a>[10] +</span> +nominative <i>trouvère</i>, which grammarians brought into fashion at the end +of the eighteenth century. The verb <i>trobar</i> is said to be derived from +the low Latin <i>tropus</i> [Greek: tropus], an air or melody: hence the +primitive meaning of <i>trobador</i> is the "composer" or "inventor," in the +first instance, of new melodies. As such, he differs from the <i>vates</i>, +the inspired bard of the Romans and the [Greek: poeta], poeta, the +creative poet of the Greeks, the "maker" of Germanic literature. Skilful +variation upon a given theme, rather than inspired or creative power, is +generally characteristic of the troubadour.</p> + +<p>Thus, whatever may have been the origin of troubadour poetry, it appears +at the outset of the twelfth century as a poetry essentially +aristocratic, intended for nobles and for courts, appealing but rarely +to the middle classes and to the common people not at all. The +environment which enabled this poetry to exist was provided by the +feudal society of Southern France. Kings, princes and nobles themselves +pursued the art and also became the patrons of troubadours who had risen +from the lower classes. Occasionally troubadours existed with sufficient +resources of their own to remain independent; Folquet of Marseilles +seems to have been a merchant of wealth, above the necessity of seeking +patronage. But troubadours such as Bernart de Ventadour, the son of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p011" name="p011"></a>[11] +</span> +stoker in the castle of Ventadour, Perdigon the son of a fisherman, and +many others of like origin depended for their livelihood and advancement +upon the favour of patrons. Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts +and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, +such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church +looked somewhat askance upon the profession. Women are also numbered +among the troubadours; Beatrice, the Countess of Die, is the most famous +of these.</p> + +<p>A famous troubadour usually circulated his poems by the mouth of a +<i>joglar</i> (Northern French, <i>jongleur</i>), who recited them at different +courts and was often sent long distances by his master for this purpose. +A joglar of originality might rise to the position of a troubadour, and +a troubadour who fell upon evil days might sink to the profession of +joglar. Hence there was naturally some confusion between the troubadour +and the joglar, and poets sometimes combined the two functions. In +course of time the joglar was regarded with some contempt, and like his +forbear, the Roman joculator, was classed with the jugglers, acrobats, +animal tamers and clowns who amused the nobles after their feasts. Nor, +under certain conditions, was the troubadour's position one of dignity; +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p012" name="p012"></a>[12] +</span> +when he was dependent upon his patron's bounty, he would stoop to +threats or to adulation in order to obtain the horse or the garments or +the money of his desire; such largesse, in fact, came to be denoted by a +special term, <i>messio</i>. Jealousy between rival troubadours, accusations +of slander in their poems and quarrels with their patrons were of +constant occurrence. These naturally affected the joglars in their +service, who received a share of any gifts that the troubadour might +obtain.</p> + +<p>The troubadours who were established more or less permanently as court +poets under a patron lord were few; a wandering life and a desire for +change of scene is characteristic of the class. They travelled far and +wide, not only to France, Spain and Italy, but to the Balkan peninsula, +Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and England; Elias Cairel is said to have visited +most of the then known world, and the biographer of Albertet Calha +relates, as an unusual fact, that this troubadour never left his native +district. Not only love, but all social and political questions of the +age attracted their attention. They satirised political and religious +opponents, preached crusades, sang funeral laments upon the death of +famous patrons, and the support of their poetical powers was often in +demand by princes and nobles involved in a struggle. Noteworthy also is +the fact that a considerable number retired to some monastery or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p013" name="p013"></a>[13] +</span> +religious house to end their days (<i>se rendet</i>, was the technical +phrase). So Bertran of Born, Bernart of Ventadour, Peire Rogier, Cadenet +and many others retired from the disappointments of the world to end +their days in peace; Folquet of Marseilles, who similarly entered the +Cistercian order, became abbot of his monastery of Torondet, Bishop of +Toulouse, a leader of the Albigeois crusade and a founder of the +Inquisition.</p> +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="pagenum"><a id="p014" name="p014"></a>[14] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE</h3> + +<p>Troubador poetry dealt with war, politics, personal satire and other +subjects: but the theme which is predominant and in which real +originality was shown, is love. The troubadours were the first lyric +poets in mediaeval Europe to deal exhaustively with this subject, and as +their attitude was imitated with certain modifications by French, +Italian, Portuguese and German poets, the nature of its treatment is a +matter of considerable importance.</p> + +<p>Of the many ladies whose praises were sung or whose favours were desired +by troubadours, the majority were married. Troubadours who made their +songs to a maiden, as did Gui d'Ussel or Gausbert de Puegsibot, are +quite exceptional. Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a +conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object. This +conventional character was derived from the fact that troubadour love +was constituted upon the analogy of feudal relationship. If chivalry was +the outcome of the Germanic theory of knighthood as modified by the +influence of Christianity, it may be said that troubadour love is the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p015" name="p015"></a>[15] +</span> +outcome of the same theory under the influence of mariolatry. In the +eleventh century the worship of the Virgin Mary became widely popular; +the reverence bestowed upon the Virgin was extended to the female sex in +general, and as a vassal owed obedience to his feudal overlord, so did +he owe service and devotion to his lady. Moreover, under the feudal +system, the lady might often be called upon to represent her husband's +suzerainty to his vassals, when she was left in charge of affairs during +his absence in time of war. Unmarried women were inconspicuous figures +in the society of the age.</p> + +<p>Thus there was a service of love as there was a service of vassalage, +and the lover stood to his lady in a position analogous to that of the +vassal to his overlord. He attained this position only by stages; "there +are four stages in love: the first is that of aspirant (<i>fegnedor</i>), the +second that of suppliant (<i>precador</i>), the third that of recognised +suitor (<i>entendedor</i>) and the fourth that of accepted lover (<i>drut</i>)." +The lover was formally installed as such by the lady, took an oath of +fidelity to her and received a kiss to seal it, a ring or some other +personal possession. For practical purposes the contract merely implied +that the lady was prepared to receive the troubadour's homage in poetry +and to be the subject of his song. As secrecy was a duty incumbent upon +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p016" name="p016"></a>[16] +</span> +the troubadour, he usually referred to the lady by a pseudonym +(<i>senhal</i>); naturally, the lady's reputation was increased if her +attraction for a famous troubadour was known, and the <i>senhal</i> was no +doubt an open secret at times. How far or how often the bounds of his +formal and conventional relationship were transgressed is impossible to +say; "en somme, assez immoral" is the judgment of Gaston Paris upon the +society of the age, and is confirmed by expressions of desire occurring +from time to time in various troubadours, which cannot be interpreted as +the outcome of a merely conventional or "platonic" devotion. In the +troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid +by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn +from this source.</p> + +<p>However, transgression was probably exceptional. The idea of troubadour +love was intellectual rather than emotional; love was an art, +restricted, like poetry, by formal rules; the terms "love" and "poetry" +were identified, and the fourteenth century treatise which summarises +the principles of grammar and metre bore the title <i>Leys d'Amors</i>, the +Laws of Love. The pathology of the emotion was studied; it was treated +from a psychological standpoint and a technical vocabulary came into +use, for which it is often impossible to find English equivalents. The +first effect of love is to produce a mental exaltation, a desire to live +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p017" name="p017"></a>[17] +</span> +a life worthy of the beloved lady and redounding to her praise, an +inspiring stimulus known as <i>joi</i> or <i>joi d'amor</i> (<i>amor</i> in Provençal +is usually feminine).<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> Other virtues are produced by the influence of +this affection: the lover must have <i>valor</i>, that is, he must be worthy +of his lady; this worth implies the possession of <i>cortesia</i>, pleasure +in the pleasure of another and the desire to please; this quality is +acquired by the observance of <i>mesura</i>, wisdom and self-restraint in +word and deed.</p> + +<p>The poetry which expresses such a state of mind is usually idealised and +pictures the relationship rather as it might have been than as it was. +The troubadour who knew his business would begin with praises of his +beloved; she is physically and morally perfect, her beauty illuminates +the night, her presence heals the sick, cheers the sad, makes the boor +courteous and so forth. For her the singer's love and devotion is +infinite: separation from her would be worse than death; her death would +leave the world cheerless, and to her he owes any thoughts of good or +beauty that he may have. It is only because he loves her that he can +sing. Hence he would rather suffer any pain or punishment at her hands +than receive the highest favours from another. The effects of this love +are obvious in his person. His voice quavers with supreme delight or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p018" name="p018"></a>[18] +</span> +breaks in dark despair; he sighs and weeps and wakes at night to think +of the one subject of contemplation. Waves of heat and cold pass over +him, and even when he prays, her image is before his eyes. This passion +has transformed his nature: he is a better and stronger man than ever +before, ready to forgive his enemies and to undergo any physical +privations; winter is to him as the cheerful spring, ice and snow as +soft lawns and flowery meads. Yet, if unrequited, his passion may +destroy him; he loses his self-control, does not hear when he is +addressed, cannot eat or sleep, grows thin and feeble, and is sinking +slowly to an early tomb. Even so, he does not regret his love, though it +lead to suffering and death; his passion grows ever stronger, for it is +ever supported by hope. But if his hopes are realised, he will owe +everything to the gracious favour of his lady, for his own merits can +avail nothing. Sometimes he is not prepared for such complete +self-renunciation; he reproaches his lady for her coldness, complains +that she has led him on by a show of kindness, has deceived him and will +be the cause of his death; or his patience is at an end, he will live in +spite of her and try his fortune elsewhere.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a></p> + +<p>Such, in very general terms, is the course that might be followed in +developing a well-worn theme, on which many variations are possible. The +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p019" name="p019"></a>[19] +</span> +most common form of introduction is a reference to the spring or winter, +and to the influence of the seasons upon the poet's frame of mind or the +desire of the lady or of his patron for a song. In song the poet seeks +consolation for his miseries or hopes to increase the renown of his +lady. As will be seen in the following chapter, manner was even more +important than matter in troubadour lyrics, and commonplaces were +revivified by intricate rime-schemes and stanza construction accompanied +by new melodies. The conventional nature of the whole business may be +partly attested by the fact that no undoubted instance of death or +suicide for love has been handed down to us.</p> + +<p>Reference should here be made to a legendary institution which seems to +have gripped the imagination of almost every tourist who writes a book +of travels in Southern France, the so-called <i>Courts of Love</i>.<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> In +modern times the famous Provençal scholar, Raynouard, attempted to +demonstrate the existence of these institutions, relying upon the +evidence of the <i>Art d'Aimer</i> by André le Chapelain, a work written in +the thirteenth century and upon the statements of Nostradamus (<i>Vies des +plus célèbres et anciens poètes provençaux</i>, Lyons 1575). The latter +writer, the younger brother of the famous prophet, was obviously well +acquainted with Provençal literature and had access to sources of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p020" name="p020"></a>[20] +</span> +information which are now lost to us. But instead of attempting to write +history, he embellished the lives of the troubadours by drawing upon his +own extremely fertile imagination when the actual facts seemed too dull +or prosaic to arouse interest. He professed to have derived his +information from a manuscript left by a learned monk, the <i>Moine des +Iles d'Or</i>, of the monastery of St Honorat in the Ile de Lerins. The +late M. Camille Chabaneau has shown that the story is a pure fiction, +and that the monk's pretended name was an anagram upon the name of a +friend of Nostradamus.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> Hence it is almost impossible to separate the +truth from the fiction in this book and any statements made by +Nostradamus must be received with the utmost caution. André le Chapelain +seems to have had no intention to deceive, but his knowledge of +Provençal society was entirely second-hand, and his statements +concerning the Courts of Love are no more worthy of credence than those +of Nostradamus. According to these two unreliable authorities, courts +for the decision of lovers' perplexities existed in Gascony, Provence, +Avignon and elsewhere; the seat of justice was held by some famous lady, +and the courts decided such questions as whether a lover could love two +ladies at the same time, whether lovers or married couples were the more +affectionate, whether love was compatible with avarice, and the like. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p021" name="p021"></a>[21] +</span></p> + +<p>A special poetical form which was popular among the troubadours may have +given rise to the legend. This was the <i>tenso</i>,<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href= +"#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> in which one +troubadour propounded a problem of love in an opening stanza and his +opponent or interlocutor gave his view in a second stanza, which +preserved the metre and rime-scheme of the first. The propounder then +replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was +made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for +settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding +the contest. Raynouard quotes the conclusion of a <i>tenso</i> given by +Nostradamus in which one of the interlocutors says, "I shall overcome +you if the court is loyal: I will send the <i>tenso</i> to Pierrefeu, where +the fair lady holds her court of instruction." The "court" here in +question was a social and not a judicial court. Had any such institution +as a judicial "court of love" ever been an integral part of Provençal +custom, it is scarcely conceivable that we should be informed of its +existence only by a few vague and scattered allusions in the large body +of Provençal literature. For these reasons the theory that such an +institution existed has been generally rejected by all scholars of +repute.</p> + + +<br><br> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="pagenum"><a id="p022" name="p022"></a>[22] +</span></h3> + +<h3>TECHNIQUE</h3> + + +<p>Provençal literature contains examples of almost every poetical <i>genre</i>. +Epic poetry is represented by Girart of Roussillon,<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href= +"#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a> a story of long +struggles between Charles Martel and one of his barons, by the Roman de +Jaufre, the adventures of a knight of the Round Table, by Flamenca, a +love story which provides an admirable picture of the manners and +customs of the time, and by other fragments and <i>novelas</i> or shorter +stories in the same style. Didactic poetry includes historical works +such as the poem of the Albigeois crusade, ethical or moralising +<i>ensenhamens</i> and religious poetry. But the dominating element in +Provençal literature is lyrical, and during the short classical age of +this literature lyric poetry was supreme. Nearly five hundred different +troubadours are known to us at least by name and almost a thousand +different stanza forms have been enumerated. While examples of the fine +careless rapture of inspiration are by no means wanting, artificiality +reigns supreme in the majority of cases. Questions of technique receive +the most sedulous attention, and the principles of stanza construction, +rime correspondence and rime distribution, as evolved by the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p023" name="p023"></a>[23] +</span> +troubadours, exerted so wide an influence upon other European literature +that they deserve a chapter to themselves.</p> + +<p>There was no formal school for poetical training during the best period +of Provençal lyric. When, for instance, Giraut de Bornelli is said to +have gone to "school" during the winter seasons, nothing more is meant +than the pursuit of the trivium and quadrivium, the seven arts, which +formed the usual subjects of instruction. A troubadour learned the +principles of his art from other poets who were well acquainted with the +conventions that had been formulated in course of time, conventions +which were collected and systematised in such treatises as the Leys +d'Amors during the period of the decadence.</p> + +<p>The love song or <i>chanso</i> was composed of five, six or seven stanzas +(<i>coblas</i>) with, one or two <i>tornadas</i> or <i>envois</i>. The stanza varied in +length from two to forty-two lines, though these limits are, of course, +exceptional. An earlier form of the <i>chanso</i> was known as the <i>vers</i>; it +seems to have been in closer relation to the popular poetry than the +more artificial <i>chanso</i>, and to have had shorter stanzas and lines; but +the distinction is not clear. As all poems were intended to be sung, the +poet was also a composer; the biography of Jaufre Rudel, for instance, +says that this troubadour "made many poems with good tunes but poor +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p024" name="p024"></a>[24] +</span> +words." The tune known as <i>son</i> (diminutive sonnet) was as much the +property of a troubadour as his poem, for it implied and would only suit +a special form of stanza; hence if another poet borrowed it, +acknowledgment was generally made. Dante, in his <i>De Vulgari +Eloquentia</i>, informs us concerning the structure of this musical +setting: it might be continuous without repetition or division; or it +might be in two parts, one repeating the other, in which case the stanza +was also divided into two parts, the division being termed by Dante the +<i>diesis</i> or <i>volta</i>; of these two parts one might be subdivided into two +or even more parts, which parts, in the stanza, corresponded both in +rimes and in the arrangement of the lines. If the first part of the +stanza was thus divisible, the parts were called <i>pedes</i>, and the +musical theme or <i>oda</i> of the first <i>pes</i> was repeated for the second; +the rest of the stanza was known as the <i>syrma</i> or <i>coda</i>, and had a +musical theme of its own. Again the first part of the stanza might be +indivisible, when it was called the <i>frons</i>, the divided parts of the +second half being the <i>versus</i>; in this case the <i>frons</i> had its own +musical theme, as did the first <i>versus</i>, the theme of the first +<i>versus</i> being repeated for the second. Or, lastly, a stanza might +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p025" name="p025"></a>[25] +</span> +consist of <i>pedes</i> and <i>versus</i>, one theme being used for the first +<i>pes</i> and repeated for the second and similarly with the <i>versus</i>. +Thus the general principle upon which the stanza was constructed was that of +tripartition in the following three forms:—</p> + + +<div align="center"> +<img src="images/Image2.png" alt=""> +</div> + + + +<p>These forms were rather typical than stringently binding as Dante +himself notes (<i>De Vulg. El.</i>, ii, 11); many variations were +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p026" name="p026"></a>[26] +</span> +possible. The first seems to have been the most popular type. The poem might also +conclude with a half stanza or <i>tornada</i>, (French <i>envoi</i>). Here, as in +the last couplet of the Arabic <i>gazul</i>, were placed the personal +allusions, and when these were unintelligible to the audience the +<i>joglar</i> usually explained the poem before singing it; the explanations, +which in some cases remain prefixed to the poem, were known as the +<i>razos</i>.</p> + +<p>Troubadour poems were composed for singing, not for recitation, and the +music of a poem was an element of no less importance than the words. +Troubadours are described as composing "good" tunes and "poor" words, or +vice versa; the tune was a piece of literary property, and, as we have +said, if a troubadour borrowed a tune he was expected to acknowledge its +origin. Consequently music and words were regarded as forming a unity, +and the structure of the one should be a guide to the structure of the +other. Troubadour music is a subject still beset with difficulties<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href= +"#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a>: +we possess 244 tunes written in Gregorian notation, and as in certain +cases the same poem appears in different MSS. with the tune in +substantial agreement in each one, we may reasonably assume that we have +an authentic record, as far as this could be expressed in Gregorian +notation. The chief difference between Troubadour and Gregorian music +lies in the fact that the former was syllabic in character; in other +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p027" name="p027"></a>[27] +</span> +words, one note was not held over several syllables, though several +notes might be sung upon one syllable. The system of musical time in the +age of the troubadours was based upon the so-called "modes," rhythmical +formulae combining short and long notes in various sequences. Three of +these concern us here. The first mode consists of a long followed by a +short note, the long being equivalent to two short, or in<img src="images/m1.png" alt=""> time +<img src="images/m2.png" alt="">. The second mode is the reverse of +the first <img src="images/m3.png" alt="">. The third mode in modern +<img src="images/m4.png" alt=""> time appears as <img src="images/m5.png" alt="">. The principle of +sub-division is thus ternary; "common" time or <img src="images/m6.png" alt=""> time is a later +modification. So much being admitted, the problem of transposing a tune +written in Gregorian notation without bars, time signature, marks of +expression or other modern devices is obviously a difficult matter. J. +Beck, who has written most recently upon the subject, formulates the +following rules; the musical accent falls upon the tonic syllables of +the words; should the accent fall upon an atonic syllable, the duration +of the note to which the tonic syllable is sung may be increased, to +avoid the apparent discordance between the musical accent and the tonic +syllable. The musical accent must fall upon the rime and the rhythm +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p028" name="p028"></a>[28] +</span> +adopted at the outset will persist throughout the poem.</p> + +<p>Hence a study of the words will give the key to the interpretation of +the tune. If, for instance, the poem shows accented followed by +unaccented syllables or trochees as the prevalent foot, the first "mode" +is indicated as providing the principle to be followed in transposing +the Gregorian to modern notation. When these conditions are reversed the +iambic foot will prevail and the melody will be in the second mode. It +is not possible here to treat this complicated question in full detail +for which reference must be made to the works of J. Beck. But it is +clear that the system above outlined is an improvement upon that +proposed by such earlier students of the subject as Riemann, who assumed +that each syllable was sung to a note or group of notes of equal time +value. There is no evidence that such a rhythm was ever employed in the +middle ages, and the fact that words and music were inseparable in +Provençal lyrics shows that to infer the nature of the musical rhythm +from the rhythm of the words is a perfectly legitimate method of +inquiry.</p> + +<p>A further question arises: how far do the tunes correspond with the +structure of the stanza as given by Dante? In some cases both tune and +stanza correspond in symmetrical form; but in others we find stanzas +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p029" name="p029"></a>[29] +</span> +which may be divided according to rule conjoined with tunes which +present no melodic repetition of any kind; similarly, tunes which may be +divided into pedes and coda are written upon stanzas which have no +relation to that form. On the whole, it seems that the number of tunes +known to us are too few, in comparison with the large body of lyric +poetry existing, to permit any generalisation upon the question. The +singer accompanied himself upon a stringed instrument (<i>viula</i>) or was +accompanied by other performers; various forms of wind instruments were +also in use. Apparently the accompaniment was in unison with the singer; +part writing or contrapuntal music was unknown at the troubadour period.</p> + +<p>As has been said, the stanza (<i>cobla</i>) might vary in length. No poetical +literature has made more use of rime than Provençal lyric poetry. There +were three typical methods of rime disposition: firstly, the rimes might +all find their answer within the stanza, which was thus a self-contained +whole; secondly, the rimes might find their answer within the stanza and +be again repeated in the same order in all following stanzas; and +thirdly, the rimes might find no answer within the stanza, but be +repeated in following stanzas. In this case the rimes were known as +<i>dissolutas</i>, and the stanza as a <i>cobla estrampa</i>. This last +arrangement tended to make the poem a more organic whole than was +possible in the first two cases; in these, stanzas might be omitted +without necessarily impairing the general effect, but, when <i>coblas +estrampas</i> were employed, the ear of the auditor, attentive for the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p030" name="p030"></a>[30] +</span> +answering rimes, would not be satisfied before the conclusion of the +second stanza. A further step towards the provision of closer unity +between the separate stanzas was the <i>chanso redonda</i>, which was +composed of <i>coblas estrampas</i>, the rime order of the second stanza +being an inversion of the rime order of the first; the tendency reaches +its highest point in the <i>sestina</i>, which retained the characteristic of +the <i>chanso redonda</i>, namely, that the last rime of one stanza should +correspond with the first rime of the following stanza, but with the +additional improvement that every rime started a stanza in turn, +whereas, in the <i>chanso redonda</i> the same rime continually recurred at +the beginning of every other stanza.</p> + +<p>Reference has already been made to the <i>chanso</i>. A poetical form of much +importance was the <i>sirventes</i>, which outwardly was indistinguishable +from the <i>chanso</i>. The meaning of the term is unknown; some say that it +originally implied a poem composed by "servants," poets in the service +of an overlord; others, that it was a poem composed to the tune of a +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p031" name="p031"></a>[31] +</span> +<i>chanso</i> which it thus imitated in a "servile" manner. From the <i>chanso</i> +the <i>sirventes</i> is distinguished by its subject matter; it was the +vehicle for satire, moral reproof or political lampooning. The +troubadours were often keenly interested in the political events of +their time; they filled, to some extent, the place of the modern +journalist and were naturally the partisans of the overlord in whose +service or pay they happened to be. They were ready to foment a war, to +lampoon a stingy patron, to ridicule one another, to abuse the morality +of the age as circumstances might dictate. The crusade <i>sirventes</i><a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href= +"#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a> +are important in this connection, and there were often eloquent +exhortations to the leaders of Christianity to come to the rescue of +Palestine and the Holy Sepulchre. Under this heading also falls the +<i>planh</i>, a funeral song lamenting the death of a patron, and here again, +beneath the mask of conventionality, real emotion is often apparent, as +in the famous lament upon Richard Coeur de Lion composed by Gaucelm +Faidit.</p> + +<p>Reference has been already made to the <i>tenso</i>, one of the most +characteristic of Provençal lyric forms. The name (Lat. <i>tentionem</i>) +implies a contention or strife, which was conducted in the form of a +dialogue and possibly owed its origin to the custom in early vogue among +many different peoples of holding poetical tournaments, in which one +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p032" name="p032"></a>[32] +</span> +poet challenged another by uttering a poetical phrase to which the +opponent replied in similar metrical form. Such, at any rate, is the +form of the <i>tenso</i>; a poet propounds a theme in the first stanza and +his interlocutor replies in a stanza of identical metrical form; the +dispute usually continues for some half dozen stanzas. One class of +tenso was obviously fictitious, as the dialogue is carried on with +animals or even lifeless objects, such as a lady's cloak, and it is +possible that some at least of the discussions ostensibly conducted +between two poets may have emanated from the brain of one sole author. +Sometimes three or four interlocutors take part; the subject of +discussion was then known as a <i>joc partit</i>, a divided game, or +<i>partimen</i>, a title eventually transferred to the poem itself. The most +varied questions were discussed in the <i>tenso</i>, but casuistical problems +concerning love are the most frequent: Is the death or the treachery of +a loved one easier to bear? Is a lover's feeling for his lady stronger +before she has accepted him or afterwards? Is a bad noble or a poor but +upright man more worthy to find favour? The discussion of such questions +provided an opportunity of displaying both poetical dexterity and also +dialectical acumen. But rarely did either of the disputants declare +himself convinced or vanquished by his opponents' arguments the question +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p033" name="p033"></a>[33] +</span> +was left undecided or was referred by agreement to an arbitrator.</p> + +<p>A poetical form which preserves some trace of its popular origin is the +<i>pastorela</i><a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href= +"#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> or pastoral which takes its name from the fact that the +heroine of the piece was always a shepherdess. The conventional opening +is a description by a knight of his meeting with a shepherdess, "the +other day" (<i>l'autrier</i>, the word with which the poem usually begins). A +dialogue then follows between the knight and the shepherdess, in which +the former sues for her favours successfully or otherwise. The irony or +sarcasm which enables the shepherdess to hold her own in the encounter +is far removed from the simplicity of popular poetry. The <i>Leys d'Amors</i> +mentions other forms of the same genre such as <i>vaqueira</i> (cowherd), +<i>auqueira</i> (goose girl), of which a specimen of the first-named alone +has survived. Of equal interest is the <i>alba</i> or dawn-song, in which the +word <i>alba</i> reappeared as a refrain in each verse; the subject of the +poem is the parting of the lovers at the dawn, the approach of which is +announced by a watchman or by some faithful friend who has undertaken to +guard their meeting-place throughout the night. The counterpart of this +form, the <i>serena</i>, does not appear until late in the history of +Provençal lyric poetry; in the <i>serena</i> the lover longs for the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p034" name="p034"></a>[34] +</span> +approach of evening, which is to unite him with his beloved.</p> + +<p>Other forms of minor importance were the <i>comjat</i> in which a troubadour +bids a lady a final farewell, and the <i>escondig</i> or justification in +which the lover attempts to excuse his behaviour to a lady whose anger +he had aroused. The troubled state of his feelings might find expression +in the <i>descort</i> (discord), in which each stanza showed a change of +metre and melody. The <i>descort</i> of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras is written in +five dialects, one for each stanza, and the last and sixth stanza of the +poem gives two lines to each dialect, which Babel of strange sounds is +intended, he says, to show how entirely his lady's heart has changed +towards him. The <i>ballata</i> and the <i>estampida</i> were dance-songs, but +very few examples survive. Certain love letters also remain to us, but +as these are written in rimed couplets and in narrative style, they can +hardly be classified as lyric poetry.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, a word must be said concerning the dispute between two +schools of stylists, which is one of the most interesting points in the +literary history of the troubadours.<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href= +"#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a> From the earliest times we find +two poetical schools in opposition, the <i>trobar clus</i> (also known as +<i>car, ric, oscur, sotil, cobert</i>), the obscure, or close, subtle style +of composition, and the <i>trobar clar</i> (leu, leugier, plan), the clear, +light, easy, straightforward style. Two or three causes may have +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p035" name="p035"></a>[35] +</span> +combined to favour the development of obscure writing. The theme of love +with which the <i>chanso</i> dealt is a subject by no means inexhaustible; +there was a continual struggle to revivify the well-worn tale by means +of strange turns of expression, by the use of unusual adjectives and +forced metaphor, by the discovery of difficult rimes (<i>rimes cars</i>) and +stanza schemes of extraordinary complexity. Marcabrun asserts, possibly +in jest, that he could not always understand his own poems. A further +and possibly an earlier cause of obscurity in expression was the fact +that the <i>chanso</i> was a love song addressed to a married lady; and +though in many cases it was the fact that the poem embodied compliments +purely conventional, however exaggerated to our ideas, yet the further +fact remains that the sentiments expressed might as easily be those of +veritable passion, and, in view of a husband's existence, obscurity had +a utility of its own. This point Guiraut de Bornelh advances as an +objection to the use of the easy style: "I should like to send my song +to my lady, if I should find a messenger; but if I made another my +spokesman, I fear she would blame me. For there is no sense in making +another speak out what one wishes to conceal and keep to oneself." The +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p036" name="p036"></a>[36] +</span> +habit of alluding to the lady addressed under a <i>senhal</i>, or pseudonym, +in the course of the poem, is evidence for a need of privacy, though +this custom was also conventionalised, and we find men as well as women +alluded to under a <i>senhal</i>. It was not always the fact that the +<i>senhal</i> was an open secret, although in many cases, where a high-born +dame desired to boast of the accomplished troubadour in her service, his +poems would naturally secure the widest publication which she could +procure. A further reason for complexity of composition is given by the +troubadour Peire d'Auvergne: "He is pleasing and agreeable to me who +proceeds to sing with words shut up and obscure, to which a man is +afraid to do violence." The "violence" apprehended is that of the +<i>joglar</i>, who might garble a song in the performance of it, if he had +not the memory or industry to learn it perfectly, and Peire d'Alvernhe +(1158-80) commends compositions so constructed that the disposition of +the rimes will prevent the interpolation of topical allusions or +careless altercation. The similar safeguard of Dante's <i>terza rima</i> will +occur to every student.</p> + +<p>The social conditions again under which troubadour poetry was produced, +apart from the limitations of its subject matter, tended to foster an +obscure and highly artificial diction. This obscurity was attained, as +we have said, by elevation and preciosity of style, and was not the +result of confusion of thought. Guiraut de Bornelh tells us his method +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p037" name="p037"></a>[37] +</span> +in a passage worth quoting in the original—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Mas per melhs assire </p> +<p class="i2">mon chan,</p> +<p class="i2">vau cercan</p> +<p class="i2">bos motz en fre</p> +<p class="i2">que son tuit cargat e ple</p> +<p class="i2">d'us estranhs sens naturals;</p> +<p class="i2">mas no sabon tuich de cals.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"But for the better foundation of my song I keep on the watch for words +good on the rein (<i>i.e.</i> tractable like horses), which are all loaded +(like pack horses) and full of a meaning which is unusual, and yet is +wholly theirs (naturals); but it is not everyone that knows what that +meaning is".<a id="footnotetag17" name="footnotetag17"></a><a href= +"#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a></p> + +<p>Difficulty was thus intentional; in the case of several troubadours it +affected the whole of their writing, no matter what the subject matter. +They desired not to be understood of the people. Dean Gaisford's reputed +address to his divinity lecture illustrates the attitude of those +troubadours who affected the <i>trobar clus</i>: "Gentlemen, a knowledge of +Greek will enable you to read the oracles of God in the original and to +look down from the heights of scholarship upon the vulgar herd." The +inevitable reaction occurred, and a movement in the opposite direction +was begun; of this movement the most distinguished supporter was the +troubadour, Guiraut de Bornelh. He had been one of the most successful +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p038" name="p038"></a>[38] +</span> +exponents of the <i>trobar clus</i>, and afterwards supported the cause of +the <i>trobar clar</i>. Current arguments for either cause are set forth in +the <i>tenso</i> between Guiraut de Bornelh and Linhaure (pseudonym for the +troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga).</p> + +<p>(1) I should like to know, G. de Bornelh, why, and for what reason, you +keep blaming the obscure style. Tell me if you prize so highly that +which is common to all? For then would all be equal.</p> + +<p>(2) Sir Linhaure, I do not take it to heart if each man composes as he +pleases; but judge that song is more loved and prized which is made easy +and simple, and do not be vexed at my opinion.</p> + +<p>(3) Guiraut, I do not like my songs to be so confused, that the base and +good, the small and great be appraised alike; my poetry will never be +praised by fools, for they have no understanding nor care for what is +more precious and valuable.</p> + +<p>(4) Linhaure, if I work late and turn my rest into weariness for that +reason (to make my songs simple), does it seem that I am afraid of work? +Why compose if you do not want all to understand? Song brings no other +advantage.</p> + +<p>(5) Guiraut, provided that I produce what is best at all times, I care +not if it be not so widespread; commonplaces are no good for the +appreciative—that is why gold is more valued than salt, and with song +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p039" name="p039"></a>[39] +</span> +it is even the same.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that the disputants are at cross purposes; the object of +writing poetry, according to the one, is to please a small circle of +highly trained admirers by the display of technical skill. Guiraut de +Bornelh, on the other hand, believes that the poet should have a message +for the people, and that even the fools should be able to understand its +purport. He adds the further statement that composition in the easy +style demands no less skill and power than is required for the +production of obscurity. This latter is a point upon which he repeatedly +insists: "The troubadour who makes his meaning clear is just as clever +as he who cunningly conjoins words." "My opinion is that it is not in +obscure but in clear composition that toil is involved." Later +troubadours of renown supported his arguments; Raimon de Miraval +(1168-1180) declares: "Never should obscure poetry be praised, for it is +composed only for a price, compared with sweet festal songs, easy to +learn, such as I sing." So, too, pronounces the Italian Lanfranc Cigala +(1241-1257): "I could easily compose an obscure, subtle poem if I +wished; but no poem should be so concealed beneath subtlety as not to be +clear as day. For knowledge is of small value if clearness does not +bring light; obscurity has ever been regarded as death, and brightness +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p040" name="p040"></a>[40] +</span> +as life." The fact is thus sufficiently demonstrated that these two +styles existed in opposition, and that any one troubadour might practise +both.</p> + +<p>Enough has now been said to show that troubadour lyric poetry, regarded +as literature, would soon produce a surfeit, if read in bulk. It is +essentially a literature of artificiality and polish. Its importance +consists in the fact that it was the first literature to emphasise the +value of form in poetry, to formulate rules, and, in short, to show that +art must be based upon scientific knowledge. The work of the troubadours +in these respects left an indelible impression upon the general course +of European literature.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="pagenum"><a id="p041" name="p041"></a>[41] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE EARLY TROUBADOURS</h3> + + +<p>The earliest troubadour known to us is William IX, Count of Poitiers +(1071-1127) who led an army of thirty thousand men to the unfortunate +crusade of 1101. He lived an adventurous and often an unedifying life, +and seems to have been a jovial sensualist caring little what kind of +reputation he might obtain in the eyes of the world about him. William +of Malmesbury gives an account of him which is the reverse of +respectable. His poems, of which twelve survive, are, to some extent, a +reflection of this character, and present a mixture of coarseness and +delicate sentiment which are in strangely discordant contrast. His +versification is of an early type; the principle of tripartition, which +became predominant in troubadour poetry at a later date, is hardly +perceptible in his poems. The chief point of interest in them is the +fact that their comparative perfection of form implies a long anterior +course of development for troubadour poetry, while we also find him +employing, though in undeveloped form, the chief ideas which afterwards +became commonplaces among the troubadours. The half mystical exaltation +inspired by love is already known to William IX. as <i>joi</i>, and he is +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p042" name="p042"></a>[42] +</span> +acquainted with the service of love under feudal conditions. The +conventional attitudes of the lady and the lover are also taken for +granted, the lady disdainful and unbending, the lover timid and relying +upon his patience. The lady is praised for her outward qualities, her +"kindly welcome, her gracious and pleasing look" and love for her is +considered to be the inspiration of nobility in the lover. But these +ideas are not carried to the extravagant lengths to which later poets +pushed them; William's sensual leanings are enough to counterbalance any +tendency to such exaggeration. The conventional opening of a love poem +by a description of spring is also in evidence; in short, the +commonplaces, the technical language and formulae of later Provençal +lyrics were in existence during the age of this first troubadour.</p> + +<p>Next in point of time is the troubadour Cercamon, of whom we know very +little; his poems, as we have them, seem to fall between the years 1137 +and 1152; one of them is a lament upon the death of William X. of +Aquitaine, the son of the notorious Count of Poitiers, and another +alludes to the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of William +X. According to the Provençal biography he was the instructor of a more +interesting and original troubadour Marcabrun, whose active life +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p043" name="p043"></a>[43] +</span> +extended from 1150 to 1195. Many of his poems are extremely obscure; he +was one of the first to affect the <i>trobar clus</i>. He was also the author +of violent invectives against the passion of love—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Que anc non amet neguna</p> +<p class="i2">Ni d'autra no fon amatz—</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Who never loved any woman nor was loved of any." This aversion to the +main theme of troubadour poetry is Marcabrun's most striking +characteristic.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Amors es mout de mal avi;</p> +<p class="i2">Mil homes a mortz ses glavi;</p> +<p class="i2">Dieus non fetz tant fort gramavi.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Love is of a detestable lineage; he has killed thousands of men without +a sword. God has created no more terrible enchanter." These invectives +may have been the outcome of personal disappointment; the theory has +also been advanced that the troubadour idea of love had not yet secured +universal recognition, and that Marcabrun is one who strove to prevent +it from becoming the dominant theme of lyric poetry. His best known poem +was the "Starling," which consists of two parts, an unusual form of +composition. In the first part the troubadour sends the starling to his +love to reproach her for unfaithfulness, and to recommend himself to her +favour; the bird returns, and in the second part offers excuses from the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p044" name="p044"></a>[44] +</span> +lady and brings an invitation from her to a meeting the next day. +Marcabrun knows the technical terms <i>cortesia</i> and <i>mesura</i>, which he +defines: <i>mesura</i>, self-control or moderation, "consists in nicety of +speech, courtesy in loving. He may boast of courtesy who can maintain +moderation." The poem concludes with a dedication to Jaufre Rudel—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Lo vers e·l son vueill envier</p> +<p class="i2">A'n Jaufre Rudel outra mar.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"The words and the tune I wish to send to Jaufre Rudel beyond the sea."</p> + +<p>This was the troubadour whom Petrarch has made famous—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Jaufre Rudel che usò la vela e'l remo</p> +<p class="i2">A cercar la sua morte.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>His romantic story is as follows in the words of the Provençal +biography: "Jaufre Rudel of Blaya was a very noble man, the Prince of +Blaya; he fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, though he had never +seen her, for the good report that he had of her from the pilgrims who +came from Antioch, and he made many poems concerning her with good tunes +but poor words.<a id="footnotetag18" name="footnotetag18"></a><a href= +"#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a> And from desire to see her, he took the cross and +went to sea. And in the ship great illness came upon him so that those +who were with him thought that he was dead in the ship; but they +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p045" name="p045"></a>[45] +</span> +succeeded in bringing him to Tripoli, to an inn, as one dead. And it was +told to the countess, and she came to him, to his bed, and took him in +her arms; and he knew that she was the countess, and recovering his +senses, he praised God and gave thanks that his life had been sustained +until he had seen her; and then he died in the lady's arms. And she gave +him honourable burial in the house of the Temple, and then, on that day, +she took the veil for the grief that she had for him and for his death." +Jaufre's poems contain many references to a "distant love" which he will +never see, "for his destiny is to love without being loved." Those +critics who accept the truth of the story regard Melisanda, daughter of +Raimon I., Count of Tripoli, as the heroine; but the biography must be +used with great caution as a historical source, and the mention of the +house of the order of Templars in which Jaufre is said to have been +buried raises a difficulty; it was erected in 1118, and in the year 1200 +the County of Tripoli was merged in that of Antioch; of the Rudels of +Blaya, historically known to us, there is none who falls reasonably +within these dates. The probability is that the constant references in +Jaufre's poems to an unknown distant love, and the fact of his crusading +expedition to the Holy Land, formed in conjunction the nucleus of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p046" name="p046"></a>[46] +</span> +legend which grew round his name, and which is known to all readers of +Carducci, Uhland and Heine.</p> + +<p>Contemporary with Jaufre Rudel was Bernard de Ventadour, one of the +greatest names in Provençal poetry. According to the biography, which +betrays its untrustworthiness by contradicting the facts of history, +Bernard was the son of the furnace stoker at the castle of Ventadour, +under the Viscount Ebles II., himself a troubadour and a patron of +troubadours. It was from the viscount that Bernard received instruction +in the troubadours' art, and to his patron's interest in his talents he +doubtless owed the opportunities which he enjoyed of learning to read +and write, and of making acquaintance with such Latin authors as were +currently read, or with the anthologies and books of "sentences" then +used for instruction in Latin. He soon outstripped his patron, to whose +wife, Agnes de Montluçon, his early poems were addressed. His relations +with the lady and with his patron were disturbed by the <i>lauzengiers</i>, +the slanderers, the envious, and the backbiters of whom troubadours +constantly complain, and he was obliged to leave Ventadour. He went to +the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the granddaughter of the first +troubadour, Guillaume IX. of Poitiers, who by tradition and temperament +was a patroness of troubadours, many of whom sang her praises. She had +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p047" name="p047"></a>[47] +</span> +been divorced from Louis VII. of France in 1152, and married Henry, Duke +of Normandy, afterwards King of England in the same year. There Bernard +may have remained until 1154, in which year Eleanor went to England as +Queen. Whether Bernard followed her to England is uncertain; the +personal allusions in his poems are generally scanty, and the details of +his life are correspondingly obscure. But one poem seems to indicate +that he may have crossed the Channel. He says that he has kept silence +for two years, but that the autumn season impels him to sing; in spite +of his love, his lady will not deign to reply to him: but his devotion +is unchanged and she may sell him or give him away if she pleases. She +does him wrong in failing to call him to her chamber that he may remove +her shoes humbly upon his knees, when she deigns to stretch forth her +foot. He then continues<a id="footnotetag19" name="footnotetag19"></a><a href= +"#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Faitz es lo vers totz a randa,</p> +<p class="i2">Si que motz no y descapduelha.</p> +<p class="i2">outra la terra normanda</p> +<p class="i2">part la fera mar prionda;</p> +<p class="i2">e si·m suy de midons lunhans.</p> +<p class="i2">yes si·m tira cum diamans,</p> +<p class="i2">la belha cui dieus defenda.</p> +<p class="i4">Si·l reys engles el dux normans</p> +<p class="i2">o vol, ieu la veirai, abans</p> +<p class="i2">que l'iverns nos sobreprenda.</p> + </div> </div> + + +<p>"The <i>vers</i> has been composed fully so that not a word is wanting, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p048" name="p048"></a>[48] +</span> +beyond the Norman land and the deep wild sea; and though I am far from +my lady, she attracts me like a magnet, the fair one whom may God +protect. If the English king and Norman duke will, I shall see her +before the winter surprise us."</p> + +<p>How long Bernard remained in Normandy, we cannot conjecture. He is said +to have gone to the court of Raimon V., Count of Toulouse, a well-known +patron of the troubadours. On Raimon's death in 1194, Bernard, who must +himself have been growing old, retired to the abbey of Dalon in his +native province of Limousin, where he died. He is perhaps more deeply +inspired by the true spirit of lyric poetry than any other troubadour; +he insists that love is the only source of song; poetry to be real, must +be lived.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Non es meravelha s'ieu chan</p> +<p class="i2">mielhs de nulh autre chantador;</p> +<p class="i2">que plus mi tra·l cors ves amor</p> +<p class="i2">e mielhs sui faitz a son coman.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer; for my heart +draws me more than others towards love, and I am better made for his +commandments." Hence Bernard gave fuller expression than any other +troubadour to the ennobling power of love, as the only source of real +worth and nobility.</p> + +<p>The subject speedily became exhausted, and ingenuity did but increase +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p049" name="p049"></a>[49] +</span> +the conventionality of its treatment. But in Bernard's hands it retains +its early freshness and sincerity. The description of the seasons of the +year as impelling the troubadour to song was, or became, an entirely +conventional and expected opening to a <i>chanso</i>; but in Bernard's case +these descriptions were marked by the observation and feeling of one who +had a real love for the country and for nature, and the contrast or +comparison between the season of the year and his own feelings is of +real lyrical value. The opening with the description of the lark is +famous—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Quant vey la lauzeta mover</p> +<p class="i2">De joi sas alas contral rai,</p> +<p class="i2">que s'oblida e·s laissa cazer</p> +<p class="i2">per la doussor qu'al cor li vai,</p> +<p class="i2">ai! tan grans enveia m'en ve</p> +<p class="i2">de cui qu'eu veya jauzion!</p> +<p class="i2">meravilhas ai, quar desse</p> +<p class="i2">lo cor de dezirier no·m fon.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"When I see the lark flutter with joy towards the sun, and forget +himself and sing for the sweetness that comes to his heart; alas, such +envy comes upon me of all that I see rejoicing, I wonder that my heart +does not melt forthwith with desire".<a id="footnotetag20" name="footnotetag20"></a><a href= +"#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a></p> + +<p>At the same time Bernard's style is simple and clear, though he shows +full mastery of the complex stanza form; to call him the Wordsworth of +the troubadour world is to exaggerate a single point of coincidence; but +he remains the greatest of troubadour poets, as modern taste regards +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p050" name="p050"></a>[50] +</span> +poetry.</p> + +<p>Arnaut de Mareuil (1170-1200 <i>circa</i>) displays many of the +characteristics which distinguished the poetry of Bernard of Ventadour; +there is the same simplicity of style and often no less reality of +feeling: conventionalism had not yet become typical. Arnaut was born in +Périgord of poor parents, and was brought up to the profession of a +scribe or notary. This profession he soon abandoned, and his "good +star," to quote the Provençal biography, led him to the court of +Adelaide, daughter of Raimon V. of Toulouse, who had married in 1171 +Roger II., Viscount of Béziers. There he soon rose into high repute: at +first he is said to have denied his authorship of the songs which he +composed in honour of his mistress, but eventually he betrayed himself +and was recognised as a troubadour of high merit, and definitely +installed as the singer of Adelaide. The story is improbable, as the +troubadour's rewards naturally depended upon the favour of his patrons +to him personally; it is probably an instance of the manner in which the +biographies founded fictions upon a very meagre substratum of fact, the +fact in this instance being a passage in which Arnaut declares his +timidity in singing the praise of so great a beauty as Adelaide.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Mas grans paors m'o tol e grans temensa,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p051" name="p051"></a>[51] +</span> +<p class="i2">Qu'ieu non aus dir, dona, qu'ieu chant de vos.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"But great fear and great apprehension comes upon me, so that I dare not +tell you, lady, that it is I who sing of you."</p> + +<p>Arnaut seems to have introduced a new poetical <i>genre</i> into Provençal +literature, the love-letter. He says that the difficulty of finding a +trustworthy messenger induced him to send a letter sealed with his own +ring; the letter is interesting for the description of feminine beauty +which it contains: "my heart, that is your constant companion, comes to +me as your messenger and portrays for me your noble, graceful form, your +fair light-brown hair, your brow whiter than the lily, your gay laughing +eyes, your straight well-formed nose, your fresh complexion, whiter and +redder than any flower, your little mouth, your fair teeth, whiter than +pure silver,... your fair white hands with the smooth and slender +fingers"; in short, a picture which shows that troubadour ideas of +beauty were much the same as those of any other age. Arnaut was +eventually obliged to leave Béziers, owing, it is said, to the rivalry +of Alfonso II. of Aragon, who may have come forward as a suitor for +Adelaide after Roger's death in 1194. The troubadour betook himself to +the court of William VIII., Count of Montpelier, where he probably spent +the rest of his life. The various allusions in his poems cannot always +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p052" name="p052"></a>[52] +</span> +be identified, and his career is only known to us in vague outline. +Apart from the love-letter, he was, if not the initiator, one of the +earliest writers of the type of didactic poem known as <i>ensenhamen</i>, an +"instruction" containing observations upon the manners and customs of +his age, with precepts for the observance of morality and right conduct +such as should be practised by the ideal character. Arnaut, after a +lengthy and would-be learned introduction, explains that each of the +three estates, the knights, the clergy and the citizens, have their +special and appropriate virtues. The emphasis with which he describes +the good qualities of the citizen class, a compliment unusual in the +aristocratic poetry of the troubadours, may be taken as confirmation of +the statement concerning his own parentage which we find in his +biography.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="pagenum"><a id="p053" name="p053"></a>[53] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE CLASSICAL PERIOD</h3> + + +<p>We now reach a group of three troubadours whom Dante<a id="footnotetag21" name="footnotetag21"></a><a href= +"#footnote21"><sup>21</sup></a> selected as +typical of certain characteristics: "Bertran de Born sung of arms, +Arnaut Daniel of love, and Guiraut de Bornelh of uprightness, honour and +virtue." The last named, who was a contemporary (1175-1220 <i>circa</i>) and +compatriot of Arnaut de Marueil, is said in his biography to have +enjoyed so great a reputation that he was known as the "Master of the +Troubadours." This title is not awarded to him by any other troubadour; +the jealousy constantly prevailing between the troubadours is enough to +account for their silence on this point. But his reputation is fairly +attested by the number of his poems which have survived and by the +numerous MSS. in which they are preserved; when troubadours were studied +as classics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Guiraut's poems +were so far in harmony with the moralising tendency of that age that his +posthumous reputation was certainly as great as any that he enjoyed in +his life-time.</p> + +<p>Practically nothing is known of his life; allusions in his poems lead us +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p054" name="p054"></a>[54] +</span> +to suppose that he spent some time in Spain at the courts of Navarre, +Castile and Aragon. The real interests of his work are literary and +ethical. To his share in the controversy concerning the <i>trobar clus</i>, +the obscure and difficult style of composition, we have already alluded. +Though in the <i>tenso</i> with Linhaure, Guiraut expresses his preference +for the simple and intelligible style, it must be said that the majority +of his poems are far from attaining this ideal. Their obscurity, +however, is often due rather to the difficulty of the subject matter +than to any intentional attempt at preciosity of style. He was one of +the first troubadours who attempted to analyse the effects of love from +a psychological standpoint; his analysis often proceeds in the form of a +dialogue with himself, an attempt to show the hearer by what methods he +arrived at his conclusions. "How is it, in the name of God, that when I +wish to sing, I weep? Can the reason be that love has conquered me? And +does love bring me no delight? Yes, delight is mine. Then why am I sad +and melancholy? I cannot tell. I have lost my lady's favour and the +delight of love has no more sweetness for me. Had ever a lover such +misfortune? But am I a lover? No! Have I ceased to love passionately? +No! Am I then a lover? Yes, if my lady would suffer my love." Guiraut's +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p055" name="p055"></a>[55] +</span> +moral <i>sirventes</i> are reprobations of the decadence of his age. He saw a +gradual decline of the true spirit of chivalry. The great lords were +fonder of war and pillage than of poetry and courtly state. He had +himself suffered from the change, if his biographer is to be believed; +the Viscount of Limoges had plundered and burnt his house. He compares +the evils of his own day with the splendours of the past, and asks +whether the accident of birth is the real source of nobility; a man must +be judged by himself and his acts and not by the rank of his +forefathers; these were the sentiments that gained him a mention in the +Fourth Book of Dante's <i>Convivio</i>.<a id="footnotetag22" name="footnotetag22"></a><a href= +"#footnote22"><sup>22</sup></a></p> + +<p>The question why Dante should have preferred Arnaut Daniel to Guiraut de +Bornelh<a id="footnotetag23" name="footnotetag23"></a><a href= +"#footnote23"><sup>23</sup></a> has given rise to much discussion. The solution turns upon +Dante's conception of style, which is too large a problem for +consideration here. Dante preferred the difficult and artificial style +of Arnaut to the simple style of the opposition school; from Arnaut he +borrowed the sestina form; and at the end of the canto he puts the +well-known lines, "Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan," into the +troubadour's mouth. We know little of Arnaut's life; he was a noble of +Riberac in Périgord. The biography relates an incident in his life which +is said to have taken place at the court of Richard Coeur de Lion.</p> + +<p>A certain troubadour had boasted before the king that he could compose a +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p056" name="p056"></a>[56] +</span> +better poem than Arnaut. The latter accepted the challenge and the king +confined the poets to their rooms for a certain time at the end of which +they were to recite their composition before him. Arnaut's inspiration +totally failed him, but from his room he could hear his rival singing as +he rehearsed his own composition. Arnaut was able to learn his rival's +poem by heart, and when the time of trial came he asked to be allowed to +sing first, and performed his opponent's song, to the wrath of the +latter, who protested vigorously. Arnaut acknowledged the trick, to the +great amusement of the king.</p> + +<p>Preciosity and artificiality reach their height in Arnaut's poems, which +are, for that reason, excessively difficult. Enigmatic constructions, +word-plays, words used in forced senses, continual alliteration and +difficult rimes produced elaborate form and great obscurity of meaning. +The following stanza may serve as an example—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">L'aur' amara fa·ls bruels brancutz</p> +<p class="i2">clarzir que·l dons espeys' ab fuelhs,</p> +<p class="i2">e·ls letz becxs dels auzels ramencx</p> +<p class="i2">te balbs e mutz pars e non pars.</p> +<p class="i2">per qu'ieu m'esfortz de far e dir plazers</p> +<p class="i2">A manhs? per ley qui m'a virat has d'aut,</p> +<p class="i2">don tern morir si·ls afans no·m asoma.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"The bitter breeze makes light the bosky boughs which the gentle breeze +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p057" name="p057"></a>[57] +</span> +makes thick with leaves, and the joyous beaks of the birds in the +branches it keeps silent and dumb, paired and not paired. Wherefore do I +strive to say and do what is pleasing to many? For her, who has cast me +down from on high, for which I fear to die, if she does not end the +sorrow for me."</p> + +<p>The answers to the seventeen rime-words which occur in this stanza do +not appear till the following stanza, the same rimes being kept +throughout the six stanzas of the poem. To rest the listener's ear, +while he waited for the answering rimes, Arnaut used light assonances +which almost amount to rime in some cases. The Monk of Montaudon in his +satirical <i>sirventes</i> says of Arnaut: "He has sung nothing all his life, +except a few foolish verses which no one understands"; and we may +reasonably suppose that Arnaut's poetry was as obscure to many of his +contemporaries as it is to us.</p> + +<p>Dante placed Bertran de Born in hell, as a sower of strife between +father and son, and there is no need to describe his picture of the +troubadour—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">"Who held the severed member lanternwise</p> +<p class="i2">And said, Ah me!" (<i>Inf.</i> xxviii. 119-142.)</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>The genius of Dante, and the poetical fame of Bertran himself, have +given him a more important position in history than is, perhaps, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p058" name="p058"></a>[58] +</span> +entirely his due. Jaufré, the prior of Vigeois, an abbey of +Saint-Martial of Limoges, is the only chronicler during the reigns of +Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. The +<i>razos</i> prefixed to some of his poems by way of explanation are the work +of an anonymous troubadour (possibly Uc de Saint-Círe); they constantly +misinterpret the poems they attempt to explain, confuse names and +events, and rather exaggerate the part played by Bertran himself. +Besides these sources we have the cartulary of Dalon, or rather the +extracts made from it by Guignières in 1680 (the original has been +lost), which give us information about Bertran's family and possessions. +From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have +come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed.</p> + +<p>Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and +Périgord. The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary +Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his +brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which +seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family +were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but +scanty. In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known, +except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p059" name="p059"></a>[59] +</span> +wife, and again married a certain Philippe. His warlike and turbulent +character was the natural outcome of the conditions under which he +lived; the feudal system divided the country into a number of fiefs, the +boundaries of which were ill defined, while the lords were constantly at +war with one another. All owed allegiance to the Duke of Aquitaine, the +Count of Poitou, but his suzerainty was, in the majority of cases, +rather a name than a reality. These divisions were further accentuated +by political events; in 1152 Henry II., Count of Anjou and Maine, +married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and mistress +of Aquitaine. Henry became king of England two years later, and his rule +over the barons of Aquitaine, which had never been strict, became the +more relaxed owing to his continual absence in England.</p> + +<p>South of Aquitaine proper the dominions of the Count of Toulouse +stretched from the Garonne to the Alps; this potentate was also called +the Duke of Narbonne, and was not disposed to recognise the suzerainty +of the Duke of Aquitaine. But in 1167 Alfonso II., King of Aragon and +Count of Barcelona, had inherited Provence, to which the Duke of +Toulouse laid claim. Henry and Alfonso thus became natural allies, and +the power of Alfonso in Aragon and Catalonia, was able to keep in check +any serious attempt that the Count of Toulouse might have meditated on +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p060" name="p060"></a>[60] +</span> +Aquitaine. On the other hand, Henry had also to deal with a formidable +adversary in the person of the French king, his lawful suzerain in +France. Louis VII. (or Philippe Auguste) was able to turn the constant +revolts that broke out in Aquitaine to his own ends. These circumstances +are sufficient to account for the warlike nature of Bertran de Born's +poetry. The first <i>sirventes</i> which can be dated with certainty belongs +to 1181, and is a call to the allies of Raimon V, Count of Toulouse, to +aid their master against the King of Aragon. What Bertran's personal +share in the campaign was, we do not know. He was soon involved in a +quarrel with his brother Constantin, with whom he held the castle of +Hautefort in common. Constantin was driven out and succeeded in +persuading the Count of Limoges and Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, to help +him. Richard, however, was occupied elsewhere, and Bertran survived all +attacks upon the castle. In 1182 he went to the court of Henry II., +during a temporary lull in the wars around him; there he proceeded to +pay court to the Princess Matilda, daughter of Henry II., whose husband, +Henry of Saxony, was then on a pilgrimage. He also took part in the +political affairs of the time. Henry II.'s eldest son, Henry "the young +king," had been crowned in 1170 at Westminster, and was anxious to have +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p061" name="p061"></a>[61] +</span> +something more than the title, seeing that his brother Richard was Duke +of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, and practically an independent sovereign. +Bertran had not forgotten Richard's action against him on behalf of his +brother Constantin, and was, moreover, powerfully attracted by the open +and generous nature of the young king. He therefore took his side, and +on his return to Limousin became the central point of the league which +was formed against Richard. Henry II. succeeded in reconciling his two +sons, the young Henry receiving pecuniary compensation in lieu of +political power. But the young Henry seems to have been really moved by +Bertran's reproaches, and at length revolted against his father and +attacked his brother Richard. While he was in Turenne, the young king +fell sick and died on June 11, 1183. Bertran lamented his loss in two +famous poems, and soon felt the material effects of it. On June 29, +Richard and the King of Aragon arrived before Hautefort, which +surrendered after a week's resistance. Richard restored the castle to +Constantin, but Bertran regained possession, as is related in the second +biography.</p> + +<p>Henceforward, Bertran remained faithful to Richard, and directed his +animosity chiefly against the King of Aragon. At the same time it +appears that he would have been equally pleased with any war, which +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p062" name="p062"></a>[62] +</span> +would have brought profit to himself, and attempted to excite Richard +against his father, Henry II. This project came to nothing, but war +broke out between Richard and the French king; a truce of two years was +concluded, and again broken by Richard. The Church, however, interfered +with its efforts to organise the Third Crusade, which called from +Bertran two <i>sirventes</i> in honour of Conrad, son of the Marquis of +Montferrat, who was defending Tyre against Saladin. Bertran remained at +home in Limousin during this Crusade; his means were obviously +insufficient to enable him to share in so distant a campaign; other, and +for him, equally cogent reasons for remaining at home may be gathered +from his poems. There followed the quarrels between Richard and the +French king, the return to France of the latter, and finally Richard's +capture on the Illyrian coast and his imprisonment by Henry VI. of +Austria, which terminated in 1194. Richard then came into Aquitaine, his +return being celebrated by two poems from Bertran.</p> + +<p>The Provençal biography informs us that Bertran finally became a monk in +the Order of Citeaux. The convent where he spent his last years was the +abbey of Dalon, near Hautefort. The cartulary mentions his name at +various intervals from 1197 to 1202. In 1215 we have the entry "<i>octavo,</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p063" name="p063"></a>[63] +</span> +<i>candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bernardo de Born: cera tres solidos +empta est</i>." This is the only notice of the poet's death.</p> + +<p>Dante perhaps exaggerated the part he played in stirring up strife +between Henry II. and his sons; modern writers go to the other extreme. +Bertran is especially famous for his political <i>sirventes</i> and for the +martial note which rings through much of his poetry. He loved war both +for itself and for the profits which it brought: "The powerful are more +generous and open-handed when they have war than when they have peace." +The troubadour's two <i>planhs</i> upon the "young king's" death are inspired +by real feeling, and the story of his reconciliation with Henry after +the capture of his castle can hardly have been known to Dante, who would +surely have modified his judgment upon the troubadour if he had +remembered that scene as related by the biography. Sir Bertran was +summoned with all his people to King Henry's tent, who received him very +harshly and said, "Bertran, you declared that you never needed more than +half your senses; it seems that to-day you will want the whole of them." +"Sire", said Bertran, "it is true that I said so and I said nothing but +the truth." The king replied, "Then you seem to me to have lost your +senses entirely". "I have indeed lost them", said Bertran. "And how?" +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p064" name="p064"></a>[64] +</span> +asked the king. "Sire, on the day that the noble king, your son, died, I +lost sense, knowledge and understanding." When the king heard Bertran +speak of his son with tears, he was deeply moved and overcome with +grief. On recovering himself he cried, weeping, "Ah, Bertran, rightly +did you lose your senses for my son, for there was no one in the world +whom he loved as you. And for love of him, not only do I give you your +life, but also your castle and your goods, and I add with my love five +hundred silver marks to repair the loss which you have suffered."</p> + +<p>The narrative is unhistorical; Henry II. was not present in person at +the siege of Hautefort; but the fact is certain that he regarded Bertran +as the chief sower of discord in his family.</p> + +<p>Mention must now be made of certain troubadours who were less important +than the three last mentioned, but are of interest for various reasons.</p> + +<p>Raimbaut d'Aurenga, Count of Orange from 1150-1173, is interesting +rather by reason of his relations with other troubadours than for his +own achievements in the troubadours' art. He was a follower of the +precious, artificial and obscure style, and prided himself upon his +skill in the combination of difficult rimes and the repetition of +equivocal rimes (the same word used in different senses or grammatical +forms). "Since Adam ate the apple," he says, "there is no poet, loud as +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p065" name="p065"></a>[65] +</span> +he may proclaim himself, whose art is worth a turnip compared with +mine." Apart from these mountebank tricks and certain mild "conceits" +(his lady's smile, for instance, makes him happier than the smile of +four hundred angels could do), the chief characteristic of his poetry is +his constant complaints of slanderers who attempt to undermine his +credit with his lady. But he seems to have aroused a passion in the +heart of a poetess, who expressed her feelings in words which contrast +strongly with Raimbaut's vapid sentimentalities.</p> + +<p>This was Beatrice, Countess of Die and the wife of Count William of +Poitiers. The names, at least, of seventeen poetesses are known to us +and of these the Countess of Die is the most famous. Like the rest of +her sex who essayed the troubadour's art, the Countess knows nothing of +difficult rhymes or obscurity of style. Simplicity and sincerity are the +keynotes of her poetry. The troubadour sang because he was a +professional poet, but the lady who composed poetry did so from love of +the art or from the inspiration of feeling and therefore felt no need of +meretricious adornment for her song. The five poems of the Countess +which remain to us show that her sentiment for Raimbaut was real and +deep. "I am glad to know that the man I love is the worthiest in the +world; may God give great joy to the one who first brought me to him: +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p066" name="p066"></a>[66] +</span> +may he trust only in me, whatever slanders be reported to him: for often +a man plucks the rod with which he beats himself. The woman who values +her good name should set her love upon a noble and valiant knight: when +she knows his worth, let her not hide her love. When a woman loves thus +openly, the noble and worthy speak of her love only with sympathy." +Raimbaut, however, did not reciprocate these feelings: in a <i>tenso</i> with +the countess he shows his real sentiments while excusing his conduct. He +assures her that he has avoided her only because he did not wish to +provide slanderers with matter for gossip; to which the Countess replies +that his care for her reputation is excessive. Peire Rogier whose +poetical career lies between the years 1160 and 1180, also spent some +time at Raimbaut's court. He belonged to Auvergne by birth and was +attached to the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne for some years: here +there is no doubt that we have a case of a troubadour in an official +position and nothing more: possibly Peire Rogier's tendency to +preaching—he had been educated for the church—was enough to stifle any +sentiment on the lady's side. On leaving Narbonne, he visited Raimbaut +at Orange and afterwards travelled to Spain and Toulouse, finally +entering a monastery where he ended his life.</p> + +<p>Auvergne produced a far more important troubadour in the person of Peire +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p067" name="p067"></a>[67] +</span> +d'Auvergne, whose work extended from about 1158 to 1180; he was thus +more or less contemporary with Guiraut de Bornelh and Bernart de +Ventadour. He was, according to the biography, the son of a citizen of +Clermont-Ferrand, and "the first troubadour, who lived beyond the +mountains (i.e. the Pyrenees, which, however, Marcabrun had previously +crossed)... he was regarded as the best troubadour until Guiraut de +Bornelh appeared.... He was very proud of his talents and despised other +troubadours." Other notices state that he was educated for an +ecclesiastical career and was at one time a canon. He had no small idea +of his own powers: "Peire d'Auvergne," he says in his satire upon other +troubadours "has such a voice that he can sing in all tones and his +melodies are sweet and pleasant: he is master of his art, if he would +but put a little clarity into his poems, which are difficult to +understand." The last observation is entirely correct: his poems are +often very obscure. Peire travelled, in the pursuit of his profession, +to the court of Sancho III. of Castile and made some stay in Spain: he +is also found at the courts of Raimon V. of Toulouse and, like Peire +Rogier, at Narbonne. Among his poems, two are especially well known. In +a love poem he makes the nightingale his messenger, as Marcabrun had +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p068" name="p068"></a>[68] +</span> +used the starling and as others used the swallow or parrot. But in +comparison with Marcabrun, Peire d'Auvergne worked out the idea with a +far more delicate poetical touch. The other poem is a <i>sirventes</i> which +is of interest as being the first attempt at literary satire among the +troubadours; the satire is often rather of a personal than of a literary +character; the following quotations referring to troubadours already +named will show Peire's ideas of literary criticism. "Peire Rogier sings +of love without restraint and it would befit him better to carry the +psalter in the church or to bear the lights with the great burning +candles. Guiraut de Bornelh is like a sun-bleached cloth with his thin +miserable song which might suit an old Norman water-carrier. Bernart de +Ventadour is even smaller than Guiraut de Bornelh by a thumb's length; +but he had a servant for his father who shot well with the long bow +while his mother tended the furnace." The satiric <i>sirventes</i> soon found +imitators: the Monk of Montaudon produced a similar composition. Like +many other troubadours, Peire ended his life in a monastery. To this +period of his career probably, belong his religious poems of which we +shall have occasion to speak later.</p> + +<p>We have already observed that the Church contributed members, though +with some reluctance, to the ranks of the troubadours. One of the most +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p069" name="p069"></a>[69] +</span> +striking figures of the kind is the Monk of Montaudon (1180-1200): the +satirical power of his <i>sirventes</i> attracted attention, and he gained +much wealth at the various courts which he visited; this he used for the +benefit of his priory. He enjoyed the favour of Philippe Auguste II. of +France, of Richard Coeur de Lion and of Alfonso II. of Aragon, with that +of many smaller nobles. The biography says of him, "E fo faitz seigner +de la cort del Puoi Santa Maria e de dar l'esparvier. Lone temps ac la +seignoria de la cort del Puoi, tro que la cortz se perdet." "He was made +president of the court of Puy Sainte Marie and of awarding the +sparrow-hawk. For a long time he held the presidency of the court of +Puy, until the court was dissolved." The troubadour Richard de +Barbezieux refers to this court, which seems to have been a periodical +meeting attended by the nobles and troubadours of Southern Prance. +Tournaments and poetical contests were held; the sparrow-hawk or falcon +placed on a pole is often mentioned as the prize awarded to the +tournament victor. Tennyson's version of the incident in his "Geraint +and Enid" will occur to every reader. The monk's reputation must have +been considerable to gain him this position. His love poems are of +little importance; his satire deals with the petty failings of mankind, +for which he had a keen eye and an unsparing and sometimes cynical +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p070" name="p070"></a>[70] +</span> +tongue.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Be·m enoia, s'o auzes dire,</p> +<p class="i2">Parliers quant es avols servire;</p> +<p class="i2">Et hom qui trop vol aut assire</p> +<p class="i2">M'enoia, e cavals que tire.</p> +<p class="i2">Et enoia·m, si Dieus m'aiut</p> +<p class="i2">Joves hom quan trop port' escut,</p> +<p class="i2">Que negun colp no i a agut,</p> +<p class="i2">Capela et mongue barbut,</p> +<p class="i2">E lauzengier bee esmolut.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"These vex me greatly, if I may say so, language when it is base +servility, and a man who wishes too high a place (at table) and a +charger which is put to drawing carts. And, by my hope of salvation, I +am vexed by a young man who bears too openly a shield which has never +received a blow, by a chaplain and monk wearing beards and by the sharp +beak of the slanderer." The monk's satire upon other troubadours is +stated by himself to be a continuation of that by Peire d'Auvergne; the +criticism is, as might be expected, personal. Two <i>tensos</i> deal with the +vanities of women, especially the habit of painting the face: in one of +them the dispute proceeds before God as judge, between the poet and the +women: the scene of the other is laid in Paradise and the interlocutors +are the Almighty and the poet, who, represents that self-adornment is a +habit inherent in female nature. In neither poem is reverence a +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p071" name="p071"></a>[71] +</span> +prominent feature.</p> + +<p>One of the most extraordinary figures in the whole gallery of troubadour +portraits is Peire Vidal, whose career extended, roughly speaking, from +1175 to 1215. He was one of those characters who naturally become the +nucleus of apocryphal stories, and how much truth there may be in some +of the fantastic incidents, in which he figures as the hero, will +probably never be discovered. He was undoubtedly an attractive +character, for he enjoyed the favour of the most distinguished men and +women of his time. He was also a poet of real power: ease and facility +are characteristics of his poems as compared with the ingenious +obscurity of Arnaut Daniel or Peire d'Auvergne. But there was a +whimsical and fantastic strain in his character, which led him often to +conjoin the functions of court-fool with those of court poet: "he was +the most foolish man in the world" says his biographer. His +"foolishness" also induced him to fall in love with every woman he met, +and to believe that his personal attractions made him invincible.</p> + +<p>Peire Vidal was the son of a Toulouse merchant. He began his troubadour +wanderings early and at the outset of his career we find him in +Catalonia, Aragon and Castile. He is then found in the service of Raimon +Gaufridi Barral,<a id="footnotetag24" name="footnotetag24"></a><a href= +"#footnote24"><sup>24</sup></a> Viscount of Marseilles, a bluff, genial tournament +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p072" name="p072"></a>[72] +</span> +warrior and the husband of Azalais de Porcellet whose praises were sung +by Folquet of Marseilles. It was Barral who was attracted by Peire's +peculiar talents: his wife seems to have tolerated the troubadour from +deference to her husband. Peire, however, says in one of his poems that +husbands feared him more than fire or sword, and believing himself +irresistible interpreted Azalais' favours as seriously meant. When he +stole a kiss from her as she slept, she insisted upon Peire's departure, +though her husband seems to have regarded the matter as a jest and the +troubadour took refuge in Genoa. Eventually, Azalais pardoned him and he +was able to return to Marseilles. Peire is said to have followed Richard +Coeur de Lion on his crusade; it was in 1190 that Richard embarked at +Marseilles for the Holy Land, and as a patron of troubadours, he was no +doubt personally acquainted with Peire. The troubadour, however, is said +to have gone no farther than Cyprus. There he married a Greek woman and +was somehow persuaded that his wife was a daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople, and that he, therefore, had a claim to the throne of +Greece. He assumed royal state, added a throne to his personal +possessions and began to raise a fleet for the conquest of his kingdom. +How long this farce continued is unknown. Barral died in 1192 and Peire +transferred his affections to a lady of Carcassonne, Loba de Pennautier. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p073" name="p073"></a>[73] +</span> +The biography relates that her name Loba (wolf) induced the troubadour +to approach her in a wolf's skin, which disguise was so successful that +he was attacked by a pack of dogs and seriously mauled. Probably the +story that an outraged husband had the troubadour's tongue cut out at an +earlier period of his life contains an equal substratum of truth. The +last period of his career was spent in Hungary and Lombardy. His +political <i>sirventes</i> show an insight into the affairs of his age, which +is in strong contrast to the whimsicality which seems to have misguided +his own life.</p> + +<p>Guillem de Cabestanh (between 1181 and 1196) deserves mention for the +story which the Provençal biography has attached to his name, a +Provençal variation of the thirteenth century romance of the <i>Châtelaine +de Coucy</i>.<a id="footnotetag25" name="footnotetag25"></a><a href= +"#footnote25"><sup>25</sup></a> He belonged to the Roussillon district, on the borders of +Catalonia and fell in love with the wife of his overlord, Raimon of +Roussillon. Margarida or Seremonda, as she is respectively named in the +two versions of the story, was attracted by Guillem's songs, with the +result that Raimon's jealousy was aroused and meeting the troubadour one +day, when he was out hunting, he killed him. The Provençal version +proceeds as follows: he then took out the heart and sent it by a squire +to the castle. He caused it to be roasted with pepper and gave it to his +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p074" name="p074"></a>[74] +</span> +wife to eat. And when she had eaten it, her lord told her what it was +and she lost the power of sight and hearing. And when she came to +herself, she said, "my lord, you have given me such good meat that never +will I eat such meat again." He made at her to strike her but she threw +herself from the window and was killed. Thereupon the barons of +Catalonia and Aragon, led by King Alfonso, are said to have made a +combined attack upon Raimon and to have ravaged his lands, in +indignation at his barbarity.</p> + +<p>The Provençal biography, like the romance of the <i>Châtelain de Coucy</i>, +belongs to the thirteenth century, and the story cannot be accepted as +authentic. But the period of decadence had begun. By the close of the +twelfth century the golden age of troubadour poetry was over. Guiraut de +Bornelh's complaints that refinement was vanishing and that nobles were +growing hard-hearted and avaricious soon became common-places in +troubadour poetry. The extravagances of the previous age and the rise of +a strong middle and commercial class diminished both the wealth and the +influence of the nobles, while the peace of the country was further +disturbed by theological disputes and by the rise of the Albigeois +heresy.</p> + +<br><br> + + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="pagenum"><a id="p075" name="p075"></a>[75] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE</h3> + + +<p>The feudal society in which troubadour poetry had flourished, and by +which alone it could be maintained, was already showing signs of +decadence. Its downfall was precipitated by the religious and political +movement, the Albigeois Crusade, which was the first step towards the +unification of France, but which also broke up the local fiefs, +destroyed the conditions under which the troubadours had flourished and +scattered them abroad in other lands or forced them to seek other means +of livelihood. This is not the place to discuss the origin and the +nature of the Albigeois heresy.<a id="footnotetag26" name="footnotetag26"></a><a href= +"#footnote26"><sup>26</sup></a> The general opinion has almost +invariably considered the heretics as dualists and their belief as a +variation of Manicheism: but a plausible case has been made out for +regarding the heresy as a variant of the Adoptionism which is found +successively in Armenia, in the Balkan peninsula and in Spain, and +perhaps sporadically in Italy and Germany. Whatever its real nature was, +the following facts are clear: it was not an isolated movement, but was +in continuity with beliefs prevalent in many other parts of Europe. It +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p076" name="p076"></a>[76] +</span> +was largely a poor man's heresy and therefore emerges into the light of +history only when it happens to attract aristocratic adherents or large +masses of people. It was also a pre-Reformation movement and essentially +in opposition to Roman Catholicism. Albi was the first head-quarters of +the heresy, though Toulouse speedily rivalled its importance in this +respect. The Vaudois heresy which became notorious at Lyons about the +same time was a schismatic, not a heretic movement. The Vaudois objected +to the profligacy and worldliness of the Roman Catholic clergy, but did +not quarrel with church doctrine. The Albigenses were no less zealous +than the Vaudois in reproving the church clergy and setting an example +of purity and unselfishness of life. But they also differed profoundly +from the church in matters of doctrine.</p> + +<p>Upon the election of Otho as Emperor, in 1208, Germany and Rome were at +peace, and Pope Innocent III. found himself at liberty to devote some +attention to affairs in Southern France. He had already made some +efforts to oppose the growth of heresy: his first emissaries were unable +to produce the least effect and in 1208 he had sent Arnaut of Citeaux +and two Cistercian monks into Southern France with full powers to act. +Their efforts proved fruitless, because Philippe Auguste was no less +indifferent than the provincial lords, who actually favoured the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p077" name="p077"></a>[77] +</span> +heretics in many cases; the Roman Catholic bishops also were jealous of +the pope's legates and refused to support them. Not only the laity but +many of the clergy had been seduced: the heretics had translated large +portions of scripture (translations which still remain to us) and +constantly appealed to the scriptures in opposition to the canon laws +and the immorality of Rome. They had a full parochial and diocesan +organisation and were in regular communication with the heretics of +other countries. It was clear that the authority of Southern France was +doomed, unless some vigorous steps to assert her authority were speedily +taken. "Ita per omnes terras multiplicati sunt ut grande periculum +patiatur ecclesia Dei." <a id="footnotetag27" name="footnotetag27"></a><a href= +"#footnote27"><sup>27</sup></a> The efforts of St Dominic were followed by +the murder of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in 1208, which +created an excitement comparable with that aroused by the murder of +Thomas à Becket, thirty-eight years before, and gave Innocent III. his +opportunity. In the summer of 1209 a great army of crusaders assembled +at Lyons, and Southern France was invaded by a horde composed partly of +religious fanatics, of men who were anxious to gain the indulgences +awarded to crusaders without the danger of a journey overseas, and of +men who were simply bent on plunder. The last stage in the development +of the crusade movement was thereby reached: originally begun to recover +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p078" name="p078"></a>[78] +</span> +the Holy Sepulchre, it had been extended to other countries against the +avowed enemies of Christianity. Now the movement was to be turned +against erring members of the Christian Church and in the terms of a +metaphor much abused at that period, the Crusader was not only to +destroy the wolf, but to drive the vagrant sheep back into the fold.<a id="footnotetag28" name="footnotetag28"></a><a href= +"#footnote28"><sup>28</sup></a> +Beziers and Carcassonne were captured with massacre; Toulouse was spared +upon the humiliating submission of Raimon VI., and little organised +opposition was offered to the crusading forces under Simon de Montfort. +The following years saw the revolt of Toulouse and the excommunication +of Raimon VI. (1211), the battle of Muret in which Raimon was defeated +and his supporter Pedro of Aragon, was killed (1213), the Lateran +Council (1215), the siege of Toulouse and the death of Simon de Montfort +(1218). The foundation of the Dominican order and of the Inquisition +marked the close of the struggle.</p> + +<p>Folquet of Marseilles is a troubadour whose life belongs to these years +of turmoil. He was the son of a Genoese merchant by name Anfos, who +apparently settled in Marseilles for business reasons: Genoa was in +close commercial relations with the South of France during the twelfth +century, as is attested by treaties concluded with Marseilles in 1138 +and with Raimon of Toulouse in 1174. Folquet (or Fulco in Latin form) +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p079" name="p079"></a>[79] +</span> +seems to have carried on his father's business and to have amused his +leisure hours by poetical composition. The Monk of Montandon refers to +him as a merchant in his <i>sirventes</i> upon other troubadours. He is +placed in Paradise by Dante and is the only troubadour who there +appears, no doubt because of his services to the Church. His earliest +poems, written after 1180, were composed in honour of Azalais, the lady +whose favour was sought by Peire Vidal, and to whom Folquet refers by +the <i>senhal</i> of Aimant (magnet). His poems are ingenious dissertations +upon love and we catch little trace of real feeling in them. The stories +of the jealousy of Azalais' sister which drove Folquet to leave +Marseilles are probably apocryphal. Folquet also addressed poems to the +wife of the Count of Montpelier, the daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople. He wrote a fine <i>planh</i> on the death of Barral of +Marseilles in 1192 and it was about this time that he resolved to enter +the church. His last poem belongs to the year 1195. No doubt the wealth +which he may have brought to the Church as a successful merchant +contributed to his advancement, but Folquet was also an indomitably +energetic character.</p> + +<p>Unlike so many of his fellow poets, who retired to monasteries and there +lived out their lives in seclusion, Folquet displayed special talents or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p080" name="p080"></a>[80] +</span> +special enthusiasm for the order which he joined. Of the Cistercian +abbey of Toronet in the diocese of Fréjus he became abbot, and in 1205 +was made Bishop of Toulouse. He then, in company with St Dominic, +becomes one of the great figures of the Albigeois crusade: in 1209 he +was acting with Simon de Montfort against Raimon VI., the son of his old +patron and benefactor, and persuaded the count to surrender the citadel +of Toulouse to de Montfort and the papal legate. He travelled in +Northern France in order to stir up enthusiasm for the crusade. The +legend is related that, hearing one of his love songs sung by a minstrel +at Paris, he imposed penance upon himself. He helped to establish the +Inquisition in Languedoc, and at the Lateran council of 1215 was the +most violent opponent of Count Raimon. To enter into his history in +detail during this period would be to recount a large portion of the +somewhat intricate history of the crusade. Of his fanaticism, and of the +cruelty with which he waged war upon the heretics, the Count Raimon +Roger of Foix speaks at the Lateran council, when defending himself +against the accusation of heresy.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">E die vos de l'avesque, que tant n'es afortitz,</p> +<p class="i2">qu'en la sua semblansa es Dieus e nos trazitz,</p> +<p class="i2">que ab cansos messongeiras e ab motz coladitz,</p> +<p class="i2">dont totz horn es perdutz qui·ls canta ni los ditz,</p> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p081" name="p081"></a>[81] +</span> +<p class="i2">ez ab sos reproverbis afilatz e forbitz</p> +<p class="i2">ez ab los nostres dos, don fo eniotglaritz,</p> +<p class="i2">ez ab mala doctrina es tant fort enriquitz</p> +<p class="i2">c'om non auza ren dire a so qu'el contraditz.</p> +<p class="i2">Pero cant el fo abas ni monges revestitz</p> +<p class="i2">en la sua abadia fo si·l lums eseurzitz</p> +<p class="i2">qu'anc no i ac be ni pauza, tro qu'el ne fo ichitz;</p> +<p class="i2">e cant fo de Tholosa avesques elegitz</p> +<p class="i2">per trastota la terra es tals focs espanditz</p> +<p class="i2">que ia mais per nulha aiga no sira escantitz;</p> +<p class="i2">que plus de D.M., que de grans que petitz,</p> +<p class="i2">i fe perdre las vidas e·ls cors e·ls esperitz.</p> +<p class="i2">Per la fe qu'icu vos deg, als sous faitz e als ditz</p> +<p class="i2">ez a la captenensa sembla mielhs Antecritz</p> +<p class="i2">que messatges de Roma.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"And of the bishop, who is so zealous, I tell you that in him both God +and we ourselves are betrayed; for with lying songs and insinuating +words, which are the damnation of any who sings or speaks them, and by +his keen polished admonitions, and by our presents wherewith he +maintained himself as <i>joglar</i>, and by his evil doctrine, he has risen +so high, that one dare say nothing to that which he opposes. So when he +was vested as abbot and monk, was the light in his abbey put out in such +wise that therein was no comfort or rest, until that he was gone forth +from thence; and when he was chosen bishop of Toulouse such a fire was +spread throughout the land that never for any water will it be quenched; +for there did he bring destruction of life and body and soul upon more +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p082" name="p082"></a>[82] +</span> +than fifteen hundred of high and low. By the faith which I owe to you, +by his deeds and his words and his dealings, more like is he to +Anti-Christ than to an envoy of Rome." (<i>Chanson de la croisade contre +les Albigeois</i>, v. 3309.)</p> + +<p>Folquet died on December 25, 1231, and was buried at the Cistercian +Abbey of Grandselve, some thirty miles north-west of Toulouse. Such +troubadours as Guilhem Figueira and Peire Cardenal, who inveighed +against the action of the Church during the crusade, say nothing of him, +and upon their silence and that of the biography as regards his +ecclesiastical life the argument has been founded that Folquet the +troubadour and Folquet the bishop were two different persons. There is +no evidence to support this theory. Folquet's poems enjoyed a high +reputation. The minnesinger, Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg (end of the +twelfth century) imitated him, as also did the Italians Rinaldo d'Aquino +and Jacopo da Lentino.</p> + +<p>The troubadours as a rule stood aloof from the religious quarrels of the +age. But few seem to have joined the crusaders, as Perdigon did. Most of +their patrons were struggling for their existence: when the invaders +succeeded in establishing themselves, they had no desire for court +poetry. The troubadour's occupation was gone, and those who wished for +an audience were obliged to seek beyond the borders of France. Hence it +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p083" name="p083"></a>[83] +</span> +is somewhat remarkable to find the troubadour Raimon de Miraval, of +Carcassonne, continuing to sing, as though perfect tranquillity +prevailed. His wife, Gaudairenca, was a poetess, and Paul Heyse has made +her the central figure of one of his charming <i>Troubadour Novellen</i>. +Raimon's poems betray no forebodings of the coming storm; when it broke, +he lost his estate and fled to Raimon of Toulouse for shelter. The +arrival of Pedro II. of Aragon at Toulouse in 1213 and his alliance with +the Count of Toulouse cheered the troubadour's spirits: he thought there +was a chance that he might recover his estate. He compliments Pedro on +his determination in one poem and in another tells his lady, "the king +has promised me that in a short time, I shall have Miraval again and my +Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will +regain their lost delights." Such was the attitude of many troubadours +towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain +section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of +patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of +their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole +acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no +attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p084" name="p084"></a>[84] +</span> +attempts was forth-coming.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real +courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in +maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first +energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse +been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to +reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty +lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as +little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy. +His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the <i>Chanson de +la Croisade</i> reflects their hopes and fears and describes their +struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic +splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in +the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders +who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest +poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within +the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that +he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a noble +and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he +was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p085" name="p085"></a>[85] +</span> +went from court to court, accompanied by a <i>joglar</i>: he was especially +favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a +hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his <i>chansos</i> +that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case +of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral <i>sirventes</i>: he +was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and +immorality and the special objects of his animosity are the Roman +Catholic clergy and the high nobles. "The clergy call themselves +shepherds and are murderers under a show of saintliness: when I look +upon their dress I remember Isengrin (the wolf in the romance of +Reynard, the Fox) who wished one day to break into the sheep-fold: but +for fear of the dogs he dressed himself in a sheepskin and then devoured +as many as he would. Kings and emperors, dukes, counts and knights used +to rule the world; now the priests have the power which they have gained +by robbery and treachery, by hypocrisy, force and preaching." "Eagles +and vultures smell not the carrion so readily as priests and preachers +smell out the rich: a rich man is their friend and should a sickness +strike him down, he must make them presents to the loss of his +relations. Frenchmen and priests are reputed bad and rightly so: usurers +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p086" name="p086"></a>[86] +</span> [86] +and traitors possess the whole world, for with deceit have they so +confounded the world that there is no class to whom their doctrine is +unknown." Peire inveighs against the disgraces of particular orders; the +Preaching Friars or Jacobin monks who discuss the relative merits of +special wines after their feasts, whose lives are spent in disputes and +who declare all who differ from them to be Vaudois heretics, who worm +men's private affairs out of them, that they may make themselves feared: +some of his charges against the monastic orders are quite unprintable.</p> + +<p>No less vigorous are his invectives against the rich and the social +evils of his time. The tone of regret that underlies Guiraut de +Bornelh's satires in this theme is replaced in Peire Cardenal's +<i>sirventes</i> by a burning sense of injustice. Covetousness, the love of +pleasure, injustice to the poor, treachery and deceit and moral laxity +are among his favourite themes. "He who abhors truth and hates the +right, careers to hell and directs his course to the abyss: for many a +man builds walls and palaces with the goods of others and yet the +witless world says that he is on the right path, because he is clever +and prosperous. As silver is refined in the fire, so the patient poor +are purified under grievous oppression: and with what splendour the +shameless rich man may feed and clothe himself, his riches bring him +nought but pain, grief and vexation of spirit. But that affrights him +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p087" name="p087"></a>[87] +</span> +not: capons and game, good wine and the dainties of the earth console +him and cheer his heart. Then he prays to God and says 'I am poor and in +misery.' Were God to answer him He would say, 'thou liest!'" To +illustrate the degeneracy of the age, Peire relates a fable, perhaps the +only instance of this literary form among the troubadours, upon the +theme that if all the world were mad, the one sane man would be in a +lunatic asylum: "there was a certain town, I know not where, upon which +a rain fell of such a nature that all the inhabitants upon whom it fell, +lost their reason. All lost their reason except one, who escaped because +he was asleep in his house when the rain came. When he awoke, he rose: +the rain had ceased, and he went out among the people who were all +committing follies. One was clothed, another naked, another was spitting +at the sky: some were throwing sticks and stones, tearing their coats, +striking and pushing... The sane man was deeply surprised and saw that +they were mad; nor could he find a single man in his senses. Yet greater +was their surprise at him, and as they saw that he did not follow their +example, they concluded that he had lost his senses.... So one strikes +him in front, another behind; he is dashed to the ground and trampled +under foot... at length he flees to his house covered with mud, bruised +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p088" name="p088"></a>[88] +</span> +and half dead and thankful for his escape": The mad town, says Peire +Cardenal, is the present world: the highest form of intelligence is the +love and fear of God, but this has been replaced by greed, pride and +malice; consequently the "sense of God" seems madness to the world and +he who refuses to follow the "sense of the world" is treated as a +madman.</p> + +<p>Peire Cardenal is thus by temperament a moral preacher; he is not merely +critical of errors, but has also a positive faith to propound. He is not +an opponent of the papacy as an institution: the confession of faith +which he utters in one of his <i>sirventes</i> shows that he would have been +perfectly satisfied with the Roman ecclesiastical and doctrinal system, +had it been properly worked. In this respect he differs from a +contemporary troubadour, Guillem Figueira, whose violent satire against +Rome shows him as opposed to the whole system from the papacy downwards. +He was a native of Toulouse and migrated to Lombardy and to the court of +Frederick II. when the crusade drove him from his home. "I wonder not, +Rome, that men go astray, for thou hast cast the world into strife and +misery; virtue and good works die and are buried because of thee, +treacherous Rome, thou guiding-star, thou root and branch of all +iniquity... Greed blindeth thy eyes, and too close dost thou shear thy +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p089" name="p089"></a>[89] +</span> +sheep... thou forgivest sins for money, thou loadest thyself with a +shameful burden. Rome, we know of a truth that with the bait of false +forgiveness, thou hast snared in misery the nobility of France, the +people of Paris and the noble King Louis (VIII., who died in the course +of the Albigeois crusade); thou didst bring him to his death, for thy +false preaching enticed him from his land. Rome, thou has the outward +semblance of a lamb, so innocent is thy countenance, but within thou are +a ravening wolf, a crowned snake begotten of a viper and therefore the +devil greeteth thee as the friend of his bosom." This sirventes was +answered by a <i>trobairitz</i>, Germonde of Montpelier, but her reply lacks +the vigour and eloquence of the attack.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that the troubadours turned to religious poetry +simply because the Albigeois crusade had raised the religious question. +Purely devotional poetry is found at an earlier period.<a id="footnotetag29" name="footnotetag29"></a><a href= +"#footnote29"><sup>29</sup></a> It appears +at first only sporadically, and some of the greatest troubadours have +left no religious poems that have reached us. The fact is, that the +nature of troubadour poetry and its homage to the married woman were +incompatible with the highest standard of religious devotion. The famous +<i>alba</i> of Guiraut de Bornelh invokes the "glorious king, true light and +splendour, Lord Almighty," for the purpose of praying that the lovers +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p090" name="p090"></a>[90] +</span> +for whom the speaker is keeping watch may be undisturbed in interchange +of their affections. Prayer for the success of attempted adultery is a +contradiction in terms. For a theory of religion which could regard the +Deity as a possible accomplice in crime, the Church of Southern France +in the twelfth century is to blame: we cannot expect that the +troubadours in general should be more religious than the professional +exponents of religion. On the other hand, poems of real devotional +feeling are found, even from the earliest times: the sensual Count of +Poitiers, the first troubadour known to us, concludes his career with a +poem of resignation bidding farewell to the world, "leaving all that I +love, the brilliant life of chivalry, but since it pleases God, I resign +myself and pray Him to keep me among His own." Many troubadours, as has +been said, ended their lives in monasteries and the disappointments or +griefs which drove them to this course often aroused religious feelings, +regrets for past follies and resolutions of repentance, which found +expression in poetry. Peire d'Auvergne wrote several religious hymns +after his retirement from the world; these are largely composed of +reiterated articles of the Christian faith in metrical form and are as +unpoetical as they are orthodox, Crusade poems and <i>planhs</i> upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p091" name="p091"></a>[91] +</span> +deaths of famous nobles or patrons are religious only in a secondary +sense. A fine religious <i>alba</i> is ascribed to Folquet of Marseilles—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Vers Dieus, e·l vostre nom e de sancta Maria</p> +<p class="i4">m'esvelherai hueimais, pus l'estela del dia</p> +<p class="i4">ven daus Jerusalem que' m'ensenha qu'ien dia:</p> +<p class="i10">estatz sus e levatz,</p> +<p class="i10">senhor, que Dieu amatz! </p> +<p class="i10">que·l jorns es aprosmatz</p> +<p class="i10">e la nuech ten sa via;</p> +<p class="i10">e sia·n Dieus lauzatz</p> +<p class="i10">per nos e adoratz,</p> +<p class="i10">e·l preguem que·ens don patz</p> +<p class="i10">a tota nostra via.</p> +<p class="i10">La nuech vai e·l jorns ve</p> +<p class="i10">ab elar eel e sere,</p> +<p class="i10">e l'alba no's rete</p> +<p class="i10">ans ven belh' e complia.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"True God, in Thy name and in the name of Saint Mary will I awake +henceforth, since the star of day rises from o'er Jerusalem, bidding me +say, 'Up and arise, sirs, who love God! For the day is nigh, and the +night departs; and let God be praised and adored by us and let us pray +Him that He give us peace for all our lives. Night goes and day comes +with clear serene sky, and the dawn delays not but comes fair and +perfect.'"</p> + +<p>At the close of the Albigeois crusade the Virgin Mary becomes the theme +of an increasing number of lyric poems. These are not like the farewells +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p092" name="p092"></a>[92] +</span> +to the world, uttered by weary troubadours, and dictated by individual +circumstances, but are inspired by an increase of religious feeling in +the public to whom the troubadours appealed. Peire Cardenal began the +series and a similar poem is attributed to Perdigon, a troubadour who +joined the crusaders and fought against his old patrons; though the poem +is probably not his, it belongs to a time but little posterior to the +crusade. The cult of the Virgin had obvious attractions as a subject for +troubadours whose profane songs would not have been countenanced by St +Dominic and his preachers and religious poetry dealing with the subject +could easily borrow not only the metrical forms but also many technical +expressions which troubadours had used in singing of worldly love. They +could be the servants of a heavenly mistress and attribute to her all +the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that +the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the +supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut +Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new +<i>genre</i>: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem +admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many +poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with +classical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p093" name="p093"></a>[93] +</span> +the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea +of the character of this poetry.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Domna, rosa ses espina,</p> +<p class="i2">sobre totas flors olens,</p> +<p class="i2">verga seca frug fazens,</p> +<p class="i2">terra que ses labor grana,</p> +<p class="i2">estela, del solelh maire,</p> +<p class="i2">noirissa del vostre paire,</p> +<p class="i2">el mon nulha no·us semelha</p> +<p class="i2">ni londana ni vezina.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Domna, verge pura e fina,</p> +<p class="i2">ans que fos l'enfantamens,</p> +<p class="i2">et apres tot eissamens,</p> +<p class="i2">receup en vos carn humana</p> +<p class="i2">Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire,</p> +<p class="i2">si com ses trencamen faire</p> +<p class="i2">intra·l bels rais, quan solelha,</p> +<p class="i2">per la fenestra veirina.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">Domna, estela marina</p> +<p class="i2">de las autras plus luzens,</p> +<p class="i2">la mars nos combat e·l vens;</p> +<p class="i2">mostra nos via certana;</p> +<p class="i2">car si·ns vols a bon port traire</p> +<p class="i2">non tem nau ni governaire</p> +<p class="i2">ni tempest que·ns destorbelha</p> +<p class="i2">ni·l sobern de la marina.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing +fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun, +nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p094" name="p094"></a>[94] +</span> +neither far nor near.</p> + +<p>Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same, +Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without +causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun +shines.</p> + +<p>Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the +wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to +a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it +trouble us."</p> + + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VII<span class="pagenum"><a id="p095" name="p095"></a>[95] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY</h3> + + +<p>To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of +its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The +movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and +the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the very existence of its lyric +poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations +between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early +period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean +was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local nobles were +connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman +Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and <i>joglars</i> to visit the +Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian +dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their +poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to +troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal +was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the +Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p096" name="p096"></a>[96] +</span> +Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less +importance offered a welcome to Provençal poets. More than twenty +troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to +have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their +poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provençal became +the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of +troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure.</p> + +<p>Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career +(1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour +quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor +noble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of +Orange; he exchanged <i>tensos</i> with his patron with whom he seems to have +been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym +Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time +later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence +of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a +wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of +Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in +which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady.</p> + +<p>"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p097" name="p097"></a>[97] +</span> +is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded +if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than +if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up." +The lady then replies in her own Genoese dialect: she knows nothing of +the conventions of courtly love, and informs the troubadour that her +husband is a better man than he and that she will have nothing to do +with him. The poem is nothing but a <i>jeu d'esprit</i> based upon the +contrast between troubadour sentiments and the honest but unpoetical +views of the middle class; it is interesting to philologists as +containing one of the earliest known specimens of Italian dialect. An +example of the Tuscan dialect is also found in the <i>descort</i> by +Raimbaut. This is a poem in irregular metre, intended to show the +perturbation of the poet's mind. Raimbaut increased this effect by +writing in five different languages. He found a ready welcome from +Bonifacio II. at the court of Montferrat which Peire Vidal also visited. +The marquis dubbed him knight and made him his brother in arms. Raimbaut +fell in love with Beatrice, the sister of the marquis, an intimacy which +proceeded upon the regular lines of courtly love. He soon found an +opportunity of showing his devotion to the marquis. In 1194 Henry VI. +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p098" name="p098"></a>[98] +</span> +made an expedition to Sicily to secure the claims of his wife, +Constance, to that kingdom: the Marquis Boniface as a vassal of the +imperial house followed the Emperor and Raimbaut accompanied his +contingent. He refers to his share in the campaign in a later letter to +the marquis.<a id="footnotetag30" name="footnotetag30"></a><a href= +"#footnote30"><sup>30</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Et ai per vos estat en greu preyzo</p> +<p class="i2">Per vostra guerra e n'ai a vostro pro</p> +<p class="i2">Fag maynt assaut et ars maynta maiso</p> +<p class="i2">Et a Messina vos cobri del blizo;</p> +<p class="i2">En la batalha vos vinc en tal sazo</p> +<p class="i2">Que·us ferion pel pietz e pel mento</p> +<p class="i2">Dartz e cairels, sagetas e trenso.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"For your sake I have been in hard captivity in your war, and to do you +service I have made many an assault and burned many a house. At Messina +I covered you with the shield; I came to you in the battle at the moment +when they hurled at your breast and chin darts and quarrels, arrows and +lance-shafts." The captivity was endured in the course of the marquis's +wars in Italy, and the troubadour refers to a seafight between the +forces of Genoa and Pisa in the Sicilian campaign. In 1202 he followed +his master upon the crusade which practically ended at Constantinople. +He had composed a vigorous <i>sirventes</i> urging Christian men to join the +movement, but he does not himself show any great enthusiasm to take the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p099" name="p099"></a>[99] +</span> [99] +cross. "I would rather, if it please you, die in that land than live and +remain here. For us God was raised upon the cross, received death, +suffered the passion, was scourged and loaded with chains and crowned +with thorns upon the cross.... Fair Cavalier (i.e. Beatrice) I know not +whether I shall stay for your sake or take the cross; I know not whether +I shall go or remain, for I die with grief if I see you and I am like to +die if I am far from you." So also in the letter quoted above.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> E cant anetz per crozar a Saysso,</p> +<p class="i2"> Ieu non avia cor—Dieus m'o perdo—</p> +<p class="i2"> Que passes mar, mas per vostre resso</p> +<p class="i2"> Levey la crotz e pris confessio.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"And when you went to Soissons to take the cross, I did not intend—may +God forgive me—to cross the sea, but to increase your fame I took the +cross and made confession." The count lost his life, as Villehardouin +relates, in a skirmish with the Bulgarians in 1207. Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras probably fell at the same time.</p> + +<p>This is enough to show that troubadours who came to Italy could make the +country a second home, and find as much occupation in love, war and +politics as they had ever found in Southern France. Aimeric de Pegulhan, +Gaucelm Faidit, Uc de Saint-Circ,<a id="footnotetag31" name="footnotetag31"></a><a href= +"#footnote31"><sup>31</sup></a> the author of some troubadour +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p100" name="p100"></a>[100] +</span> +biographies, were among the best known of those who visited Italy. The +last named is known to have visited Pisa and another troubadour of minor +importance, Guillem de la Tor, was in Florence. Thus the visits of the +troubadours were by no means confined to the north.</p> + +<p>It was, therefore, natural that Italians should imitate the troubadours +whose art proved so successful at Italian courts and some thirty Italian +troubadours are known to us. Count Manfred II. and Albert, the Marquis +of Malaspina, engaged in <i>tensos</i> with Peire Vidal and Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras respectively and are the first Italians known to have written +in Provençal. Genoa produced a number of Italian troubadours of whom the +best were Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo. The latter was a wanderer +and spent some time in Castile at the court of Alfonso X. Lanfranc +Cigala was a judge in his native town: from him survive a <i>sirventes</i> +against Bonifacio III. of Montferrat who had abandoned the cause of +Frederick II., crusade poems and a <i>sirventes</i> against the obscure +style. The Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi was a prisoner at Genoa from 1266 +to 1273, having been captured by the Genoese. The troubadour of Genoa, +Bonifacio Calvo, had written a vigorous invective against Venice, to +which the captive troubadour composed an equally strong reply addressed +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p101" name="p101"></a>[101] +</span> +to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours +became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is +certainly Sordello.</p> + +<p>There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he +was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of noble family. His name is not +to be derived from <i>sordidus</i>, but from <i>Surdus</i>, a not uncommon +patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early +years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court +of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell +in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, <i>Par.</i> ix. +32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely +obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a +family feud, while others assert that the elopement took place with the +connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (<i>Inf</i>. +xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and +Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the +Provençal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his +flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He +thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France, +where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p102" name="p102"></a>[102] +</span> +penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is +the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose <i>sirventes</i> speaks of him +as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso +IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this +no date can be assigned. Allusions in his poems show that he was in +Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of +the Countess Beatrice (<i>Par.</i> vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar, +Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have +been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur +and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady +cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin +treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known nobles, +and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is +uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in +1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Charles on his +Italian expedition against Manfred in 1265, and seems to have been +captured by the Ghibellines before reaching Naples. At any rate, he was +a prisoner at Novara in September 1266; Pope Clement IV. induced Charles +to ransom him, and in 1269, as a recompense for his services, he +received five castles in the Abruzzi, near the river Pescara: shortly +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p103" name="p103"></a>[103] +</span> +afterwards he died. The circumstances of his death are unknown, but from +the fact that he is placed by Dante among those who were cut off before +they could repent it has been conjectured that he came to a violent end.</p> + +<p>Sordello's restless life and his intrigues could be exemplified from the +history of many another troubadour and neither his career nor his +poetry, which with two exceptions, is of no special originality, seems +to justify the portrait drawn of him by Dante; while Browning's famous +poem has nothing in common with the troubadour except the name. These +exceptions, however, are notable. The first is a <i>sirventes</i> composed by +Sordello on the death of his patron Blacatz in 1237. He invites to the +funeral feast the Roman emperor, Frederick II., the kings of France, +England and Aragon, the counts of Champagne, Toulouse and Provence. They +are urged to eat of the dead man's heart, that they may gain some +tincture of his courage and nobility. Each is invited in a separate +stanza in which the poet reprehends the failings of the several +potentates.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Del rey engles me platz, quar es paue coratjos,</p> +<p class="i2">Que manje pro del cor, pueys er valens e bos,</p> +<p class="i2">E cobrara la terra, per que viu de pretz blos,</p> +<p class="i2">Que·l tol lo reys de Fransa, quar lo sap nualhos;</p> +<p class="i2">E lo reys castelas tanh qu'en manje per dos,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p104" name="p104"></a>[104] +</span> +<p class="i2">Quar dos regismes ten, e per l'un non es pros;</p> +<p class="i2">Mas, s'elh en vol manjar, tanh qu'en manj'a rescos,</p> +<p class="i2">Que, si·l mair'o sabra, batria·l ab bastos.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"As concerns the English King (Henry III.) it pleases me, for he is +little courageous, that he should eat well of the heart; then he will be +valiant and good and will recover the land (for loss of which he lives +bereft of worth), which the King of France took from him, for he knows +him to be of no account. And the King of Castile (Ferdinand III. of +Castile and Leon), it is fitting that he eat of it for two, for he holds +two realms and he is not sufficient for one; but if he will eat of it, +'twere well that he eat in secret: for if his mother were to know it, +she would beat him with staves."</p> + +<p>This idea, which is a commonplace in the folklore of many countries, +attracted attention. Two contemporary troubadours attempted to improve +upon it. Bertran d'Alamanon said that the heart should not be divided +among the cowards, enumerated by Sordello, but given to the noble ladies +of the age: Peire Bremen proposed a division of the body. The point is +that Dante in the Purgatorio represents Sordello as showing to Virgil +the souls of those who, while singing <i>Salve Regina</i>, ask to be pardoned +for their neglect of duty and among them appear the rulers whom Sordello +had satirised in his <i>sirventes</i>. Hence it seems that it was this +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p105" name="p105"></a>[105] +</span> +composition which attracted Dante's attention to Sordello. The other +important poem is the <i>Ensenhamen</i>, a didactic work of instruction upon +the manner and conduct proper to a courtier and a lover. Here, and also +in some of his lyric poems, Sordello represents the transition to a new +idea of love which was more fully developed by the school of Guido +Guinicelli and found its highest expression in Dante's lyrics and Vita +Nuova. Love is now rather a mystical idea than a direct affection for a +particular lady: the lover is swayed by a spiritual and intellectual +ideal, and the motive of physical attraction recedes to the background. +The cause of love, however, remains unchanged: love enters through the +eyes; sight is delight.</p> + +<p>We must now turn southwards. A school of poetry had grown up in Sicily +at the court of Frederick II. No doubt he favoured those troubadours +whose animosity to the papacy had been aroused by the Albigeois crusade: +such invective as that which Guillem Figueira could pour forth would be +useful to him in his struggle against the popes. But the emperor was +himself a man of unusual culture, with a keen interest in literary and +scientific pursuits: he founded a university at Naples, collected +manuscripts and did much to make Arabic learning known to the West. He +was a poet and the importance of the Sicilian school consists in the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p106" name="p106"></a>[106] +</span> +fact that while the subject matter of their songs was lifted from +troubadour poetry, the language which they used belonged to the Italian +peninsula. The dialect of these <i>provenzaleggianti</i> was not pure +Sicilian but was probably a literary language containing elements drawn +from other dialects, as happened long before in the case of the +troubadours themselves. The best known representatives of this school, +Pier delle Vigne, Jacopo da Lentini and Guido delle Colonne are familiar +to students of Dante. After their time no one questioned the fact that +lyric poetry written in Italian was a possible achievement. The +influence of the Sicilian school extended to Central Italy and Tuscany; +Dante tells us that all Italian poetry preceding his own age was known +as Sicilian. The early Tuscan poets were, mediately or immediately, +strongly influenced by Provençal. The first examples of the sonnet, by +Dante da Majano, were written in that language. But such poetry was +little more than a rhetorical exercise. It was the revival of learning +and the Universities, in particular that of Bologna, which inspired the +<i>dolce stil nuovo</i>, of which the first exponent was Guido Giunicelli. +Love was now treated from a philosophical point of view: hitherto, the +Provençal school had maintained the thesis that "sight is delight," that +love originated from seeing and pleasing, penetrated to the heart and +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p107" name="p107"></a>[107] +</span> +occupied the thoughts, after passing through the eyes. So Aimeric de +Pegulhan.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Perque tuit li fin aman</p> +<p class="i2">Sapchan qu'amors es fina bevolenza</p> +<p class="i2">Que nais del cor e dels huelh, ses duptar.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Wherefore let all pure lovers know that love is pure unselfishness +which is born undoubtedly from the heart and from the eyes," a sentiment +thus repeated by Guido delle Colonne of the Sicilian school.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Dal cor si move un spirito in vedere</p> +<p class="i2">D'in ochi'n ochi, di femina e d'omo</p> +<p class="i2">Per lo quel si concria uno piacere.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>The philosophical school entirely transformed this conception. Love +seeks the noble heart by affinity, as the bird seeks the tree: the noble +heart cannot but love, and love inflames and purifies its nobility, as +the power of the Deity is transmitted to the heavenly beings. When this +idea had been once evolved, Provençal poetry could no longer be a moving +force; it was studied but was not imitated. Its influence had lasted +some 150 years, and as far as Italy is concerned it was Arabic learning, +Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas who slew the troubadours more certainly +than Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. The day of superficial +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p108" name="p108"></a>[108] +</span> +prettiness and of the cult of form had passed; love conjoined with +learning, a desire to pierce to the roots of things, a greater depth of +thought and earnestness were the characteristics of the new school.</p> + +<p>Dante's debt to the troubadours, with whose literature he was well +acquainted, is therefore the debt of Italian literature as a whole. Had +not the troubadours developed their theory of courtly love, with its +influence upon human nature, we cannot say what course early Italian +literature might have run. Moreover, the troubadours provided Italy and +other countries also with perfect models of poetical form. The sonnet, +the terza rima and any other form used by Dante are of Provençal origin. +And what is true of Dante and his Beatrice is no less true of Petrarch +and his Laura and of many another who may be sought in histories +specially devoted to this subject.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII<span class="pagenum"><a id="p109" name="p109"></a>[109] +</span></h3> + +<h3>THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN</h3> + +<p>The South of France had been connected with the North of Spain from a +period long antecedent to the first appearance of troubadour poetry. As +early as the Visigoth period, Catalonia had been united to Southern +France; in the case of this province the tie was further strengthened by +community of language. On the western side of the Pyrenees a steady +stream of pilgrims entered the Spanish peninsula on their way to the +shrine of St James of Compostella in Galicia; this road was, indeed, +known in Spain as the "French road." Catalonia was again united with +Provence by the marriage of Raimon Berengar III. with a Provençal +heiress in 1112. As the counts of Barcelona and the kings of Aragon held +possessions in Southern France, communications between the two countries +were naturally frequent.</p> + +<p>We have already had occasion to refer to the visits of various +troubadours to the courts of Spain. The "reconquista," the reconquest of +Spain from the Moors, was in progress during the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, and various crusade poems were written by troubadours +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p110" name="p110"></a>[110] +</span> +summoning help to the Spaniards in their struggles. Marcabrun was the +author of one of the earliest of these, composed for the benefit of +Alfonso VIII. of Castile and possibly referring to his expedition +against the Moors in 1147, which was undertaken in conjunction with the +kings of Navarre and Aragon. The poem is interesting for its repetition +of the word <i>lavador</i> or piscina, used as an emblem of the crusade in +which the participants would be cleansed of their sins.<a id="footnotetag32" name="footnotetag32"></a><a href= +"#footnote32"><sup>32</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Pax in nomine Domini!</p> +<p class="i2">Fetz Marcabrus los motz e·l so.</p> +<p class="i6">Aujatz que di:</p> +<p class="i2">Cum nos a fait per sa doussor,</p> +<p class="i2">Lo Seignorius celestiaus</p> +<p class="i2">Probet de nos un lavador</p> +<p class="i2">C'ane, fors outramar, no·n' fon taus,</p> +<p class="i2">En de lai deves Josaphas:</p> +<p class="i2">E d'aquest de sai vos conort.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Pax, etc.,—-Marcabrun composed the words and the air. Hear what he +says. How, by his goodness, the Lord of Heaven, has made near us a +piscina, such as there never was, except beyond the sea, there by +Josaphat, and for this one near here do I exhort you."</p> + +<p>Alfonso II. of Aragon (1162-1196) was a constant patron of the +troubadours, and himself an exponent of their art. He belonged to the +family of the counts of Barcelona which became in his time one of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p111" name="p111"></a>[111] +</span> +most powerful royal houses in the West of Europe. He was the grandson of +Raimon Berengar III. and united to Barcelona by marriage and diplomacy, +the kingdom of Aragon, Provence and Roussillon. His continual visits to +the French part of his dominions gave every opportunity to the +troubadours to gain his favour: several were continually about him and +there were few who did not praise his liberality. A discordant note is +raised by Bertran de Born, who composed some violent <i>sirventes</i> against +Alfonso; he was actuated by political motives: Alfonso had joined the +King of England in his operations against Raimon V. of Toulouse and +Bertran's other allies and had been present at the capture of Bertran's +castle of Hautefort in 1183. The biography relates that in the course of +the siege, the King of Aragon, who had formerly been in friendly +relations with Bertran, sent a messenger into the fortress asking for +provisions. These Bertran supplied with the request that the king would +secure the removal of the siege engines from a particular piece of wall, +which was on the point of destruction and would keep the information +secret. Alfonso, however, betrayed the message and the fortress was +captured. The <i>razo</i> further relates the touching scene to which we have +already referred when Bertran moved Henry II. to clemency by a reference +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p112" name="p112"></a>[112] +</span> +to the death of the "young king." The account of Alfonso's supposed +treachery is probably no less unhistorical: the siege lasted only a week +and it is unlikely that the besiegers would have been reduced to want in +so short a time. It was probably invented to explain the hostility on +Bertran's part which dated from the wars between Alfonso and Raimon V. +of Toulouse. This animosity was trumpeted forth in two lampooning +<i>sirventes</i> criticising the public policy and the private life of the +Spanish King. His accusations of meanness and trickery seem to be based +on nothing more reliable than current gossip.</p> + +<p>Peire Vidal, with the majority of the troubadours, shows himself a +vigorous supporter of Alfonso. Referring to this same expedition of 1183 +he asserted "Had I but a speedy horse, the king might sleep in peace at +Balaguer: I would keep Provence and Montpelier in such order that +robbers and freebooters should no longer plunder Venaissin and Crau. +When I have put on my shining cuirass and girded on the sword that Guigo +lately gave me, the earth trembles beneath my feet; no enemy so mighty +who does not forthwith avoid out of my path, so great is their fear of +me when they hear my steps." These boasts in the style of Captain +Matamoros are, of course, not serious: the poet's personal appearance +seems to have been enough to preclude any suppositions of the kind. In +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p113" name="p113"></a>[113] +</span> +another poem he sings the praises of Sancha, daughter of Alfonso VIII. +of Castile, who married Alfonso II. of Aragon in 1174. With the common +sense in political matters which is so strangely conjoined with the +whimsicality of his actions, he puts his finger upon the weak spot in +Spanish politics when he refers to the disunion between the four kings, +Alfonso II. of Aragon, Alfonso IX. of Leon, Alfonso VIII. of Castile and +Sancho Garcés of Navarre: "little honour is due to the four kings of +Spain for that they cannot keep peace with one another; since in other +respects they are of great worth, dexterous, open, courteous and loyal, +so that they should direct their efforts to better purpose and wage war +elsewhere against the people who do not believe our law, until the whole +of Spain professes one and the same faith."</p> + +<p>The Monk of Montaudon, Peire Raimon of Toulouse, Uc de San Circ, Uc +Brunet and other troubadours of less importance also enjoyed Alfonso's +patronage. Guiraut de Bornelh sent a poem to the Catalonian court in +terms which seemed to show that the simple style of poetry was there +preferred to complicated obscurities. The same troubadour was +sufficiently familiar with Alfonso's successor, Pedro II., to take part +in a <i>tenso</i> with him.</p> + +<p>Pedro II. (1196-1213) was no less popular with the troubadours than his +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p114" name="p114"></a>[114] +</span> +father. Aimeric de Pegulhan, though more closely connected with the +court of Castile, is loud in his praises of Pedro, "the flower of +courtesy, the green leaf of delight, the fruit of noble deeds." Pedro +supported his brother-in-law, Raimon VI. of Toulouse, against the +crusaders and Simon de Montfort during the Albigeois crusade and was +killed near Toulouse in the battle of Muret. The Chanson de la Croisade +does not underestimate the impression made by his death.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Mot fo grans lo dampnatges e·l dols e·l perdementz</p> +<p class="i2">Cant lo reis d'Arago remas mort e sagnens,</p> +<p class="i2">E mot d'autres baros, don fo grans l'aunimens</p> +<p class="i2">A tot crestianesme et a trastotas gens.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Great was the damage and the grief and the loss when the King of Aragon +remained dead and bleeding with many other barons, whence was great +shame to all Christendom and to all people."</p> + +<p>The Court of Castile attracted the attention and the visits of the +troubadours, chiefly during the reign of Alfonso VIII. (or III.; +1158-1214) the hero of Las Navas de Tolosa, the most decisive defeat +which the Arab power in the West had sustained since the days of Charles +Martel. The preceding defeat of Alfonso's forces at Alarcos in 1195 had +called forth a fine crusade <i>sirventes</i> from Folquet of Marseilles +appealing to Christians in general and the King of Aragon in particular +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p115" name="p115"></a>[115] +</span> +to join forces against the infidels. The death of Alfonso's son, +Fernando, in 1211 from an illness contracted in the course of a campaign +against the infidels was lamented by Guiraut de Calanso, a Gascon +troubadour.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Lo larc e·l franc, lo valen e·l grazitz,</p> +<p class="i2">Don cuiavon qu'en fos esmendatz</p> +<p class="i2">Lo jove reys, e·n Richartz lo prezatz</p> +<p class="i2">E·l coms Jaufres, tug li trey valen fraire.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"The generous and frank, the worthy and attractive of whom men thought +that in him were increased the qualities of the young king, of Richard +the high renowned, and of the Count Godfrey, all the three valiant +brothers." Peire Vidal in one of the poems which he addressed to Alfonso +VIII., speaks of the attractions of Spain. "Spain is a good country; its +kings and lords are kindly and loving, generous and noble, of courteous +company; other barons there are, noble and hospitable, men of sense and +knowledge, valiant and renowned." Raimon Vidal of Bezaudun, a Catalonian +troubadour has given a description of Alfonso's court in one of his +<i>novelas</i>. "I wish to relate a story which I heard a joglar tell at the +court of the wisest king that ever was, King Alfonso of Castile, where +were presents and gifts, judgment, worth and courtesy, spirit and +chivalry, though he was not anointed or sacred, but crowned with praise, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p116" name="p116"></a>[116] +</span> +sense, worth and prowess. The king gathered many knights to his court, +many <i>joglars</i> and rich barons and when the court was filled Queen +Eleanor came in dressed so that no one saw her body. She came wrapped +closely in a cloak of silken fabric fine and fair called sisclaton; it +was red with a border of silver and had a golden lion broidered on it. +She bowed to the king and took her seat on one side at some distance. +Then, behold, a <i>joglar</i> come before the king, frank and debonair, who +said 'King, noble emperor, I have come to you thus and I pray you of +your goodness that my tale may be heard,'" The scene concludes, "Joglar, +I hold the story which you have related as good, amusing and fair and +you also the teller of it and I will order such reward to be given to +you that you shall know that the story has indeed pleased me."</p> + +<p>The crown of Castile was united with that of Leon by Fernando III. +(1230-1262) the son of Alfonso IX. of Leon. Lanfranc Cigala, the +troubadour of Genoa, excuses the Spaniards at this time for their +abstention from the Crusades to Jerusalem on the ground that they were +fully occupied in their struggles with the Moors. Fernando is one of the +kings to whom Sordello refers in the famous <i>sirventes</i> of the divided +heart, as also is Jaime I. of Aragon (1213-1276), the "Conquistador," of +whom much is heard in the poetry of the troubadours. He was born at +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p117" name="p117"></a>[117] +</span> +Montpelier and was fond of revisiting his birthplace; troubadours whom +he there met accompanied him to Spain, joined in his expeditions and +enjoyed his generosity. His court became a place of refuge for those who +had been driven out of Southern France by the Albigeois crusade; Peire +Cardenal, Bernard Sicart de Marvejols and N'At de Mons of Toulouse +visited him. His popularity with the troubadours was considerably shaken +by his policy in 1242, when a final attempt was made to throw off the +yoke imposed upon Southern France as the result of the Albigeois +crusade. Isabella of Angoulême, the widow of John of England, had +married the Count de la Marche; she urged him to rise against the French +and induced her son, Henry III. of England, to support him. Henry hoped +to regain his hold of Poitou and was further informed that the Count of +Toulouse and the Spanish kings would join the alliance. There seems to +have been a general belief that Jaime would take the opportunity of +avenging his father's death at Muret. However, no Spanish help was +forthcoming; the allies were defeated at Saintes and at Taillebourg and +this abortive rising ended in 1243. Guillem de Montanhagol says in a +<i>sirventes</i> upon this event, "If King Jaime, with whom we have never +broken faith, had kept the agreement which is said to have been made +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p118" name="p118"></a>[118] +</span> +between him and us, the French would certainly have had cause to grieve +and lament." Bernard de Rovenhac shows greater bitterness: "the king of +Aragon is undoubtedly well named Jacme (jac from jazer, to lie down) for +he is too fond of lying down and when anyone despoils him of his land, +he is so feeble that he does not offer the least opposition." Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols voices the grief of his class at the failure of the +rising: "In the day I am full of wrath and in the night I sigh betwixt +sleeping and waking; wherever I turn, I hear the courteous people crying +humbly 'Sire' to the French." These outbursts do not seem to have roused +Jaime to any great animosity against the troubadour class. Aimeric de +Belenoi belauds him, Peire Cardenal is said to have enjoyed his favour, +and other minor troubadours refer to him in flattering terms.</p> + +<p>The greatest Spanish patron of the troubadours was undoubtedly Alfonso +X. of Castile (1254-1284). El Sabio earned his title by reason of his +enlightened interest in matters intellectual; he was himself a poet, +procured the translation of many scientific books and provided Castile +with a famous code of laws. The Italian troubadours Bonifaci Calvo and +Bartolomeo Zorzi were welcomed to his court, to which many others came +from Provence. One of his favourites was the troubadour who was the last +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p119" name="p119"></a>[119] +</span> +representative of the old school, Guiraut Riquier of Narbonne. He was +born between 1230 and 1235, when the Albigeois crusade was practically +over and when troubadour poetry was dying, as much from its own inherent +lack of vitality as from the change of social and political environment +which the upheaval of the previous twenty years had produced. Guiraut +Riquier applied to a Northern patron for protection, a proceeding +unexampled in troubadour history and the patron he selected was the King +of France himself. Neither Saint Louis nor his wife were in the least +likely to provide a market for Guiraut's wares and the Paris of that day +was by no means a centre of literary culture. The troubadour, therefore, +tried his fortune with Alfonso X. whose liberality had become almost +proverbial. There he seems to have remained for some years and to have +been well content, in spite of occasional friction with other suitors +for the king's favour. His description of Catalonia is interesting.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">Pus astres no m'es donatz</p> +<p class="i2">Que de mi dons bes m'eschaia,</p> +<p class="i2">Ni nulho nos plazers no·l platz,</p> +<p class="i2">Ni ay poder que·m n'estraia,</p> +<p class="i2">Ops m'es qu'ieu sia fondatz</p> +<p class="i2">En via d'amor veraia,</p> +<p class="i2">E puesc n'apenre assatz</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">En Cataluenha la gaia,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p120" name="p120"></a>[120] +</span> +<p class="i2">Entrels Catalas valens</p> +<p class="i2">E las donas avinens.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i6">Quar dompneys, pretz e valors,</p> +<p class="i2">Joys e gratz e cortesia,</p> +<p class="i2">Sens e sabers et honors,</p> +<p class="i2">Bels parlars, bella paria,</p> +<p class="i2">E largueza et amors,</p> +<p class="i2">Conoyssensa e cundia,</p> +<p class="i2">Troban manten e socors</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">En Cataluenha a tria,</p> +<p class="i2">Entrels, etc.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"Since my star has not granted me that from my lady happiness should +fall to me, since no pleasure that I can give pleases her and I have no +power to forget her, I must needs enter upon the road of true love and I +can learn it well enough in gay Catalonia among the Catalonians, men of +worth, and their kindly ladies. For courtesy, worth, joy, gratitude and +gallantry, sense, knowledge, honour, fair speech, fair company, +liberality and love, learning and grace find maintenance and support in +Catalonia entirely."</p> + +<p>Between thirty and forty poets of Spanish extraction are known to have +written Provençal poetry. Guillem de Tudela of Navarre wrote the first +part of the <i>Chanson de la Croisade albigeoise</i>; Serveri de Gerona wrote +didactic and devotional poetry, showing at least ingenuity of technique; +Amanieu des Escas has left love letters and didactic works for the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p121" name="p121"></a>[121] +</span> +instruction of young people in the rules of polite behaviour. But the +influence of Provençal upon the native poetry of Spain proper was but +small, in spite of the welcome which the troubadours found at the courts +of Castile, Aragon, Leon and Navarre. Troubadour poetry required a +peaceful and an aristocratic environment, and the former at least of +these conditions was not provided by the later years of Alfonso X. +Northern French influence was also strong: numerous French immigrants +were able to settle in towns newly founded or taken from the Moors. The +warlike and adventurous spirit of Northern and Central Spain preferred +epic to lyric poetry: and the outcome was the <i>cantar de gesta</i> and the +<i>romance</i>, the lyrico-narrative or ballad poem.</p> + +<p>This was not the course of development followed either in the Eastern or +Western coasts of the peninsula. Catalonia was as much a part of the +Provençal district as of Spain. To the end of the thirteenth century +Catalonian poets continued to write in the language of the troubadours, +often breaking the strict rules of rime correspondence and of grammar, +but refusing to use their native dialect. Religious poems of popular and +native origin appear to have existed, but even the growth of a native +prose was unable to overcome the preference for Provençal in the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p122" name="p122"></a>[122] +</span> +composition of lyrics. Guiraut de Cabreira is remembered for the 213 +lines which he wrote to instruct his <i>joglar</i> Cabra; Guiraut upbraids +this performer for his ignorance, and details a long series of legends +and poems which a competent <i>joglar</i> ought to know. Guiraut de Calanso +wrote an imitation of this diatribe. The best known of the Catalonian +troubadours is Raimon Vidal of Besadun, both for his <i>novelas</i> and also +for his work on Provençal grammar and metre, <i>Las rasos de trobar</i>,<a id="footnotetag33" name="footnotetag33"></a><a href="#footnote33"><sup>33</sup></a> +which was written for the benefit of his compatriots who desired to +avoid solecisms or mistakes when composing. "For as much as I, Raimon +Vidal, have seen and known that few men know or have known the right +manner of composing poetry (trobar) I desire to make this book that men +may know and understand which of the troubadours have composed best and +given the best instruction to those who wish to learn how they should +follow the right manner of composing.... All Christian people, Jews, +Saracens, emperors, princes, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, vavassors +and all other nobles with clergy, citizens and villeins, small and +great, daily give their minds to composing and singing.... In this +science of composing the troubadours are gone astray and I will tell you +wherefore. The hearers who do not understand anything when they hear a +fine poem will pretend that they understand perfectly... because they +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p123" name="p123"></a>[123] +</span> +think that men would consider it a fault in them if they said that they +did not understand.... And if when they hear a bad troubadour, they do +understand, they will praise his singing because they understand it; or +if they will not praise, at least they will not blame him; and thus the +troubadours are deceived and the hearers are to blame for it." Raimon +Vidal proceeds to say that the pure language is that of Provence or of +Limousin or of Saintonge or Auvergne or Quercy: "wherefore I tell you, +that when I use the term Limousin, I mean all those lands and those +which border them or are between them." He was apparently the first to +use the term Limousin to describe classical Provençal, and when it +became applied to literary Catalonian, as distinguished from <i>plá +Catalá</i>, the vulgar tongue, the result was some confusion. Provençal +influence was more permanent in Catalonia than in any other part of +Spain; in 1393, the Consistorium of the <i>Gay saber</i> was founded in +imitation of the similar association at Toulouse. Most of the troubadour +poetical forms and the doctrines of the Toulouse <i>Leys d'Amors</i> were +retained, until Italian influence began to oust Provençal towards the +close of the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>On the western side of Spain, Provençal influence evoked a brief and +brilliant literature in the Galician or Portuguese school. Its most +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p124" name="p124"></a>[124] +</span> +brilliant period was the age of Alfonso X. of Castile, one of its most +illustrious exponents, and that of Denis of Portugal (1280-1325). The +dates generally accepted for the duration of this literature are +1200-1385; it has left to us some 2000 lyric poems, the work of more +than 150 poets, including four kings and a number of nobles of high +rank. French and Provençal culture had made its way gradually and by +various routes to the western side of the Spanish peninsula.</p> + +<p>We have already referred to the pilgrim route to the shrine of +Compostella, by which a steady stream of foreign influence entered the +country. The same effect was produced by crusaders who came to help the +Spaniards in their struggle against the Moors, and by foreign colonists +who helped to Christianise the territories conquered from the +Mohammedans. The capture of Lisbon in 1147 increased maritime +intercourse with the North. Individuals from Portugal also visited +Northern and Southern France, after the example of their Spanish +neighbours. References to Portugal in the poetry of the troubadours are +very scarce, nor is there any definite evidence that any troubadour +visited the country. This fact is in striking contrast with the loud +praises of the Spanish courts. None the less, such visits must have +taken place: Sancho I. had French <i>jongleurs</i> in his pay during +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p125" name="p125"></a>[125] +</span> +the twelfth century and the Portuguese element in the five-language +<i>descort</i> of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras shows that communication between +Provençal poets and Portuguese or Galician districts must have existed. +The general silence of the troubadours may be due to the fact that +communication began at a comparatively late period and was maintained +between Portugal and Spanish courts, and not directly between Portugal +and Southern France.</p> + +<p>Alfonso X. of Castile himself wrote many poems in the Galician or +Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons analogous +to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in +Provençal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form +and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to +an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is +preserved with the accompanying ideas of <i>amour courtois</i>, and the lyric +forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provençal manner +took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the +ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric +poetry which was remodelled under Provençal influence. The most popular +of the types thus developed were <i>Cantigas de amor e de amigo</i> and +<i>Cantigas de</i> <i>escarnho e de maldizer</i>; the former were love +songs: when the poet speaks the song was one <i>de amor</i>; when the lady +speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provençal usage) the song was +<i>de amigo</i>. This latter is a type developed independently by the +Portuguese school. <i>Cantigas de escarnho</i> correspond in intention +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p126" name="p126"></a>[126] +</span> +to the Provençal <i>sirventes</i>; if their satire was open and unrestrained +they were <i>cantigas de maldizer</i>. They dealt for the most part with +trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy +upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in +taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about +1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty +years.</p> + + +<br><br> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX<span class="pagenum"><a id="p127" name="p127"></a>[127] +</span></h3> + +<h3>PROVENÇAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND</h3> + + +<p>Provençal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the +minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically +with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school, +flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the +Rhine school. In the latter case, Provençal influence is not disputed; +but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it, +has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that +the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of +Provençal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry +in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of +development before Provençal influence affected it. Austria undoubtedly +came into touch with this influence at an early date. The Danube valley +was a high road for the armies of crusaders; another route led from +Northern Italy to Vienna, by which Peire Vidal probably found his way to +Hungary. At the same time, though Provençal influence was strong, the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p128" name="p128"></a>[128] +</span> +Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or +translation of troubadour productions. Dietmar von Aist, one of the +earliest minnesingers, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth +century has, for instance, the Provençal <i>alba</i> theme. Two lovers part +at daybreak, when awakened by a bird on the linden: if the theme is +Provençal, the simplicity of the poet's treatment is extremely fresh and +natural. This difference is further apparent in the attitude of +minnesingers and troubadours towards the conception of "love." The +minnesong is the literary expression of the social convention known as +"Frauendienst," the term "minne" connoting the code which prescribed the +nature of the relation existing between the lover and his lady; the +dominant principle was a reverence for womanhood as such, and in this +respect the German minnesang is inspired by a less selfish spirit than +the Provençal troubadour poetry. Typical of the difference is Walter von +der Vogelweide's—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Swer guotes wîbes minne hât,</p> +<p class="i2">der schamt sich aller missetât.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>("He who has a good woman's love is ashamed of every ill deed"), +compared with Bernart de Ventadour's—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Non es meravilha s'ieu chan</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p129" name="p129"></a>[129] +</span> +<p class="i2">Melhs de nul autre chantador</p> +<p class="i2">Car plus trai mos cors ves Amor</p> +<p class="i2">E melhs sui faitz a son coman.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>("It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws nearer to love and I am better made for love's command.") The +troubadour <i>amor</i>, especially in its Italian development, eventually +attained the moral power of the <i>minne</i>; but in its early stages, it was +a personal and selfish influence. The stanza form and rime distribution +of the minnesinger poems continually betray Provençal influence: the +principle of tripartition is constantly followed and the arrangement of +rimes is often a repetition of that adopted in troubadour stanzas. +Friedrich von Hausen, the Count Rudolf von Fenis, Heinrich von Morungen +and others sometimes translate almost literally from troubadour poetry, +though these imitations do not justify the lines of Uhland.</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">In den Thälern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen,</p> +<p class="i2">Kind des Frühlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous +lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and +"chansons de toile." Provençal influence here was inevitable. It is +apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p130" name="p130"></a>[130] +</span> +Provençal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact +that Provençal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics. +Provençal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by +means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by +intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provençal +influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of +Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter, +Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal +code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the <i>De +arte honeste amandi</i> of André le Chapelain, written at the outset of the +thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and +Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly +love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chrétien de Troyes.</p> + +<p>The Provençal school in Northern France began during the latter half of +the twelfth century. The <i>chanson</i> properly so called is naturally most +strongly represented: but the Provençal forms, the <i>tençon</i> (Prov. +<i>tenso</i>) and a variant of it, the <i>jeu-parti</i> (Prov. <i>jocs partitz</i> or +<i>partimens</i>) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called, +because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his +interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p131" name="p131"></a>[131] +</span> +he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the +contestants often left the decision in an <i>envoi</i> to one or more +arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of +these <i>envois</i> gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love," +as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest +representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he +took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace +Brulé and the Châtelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to +the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre +(1201-1253), shared in the Albigeois crusade and thus helped in the +destruction of the poetry which he imitated. One of the poems attributed +to him by Dante (<i>De Vulg. El.</i>) belongs to Gace Brulé; his love affair +with Blanche of Castile is probably legendary. Several crusade songs are +attributed to Thibaut among some thirty poems of the kind that remain to +us from the output of this school. These crusade poems exhibit the +characteristics of their Provençal models: there are exhortations to +take the cross in the form of versified sermons; there are also love +poems which depict the poet's mind divided between his duty as a +crusader and his reluctance to leave his lady; or we find the lady +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p132" name="p132"></a>[132] +</span> +bewailing her lover's departure, or again, lady and lover lament their +approaching separation in alternate stanzas. There is more real feeling +in some of these poems than is apparent in the ordinary chanson of the +Northern French courtly school: the following stanzas are from a poem by +Guiot de Dijon,<a id="footnotetag34" name="footnotetag34"></a><a href= +"#footnote34"><sup>34</sup></a> the lament of a lady for her absent lover—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Chanterai por mon corage </p> +<p class="i2">Que je vueill reconforter</p> +<p class="i2">Car avec mon grant damage</p> +<p class="i2">Ne quier morir n'afoler,</p> +<p class="i2">Quant de la terra sauvage</p> +<p class="i2">Ne voi nului retorner</p> +<p class="i2">Ou cil est qui m'assoage</p> +<p class="i2">Le cuer, quant j'en oi parler</p> +<p class="i6">Dex, quant crieront outree,</p> +<p class="i6">Sire, aidiés au pelerin</p> +<p class="i6">Por cui sui espoentee,</p> +<p class="i6">Car felon sunt Sarrazin.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">De ce sui bone atente</p> +<p class="i2">Que je son homage pris, </p> +<p class="i2">E quant la douce ore vente</p> +<p class="i2">Qui vient de cel douz païs</p> +<p class="i2">Ou cil est qui m'atalente,</p> +<p class="i2">Volontiers i tor mon vis:</p> +<p class="i2">Adont m'est vis que jel sente</p> +<p class="i2">Par desoz mon mantel gris.</p> +<p class="i6">Dex, etc.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"I will sing for my heart which I will comfort, for in spite of my great +loss I do not wish to die, and yet I see no one return from the wild +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p133" name="p133"></a>[133] +</span> +land where he is who calms my heart when I hear mention of him. God! +when they cry Outre (a pilgrim marching cry), Lord help the pilgrim for +whom I tremble, for wicked are the Saracens.</p> + +<p>"From this fact have I confidence, that I have received his vows and +when the gentle breeze blows which comes from the sweet country where he +is whom I desire, readily do I turn my face thither: then I think I feel +him beneath my grey mantle."</p> + +<p>The idea in the second stanza quoted is borrowed from Bernard de +Ventadour—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Quant la douss' aura venta</p> +<p class="i6">Deves vostre païs.</p> +<p class="i2">Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta</p> +<p class="i6">Un ven de Paradis.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>The greater part of this poetry repeats, in another language, the +well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory +references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of +ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from +his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form +and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and +occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that +school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated +emotion and appealed only to a restricted class of the initiated. +Changes in the constitution and customs of society brought this school +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p134" name="p134"></a>[134] +</span> +to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of +lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache +Deschamps.</p> + +<p>Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject +has hitherto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as +much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was +Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard +followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What +truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his +motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis +emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno +Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo +canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in +orbe." The manuscripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one +referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I. +(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his +imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a +Provençal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's +discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.<a id="footnotetag35" name="footnotetag35"></a><a href= +"#footnote35"><sup>35</sup></a></p> + +<p>From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p135" name="p135"></a>[135] +</span> +communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number +of Provençals visited England at different times and especially in the +reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de +Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided +for the entry of Provençal influence during the period when a general +stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman +French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of +that age and it was not until the second half of the thirteenth century +that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provençal +influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry. +But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was +similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas, +Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in +imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte +joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes +effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also +political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly +called <i>sirventes</i>, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum, +Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p136" name="p136"></a>[136] +</span> +principles of the <i>tenso</i> or <i>partimen</i>. The use of equivocal and +"derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the +following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in +the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provençal +<i>trobairitz</i>; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure +coincidence.<a id="footnotetag36" name="footnotetag36"></a><a href= +"#footnote36"><sup>36</sup></a></p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt</p> +<p class="i2">E reverdist la matinée</p> +<p class="i2">E sil oysel chauntent a poynt</p> +<p class="i2">En temps d'avril en la ramée,</p> +<p class="i2">Lores est ma dolur dublée</p> +<p class="i2">Que jeo sui en si dure poynt</p> +<p class="i2">Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt,</p> +<p class="i2">Tant me greve la destinée.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Murnes et pensif m'en depart,</p> +<p class="i2">Que trop me greve la partie;</p> +<p class="i2">Si n'en puis aler cele part,</p> +<p class="i2">Que ele n'eyt a sa partie</p> +<p class="i2">Mon quor tot enter saunz partie.</p> +<p class="i2">E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part,</p> +<p class="i2">E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part</p> +<p class="i2">A moi est dure la partie.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>"In the season when the grass springs and the morn is green and the +birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief +doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy +is my fate upon me.</p> + +<p>"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p137" name="p137"></a>[137] +</span> +I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and +undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of +hers, the division is a hard one to me."</p> + +<p>This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These +lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as +an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples +of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrain of +distinctly popular origin is added to a stanza of courtly and artificial +character. Generally, however, there is a freshness and vigour in these +poems which may be vainly sought in the products of continental +decadence. But Provençal influence, whether exerted directly or +indirectly through the Northern French lyric school, is plainly visible +in many cases. Of the lyrics found in the important MS. Harleian +2253,<a id="footnotetag37" name="footnotetag37"></a><a href= +"#footnote37"><sup>37</sup></a> "Alysoun" has the same rime scheme as a poem by Gaucelm +Faidit: it opens with the conventional appeal to spring; the poet's +feelings deprive him of sleep. The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a +rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut +d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many +troubadour formulae: the concluding lines—</p> + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze,</p><span class="pagenum"><a id="p138" name="p138"></a>[138] +</span> +<p class="i2">pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze,</p> +<p class="i4">heuene he hevede here.</p> + </div> </div> + +<p>are a troubadour commonplace. Many other cases might be quoted. Hymns +and songs to the Virgin exhibit the same characteristics of form. The +few Provençal words which became English are interesting;<a id="footnotetag38" name="footnotetag38"></a><a href= +"#footnote38"><sup>38</sup></a> colander +or cullender (now a vegetable strainer; Prov. colador), funnel, +puncheon, rack, spigot, league, noose are directly derived from +Provençal and not through Northern French and are words connected with +shipping and the wine trade, the port for which was Bordeaux.</p> + + +<p>In the year 1323 a society was formed in Toulouse of seven troubadours, +the "sobregaya companhia," for the purpose of preserving and encouraging +lyric poetry (lo gay saber). The middle class of Toulouse seems at all +times to have felt an interest in poetry and had already produced such +well-known troubadours as Aimeric de Pegulhan, Peire Vidal and Guillem +Figueira. The society offered an annual prize of a golden violet for the +best <i>chanso</i>; other prizes were added at a later date for the best +dance song and the best <i>sirventes</i>. Competitors found that songs to the +Virgin were given the preference and she eventually became the one +subject of these prize competitions. The society produced a grammatical +<span class="pagenum"><a id="p139" name="p139"></a>[139] +</span> +work, the Leys d'Amors, under the name of its president, Guillem +Molinier, in 1356,<a id="footnotetag39" name="footnotetag39"></a><a href= +"#footnote39"><sup>39</sup></a> no doubt for the reference and instruction of +intending competitors. The competition produced a few admirable poems, +but anxiety to preserve the old troubadour style resulted generally in +dry and stilted compositions. The <i>Academie des jeux floraux</i><a id="footnotetag40" name="footnotetag40"></a><a href= +"#footnote40"><sup>40</sup></a> +altered the character of the competition by admitting French poems after +1694. At the end of the sixteenth century, Provençal poetry underwent a +revival; in our own time, poets such as Jasmin, Aubanel, Roumanille and +above all, Mistral, have raised their language from a patois to a +literary power. The work of the félibres has been to synthetise the best +elements of the various local dialects and to create a literary language +by a process not wholly dissimilar to that described at the outset of +this book. But the old troubadour spirit had died long before; it had +accomplished its share in the history of European literature and had +given an impulse to the development of lyric poetry, the effects of +which are perceptible even at the present day.</p> + +<br><br> + + +<h3>BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES</h3> + +<h4>LITERARY HISTORY</h4> + +<p>F. Diez, <i>Leben und Werke der Troubadours</i>, 2nd edit., re-edited by K. +Bartsch, Leipsic, 1882. <i>Die Poesie der Troubadours</i>, 2nd edit., +re-edited by K. Bartsch, Leipsic, 1883.</p> + +<p>K. Bartsch, <i>Grundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur</i>, +Elberfeld, 1872. A new edition of this indispensable work is in +preparation by Prof. A. Pillet of Breslau. The first part of the book +contains a sketch of Provençal literature, and a list of manuscripts. +The second part gives a list of the troubadours in alphabetical order, +with the lyric poems attributed to each troubadour. The first line of +each poem is quoted and followed by a list of the MSS. in which it is +found. Modern editors have generally agreed to follow these lists in +referring to troubadour lyrics: e.g. B. Gr., 202, 4 refers to the fourth +lyric (in alphabetical order) of Guillem Ademar, who is no. 202 in +Bartsch's list.</p> + +<p>A list of corrections to this list is given by Gröber in Böhmer's +<i>Romanische Studien</i>, vol. ii. 1875-77, Strassburg. In vol. ix. of the +same is Gröbers' study of troubadour MSS. and the relations between +them.</p> + +<p>A. Stimming, <i>Provenzaliscke Literatur in Gröber's Grundriss der +Romanischen Philologie</i>, Strassburg, 1888, vol. ii. part ii. contains +useful bibliographical notices.</p> + +<p>A. Restori, <i>Letteratura provenzale</i>, Milan, 1891 (<i>Manuali Hoepli</i>), an +excellent little work.</p> + +<p>A. Jeanroy, <i>Les origines de la poésie lyrique en France</i>, 2nd edit., +Paris, 1904.</p> + +<p>J. Anglade, <i>Les troubadours</i>, Paris, 1908, an excellent and trustworthy +work, in popular style, with a good bibliography.</p> + +<p>J. H. Smith, <i>The troubadours at Home</i>, 2 vols., New York, 1899; +popularises scientific knowledge by impressions of travel in Southern +France, photographs, and historical imagination: generally stimulating +and suggestive, Most histories of French literature devote some space to +Provençal; e.g. Suchier & Birch-Hirschfeld, <i>Geschichte der +französischen Litteratur</i>, Leipsic, 1900. The works of Millot and +Fauriel are now somewhat antiquated. <i>Trobador Poets</i>, Barbara Smythe, +London, 1911, contains an introduction and translations from various +troubadours.</p> + + +<h4>DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS</h4> + + +<p>F. Raynouard, <I>Lexique roman</I>, 6 vols., Paris, 1838-1844, +supplemented by.</p> + +<p>E. Levy, <I>Provenzalisches supplement-Wörterbuch</i>, Leipsic, 1894, not +yet completed, but indispensable.</p> + +<p>E. Levy, <i>Petit dictionnaire provençal-français</i>, Heidelberg, 1908.</p> + +<p>J. B. Roquefort, <i>Glossaire de la langue romane</i>, 3 vols., Paris, 1820.</p> + +<p>W. Meyer-Lübke, <i>Grammaire des langues romanes</i>, French translation of +the German, Paris, 1905.</p> + +<p>C. H. Grandgent, <i>An outline of the phonology and morphology of old +Provençal</i>, Boston, 1905.</p> + +<p>H. Suchier, <i>Die französiche und provenzalische Sprache</i> in Gröber's +<i>Grundriss</i>. A French translation, <i>Le Français et le Provençal</i>, Paris, +1891.</p> + + +<h4>TEXTS</h4> + + +<p>The following chrestomathies contain tables of grammatical forms (except +in the case of Bartsch) texts and vocabularies.</p> + +<p><i>Altprovenzalisches Elementarbuch</i>, O. Schultz-Gora, Heidelberg, 1906, +an excellent work for beginners.</p> + +<p><i>Provenzalische Chrestomathie</i>, C. Appel, Leipsic, 1907, 3rd edit.</p> + +<p><i>Manualetto provenzale</i>, V. Crescini, Padua, 1905, 2nd edit.</p> + +<p><i>Chrestomathie provençal</i>, K. Bartsch, re-edited by Koschwitz, Marburg, +1904.</p> + +<p>The following editions of individual troubadours have been published.</p> + +<p>Alegret. <i>Annales du Midi</i>, no. 74.</p> + +<p>Arnaut Daniel. U. A. Canello, Halle, 1883.</p> + +<p>Bernart de Rovenac. G. Borsdorff, Erlangen, 1907.</p> + +<p>Bartolomeo Zorzi. E. Levy, Halle, 1883.</p> + +<p>Bertran d'Alamanon. J. Salverda de Grave, Toulouse, 1902 (<i>Bibliothèque +Méridionale</i>).</p> + +<p>Bertran de Born. A. Thomas, Toulouse, 1888 (<i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i>).</p> + +<p>Bertran de Born. A. Stimming, Halle, 1892 (and in the <i>Romanischz +Bibliothek</i>, Leipsic).</p> + +<p>Blacatz. O. Soltau, Leipsic, 1890.</p> + +<p>Cercamon. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1905 (<i>Annales du Midi</i>, vol. xvii.).</p> + +<p>Elias de Barjols. Stronski, Paris, 1906 (<i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i> +vi.).</p> + +<p>Folquet de Marselha. Stronski, Cracow, 1911.</p> + +<p>Folquet de Romans. Zenker (<i>Romanische Bibliothek</i>).</p> + +<p>Gavaudan. A. Jeanroy, <i>Romania</i>, xxxiv., p. 497.</p> + +<p>Guillaume IX. Comte de Poitiers. A. Jeanroy, Toulouse, 1905.</p> + +<p>Guillem Anelier de Toulouse. M. Gisi, Solothurn, 1877.</p> + +<p>Guillem de Cabestanh. F. Hüffer, Berlin, 1869.</p> + +<p>Guillem Figueira. E. Levy, Berlin, 1880.</p> + +<p>Guillem de Montanhagol. J. Coulet, <i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i>, iv., +Toulouse.</p> + +<p>Guiraut de Bornelh. A. Kolsen, Berlin, 1894 and 1911.</p> + +<p>Guiraut d'Espanha. P. Savi-Lopez. <i>Studj mediaevali</i>, Fasc. 3, Turin, +1905.</p> + +<p>Guiraut Riquier, Étude sur, etc. J. Anglade, Paris, 1905.</p> + +<p>Jaufre Rudel. A Stimming, Kiel, 1873.</p> + +<p>Marcabrun. Dr Dejeanne. <i>Bibliothèque Méridionale</i>, 1910.</p> + +<p>Marcoat. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1903 (<i>Annales du Midi</i>, xv.).</p> + +<p>Monk of Montaudon. E. Philippson, Halle, 1873; O. Klein, Marburg, 1885.</p> + +<p>N' At de Mons. Bernhard. <i>Altfranzösische Bibliothek, Heilbronn</i>.</p> + +<p>Paulet de Marselha. E. Levy, Paris, 1882.</p> + +<p>Peire d'Alvernhe (d'Auvergne). R. Zenker, Rostock, 1900.</p> + +<p>Peire Vidal. K. Bartsch, Berlin, 1857 (an edition by J. Anglade is about +to appear).</p> + +<p>Peire Rogier. C. Appel, Berlin, 1892.</p> + +<p>Perdigon. H.J. Chaytor, <i>Annales du Midi</i>, xxi.</p> + +<p>Pons de Capdoill. M. Napolski, Halle, 1879.</p> + +<p>Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. O. Schultz, Halle, 1893.</p> + +<p>Raimon de Miraval, Etude sur, etc. P. Andraud, Paris, 1902.</p> + +<p>Sordel. De Lollis, Halle, 1896 (<i>Romanische Bibliothek</i>).</p> + +<p>Numerous separate pieces have been published in the various periodicals +concerned with Romance philology, as also have diplomatic copies of +several MSS. Of these periodicals, the most important for Provençal are +<i>Romania, les Annales du Midi, Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, +Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen, Romanische Studien, Studj +di filologia romanza, Revue des langues romanes</i>. Mahn's <i>Gedichte der +Troubadours</i>, 4 vols., Berlin, 1856-71, contains diplomatic copies of +MSS.; his <i>Werke der Troubadours</i>, Berlin, 1846-55, contains reprints +from Raynouard, <i>Choix des poésies originales des Troubadours</i>, Paris, +1816. Suchier, <i>Denkmäler provenzalischer Sprache</i>, Halle, 1883; Appel, +<i>Provenzalische Inedita</i>, Leipsic, 1890; Chabaneau, <i>Poesies inédites +des Troubadours du Perigord</i>, Paris, 1885; P. Meyer, <i>Les derniers +troubadours de Provence</i>, Paris, 1871, should be mentioned. Most of the +pieces in the <i>Parnasse Occitanien</i>, Toulouse, 1819, are to be found +better edited elsewhere. Other pieces are to be found in various +<i>Festschriften</i> and occasional or private publications, too numerous to +be detailed here. C. Chabaneau, <i>Les biographies des Troubadours</i>, +Toulouse, 1885 (part of the <i>Histoire générale de Languedoc</i>) is full of +valuable information. The biographies have been translated by I. +Farnell, <i>Lives of the Troubadours</i>, London, 1896.</p> +<br><br> +<h3>NOTES</h3> + +<p><b>CHAPTER I</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a>1. See maps at the end of Gröber's <i>Grundriss</i>, vol. i.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a>2. <i>De Vulg. El.</i> I., 8: alii oc, alii oïl, alii si affirmando +loquuntur, and <i>Vita Nuova</i>, xxv. Dante also knew the term provincialis.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a>3. Boethius. F. Hündgen, Oppeln, 1884. For Sainte Foy d'Agen, see +<i>Romania</i> xxxi., p, 177 ff.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a>4. P. Meyer in <i>Romania</i> v., p. 257. Bédier, <i>Les chansons de Croisade</i>, +Paris, 1909, p. 16.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name= +"footnote5"></a>5. See P. Maus, <i>Peire Cardenals Strophenbau</i>, Marburg, 1884.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name= +"footnote6"></a>6. See Jeanroy, Origines, etc.</blockquote> + +<p><b>CHAPTER II</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name= +"footnote7"></a>7. Provençal has also the feminine <i>joia</i> with the general meaning of +"delight."</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name= +"footnote8"></a>8. See Stimming's article in Gröber's <i>Grundriss</i>.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote9" name= +"footnote9"></a>9. Raynouard, <i>Les Troubadours et les Cours d'Amour</i>, Paris, 1817; see +also Diez, <i>Über die Minnehöfe</i>, Berlin, 1825. Pio Rajna, <i>Le Corti +d'Amore</i>, Milan, 1890.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote10" name= +"footnote10"></a>10. <i>Annales du Midi</i>, xix. p. 364.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote11" name= +"footnote11"></a>11. <i>Die provenzalische Tenzone</i>, R. Zenker, Leipsic, 1888.</blockquote> + +<p><b>CHAPTER III</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote12" name= +"footnote12"></a>12. Girart de Roussillon, translation by P. Meyer, Paris, 1884: see also +<i>Romania</i>, vii. Diplomatic copies of the MSS. in <i>Romanische Studien</i> V. +<i>Le Roman de Flamenca</i>, P. Meyer, Paris, 1901.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote13" name= +"footnote13"></a>13. J. B. Beck, <i>Die Melodien der Troubadours</i>, Strasburg, 1908. <i>La +Musique des Troubadours</i>, Paris, 1910, by the same author, who there +promised a selection of songs harmonized for performance: this has not +yet appeared. See also <i>Quatre poésies de Marcabrun</i>, Jeanroy, Dejeanne +and Aubry, Paris, 1904, with texts, music, and translations.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote14" name= +"footnote14"></a>14. Schindler, <i>Die Kreuzzüge in der altprovenzalischen und +mittelhochdeutschen lyrik.</i>, Dresden, 1889. K. Lewent, <i>Das +altprovenzalische Kreuzlied</i>, Berlin, 1905.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote15" name= +"footnote15"></a>15. A. Pillet, <i>Studien zur Pastourelle</i>, Breslau, 1902. Römer, <i>Die +volkstümlichen Dichtungsarten der altprovenzalischen Lyrik</i>, Marburg, +1884.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote16" name= +"footnote16"></a>16. <i>Quae judicia de litteris fecerint Provinciales</i>. P. Andraud, Paris, +1902.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote17" name= +"footnote17"></a>17. From <i>Si'm sentis fizels amics</i>, quoted by Dante, <i>De Vulg. El.</i> i. 9.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER IV</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote18" name= +"footnote18"></a>18. "Paubre motz"; also interpreted as "scanty words," i.e. poems with +short lines. On Jaufre Rudel in literature, see a lecture by Carducci, +Bologna 1888. The latest theory of his mysterious love is that she was +the Virgin Mary; see C. Appel, <i>Archiv für das Studium der neueren +Sprachen</i>, cvii. 3-4.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote19" name= +"footnote19"></a>19. Mahn, <i>Gedichte</i>, no. 707. An edition of Bernard de Ventadour's +poems is in preparation by Prof. Appel.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote20" name= +"footnote20"></a>20. <i>Cp.</i> Dante, <i>Par.</i> xx. 73.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER V</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote21" name= +"footnote21"></a>21. Dante, <i>De Vulg. El.</i> ii. 2.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote22" name= +"footnote22"></a>22. "Il Provenzale," <i>Conv.</i> iv. 11.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote23" name= +"footnote23"></a>23. <i>Purg.</i> xxvi.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote24" name= +"footnote24"></a>24. On his family see Stronski, <i>Folquet de Marseille</i>, p. 15 and +159-172.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote25" name= +"footnote25"></a>25. See G. Paris, <i>La Littérature française au moyen âge</i>, § 128.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER VI</b></p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote26" name= +"footnote26"></a>26. The best short account of the Albigenses is to be found in vol. i. +of H.C. Lea's <i>Histoire de L'Inquisition au moyen âge</i>, Paris, 1903. +This, the French translation, is superior to the English edition as it +contains the author's last corrections, and a number of bibliographical +notes. The Adoptionist theory is stated in the introduction to F.C. +Conybeare's <i>Key of Truth</i>, Oxford, 1908. The <i>Chanson de la Croisade +Albigeoise</i>, P. Meyer, Paris, 1875, 2 vols., is indispensable to +students of the subject. In these works will be found much of the +extensive bibliography of the heresy and crusade.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote27" name= +"footnote27"></a>27. Eckbertus, <i>Serm. adv. Catharos, Migne, Patr. Lat.</i>, tom. 193. p. +73.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote28" name= +"footnote28"></a>28. <i>Cf.</i> Milman, <i>Latin Christianity</i>, Book IX. chap. viii. p. 85.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote29" name= +"footnote29"></a>29. On religious lyric poetry, see Lowinsky, <i>Zeitschrift für +französische Sprache und Litteratur</i>, xx. p. 163 ff., and the +bibliographical note to Stimming's article in Gröber's <i>Grundriss</i>, vol. +ii. part ii. § 32.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER VII</b></p> + +<p>Most histories of Italian literature deal with this subject. See +Gaspary's <i>Italian Literature to the death of Dante</i>: H. Oelsner, Bohn's +Libraries. See also the chapter, <i>La poésie française en Italie</i> in +Jeanroy's <i>Origines</i>. For Dante, see <i>Storia letteraria d'Italia, +scritta di una società di professori</i>, Milan, vol. iii., Dante, by +Zingarelli. <i>The Troubadours of Dante</i>, Chaytor, Oxford, 1902. Useful +are A. Thomas, <i>Francesco da Barberino et la littérature provençale en +Italie au moyen âge</i>, Paris, 1883. O. Schultz, <i>Die Lebensverhältnisse +der Italienischen Trobadors</i>, Berlin, 1883.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote30" name= +"footnote30"></a>30. Schultz, <i>Die Briefe des Trobadors Raimbaut de Vaqueiras an Bonifaz +I.</i>, Halle, 1883.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote31" name= +"footnote31"></a>31. Zingarelli, <i>Intorno a due Trovatori in Italia</i>, Florence, 1899.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></p> + +<p>Milà y Fontañals, <i>Los trovadores en España</i>, Barcelona, 1861, remains +the best work on the subject. On Portugal, the article in Gröber's +<i>Grundriss</i>, ii. 2, p. 129, by C. Michaelis de Vasconcellos and Th. +Braga is admirable: see the bibliographical references there given and +the introduction to R. Lang, <i>Das Liederbuch des Königs Denis von +Portugal</i>, Halle, 1894.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote32" name= +"footnote32"></a>32. The date of this poem is disputed, see Dr Dejeanne's edition of +Marcabrun, p. 235.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote33" name= +"footnote33"></a>33. F. Guessard, <i>Grammaires Provençales</i>, Paris, 1858; E. Stengel, <i>Die +beiden ältesten prov. Gram.</i>, Marburg, 1878.</blockquote> + + +<p><b>CHAPTER IX</b></p> + +<p>Troubadour influence in Germany is discussed at greater or less length +in most histories of German literature. See Jeanroy, <i>Origines</i>, p. 270 +ff. A. Lüderitz, <i>Die Liebestheorien der Provenzalen bei den +Minnesingern der Slauferzeit</i>, Literarhistorische Forschungen, Berlin, +1904.</p> + +<p>For France. A. Jeanroy, <i>De nostratibus medii aevi poetis qui primum +Aquitaniae carmina imitati sint</i>, Paris, 1889.</p> + +<p>For England. Schofield, <i>English Literature from the Norman Conquest to +Chaucer</i>, London, 1906. O. Heider, <i>Untersuchungen zur mittelenglischen +erotischen Lyrik</i>, Halle, 1905. A. Brandl, <i>Spielmann's verhältnisse in +frühmittelenglischer Zeit</i>, Sitzungs-berichte der Königl. preuss., +Akademie, 1910.</p> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote34" name= +"footnote34"></a>34. Bédier, <i>Chansons de Croisade</i>, Paris, 1909, p. 112.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote35" name= +"footnote35"></a>35. See introduction to Leo Wiese, <i>Die Lieder des Blondel de Nesle</i>, +Dresden, 1904, p. 19 ff.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote36" name= +"footnote36"></a>36. <i>Romania</i>, viii. p. 370.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote37" name= +"footnote37"></a>37. K. Böddeker, <i>Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl.</i> 2253, Berlin, +1878.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote38" name= +"footnote38"></a>38. Modern Language Review, vol. 1. p. 285; vol. ii. p. 60, articles by +Prof. Skeat.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote39" name= +"footnote39"></a>39. P. Leinig, <i>Grammatik der provenzalischen Leys d'amors verglichen +mit der Sprache der Troubadours</i>, Breslau, 1890. M. Gatien. Arnoult, +<i>Monuments de la littérature romane</i>, Toulouse, 1841.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote40" name= +"footnote40"></a>40. <i>Histoire critique de l'Académie des Jeux Floraux</i>, by F. de Gélis +from the origin to the 17th century will appear shortly in the +Bibliothèque meridionale, Toulouse. Useful anthologies of modern +Provençal are <i>Flourilège prouvençau</i>, Toulon, 1909: <i>Antologia +provenzale</i>, E Portal, Milan, Hoepli, 1911 (Manuali Hoepli).</blockquote> + +<br><br> + +<h3>INDEX.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Alamanon, Bertran d', <a href="#p104">104</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Alba</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p128">128</a></p> +<p class="i2">Albigeois, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p075">75</a>, ff.</p> +<p class="i2">Alcuin, <a href="#p007">7</a></p> +<p class="i2">Alfonso II. of Aragon, <a href="#p051">51</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p074">74</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Alfonso VIII. of Castile, <a href="#p110">110</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a></p> +<p class="i2">Alfonso X. of Castile, <a href="#p118">118</a>, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2">André le Chapelain, <a href="#p019">19</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aquino, Rinaldo d', <a href="#p082">82</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aquitaine, <a href="#p042">42</a></p> +<p class="i2">Arabs, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#p105">105</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aragon, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Pedro II. of, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p083">83</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Arles, <a href="#p005">5</a></p> +<p class="i2">Aurenga, Raimbaut d', <a href="#p035">35</a>, <a href="#p085">85</a>, <a href="#p064">64</a></p> +<p class="i2">Auvergne, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Dauphin of, <a href="#p134">134</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Peire d', <a href="#p036">36</a>, <a href="#p067">67</a>, <a href="#p070">70</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Azalais, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>Ballata</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Barral, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">Belenoi, Aimeric de, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Bethune, Conon de, <a href="#p131">131</a></p> +<p class="i2">Bezaudun, Raimon Vidal of, <a href="#p115">115</a>, <a href="#p122">122</a></p> +<p class="i2">Béziers, <a href="#p050">50</a>, <a href="#p078">78</a></p> +<p class="i2">Blacatz, <a href="#p103">103</a></p> +<p class="i2">Born, Bertran de, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p057">57</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Bornelh, Giraut de, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p035">35</a>, <a href="#p037">37</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a>, <a href="#p068">68</a>, <a href="#p086">86</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Brunei, Uc, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Cabestanh, Guillem de, <a href="#p073">73</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cabreira, Guiraut de, <a href="#p122">122</a></p> +<p class="i2">Caen, Raoul de, <a href="#p006">6</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cairel, Elias, <a href="#p012">12</a></p> +<p class="i2">Calanso, Guiraut de, <a href="#p115">115</a>, <a href="#p122">122</a></p> +<p class="i2">Calha, Albertet, <a href="#p012">12</a></p> +<p class="i2">Calvo, Bonifacio, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Carcassonne, <a href="#p078">78</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cardenal, Peire, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p082">82</a>, <a href="#p084">84</a>, <a href="#p092">92</a>, <a href="#p117">117</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Castile, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p071">71</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Sancho III. of, <a href="#p067">67</a></p> +<p class="i2">Catalonia, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p109">109</a>, <a href="#p121">121</a> ff.</p> +<p class="i2">Cercamon, <a href="#p009">9</a>, <a href="#p042">42</a></p> +<p class="i2">Chabaneau, <a href="#p020">20</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Chanso</i>, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cigala, Lanfranc, <a href="#p039">39</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p116">116</a></p> +<p class="i2">Circ, Uc de San, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">Corbiac, Peire de, <a href="#p093">93</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Comjat</i>, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Compostella, <a href="#p109">109</a>, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2">Courts of Love, <a href="#p019">19</a></p> +<p class="i2">Cunizza, <a href="#p101">101</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Daniel, Arnaut, <a href="#p055">55</a></p> +<p class="i2">Dante, <a href="#p024">24</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a>, <a href="#p055">55</a>, <a href="#p057">57</a>, <a href="#p063">63</a>, <a href="#p104">104</a>, <a href="#p108">108</a>, <a href="#p131">131</a></p> +<p class="i2">Denis, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Descort</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p097">97</a></p> +<p class="i2">Die, Countess of, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p065">65</a></p> +<p class="i2">Dietmar von Aist, <a href="#p128">128</a></p> +<p class="i2">Dominic, <a href="#p077">77</a>, <a href="#p080">80</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Ebles II., <a href="#p046">46</a></p> +<p class="i2">Eleanor of Aquitaine, <a href="#p042">42</a>, <a href="#p046">46</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Escas Amanieu des, <a href="#p121">121</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Escondig</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Estampida, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Este, <a href="#p095">95</a></p> +<p class="i2">Ezzelino III., <a href="#p101">101</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Faidit, Gaucelm, <a href="#p099">99</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Ferdinand III. of Castile, <a href="#p104">104</a>, <a href="#p116">116</a></p> +<p class="i2">Figueira, Guillem, <a href="#p082">82</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Flamenca, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Florence, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Frederick II. of Sicily, <a href="#p088">88</a>, <a href="#p105">105</a></p> +<p class="i2">Friedrich von Hausen, <a href="#p129">129</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> </p> +<p class="i2">Galicia, <a href="#p123">123</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Gasson</i>, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p009">9</a>, <a href="#p115">115</a></p> +<p class="i2">Genoa, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Gerona, Serveri de, <a href="#p120">120</a></p> +<p class="i2">Guido delle Colonne, <a href="#p106">106</a>, <a href="#p107">107</a></p> +<p class="i2">Guido Guinicelli, <a href="#p106">106</a></p> +<p class="i2">Guiot de Dijon, <a href="#p132">132</a></p> +<p class="i2"> </p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Hautefort, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a></p> +<p class="i2">Henry II. of England, <a href="#p047">47</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p063">63</a></p> +<p class="i2">Henry III. of England, <a href="#p104">104</a>, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Innocent III., <a href="#p076">76</a>, <a href="#p077">77</a></p> +<p class="i2">Inquisition, <a href="#p080">80</a></p> +<p class="i2">Isabella of Angoulême, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Jaime I. of Aragon, <a href="#p085">85</a></p> +<p class="i2">Jaufre, Roman de, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Languedoc, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">Lemosin, <a href="#p005">5</a></p> +<p class="i2">Lentino, Jacopo da, <a href="#p082">82</a></p> +<p class="i2">Leys d'Amors, <a href="#p016">16</a>, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Limousin, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p004">4</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#p123">123</a></p> +<p class="i2">Louis VII. of France, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a></p> +<p class="i2">Louis VIII. of France, <a href="#p089">89</a></p> +<p class="i2">Lyons, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p077">77</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Malaspina, Marquis of, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Malmesbury, William of, <a href="#p041">41</a></p> +<p class="i2">Manfred II., <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p102">102</a></p> +<p class="i2">Mantua, <a href="#p101">101</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marcabrun, <a href="#p035">35</a>, <a href="#p043">43</a>, <a href="#p068">68</a>, <a href="#p085">85</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Mareuil, Arnaut de, <a href="#p050">50</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marseilles, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p010">10</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Barral of <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Folquet of, <a href="#p010">10</a>, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p072">72</a>, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p091">91</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marie of Champagne, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Marvejols, Bernard Sicart de, <a href="#p084">84</a>, <a href="#p117">117</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Mauleon, Savaric de, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Minnesingers, <a href="#p128">128</a></p> +<p class="i2">Miraval, Raímon de, <a href="#p039">39</a>, <a href="#p083">83</a></p> +<p class="i2">Montanhagol, Guillem de, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> +<p class="i2">Montaudon, Monk of, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a>, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Beatrice of, <a href="#p097">97</a></p> +<p class="i2">Montpelier, Germonde de, <a href="#p089">89</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— William VII. of, <a href="#p051">51</a>, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">Muret <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a></p> +<p class="i2">Music, <a href="#p026">26</a> ff.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Narbonne, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p067">67</a></p> +<p class="i2">Navarre, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p110">110</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Guillem de Tudela of, <a href="#p120">120</a></p> +<p class="i2">Nesles, Blondel de, <a href="#p131">131</a>, <a href="#p134">134</a></p> +<p class="i2">Nostradamus, <a href="#p019">19</a></p> +<p class="i2">Novara, <a href="#p102">102</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Orange, William IV. of, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>Partimen</i>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Pastorela</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Pegulhan, Aimeric de, <a href="#p099">99</a>, <a href="#p107">107</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Perdigon, <a href="#p011">11</a></p> +<p class="i2">Pisa, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Planh</i>, <a href="#p030">30</a></p> +<p class="i2">Poitou, <a href="#p004">4</a></p> +<p class="i2">Poitiers, <a href="#p006">6</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— William of, <a href="#p006">6</a>, <a href="#p041">41</a>, <a href="#p065">65</a>, <a href="#p090">90</a></p> +<p class="i2">Portugal, Denis of, <a href="#p124">124</a></p> +<p class="i2">Provence, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Beatrice of, <a href="#p102">102</a></p> +<p class="i2">Puegsibot, Gausbert de, <a href="#p014">14</a></p> +<p class="i2">Puy, <a href="#p069">69</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Raynouard, <a href="#p019">19</a></p> +<p class="i2">Richard Coeur de Lion, <a href="#p055">55</a>, <a href="#p058">58</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p072">72</a>, <a href="#p134">134</a></p> +<p class="i2">Riquier, Guiraut, <a href="#p092">92</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rogier, Peire, <a href="#p066">66</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rovenhac, Bernart de, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> +<p class="i2">Roussillon, <a href="#p003">3</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Girart de, <a href="#p022">22</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rudel, Jaufre, <a href="#p023">23</a>, <a href="#p044">44</a></p> +<p class="i2">Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg, <a href="#p082">82</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Savoy, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Serena</i>, <a href="#p033">33</a></p> +<p class="i2">Simon de Montfort, <a href="#p078">78</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Sirventes</i>, <a href="#p030">30</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Sordello, <a href="#p096">96</a>, <a href="#p101">101</a>, <a href="#p116">116</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Stanza</i>, <a href="#p024">24</a>, ff.</p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"><i>Tenso</i>, <a href="#p021">21</a>, <a href="#p031">31</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a></p> +<p class="i2">Thibaut IV. of Champagne, <a href="#p131">131</a></p> +<p class="i2">Tor, Guillem de la, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Toronet, <a href="#p079">79</a></p> +<p class="i2">Toulouse, <a href="#p005">5</a>, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p080">80</a>, <a href="#p084">84</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— N'At de Mons of, <a href="#p117">117</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Peire Raimon of, <a href="#p113">113</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Raimon V. of, <a href="#p049">49</a>, <a href="#p050">50</a>, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p067">67</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Raimon VI. of, <a href="#p078">78</a>, <a href="#p080">80</a>, <a href="#p114">114</a></p> +<p class="i2">Tripoli, Countess of, <a href="#p044">44</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Trobar clus</i>, <a href="#p034">34</a></p> +<p class="i2">Turin, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Ussel, Gui d', <a href="#p014">14</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Vaqueiras, Raimbaut de, <a href="#p096">96</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Vaudois, <a href="#p076">76</a></p> +<p class="i2">Venice, <a href="#p100">100</a></p> +<p class="i2">Ventadour, <a href="#p011">11</a></p> +<p class="i2">—— Bernart of, <a href="#p011">11</a>, <a href="#p013">13</a>, <a href="#p046">46</a>, <a href="#p068">68</a>, <a href="#p128">128</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a>, <a href="#p133">133</a>, <a href="#p135">135</a></p> +<p class="i2">Verona, <a href="#p096">96</a></p> +<p class="i2"><i>Vers</i>, <a href="#p023">23</a></p> +<p class="i2">Vidal, Peire, <a href="#p071">71</a>, <a href="#p095">95</a>, <a href="#p097">97</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p112">112</a>, <a href="#p115">115</a>, <a href="#p127">127</a>, <a href="#p138">138</a></p> +<p class="i2">Virgin Mary, <a href="#p015">15</a>, <a href="#p091">91</a></p> + </div><div class="stanza"> + </div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2">Zorzi, Bartolomeo, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p118">118</a></p> + </div> </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Troubadours, by H.J. 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Chaytor + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Troubadours + +Author: H.J. Chaytor + +Release Date: May 27, 2004 [EBook #12456] + +Language: English and French + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TROUBADOURS *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE TROUBADOURS + +BY + +REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. + + + +AUTHOR OF +"THE TROUBADOURS OF DANTE" +ETC. + +Cambridge: +at the University Press +1912 + + +_With the exception of the coat of arms at +the foot, the design on the title page is a +reproduction of one used by the earliest known +Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_ + + + +PREFACE + +This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature +of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific +knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the +Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful +for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject +will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The +latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real +importance has been omitted. + +H.J. CHAYTOR. + +THE COLLEGE, +PLYMOUTH, March 1912. + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +CHAP. + +I. INTRODUCTORY + +II. THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE + +III. TECHNIQUE + +IV. THE EARLY TROUBADOURS + +V. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD + +VI. THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE + +VII. THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY + +VIII. THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN + +IX. PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND + +BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES + +INDEX + +[Transcriptor's note: Page numbers from the original document have +been posted in the right margin to maintain the relevance of the +index references.} + +THE TROUBADOURS [1] + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + +Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary +history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the +highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth +and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provencal poetry was +already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated +the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them +to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is +Provencal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal +and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provencal +until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouveres" in +Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by +troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in [2] +early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and +appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of +Provencal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von +Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a +subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative +literature. + +The northern limit of the Provencal language formed a line starting from +the Pointe de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde, passing through +Lesparre, Bordeaux, Libourne, Perigueux, rising northward to Nontron, la +Rochefoucauld, Confolens, Bellac, then turning eastward to Gueret and +Montlucon; it then went south-east to Clermont-Ferrand, Boen, Saint +Georges, Saint Sauveur near Annonay. The Dauphine above Grenoble, most +of the Franche-Comte, French Switzerland and Savoy, are regarded as a +separate linguistic group known as Franco-Provencal, for the reason that +the dialects of that district display characteristics common to both +French and Provencal.[1] On the south-west, Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Isles must also be included in the Provencal region. As +concerns the Northern limit, it must not be regarded as a definite line +of demarcation between the langue d'oil or the Northern French dialects +and the langue d'oc or Provencal. The boundary is, of course, determined +by noting the points at which certain linguistic features peculiar to +Provencal cease and are replaced by the characteristics of Northern [3] +French. Such a characteristic, for instance, is the Latin tonic _a_ +before a single consonant, and not preceded by a palatal consonant, +which remains in Provencal but becomes _e_ in French; Latin cant_a_re +becomes chant_a_r in Provencal but chant_e_r in French. But north and +south of the boundary thus determined there was, in the absence of any +great mountain range or definite geographical line of demarcation, an +indeterminate zone, in which one dialect probably shaded off by easy +gradations into the other. + +Within the region thus described as Provencal, several separate dialects +existed, as at the present day. Apart from the Franco-Provencal on the +north-east, which we have excluded, there was Gascon in the south-west +and the modern _departements_ of the Basses and Hautes Pyrenees; +Catalonian, the dialect of Roussillon, which was brought into Spain in +the seventh century and still survives in Catalonia, Valencia and the +Balearic Islands. The rest of the country may be subdivided by a line to +the north of which _c_ before _a_ becomes _ch_ as in French, cant_a_re +producing chant_a_r, while southwards we find _c(k)_ remaining. The +Southern dialects are those of Languedoc and Provence; north of the line +were the Limousin and Auvergne dialects. At the present day these +dialects have diverged very widely. In the early middle ages the +difference between them was by no means so great. Moreover, a literary [4] +language grew up by degrees, owing to the wide circulation of poems and +the necessity of using a dialect which could be universally +intelligible. It was the Limousin dialect which became, so to speak, the +backbone of this literary language, now generally known as Provencal, +just as the Tuscan became predominant for literary purposes among the +Italian dialects. It was in Limousin that the earliest troubadour lyrics +known to us were composed, and this district with the adjacent Poitou +and Saintonge may therefore be reasonably regarded as the birthplace of +Provencal lyric poetry. + +Hence the term "Provencal" is not entirely appropriate to describe the +literary language of the troubadours, as it may also be restricted to +denote the dialects spoken in the "Provincia". This difficulty was felt +at an early date. The first troubadours spoke of their language as +_roman_ or _lingua romana,_ a term equally applicable to any other +romance language. _Lemosin_ was also used, which was too restricted a +term, and was also appropriated by the Catalonians to denote their own +dialect. A third term in use was the _lingua d'oc,_ which has the +authority of Dante [2] and was used by some of the later troubadours; +however, the term "Provencal" has been generally accepted, and must +henceforward be understood to denote the literary language common to the [5] +south of France and not the dialect of Provence properly so-called. + +For obvious reasons Southern France during the early middle ages had far +outstripped the Northern provinces in art, learning, and the refinements +of civilisation. Roman culture had made its way into Southern Gaul at an +early date and had been readily accepted by the inhabitants, while +Marseilles and Narbonne had also known something of Greek civilisation. +Bordeaux, Toulouse, Arles, Lyons and other towns were flourishing and +brilliant centres of civilisation at a time when Northern France was +struggling with foreign invaders. It was in Southern Gaul, again, that +Christianity first obtained a footing; here the barbarian invasions of +the fifth and sixth centuries proved less destructive to civilisation +than in Northern France, and the Visigoths seem to have been more +amenable to the influences of culture than the Northern Franks. Thus the +towns of Southern Gaul apparently remained centres in which artistic and +literary traditions were preserved more or less successfully until the +revival of classical studies during the age of Charlemagne. The climate, +again, of Southern France is milder and warmer than that of the North, +and these influences produced a difference which may almost be termed +racial. It is a difference visible even to-day and is well expressed by [6] +the chronicler Raoul de Caen, who speaks of the Provencal Crusaders, +saying that the French were prouder in bearing and more war-like in +action than the Provencals, who especially contrasted with them by their +skill in procuring food in times of famine: "inde est, quod adhuc +puerorum decantat naenia, Franci ad bella, Provinciales ad victualia".[3] +Only a century and a half later than Charlemagne appeared the first +poetical productions in Provencal which are known to us, a fragment of a +commentary upon the De Consolatione of Boethius[4] and a poem upon St +Foy of Agen. The first troubadour, William, Count of Poitiers, belongs +to the close of the eleventh century. + +Though the Count of Poitiers is the first troubadour known to us, the +relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza +construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing +lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional +lapses into coarseness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was +the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent +in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige +us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable stage of +previous development. At what point this development began and what +influences stimulated its progress are questions which still remain in [7] +dispute. Three theories have been proposed. It is, in the first place, +obviously tempting to explain the origin of Provencal poetry as being a +continuation of Latin poetry in its decadence. When the Romans settled +in Gaul they brought with them their amusements as well as their laws +and institutions. Their _scurrae_, _thymelici_ and _joculatores_, the +tumblers, clowns and mountebanks, who amused the common people by day +and the nobles after their banquets by night and travelled from town to +town in pursuit of their livelihood, were accustomed to accompany their +performances by some sort of rude song and music. In the uncivilised +North they remained buffoons; but in the South, where the greater +refinement of life demanded more artistic performance, the musical part +of their entertainment became predominant and the _joculator_ became the +_joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), a wandering musician and +eventually a troubadour, a composer of his own poems. These latter were +no longer the gross and coarse songs of the earlier mountebank age, +which Alcuin characterised as _turpissima_ and _vanissima_, but the +grave and artificially wrought stanzas of the troubadour _chanso_. + +Secondly, it has been felt that some explanation is required to account +for the extreme complexity and artificiality of troubadour poetry in its +most highly developed stage. Some nine hundred different forms of stanza [8] +construction are to be found in the body of troubadour poetry,[5] and +few, if any schools of lyric poetry in the world, can show a higher +degree of technical perfection in point of metrical diversity, complex +stanza construction and accuracy in the use of rime. This result has +been ascribed to Arabic influence during the eighth century; but no +sufficient proof has ever been produced that the complexities of Arabic +and Provencal poetry have sufficient in common to make this hypothesis +anything more than an ingenious conjecture. + +One important fact stands in contradiction to these theories. All +indications go to prove that the origin of troubadour poetry can be +definitely localised in a particular part of Southern France. We have +seen that the Limousin dialect became the basis of the literary +language, and that the first troubadour known to us belonged to Poitou. +It is also apparent that in the Poitou district, upon the border line of +the French and Provencal languages, popular songs existed and were +current among the country people; these were songs in honour of spring, +pastorals or dialogues between a knight and a shepherdess (our "Where +are you going, my pretty maid?" is of the same type), _albas_ or dawn +songs which represent a friend as watching near the meeting-place of a +lover and his lady and giving him due warning of the approach of dawn or [9] +of any other danger; there are also _ballatas_ or dance songs of an +obviously popular type.[6] Whatever influence may have been exercised by +the Latin poetry of the decadence or by Arab poetry, it is in these +popular and native productions that we must look for the origins of the +troubadour lyrics. This popular poetry with its simple themes and homely +treatment of them is to be found in many countries, and diversity of +race is often no bar to strange coincidence in the matter of this +poetry. It is thus useless to attempt to fix any date for the beginnings +of troubadour poetry; its primitive form doubtless existed as soon as +the language was sufficiently advanced to become a medium of poetical +expression. + +Some of these popular themes were retained by the troubadours, the +_alba_ and _pastorela_ for instance, and were often treated by them in a +direct and simple manner. The Gascon troubadour Cercamon is said to have +composed pastorals in "the old style." But in general, between +troubadour poetry and the popular poetry of folk-lore, a great gulf is +fixed, the gulf of artificiality. The very name "troubadour" points to +this characteristic. _Trobador_ is the oblique case of the nominative +_trobaire_, a substantive from the verb _trobar_, in modern French +_trouver_. The Northern French _trouvere_ is a nominative form, and +_trouveor_ should more properly correspond with _trobador_. The +accusative form, which should have persisted, was superseded by the [10] +nominative _trouvere_, which grammarians brought into fashion at the end +of the eighteenth century. The verb _trobar_ is said to be derived from +the low Latin _tropus_ [Greek: tropus], an air or melody: hence the +primitive meaning of _trobador_ is the "composer" or "inventor," in the +first instance, of new melodies. As such, he differs from the _vates_, +the inspired bard of the Romans and the [Greek: poeta], poeta, the +creative poet of the Greeks, the "maker" of Germanic literature. Skilful +variation upon a given theme, rather than inspired or creative power, is +generally characteristic of the troubadour. + +Thus, whatever may have been the origin of troubadour poetry, it appears +at the outset of the twelfth century as a poetry essentially +aristocratic, intended for nobles and for courts, appealing but rarely +to the middle classes and to the common people not at all. The +environment which enabled this poetry to exist was provided by the +feudal society of Southern France. Kings, princes and nobles themselves +pursued the art and also became the patrons of troubadours who had risen +from the lower classes. Occasionally troubadours existed with sufficient +resources of their own to remain independent; Folquet of Marseilles +seems to have been a merchant of wealth, above the necessity of seeking +patronage. But troubadours such as Bernart de Ventadour, the son of the [11] +stoker in the castle of Ventadour, Perdigon the son of a fisherman, and +many others of like origin depended for their livelihood and advancement +upon the favour of patrons. Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts +and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, +such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church +looked somewhat askance upon the profession. Women are also numbered +among the troubadours; Beatrice, the Countess of Die, is the most famous +of these. + +A famous troubadour usually circulated his poems by the mouth of a +_joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), who recited them at different +courts and was often sent long distances by his master for this purpose. +A joglar of originality might rise to the position of a troubadour, and +a troubadour who fell upon evil days might sink to the profession of +joglar. Hence there was naturally some confusion between the troubadour +and the joglar, and poets sometimes combined the two functions. In +course of time the joglar was regarded with some contempt, and like his +forbear, the Roman joculator, was classed with the jugglers, acrobats, +animal tamers and clowns who amused the nobles after their feasts. Nor, +under certain conditions, was the troubadour's position one of dignity; [12] +when he was dependent upon his patron's bounty, he would stoop to +threats or to adulation in order to obtain the horse or the garments or +the money of his desire; such largesse, in fact, came to be denoted by a +special term, _messio_. Jealousy between rival troubadours, accusations +of slander in their poems and quarrels with their patrons were of +constant occurrence. These naturally affected the joglars in their +service, who received a share of any gifts that the troubadour might +obtain. + +The troubadours who were established more or less permanently as court +poets under a patron lord were few; a wandering life and a desire for +change of scene is characteristic of the class. They travelled far and +wide, not only to France, Spain and Italy, but to the Balkan peninsula, +Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and England; Elias Cairel is said to have visited +most of the then known world, and the biographer of Albertet Calha +relates, as an unusual fact, that this troubadour never left his native +district. Not only love, but all social and political questions of the +age attracted their attention. They satirised political and religious +opponents, preached crusades, sang funeral laments upon the death of +famous patrons, and the support of their poetical powers was often in +demand by princes and nobles involved in a struggle. Noteworthy also is +the fact that a considerable number retired to some monastery or [13] +religious house to end their days (_se rendet_, was the technical +phrase). So Bertran of Born, Bernart of Ventadour, Peire Rogier, Cadenet +and many others retired from the disappointments of the world to end +their days in peace; Folquet of Marseilles, who similarly entered the +Cistercian order, became abbot of his monastery of Torondet, Bishop of +Toulouse, a leader of the Albigeois crusade and a founder of the +Inquisition. + + + +CHAPTER II [14] + + +THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE + +Troubador poetry dealt with war, politics, personal satire and other +subjects: but the theme which is predominant and in which real +originality was shown, is love. The troubadours were the first lyric +poets in mediaeval Europe to deal exhaustively with this subject, and as +their attitude was imitated with certain modifications by French, +Italian, Portuguese and German poets, the nature of its treatment is a +matter of considerable importance. + +Of the many ladies whose praises were sung or whose favours were desired +by troubadours, the majority were married. Troubadours who made their +songs to a maiden, as did Gui d'Ussel or Gausbert de Puegsibot, are +quite exceptional. Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a +conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object. This +conventional character was derived from the fact that troubadour love +was constituted upon the analogy of feudal relationship. If chivalry was +the outcome of the Germanic theory of knighthood as modified by the +influence of Christianity, it may be said that troubadour love is the [15] +outcome of the same theory under the influence of mariolatry. In the +eleventh century the worship of the Virgin Mary became widely popular; +the reverence bestowed upon the Virgin was extended to the female sex in +general, and as a vassal owed obedience to his feudal overlord, so did +he owe service and devotion to his lady. Moreover, under the feudal +system, the lady might often be called upon to represent her husband's +suzerainty to his vassals, when she was left in charge of affairs during +his absence in time of war. Unmarried women were inconspicuous figures +in the society of the age. + +Thus there was a service of love as there was a service of vassalage, +and the lover stood to his lady in a position analogous to that of the +vassal to his overlord. He attained this position only by stages; "there +are four stages in love: the first is that of aspirant (_fegnedor_), the +second that of suppliant (_precador_), the third that of recognised +suitor (_entendedor_) and the fourth that of accepted lover (_drut_)." +The lover was formally installed as such by the lady, took an oath of +fidelity to her and received a kiss to seal it, a ring or some other +personal possession. For practical purposes the contract merely implied +that the lady was prepared to receive the troubadour's homage in poetry +and to be the subject of his song. As secrecy was a duty incumbent upon [16] +the troubadour, he usually referred to the lady by a pseudonym +(_senhal_); naturally, the lady's reputation was increased if her +attraction for a famous troubadour was known, and the _senhal_ was no +doubt an open secret at times. How far or how often the bounds of his +formal and conventional relationship were transgressed is impossible to +say; "en somme, assez immoral" is the judgment of Gaston Paris upon the +society of the age, and is confirmed by expressions of desire occurring +from time to time in various troubadours, which cannot be interpreted as +the outcome of a merely conventional or "platonic" devotion. In the +troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid +by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn +from this source. + +However, transgression was probably exceptional. The idea of troubadour +love was intellectual rather than emotional; love was an art, +restricted, like poetry, by formal rules; the terms "love" and "poetry" +were identified, and the fourteenth century treatise which summarises +the principles of grammar and metre bore the title _Leys d'Amors_, the +Laws of Love. The pathology of the emotion was studied; it was treated +from a psychological standpoint and a technical vocabulary came into +use, for which it is often impossible to find English equivalents. The +first effect of love is to produce a mental exaltation, a desire to live [17] +a life worthy of the beloved lady and redounding to her praise, an +inspiring stimulus known as _joi_ or _joi d'amor_ (_amor_ in Provencal +is usually feminine).[7] Other virtues are produced by the influence of +this affection: the lover must have _valor_, that is, he must be worthy +of his lady; this worth implies the possession of _cortesia_, pleasure +in the pleasure of another and the desire to please; this quality is +acquired by the observance of _mesura_, wisdom and self-restraint in +word and deed. + +The poetry which expresses such a state of mind is usually idealised and +pictures the relationship rather as it might have been than as it was. +The troubadour who knew his business would begin with praises of his +beloved; she is physically and morally perfect, her beauty illuminates +the night, her presence heals the sick, cheers the sad, makes the boor +courteous and so forth. For her the singer's love and devotion is +infinite: separation from her would be worse than death; her death would +leave the world cheerless, and to her he owes any thoughts of good or +beauty that he may have. It is only because he loves her that he can +sing. Hence he would rather suffer any pain or punishment at her hands +than receive the highest favours from another. The effects of this love +are obvious in his person. His voice quavers with supreme delight or [18] +breaks in dark despair; he sighs and weeps and wakes at night to think +of the one subject of contemplation. Waves of heat and cold pass over +him, and even when he prays, her image is before his eyes. This passion +has transformed his nature: he is a better and stronger man than ever +before, ready to forgive his enemies and to undergo any physical +privations; winter is to him as the cheerful spring, ice and snow as +soft lawns and flowery meads. Yet, if unrequited, his passion may +destroy him; he loses his self-control, does not hear when he is +addressed, cannot eat or sleep, grows thin and feeble, and is sinking +slowly to an early tomb. Even so, he does not regret his love, though it +lead to suffering and death; his passion grows ever stronger, for it is +ever supported by hope. But if his hopes are realised, he will owe +everything to the gracious favour of his lady, for his own merits can +avail nothing. Sometimes he is not prepared for such complete +self-renunciation; he reproaches his lady for her coldness, complains +that she has led him on by a show of kindness, has deceived him and will +be the cause of his death; or his patience is at an end, he will live in +spite of her and try his fortune elsewhere.[8] + +Such, in very general terms, is the course that might be followed in +developing a well-worn theme, on which many variations are possible. The [19] +most common form of introduction is a reference to the spring or winter, +and to the influence of the seasons upon the poet's frame of mind or the +desire of the lady or of his patron for a song. In song the poet seeks +consolation for his miseries or hopes to increase the renown of his +lady. As will be seen in the following chapter, manner was even more +important than matter in troubadour lyrics, and commonplaces were +revivified by intricate rime-schemes and stanza construction accompanied +by new melodies. The conventional nature of the whole business may be +partly attested by the fact that no undoubted instance of death or +suicide for love has been handed down to us. + +Reference should here be made to a legendary institution which seems to +have gripped the imagination of almost every tourist who writes a book +of travels in Southern France, the so-called _Courts of Love_.[9] In +modern times the famous Provencal scholar, Raynouard, attempted to +demonstrate the existence of these institutions, relying upon the +evidence of the _Art d'Aimer_ by Andre le Chapelain, a work written in +the thirteenth century and upon the statements of Nostradamus (_Vies des +plus celebres et anciens poetes provencaux_, Lyons 1575). The latter +writer, the younger brother of the famous prophet, was obviously well +acquainted with Provencal literature and had access to sources of [20] +information which are now lost to us. But instead of attempting to write +history, he embellished the lives of the troubadours by drawing upon his +own extremely fertile imagination when the actual facts seemed too dull +or prosaic to arouse interest. He professed to have derived his +information from a manuscript left by a learned monk, the _Moine des +Iles d'Or_, of the monastery of St Honorat in the Ile de Lerins. The +late M. Camille Chabaneau has shown that the story is a pure fiction, +and that the monk's pretended name was an anagram upon the name of a +friend of Nostradamus.[10] Hence it is almost impossible to separate the +truth from the fiction in this book and any statements made by +Nostradamus must be received with the utmost caution. Andre le Chapelain +seems to have had no intention to deceive, but his knowledge of +Provencal society was entirely second-hand, and his statements +concerning the Courts of Love are no more worthy of credence than those +of Nostradamus. According to these two unreliable authorities, courts +for the decision of lovers' perplexities existed in Gascony, Provence, +Avignon and elsewhere; the seat of justice was held by some famous lady, +and the courts decided such questions as whether a lover could love two +ladies at the same time, whether lovers or married couples were the more +affectionate, whether love was compatible with avarice, and the like. [21] + +A special poetical form which was popular among the troubadours may have +given rise to the legend. This was the _tenso_,[11] in which one +troubadour propounded a problem of love in an opening stanza and his +opponent or interlocutor gave his view in a second stanza, which +preserved the metre and rime-scheme of the first. The propounder then +replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was +made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for +settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding +the contest. Raynouard quotes the conclusion of a _tenso_ given by +Nostradamus in which one of the interlocutors says, "I shall overcome +you if the court is loyal: I will send the _tenso_ to Pierrefeu, where +the fair lady holds her court of instruction." The "court" here in +question was a social and not a judicial court. Had any such institution +as a judicial "court of love" ever been an integral part of Provencal +custom, it is scarcely conceivable that we should be informed of its +existence only by a few vague and scattered allusions in the large body +of Provencal literature. For these reasons the theory that such an +institution existed has been generally rejected by all scholars of +repute. + + + +CHAPTER III [22] + + +TECHNIQUE + +Provencal literature contains examples of almost every poetical _genre_. +Epic poetry is represented by Girart of Roussillon,[12] a story of long +struggles between Charles Martel and one of his barons, by the Roman de +Jaufre, the adventures of a knight of the Round Table, by Flamenca, a +love story which provides an admirable picture of the manners and +customs of the time, and by other fragments and _novelas_ or shorter +stories in the same style. Didactic poetry includes historical works +such as the poem of the Albigeois crusade, ethical or moralising +_ensenhamens_ and religious poetry. But the dominating element in +Provencal literature is lyrical, and during the short classical age of +this literature lyric poetry was supreme. Nearly five hundred different +troubadours are known to us at least by name and almost a thousand +different stanza forms have been enumerated. While examples of the fine +careless rapture of inspiration are by no means wanting, artificiality +reigns supreme in the majority of cases. Questions of technique receive +the most sedulous attention, and the principles of stanza construction, +rime correspondence and rime distribution, as evolved by the [23] +troubadours, exerted so wide an influence upon other European literature +that they deserve a chapter to themselves. + +There was no formal school for poetical training during the best period +of Provencal lyric. When, for instance, Giraut de Bornelli is said to +have gone to "school" during the winter seasons, nothing more is meant +than the pursuit of the trivium and quadrivium, the seven arts, which +formed the usual subjects of instruction. A troubadour learned the +principles of his art from other poets who were well acquainted with the +conventions that had been formulated in course of time, conventions +which were collected and systematised in such treatises as the Leys +d'Amors during the period of the decadence. + +The love song or _chanso_ was composed of five, six or seven stanzas +(_coblas_) with, one or two _tornadas_ or _envois_. The stanza varied in +length from two to forty-two lines, though these limits are, of course, +exceptional. An earlier form of the _chanso_ was known as the _vers_; it +seems to have been in closer relation to the popular poetry than the +more artificial _chanso_, and to have had shorter stanzas and lines; but +the distinction is not clear. As all poems were intended to be sung, the +poet was also a composer; the biography of Jaufre Rudel, for instance, +says that this troubadour "made many poems with good tunes but poor [24] +words." The tune known as _son_ (diminutive sonnet) was as much the +property of a troubadour as his poem, for it implied and would only suit +a special form of stanza; hence if another poet borrowed it, +acknowledgment was generally made. Dante, in his _De Vulgari +Eloquentia_, informs us concerning the structure of this musical +setting: it might be continuous without repetition or division; or it +might be in two parts, one repeating the other, in which case the stanza +was also divided into two parts, the division being termed by Dante the +_diesis_ or _volta_; of these two parts one might be subdivided into two +or even more parts, which parts, in the stanza, corresponded both in +rimes and in the arrangement of the lines. If the first part of the +stanza was thus divisible, the parts were called _pedes_, and the +musical theme or _oda_ of the first _pes_ was repeated for the second; +the rest of the stanza was known as the _syrma_ or _coda_, and had a +musical theme of its own. Again the first part of the stanza might be +indivisible, when it was called the _frons_, the divided parts of the +second half being the _versus_; in this case the _frons_ had its own +musical theme, as did the first _versus_, the theme of the first +_versus_ being repeated for the second. Or, lastly, a stanza might [25] +consist of _pedes_ and _versus_, one theme being used for the first +_pes_ and repeated for the second and similarly with the _versus_. +Thus the general principle upon which the stanza was constructed was that of +tripartition in the following three forms:-- + + +I + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } Syrma +2nd " } or Coda +3rd " etc. } + + +II + +1st line } +2nd " } Frons +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } +2nd " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd. " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + + +III + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd " } Pes +3rd " etc. } +Diesis or Volta + +1st line } +2nd " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + +1st line } +2nd. " } Versus +3rd " etc. } + + +These forms were rather typical than stringently binding as Dante +himself notes (_De Vulg. El._, ii, 11); many variations were [26] +possible. The first seems to have been the most popular type. The poem might also +conclude with a half stanza or _tornada_, (French _envoi_). Here, as in +the last couplet of the Arabic _gazul_, were placed the personal +allusions, and when these were unintelligible to the audience the +_joglar_ usually explained the poem before singing it; the explanations, +which in some cases remain prefixed to the poem, were known as the +_razos_. + +Troubadour poems were composed for singing, not for recitation, and the +music of a poem was an element of no less importance than the words. +Troubadours are described as composing "good" tunes and "poor" words, or +vice versa; the tune was a piece of literary property, and, as we have +said, if a troubadour borrowed a tune he was expected to acknowledge its +origin. Consequently music and words were regarded as forming a unity, +and the structure of the one should be a guide to the structure of the +other. Troubadour music is a subject still beset with difficulties[13]: +we possess 244 tunes written in Gregorian notation, and as in certain +cases the same poem appears in different MSS. with the tune in +substantial agreement in each one, we may reasonably assume that we have +an authentic record, as far as this could be expressed in Gregorian +notation. The chief difference between Troubadour and Gregorian music +lies in the fact that the former was syllabic in character; in other [27] +words, one note was not held over several syllables, though several +notes might be sung upon one syllable. The system of musical time in the +age of the troubadours was based upon the so-called "modes," rhythmical +formulae combining short and long notes in various sequences. Three of +these concern us here. The first mode consists of a long followed by a +short note, the long being equivalent to two short, or in 3/4 time +[Illustration: musical notation.]. The second mode is the reverse of +the first [Illustration: musical notation.]. The third mode in modern +6/8 time appears as [Illustration: musical notation.]. The principle of +sub-division is thus ternary; "common" time or 2/4 time is a later +modification. So much being admitted, the problem of transposing a tune +written in Gregorian notation without bars, time signature, marks of +expression or other modern devices is obviously a difficult matter. J. +Beck, who has written most recently upon the subject, formulates the +following rules; the musical accent falls upon the tonic syllables of +the words; should the accent fall upon an atonic syllable, the duration +of the note to which the tonic syllable is sung may be increased, to +avoid the apparent discordance between the musical accent and the tonic +syllable. The musical accent must fall upon the rime and the rhythm [28] +adopted at the outset will persist throughout the poem. + +Hence a study of the words will give the key to the interpretation of +the tune. If, for instance, the poem shows accented followed by +unaccented syllables or trochees as the prevalent foot, the first "mode" +is indicated as providing the principle to be followed in transposing +the Gregorian to modern notation. When these conditions are reversed the +iambic foot will prevail and the melody will be in the second mode. It +is not possible here to treat this complicated question in full detail +for which reference must be made to the works of J. Beck. But it is +clear that the system above outlined is an improvement upon that +proposed by such earlier students of the subject as Riemann, who assumed +that each syllable was sung to a note or group of notes of equal time +value. There is no evidence that such a rhythm was ever employed in the +middle ages, and the fact that words and music were inseparable in +Provencal lyrics shows that to infer the nature of the musical rhythm +from the rhythm of the words is a perfectly legitimate method of +inquiry. + +A further question arises: how far do the tunes correspond with the +structure of the stanza as given by Dante? In some cases both tune and +stanza correspond in symmetrical form; but in others we find stanzas [29] +which may be divided according to rule conjoined with tunes which +present no melodic repetition of any kind; similarly, tunes which may be +divided into pedes and coda are written upon stanzas which have no +relation to that form. On the whole, it seems that the number of tunes +known to us are too few, in comparison with the large body of lyric +poetry existing, to permit any generalisation upon the question. The +singer accompanied himself upon a stringed instrument (_viula_) or was +accompanied by other performers; various forms of wind instruments were +also in use. Apparently the accompaniment was in unison with the singer; +part writing or contrapuntal music was unknown at the troubadour period. + +As has been said, the stanza (_cobla_) might vary in length. No poetical +literature has made more use of rime than Provencal lyric poetry. There +were three typical methods of rime disposition: firstly, the rimes might +all find their answer within the stanza, which was thus a self-contained +whole; secondly, the rimes might find their answer within the stanza and +be again repeated in the same order in all following stanzas; and +thirdly, the rimes might find no answer within the stanza, but be +repeated in following stanzas. In this case the rimes were known as +_dissolutas_, and the stanza as a _cobla estrampa_. This last +arrangement tended to make the poem a more organic whole than was +possible in the first two cases; in these, stanzas might be omitted +without necessarily impairing the general effect, but, when _coblas +estrampas_ were employed, the ear of the auditor, attentive for the [30] +answering rimes, would not be satisfied before the conclusion of the +second stanza. A further step towards the provision of closer unity +between the separate stanzas was the _chanso redonda_, which was +composed of _coblas estrampas_, the rime order of the second stanza +being an inversion of the rime order of the first; the tendency reaches +its highest point in the _sestina_, which retained the characteristic of +the _chanso redonda_, namely, that the last rime of one stanza should +correspond with the first rime of the following stanza, but with the +additional improvement that every rime started a stanza in turn, +whereas, in the _chanso redonda_ the same rime continually recurred at +the beginning of every other stanza. + +Reference has already been made to the _chanso_. A poetical form of much +importance was the _sirventes_, which outwardly was indistinguishable +from the _chanso_. The meaning of the term is unknown; some say that it +originally implied a poem composed by "servants," poets in the service +of an overlord; others, that it was a poem composed to the tune of a [31] +_chanso_ which it thus imitated in a "servile" manner. From the _chanso_ +the _sirventes_ is distinguished by its subject matter; it was the +vehicle for satire, moral reproof or political lampooning. The +troubadours were often keenly interested in the political events of +their time; they filled, to some extent, the place of the modern +journalist and were naturally the partisans of the overlord in whose +service or pay they happened to be. They were ready to foment a war, to +lampoon a stingy patron, to ridicule one another, to abuse the morality +of the age as circumstances might dictate. The crusade _sirventes_[14] +are important in this connection, and there were often eloquent +exhortations to the leaders of Christianity to come to the rescue of +Palestine and the Holy Sepulchre. Under this heading also falls the +_planh_, a funeral song lamenting the death of a patron, and here again, +beneath the mask of conventionality, real emotion is often apparent, as +in the famous lament upon Richard Coeur de Lion composed by Gaucelm +Faidit. + +Reference has been already made to the _tenso_, one of the most +characteristic of Provencal lyric forms. The name (Lat. _tentionem_) +implies a contention or strife, which was conducted in the form of a +dialogue and possibly owed its origin to the custom in early vogue among +many different peoples of holding poetical tournaments, in which one [32] +poet challenged another by uttering a poetical phrase to which the +opponent replied in similar metrical form. Such, at any rate, is the +form of the _tenso_; a poet propounds a theme in the first stanza and +his interlocutor replies in a stanza of identical metrical form; the +dispute usually continues for some half dozen stanzas. One class of +tenso was obviously fictitious, as the dialogue is carried on with +animals or even lifeless objects, such as a lady's cloak, and it is +possible that some at least of the discussions ostensibly conducted +between two poets may have emanated from the brain of one sole author. +Sometimes three or four interlocutors take part; the subject of +discussion was then known as a _joc partit_, a divided game, or +_partimen_, a title eventually transferred to the poem itself. The most +varied questions were discussed in the _tenso_, but casuistical problems +concerning love are the most frequent: Is the death or the treachery of +a loved one easier to bear? Is a lover's feeling for his lady stronger +before she has accepted him or afterwards? Is a bad noble or a poor but +upright man more worthy to find favour? The discussion of such questions +provided an opportunity of displaying both poetical dexterity and also +dialectical acumen. But rarely did either of the disputants declare +himself convinced or vanquished by his opponents' arguments the question [33] +was left undecided or was referred by agreement to an arbitrator. + +A poetical form which preserves some trace of its popular origin is the +_pastorela_[15] or pastoral which takes its name from the fact that the +heroine of the piece was always a shepherdess. The conventional opening +is a description by a knight of his meeting with a shepherdess, "the +other day" (_l'autrier_, the word with which the poem usually begins). A +dialogue then follows between the knight and the shepherdess, in which +the former sues for her favours successfully or otherwise. The irony or +sarcasm which enables the shepherdess to hold her own in the encounter +is far removed from the simplicity of popular poetry. The _Leys d'Amors_ +mentions other forms of the same genre such as _vaqueira_ (cowherd), +_auqueira_ (goose girl), of which a specimen of the first-named alone +has survived. Of equal interest is the _alba_ or dawn-song, in which the +word _alba_ reappeared as a refrain in each verse; the subject of the +poem is the parting of the lovers at the dawn, the approach of which is +announced by a watchman or by some faithful friend who has undertaken to +guard their meeting-place throughout the night. The counterpart of this +form, the _serena_, does not appear until late in the history of +Provencal lyric poetry; in the _serena_ the lover longs for the [34] +approach of evening, which is to unite him with his beloved. + +Other forms of minor importance were the _comjat_ in which a troubadour +bids a lady a final farewell, and the _escondig_ or justification in +which the lover attempts to excuse his behaviour to a lady whose anger +he had aroused. The troubled state of his feelings might find expression +in the _descort_ (discord), in which each stanza showed a change of +metre and melody. The _descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras is written in +five dialects, one for each stanza, and the last and sixth stanza of the +poem gives two lines to each dialect, which Babel of strange sounds is +intended, he says, to show how entirely his lady's heart has changed +towards him. The _ballata_ and the _estampida_ were dance-songs, but +very few examples survive. Certain love letters also remain to us, but +as these are written in rimed couplets and in narrative style, they can +hardly be classified as lyric poetry. + +In conclusion, a word must be said concerning the dispute between two +schools of stylists, which is one of the most interesting points in the +literary history of the troubadours.[16] From the earliest times we find +two poetical schools in opposition, the _trobar clus_ (also known as +_car, ric, oscur, sotil, cobert_), the obscure, or close, subtle style +of composition, and the _trobar clar (leu, leugier, plan), the clear, +light, easy, straightforward style. Two or three causes may have [35] +combined to favour the development of obscure writing. The theme of love +with which the _chanso_ dealt is a subject by no means inexhaustible; +there was a continual struggle to revivify the well-worn tale by means +of strange turns of expression, by the use of unusual adjectives and +forced metaphor, by the discovery of difficult rimes (_rimes cars_) and +stanza schemes of extraordinary complexity. Marcabrun asserts, possibly +in jest, that he could not always understand his own poems. A further +and possibly an earlier cause of obscurity in expression was the fact +that the _chanso_ was a love song addressed to a married lady; and +though in many cases it was the fact that the poem embodied compliments +purely conventional, however exaggerated to our ideas, yet the further +fact remains that the sentiments expressed might as easily be those of +veritable passion, and, in view of a husband's existence, obscurity had +a utility of its own. This point Guiraut de Bornelh advances as an +objection to the use of the easy style: "I should like to send my song +to my lady, if I should find a messenger; but if I made another my +spokesman, I fear she would blame me. For there is no sense in making +another speak out what one wishes to conceal and keep to oneself." The [36] +habit of alluding to the lady addressed under a _senhal_, or pseudonym, +in the course of the poem, is evidence for a need of privacy, though +this custom was also conventionalised, and we find men as well as women +alluded to under a _senhal_. It was not always the fact that the +_senhal_ was an open secret, although in many cases, where a high-born +dame desired to boast of the accomplished troubadour in her service, his +poems would naturally secure the widest publication which she could +procure. A further reason for complexity of composition is given by the +troubadour Peire d'Auvergne: "He is pleasing and agreeable to me who +proceeds to sing with words shut up and obscure, to which a man is +afraid to do violence." The "violence" apprehended is that of the +_joglar_, who might garble a song in the performance of it, if he had +not the memory or industry to learn it perfectly, and Peire d'Alvernhe +(1158-80) commends compositions so constructed that the disposition of +the rimes will prevent the interpolation of topical allusions or +careless altercation. The similar safeguard of Dante's _terza rima_ will +occur to every student. + +The social conditions again under which troubadour poetry was produced, +apart from the limitations of its subject matter, tended to foster an +obscure and highly artificial diction. This obscurity was attained, as +we have said, by elevation and preciosity of style, and was not the +result of confusion of thought. Guiraut de Bornelh tells us his method [37] +in a passage worth quoting in the original-- + + Mas per melhs assire + mon chan, + vau cercan + bos motz en fre + que son tuit cargat e ple + d'us estranhs sens naturals; + mas no sabon tuich de cals. + +"But for the better foundation of my song I keep on the watch for words +good on the rein (_i.e._ tractable like horses), which are all loaded +(like pack horses) and full of a meaning which is unusual, and yet is +wholly theirs (naturals); but it is not everyone that knows what that +meaning is".[17] + +Difficulty was thus intentional; in the case of several troubadours it +affected the whole of their writing, no matter what the subject matter. +They desired not to be understood of the people. Dean Gaisford's reputed +address to his divinity lecture illustrates the attitude of those +troubadours who affected the _trobar clus_: "Gentlemen, a knowledge of +Greek will enable you to read the oracles of God in the original and to +look down from the heights of scholarship upon the vulgar herd." The +inevitable reaction occurred, and a movement in the opposite direction +was begun; of this movement the most distinguished supporter was the +troubadour, Guiraut de Bornelh. He had been one of the most successful [38] +exponents of the _trobar clus_, and afterwards supported the cause of +the _trobar clar_. Current arguments for either cause are set forth in +the _tenso_ between Guiraut de Bornelh and Linhaure (pseudonym for the +troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga). + +(1) I should like to know, G. de Bornelh, why, and for what reason, you +keep blaming the obscure style. Tell me if you prize so highly that +which is common to all? For then would all be equal. + +(2) Sir Linhaure, I do not take it to heart if each man composes as he +pleases; but judge that song is more loved and prized which is made easy +and simple, and do not be vexed at my opinion. + +(3) Guiraut, I do not like my songs to be so confused, that the base and +good, the small and great be appraised alike; my poetry will never be +praised by fools, for they have no understanding nor care for what is +more precious and valuable. + +(4) Linhaure, if I work late and turn my rest into weariness for that +reason (to make my songs simple), does it seem that I am afraid of work? +Why compose if you do not want all to understand? Song brings no other +advantage. + +(5) Guiraut, provided that I produce what is best at all times, I care +not if it be not so widespread; commonplaces are no good for the +appreciative--that is why gold is more valued than salt, and with song [39] +it is even the same. + +It is obvious that the disputants are at cross purposes; the object of +writing poetry, according to the one, is to please a small circle of +highly trained admirers by the display of technical skill. Guiraut de +Bornelh, on the other hand, believes that the poet should have a message +for the people, and that even the fools should be able to understand its +purport. He adds the further statement that composition in the easy +style demands no less skill and power than is required for the +production of obscurity. This latter is a point upon which he repeatedly +insists: "The troubadour who makes his meaning clear is just as clever +as he who cunningly conjoins words." "My opinion is that it is not in +obscure but in clear composition that toil is involved." Later +troubadours of renown supported his arguments; Raimon de Miraval +(1168-1180) declares: "Never should obscure poetry be praised, for it is +composed only for a price, compared with sweet festal songs, easy to +learn, such as I sing." So, too, pronounces the Italian Lanfranc Cigala +(1241-1257): "I could easily compose an obscure, subtle poem if I +wished; but no poem should be so concealed beneath subtlety as not to be +clear as day. For knowledge is of small value if clearness does not +bring light; obscurity has ever been regarded as death, and brightness [40] +as life." The fact is thus sufficiently demonstrated that these two +styles existed in opposition, and that any one troubadour might practise +both. + +Enough has now been said to show that troubadour lyric poetry, regarded +as literature, would soon produce a surfeit, if read in bulk. It is +essentially a literature of artificiality and polish. Its importance +consists in the fact that it was the first literature to emphasise the +value of form in poetry, to formulate rules, and, in short, to show that +art must be based upon scientific knowledge. The work of the troubadours +in these respects left an indelible impression upon the general course +of European literature. + + + +CHAPTER IV [41] + + +THE EARLY TROUBADOURS + +The earliest troubadour known to us is William IX, Count of Poitiers +(1071-1127) who led an army of thirty thousand men to the unfortunate +crusade of 1101. He lived an adventurous and often an unedifying life, +and seems to have been a jovial sensualist caring little what kind of +reputation he might obtain in the eyes of the world about him. William +of Malmesbury gives an account of him which is the reverse of +respectable. His poems, of which twelve survive, are, to some extent, a +reflection of this character, and present a mixture of coarseness and +delicate sentiment which are in strangely discordant contrast. His +versification is of an early type; the principle of tripartition, which +became predominant in troubadour poetry at a later date, is hardly +perceptible in his poems. The chief point of interest in them is the +fact that their comparative perfection of form implies a long anterior +course of development for troubadour poetry, while we also find him +employing, though in undeveloped form, the chief ideas which afterwards +became commonplaces among the troubadours. The half mystical exaltation +inspired by love is already known to William IX. as _joi_, and he is [42] +acquainted with the service of love under feudal conditions. The +conventional attitudes of the lady and the lover are also taken for +granted, the lady disdainful and unbending, the lover timid and relying +upon his patience. The lady is praised for her outward qualities, her +"kindly welcome, her gracious and pleasing look" and love for her is +considered to be the inspiration of nobility in the lover. But these +ideas are not carried to the extravagant lengths to which later poets +pushed them; William's sensual leanings are enough to counterbalance any +tendency to such exaggeration. The conventional opening of a love poem +by a description of spring is also in evidence; in short, the +commonplaces, the technical language and formulae of later Provencal +lyrics were in existence during the age of this first troubadour. + +Next in point of time is the troubadour Cercamon, of whom we know very +little; his poems, as we have them, seem to fall between the years 1137 +and 1152; one of them is a lament upon the death of William X. of +Aquitaine, the son of the notorious Count of Poitiers, and another +alludes to the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the daughter of William +X. According to the Provencal biography he was the instructor of a more +interesting and original troubadour Marcabrun, whose active life [43] +extended from 1150 to 1195. Many of his poems are extremely obscure; he +was one of the first to affect the _trobar clus_. He was also the author +of violent invectives against the passion of love-- + + Que anc non amet neguna + Ni d'autra no fon amatz-- + +"Who never loved any woman nor was loved of any." This aversion to the +main theme of troubadour poetry is Marcabrun's most striking +characteristic. + + Amors es mout de mal avi; + Mil homes a mortz ses glavi; + Dieus non fetz tant fort gramavi. + +"Love is of a detestable lineage; he has killed thousands of men without +a sword. God has created no more terrible enchanter." These invectives +may have been the outcome of personal disappointment; the theory has +also been advanced that the troubadour idea of love had not yet secured +universal recognition, and that Marcabrun is one who strove to prevent +it from becoming the dominant theme of lyric poetry. His best known poem +was the "Starling," which consists of two parts, an unusual form of +composition. In the first part the troubadour sends the starling to his +love to reproach her for unfaithfulness, and to recommend himself to her +favour; the bird returns, and in the second part offers excuses from the [44] +lady and brings an invitation from her to a meeting the next day. +Marcabrun knows the technical terms _cortesia_ and _mesura_, which he +defines: _mesura_, self-control or moderation, "consists in nicety of +speech, courtesy in loving. He may boast of courtesy who can maintain +moderation." The poem concludes with a dedication to Jaufre Rudel-- + + Lo vers e.l son vueill envier + A'n Jaufre Rudel outra mar. + +"The words and the tune I wish to send to Jaufre Rudel beyond the sea." + +This was the troubadour whom Petrarch has made famous-- + + Jaufre Rudel che uso la vela e'l remo + A cercar la sua morte. + +His romantic story is as follows in the words of the Provencal +biography: "Jaufre Rudel of Blaya was a very noble man, the Prince of +Blaya; he fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, though he had never +seen her, for the good report that he had of her from the pilgrims who +came from Antioch, and he made many poems concerning her with good tunes +but poor words.[18] And from desire to see her, he took the cross and +went to sea. And in the ship great illness came upon him so that those +who were with him thought that he was dead in the ship; but they [45] +succeeded in bringing him to Tripoli, to an inn, as one dead. And it was +told to the countess, and she came to him, to his bed, and took him in +her arms; and he knew that she was the countess, and recovering his +senses, he praised God and gave thanks that his life had been sustained +until he had seen her; and then he died in the lady's arms. And she gave +him honourable burial in the house of the Temple, and then, on that day, +she took the veil for the grief that she had for him and for his death." +Jaufre's poems contain many references to a "distant love" which he will +never see, "for his destiny is to love without being loved." Those +critics who accept the truth of the story regard Melisanda, daughter of +Raimon I., Count of Tripoli, as the heroine; but the biography must be +used with great caution as a historical source, and the mention of the +house of the order of Templars in which Jaufre is said to have been +buried raises a difficulty; it was erected in 1118, and in the year 1200 +the County of Tripoli was merged in that of Antioch; of the Rudels of +Blaya, historically known to us, there is none who falls reasonably +within these dates. The probability is that the constant references in +Jaufre's poems to an unknown distant love, and the fact of his crusading +expedition to the Holy Land, formed in conjunction the nucleus of the [46] +legend which grew round his name, and which is known to all readers of +Carducci, Uhland and Heine. + +Contemporary with Jaufre Rudel was Bernard de Ventadour, one of the +greatest names in Provencal poetry. According to the biography, which +betrays its untrustworthiness by contradicting the facts of history, +Bernard was the son of the furnace stoker at the castle of Ventadour, +under the Viscount Ebles II., himself a troubadour and a patron of +troubadours. It was from the viscount that Bernard received instruction +in the troubadours' art, and to his patron's interest in his talents he +doubtless owed the opportunities which he enjoyed of learning to read +and write, and of making acquaintance with such Latin authors as were +currently read, or with the anthologies and books of "sentences" then +used for instruction in Latin. He soon outstripped his patron, to whose +wife, Agnes de Montlucon, his early poems were addressed. His relations +with the lady and with his patron were disturbed by the _lauzengiers_, +the slanderers, the envious, and the backbiters of whom troubadours +constantly complain, and he was obliged to leave Ventadour. He went to +the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the granddaughter of the first +troubadour, Guillaume IX. of Poitiers, who by tradition and temperament +was a patroness of troubadours, many of whom sang her praises. She had [47] +been divorced from Louis VII. of France in 1152, and married Henry, Duke +of Normandy, afterwards King of England in the same year. There Bernard +may have remained until 1154, in which year Eleanor went to England as +Queen. Whether Bernard followed her to England is uncertain; the +personal allusions in his poems are generally scanty, and the details of +his life are correspondingly obscure. But one poem seems to indicate +that he may have crossed the Channel. He says that he has kept silence +for two years, but that the autumn season impels him to sing; in spite +of his love, his lady will not deign to reply to him: but his devotion +is unchanged and she may sell him or give him away if she pleases. She +does him wrong in failing to call him to her chamber that he may remove +her shoes humbly upon his knees, when she deigns to stretch forth her +foot. He then continues[19] + + Faitz es lo vers totz a randa, + Si que motz no y descapduelha. + outra la terra normanda + part la fera mar prionda; + e si.m suy de midons lunhans. + ves si.m tira cum diamans, + la belha cui dieus defenda. + Si.l reys engles el dux normans + o vol, ieu la veirai, abans + que l'iverns nos sobreprenda. + [48] +"The _vers_ has been composed fully so that not a word is wanting, +beyond the Norman land and the deep wild sea; and though I am far from +my lady, she attracts me like a magnet, the fair one whom may God +protect. If the English king and Norman duke will, I shall see her +before the winter surprise us." + +How long Bernard remained in Normandy, we cannot conjecture. He is said +to have gone to the court of Raimon V., Count of Toulouse, a well-known +patron of the troubadours. On Raimon's death in 1194, Bernard, who must +himself have been growing old, retired to the abbey of Dalon in his +native province of Limousin, where he died. He is perhaps more deeply +inspired by the true spirit of lyric poetry than any other troubadour; +he insists that love is the only source of song; poetry to be real, must +be lived. + + Non es meravelha s'ieu chan + mielhs de nulh autre chantador; + que plus mi tra.l cors ves amor + e mielhs sui faitz a son coman. + +"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer; for my heart +draws me more than others towards love, and I am better made for his +commandments." Hence Bernard gave fuller expression than any other +troubadour to the ennobling power of love, as the only source of real +worth and nobility. + +The subject speedily became exhausted, and ingenuity did but increase [49] +the conventionality of its treatment. But in Bernard's hands it retains +its early freshness and sincerity. The description of the seasons of the +year as impelling the troubadour to song was, or became, an entirely +conventional and expected opening to a _chanso_; but in Bernard's case +these descriptions were marked by the observation and feeling of one who +had a real love for the country and for nature, and the contrast or +comparison between the season of the year and his own feelings is of +real lyrical value. The opening with the description of the lark is +famous-- + + Quant vey la lauzeta mover + De joi sas alas contral rai, + que s'oblida e.s laissa cazer + per la doussor qu'al cor li vai, + ai! tan grans enveia m'en ve + de cui qu'eu veya jauzion! + meravilhas ai, quar desse + lo cor de dezirier no.m fon. + +"When I see the lark flutter with joy towards the sun, and forget +himself and sing for the sweetness that comes to his heart; alas, such +envy comes upon me of all that I see rejoicing, I wonder that my heart +does not melt forthwith with desire".[20] + +At the same time Bernard's style is simple and clear, though he shows +full mastery of the complex stanza form; to call him the Wordsworth of +the troubadour world is to exaggerate a single point of coincidence; but +he remains the greatest of troubadour poets, as modern taste regards [50] +poetry. + +Arnaut de Mareuil (1170-1200 _circa_) displays many of the +characteristics which distinguished the poetry of Bernard of Ventadour; +there is the same simplicity of style and often no less reality of +feeling: conventionalism had not yet become typical. Arnaut was born in +Perigord of poor parents, and was brought up to the profession of a +scribe or notary. This profession he soon abandoned, and his "good +star," to quote the Provencal biography, led him to the court of +Adelaide, daughter of Raimon V. of Toulouse, who had married in 1171 +Roger II., Viscount of Beziers. There he soon rose into high repute: at +first he is said to have denied his authorship of the songs which he +composed in honour of his mistress, but eventually he betrayed himself +and was recognised as a troubadour of high merit, and definitely +installed as the singer of Adelaide. The story is improbable, as the +troubadour's rewards naturally depended upon the favour of his patrons +to him personally; it is probably an instance of the manner in which the +biographies founded fictions upon a very meagre substratum of fact, the +fact in this instance being a passage in which Arnaut declares his +timidity in singing the praise of so great a beauty as Adelaide. + + Mas grans paors m'o tol e grans temensa, [51] + Qu'ieu non aus dir, dona, qu'ieu chant de vos. + +"But great fear and great apprehension comes upon me, so that I dare not +tell you, lady, that it is I who sing of you." + +Arnaut seems to have introduced a new poetical _genre_ into Provencal +literature, the love-letter. He says that the difficulty of finding a +trustworthy messenger induced him to send a letter sealed with his own +ring; the letter is interesting for the description of feminine beauty +which it contains: "my heart, that is your constant companion, comes to +me as your messenger and portrays for me your noble, graceful form, your +fair light-brown hair, your brow whiter than the lily, your gay laughing +eyes, your straight well-formed nose, your fresh complexion, whiter and +redder than any flower, your little mouth, your fair teeth, whiter than +pure silver,... your fair white hands with the smooth and slender +fingers"; in short, a picture which shows that troubadour ideas of +beauty were much the same as those of any other age. Arnaut was +eventually obliged to leave Beziers, owing, it is said, to the rivalry +of Alfonso II. of Aragon, who may have come forward as a suitor for +Adelaide after Roger's death in 1194. The troubadour betook himself to +the court of William VIII., Count of Montpelier, where he probably spent +the rest of his life. The various allusions in his poems cannot always [52] +be identified, and his career is only known to us in vague outline. +Apart from the love-letter, he was, if not the initiator, one of the +earliest writers of the type of didactic poem known as _ensenhamen_, an +"instruction" containing observations upon the manners and customs of +his age, with precepts for the observance of morality and right conduct +such as should be practised by the ideal character. Arnaut, after a +lengthy and would-be learned introduction, explains that each of the +three estates, the knights, the clergy and the citizens, have their +special and appropriate virtues. The emphasis with which he describes +the good qualities of the citizen class, a compliment unusual in the +aristocratic poetry of the troubadours, may be taken as confirmation of +the statement concerning his own parentage which we find in his +biography. + + [53] + +CHAPTER V + + +THE CLASSICAL PERIOD + +We now reach a group of three troubadours whom Dante[21] selected as +typical of certain characteristics: "Bertran de Born sung of arms, +Arnaut Daniel of love, and Guiraut de Bornelh of uprightness, honour and +virtue." The last named, who was a contemporary (1175-1220 _circa_) and +compatriot of Arnaut de Marueil, is said in his biography to have +enjoyed so great a reputation that he was known as the "Master of the +Troubadours." This title is not awarded to him by any other troubadour; +the jealousy constantly prevailing between the troubadours is enough to +account for their silence on this point. But his reputation is fairly +attested by the number of his poems which have survived and by the +numerous MSS. in which they are preserved; when troubadours were studied +as classics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Guiraut's poems +were so far in harmony with the moralising tendency of that age that his +posthumous reputation was certainly as great as any that he enjoyed in +his life-time. + +Practically nothing is known of his life; allusions in his poems lead us [54] +to suppose that he spent some time in Spain at the courts of Navarre, +Castile and Aragon. The real interests of his work are literary and +ethical. To his share in the controversy concerning the _trobar clus_, +the obscure and difficult style of composition, we have already alluded. +Though in the _tenso_ with Linhaure, Guiraut expresses his preference +for the simple and intelligible style, it must be said that the majority +of his poems are far from attaining this ideal. Their obscurity, +however, is often due rather to the difficulty of the subject matter +than to any intentional attempt at preciosity of style. He was one of +the first troubadours who attempted to analyse the effects of love from +a psychological standpoint; his analysis often proceeds in the form of a +dialogue with himself, an attempt to show the hearer by what methods he +arrived at his conclusions. "How is it, in the name of God, that when I +wish to sing, I weep? Can the reason be that love has conquered me? And +does love bring me no delight? Yes, delight is mine. Then why am I sad +and melancholy? I cannot tell. I have lost my lady's favour and the +delight of love has no more sweetness for me. Had ever a lover such +misfortune? But am I a lover? No! Have I ceased to love passionately? +No! Am I then a lover? Yes, if my lady would suffer my love." Guiraut's [55] +moral _sirventes_ are reprobations of the decadence of his age. He saw a +gradual decline of the true spirit of chivalry. The great lords were +fonder of war and pillage than of poetry and courtly state. He had +himself suffered from the change, if his biographer is to be believed; +the Viscount of Limoges had plundered and burnt his house. He compares +the evils of his own day with the splendours of the past, and asks +whether the accident of birth is the real source of nobility; a man must +be judged by himself and his acts and not by the rank of his +forefathers; these were the sentiments that gained him a mention in the +Fourth Book of Dante's _Convivio_.[22] + +The question why Dante should have preferred Arnaut Daniel to Guiraut de +Bornelh[23] has given rise to much discussion. The solution turns upon +Dante's conception of style, which is too large a problem for +consideration here. Dante preferred the difficult and artificial style +of Arnaut to the simple style of the opposition school; from Arnaut he +borrowed the sestina form; and at the end of the canto he puts the +well-known lines, "Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan," into the +troubadour's mouth. We know little of Arnaut's life; he was a noble of +Riberac in Perigord. The biography relates an incident in his life which +is said to have taken place at the court of Richard Coeur de Lion. + +A certain troubadour had boasted before the king that he could compose a [56] +better poem than Arnaut. The latter accepted the challenge and the king +confined the poets to their rooms for a certain time at the end of which +they were to recite their composition before him. Arnaut's inspiration +totally failed him, but from his room he could hear his rival singing as +he rehearsed his own composition. Arnaut was able to learn his rival's +poem by heart, and when the time of trial came he asked to be allowed to +sing first, and performed his opponent's song, to the wrath of the +latter, who protested vigorously. Arnaut acknowledged the trick, to the +great amusement of the king. + +Preciosity and artificiality reach their height in Arnaut's poems, which +are, for that reason, excessively difficult. Enigmatic constructions, +word-plays, words used in forced senses, continual alliteration and +difficult rimes produced elaborate form and great obscurity of meaning. +The following stanza may serve as an example-- + + L'aur' amara fa.ls bruels brancutz + clarzir que.l dons espeys' ab fuelhs, + e.ls letz becxs dels auzels ramencx + te balbs e mutz pars e non pars. + per qu'ieu m'esfortz de far e dir plazers + A manhs? per ley qui m'a virat has d'aut, + don tern morir si.ls afans no.m asoma. + +"The bitter breeze makes light the bosky boughs which the gentle breeze [57] +makes thick with leaves, and the joyous beaks of the birds in the +branches it keeps silent and dumb, paired and not paired. Wherefore do I +strive to say and do what is pleasing to many? For her, who has cast me +down from on high, for which I fear to die, if she does not end the +sorrow for me." + +The answers to the seventeen rime-words which occur in this stanza do +not appear till the following stanza, the same rimes being kept +throughout the six stanzas of the poem. To rest the listener's ear, +while he waited for the answering rimes, Arnaut used light assonances +which almost amount to rime in some cases. The Monk of Montaudon in his +satirical _sirventes_ says of Arnaut: "He has sung nothing all his life, +except a few foolish verses which no one understands"; and we may +reasonably suppose that Arnaut's poetry was as obscure to many of his +contemporaries as it is to us. + +Dante placed Bertran de Born in hell, as a sower of strife between +father and son, and there is no need to describe his picture of the +troubadour-- + + "Who held the severed member lanternwise + And said, Ah me!" (_Inf._ xxviii. 119-142.) + +The genius of Dante, and the poetical fame of Bertran himself, have +given him a more important position in history than is, perhaps, [58] +entirely his due. Jaufre, the prior of Vigeois, an abbey of +Saint-Martial of Limoges, is the only chronicler during the reigns of +Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion who mentions Bertran's name. The +_razos_ prefixed to some of his poems by way of explanation are the work +of an anonymous troubadour (possibly Uc de Saint-Cire); they constantly +misinterpret the poems they attempt to explain, confuse names and +events, and rather exaggerate the part played by Bertran himself. +Besides these sources we have the cartulary of Dalon, or rather the +extracts made from it by Guignieres in 1680 (the original has been +lost), which give us information about Bertran's family and possessions. +From these materials, and from forty-four or forty-five poems which have +come down to us, the poet's life can be reconstructed. + +Bertran de Bern's estates were situated on the borders of Limousin and +Perigord. The family was ancient and honourable; from the cartulary +Bertran appears to have been born about 1140; we find him, with his +brother Constantin, in possession of the castle of Hautefort, which +seems to have been a strong fortress; the lands belonging to the family +were of no great extent, and the income accruing from them was but +scanty. In 1179 Bertran married one Raimonde, of whom nothing is known, +except that she bore him at least two sons. In 1192 he lost this first [59] +wife, and again married a certain Philippe. His warlike and turbulent +character was the natural outcome of the conditions under which he +lived; the feudal system divided the country into a number of fiefs, the +boundaries of which were ill defined, while the lords were constantly at +war with one another. All owed allegiance to the Duke of Aquitaine, the +Count of Poitou, but his suzerainty was, in the majority of cases, +rather a name than a reality. These divisions were further accentuated +by political events; in 1152 Henry II., Count of Anjou and Maine, +married Eleanor, the divorced wife of Louis VII. of France, and mistress +of Aquitaine. Henry became king of England two years later, and his rule +over the barons of Aquitaine, which had never been strict, became the +more relaxed owing to his continual absence in England. + +South of Aquitaine proper the dominions of the Count of Toulouse +stretched from the Garonne to the Alps; this potentate was also called +the Duke of Narbonne, and was not disposed to recognise the suzerainty +of the Duke of Aquitaine. But in 1167 Alfonso II., King of Aragon and +Count of Barcelona, had inherited Provence, to which the Duke of +Toulouse laid claim. Henry and Alfonso thus became natural allies, and +the power of Alfonso in Aragon and Catalonia, was able to keep in check +any serious attempt that the Count of Toulouse might have meditated on [60] +Aquitaine. On the other hand, Henry had also to deal with a formidable +adversary in the person of the French king, his lawful suzerain in +France. Louis VII. (or Philippe Auguste) was able to turn the constant +revolts that broke out in Aquitaine to his own ends. These circumstances +are sufficient to account for the warlike nature of Bertran de Born's +poetry. The first _sirventes_ which can be dated with certainty belongs +to 1181, and is a call to the allies of Raimon V, Count of Toulouse, to +aid their master against the King of Aragon. What Bertran's personal +share in the campaign was, we do not know. He was soon involved in a +quarrel with his brother Constantin, with whom he held the castle of +Hautefort in common. Constantin was driven out and succeeded in +persuading the Count of Limoges and Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, to help +him. Richard, however, was occupied elsewhere, and Bertran survived all +attacks upon the castle. In 1182 he went to the court of Henry II., +during a temporary lull in the wars around him; there he proceeded to +pay court to the Princess Matilda, daughter of Henry II., whose husband, +Henry of Saxony, was then on a pilgrimage. He also took part in the +political affairs of the time. Henry II.'s eldest son, Henry "the young +king," had been crowned in 1170 at Westminster, and was anxious to have [61] +something more than the title, seeing that his brother Richard was Duke +of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, and practically an independent sovereign. +Bertran had not forgotten Richard's action against him on behalf of his +brother Constantin, and was, moreover, powerfully attracted by the open +and generous nature of the young king. He therefore took his side, and +on his return to Limousin became the central point of the league which +was formed against Richard. Henry II. succeeded in reconciling his two +sons, the young Henry receiving pecuniary compensation in lieu of +political power. But the young Henry seems to have been really moved by +Bertran's reproaches, and at length revolted against his father and +attacked his brother Richard. While he was in Turenne, the young king +fell sick and died on June 11, 1183. Bertran lamented his loss in two +famous poems, and soon felt the material effects of it. On June 29, +Richard and the King of Aragon arrived before Hautefort, which +surrendered after a week's resistance. Richard restored the castle to +Constantin, but Bertran regained possession, as is related in the second +biography. + +Henceforward, Bertran remained faithful to Richard, and directed his +animosity chiefly against the King of Aragon. At the same time it +appears that he would have been equally pleased with any war, which [62] +would have brought profit to himself, and attempted to excite Richard +against his father, Henry II. This project came to nothing, but war +broke out between Richard and the French king; a truce of two years was +concluded, and again broken by Richard. The Church, however, interfered +with its efforts to organise the Third Crusade, which called from +Bertran two _sirventes_ in honour of Conrad, son of the Marquis of +Montferrat, who was defending Tyre against Saladin. Bertran remained at +home in Limousin during this Crusade; his means were obviously +insufficient to enable him to share in so distant a campaign; other, and +for him, equally cogent reasons for remaining at home may be gathered +from his poems. There followed the quarrels between Richard and the +French king, the return to France of the latter, and finally Richard's +capture on the Illyrian coast and his imprisonment by Henry VI. of +Austria, which terminated in 1194. Richard then came into Aquitaine, his +return being celebrated by two poems from Bertran. + +The Provencal biography informs us that Bertran finally became a monk in +the Order of Citeaux. The convent where he spent his last years was the +abbey of Dalon, near Hautefort. The cartulary mentions his name at +various intervals from 1197 to 1202. In 1215 we have the entry "_octavo,[63] +candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bernardo de Born: cera tres solidos +empta est_." This is the only notice of the poet's death. + +Dante perhaps exaggerated the part he played in stirring up strife +between Henry II. and his sons; modern writers go to the other extreme. +Bertran is especially famous for his political _sirventes_ and for the +martial note which rings through much of his poetry. He loved war both +for itself and for the profits which it brought: "The powerful are more +generous and open-handed when they have war than when they have peace." +The troubadour's two _planhs_ upon the "young king's" death are inspired +by real feeling, and the story of his reconciliation with Henry after +the capture of his castle can hardly have been known to Dante, who would +surely have modified his judgment upon the troubadour if he had +remembered that scene as related by the biography. Sir Bertran was +summoned with all his people to King Henry's tent, who received him very +harshly and said, "Bertran, you declared that you never needed more than +half your senses; it seems that to-day you will want the whole of them." +"Sire", said Bertran, "it is true that I said so and I said nothing but +the truth." The king replied, "Then you seem to me to have lost your +senses entirely". "I have indeed lost them", said Bertran. "And how?" [64] +asked the king. "Sire, on the day that the noble king, your son, died, I +lost sense, knowledge and understanding." When the king heard Bertran +speak of his son with tears, he was deeply moved and overcome with +grief. On recovering himself he cried, weeping, "Ah, Bertran, rightly +did you lose your senses for my son, for there was no one in the world +whom he loved as you. And for love of him, not only do I give you your +life, but also your castle and your goods, and I add with my love five +hundred silver marks to repair the loss which you have suffered." + +The narrative is unhistorical; Henry II. was not present in person at +the siege of Hautefort; but the fact is certain that he regarded Bertran +as the chief sower of discord in his family. + +Mention must now be made of certain troubadours who were less important +than the three last mentioned, but are of interest for various reasons. + +Raimbaut d'Aurenga, Count of Orange from 1150-1173, is interesting +rather by reason of his relations with other troubadours than for his +own achievements in the troubadours' art. He was a follower of the +precious, artificial and obscure style, and prided himself upon his +skill in the combination of difficult rimes and the repetition of +equivocal rimes (the same word used in different senses or grammatical +forms). "Since Adam ate the apple," he says, "there is no poet, loud as [65] +he may proclaim himself, whose art is worth a turnip compared with +mine." Apart from these mountebank tricks and certain mild "conceits" +(his lady's smile, for instance, makes him happier than the smile of +four hundred angels could do), the chief characteristic of his poetry is +his constant complaints of slanderers who attempt to undermine his +credit with his lady. But he seems to have aroused a passion in the +heart of a poetess, who expressed her feelings in words which contrast +strongly with Raimbaut's vapid sentimentalities. + +This was Beatrice, Countess of Die and the wife of Count William of +Poitiers. The names, at least, of seventeen poetesses are known to us +and of these the Countess of Die is the most famous. Like the rest of +her sex who essayed the troubadour's art, the Countess knows nothing of +difficult rhymes or obscurity of style. Simplicity and sincerity are the +keynotes of her poetry. The troubadour sang because he was a +professional poet, but the lady who composed poetry did so from love of +the art or from the inspiration of feeling and therefore felt no need of +meretricious adornment for her song. The five poems of the Countess +which remain to us show that her sentiment for Raimbaut was real and +deep. "I am glad to know that the man I love is the worthiest in the +world; may God give great joy to the one who first brought me to him: [66] +may he trust only in me, whatever slanders be reported to him: for often +a man plucks the rod with which he beats himself. The woman who values +her good name should set her love upon a noble and valiant knight: when +she knows his worth, let her not hide her love. When a woman loves thus +openly, the noble and worthy speak of her love only with sympathy." +Raimbaut, however, did not reciprocate these feelings: in a _tenso_ with +the countess he shows his real sentiments while excusing his conduct. He +assures her that he has avoided her only because he did not wish to +provide slanderers with matter for gossip; to which the Countess replies +that his care for her reputation is excessive. Peire Rogier whose +poetical career lies between the years 1160 and 1180, also spent some +time at Raimbaut's court. He belonged to Auvergne by birth and was +attached to the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne for some years: here +there is no doubt that we have a case of a troubadour in an official +position and nothing more: possibly Peire Rogier's tendency to +preaching--he had been educated for the church--was enough to stifle any +sentiment on the lady's side. On leaving Narbonne, he visited Raimbaut +at Orange and afterwards travelled to Spain and Toulouse, finally +entering a monastery where he ended his life. + +Auvergne produced a far more important troubadour in the person of Peire [67] +d'Auvergne, whose work extended from about 1158 to 1180; he was thus +more or less contemporary with Guiraut de Bornelh and Bernart de +Ventadour. He was, according to the biography, the son of a citizen of +Clermont-Ferrand, and "the first troubadour, who lived beyond the +mountains (i.e. the Pyrenees, which, however, Marcabrun had previously +crossed)... he was regarded as the best troubadour until Guiraut de +Bornelh appeared.... He was very proud of his talents and despised other +troubadours." Other notices state that he was educated for an +ecclesiastical career and was at one time a canon. He had no small idea +of his own powers: "Peire d'Auvergne," he says in his satire upon other +troubadours "has such a voice that he can sing in all tones and his +melodies are sweet and pleasant: he is master of his art, if he would +but put a little clarity into his poems, which are difficult to +understand." The last observation is entirely correct: his poems are +often very obscure. Peire travelled, in the pursuit of his profession, +to the court of Sancho III. of Castile and made some stay in Spain: he +is also found at the courts of Raimon V. of Toulouse and, like Peire +Rogier, at Narbonne. Among his poems, two are especially well known. In +a love poem he makes the nightingale his messenger, as Marcabrun had [68] +used the starling and as others used the swallow or parrot. But in +comparison with Marcabrun, Peire d'Auvergne worked out the idea with a +far more delicate poetical touch. The other poem is a _sirventes_ which +is of interest as being the first attempt at literary satire among the +troubadours; the satire is often rather of a personal than of a literary +character; the following quotations referring to troubadours already +named will show Peire's ideas of literary criticism. "Peire Rogier sings +of love without restraint and it would befit him better to carry the +psalter in the church or to bear the lights with the great burning +candles. Guiraut de Bornelh is like a sun-bleached cloth with his thin +miserable song which might suit an old Norman water-carrier. Bernart de +Ventadour is even smaller than Guiraut de Bornelh by a thumb's length; +but he had a servant for his father who shot well with the long bow +while his mother tended the furnace." The satiric _sirventes_ soon found +imitators: the Monk of Montaudon produced a similar composition. Like +many other troubadours, Peire ended his life in a monastery. To this +period of his career probably, belong his religious poems of which we +shall have occasion to speak later. + +We have already observed that the Church contributed members, though +with some reluctance, to the ranks of the troubadours. One of the most [69] +striking figures of the kind is the Monk of Montaudon (1180-1200): the +satirical power of his _sirventes_ attracted attention, and he gained +much wealth at the various courts which he visited; this he used for the +benefit of his priory. He enjoyed the favour of Philippe Auguste II. of +France, of Richard Coeur de Lion and of Alfonso II. of Aragon, with that +of many smaller nobles. The biography says of him, "E fo faitz seigner +de la cort del Puoi Santa Maria e de dar l'esparvier. Lone temps ac la +seignoria de la cort del Puoi, tro que la cortz se perdet." "He was made +president of the court of Puy Sainte Marie and of awarding the +sparrow-hawk. For a long time he held the presidency of the court of +Puy, until the court was dissolved." The troubadour Richard de +Barbezieux refers to this court, which seems to have been a periodical +meeting attended by the nobles and troubadours of Southern Prance. +Tournaments and poetical contests were held; the sparrow-hawk or falcon +placed on a pole is often mentioned as the prize awarded to the +tournament victor. Tennyson's version of the incident in his "Geraint +and Enid" will occur to every reader. The monk's reputation must have +been considerable to gain him this position. His love poems are of +little importance; his satire deals with the petty failings of mankind, +for which he had a keen eye and an unsparing and sometimes cynical [70] +tongue. + + Be.m enoia, s'o auzes dire, + Parliers quant es avols servire; + Et hom qui trop vol aut assire + M'enoia, e cavals que tire. + Et enoia.m, si Dieus m'aiut + Joves hom quan trop port' escut, + Que negun colp no i a agut, + Capela et mongue barbut, + E lauzengier bee esmolut. + +"These vex me greatly, if I may say so, language when it is base +servility, and a man who wishes too high a place (at table) and a +charger which is put to drawing carts. And, by my hope of salvation, I +am vexed by a young man who bears too openly a shield which has never +received a blow, by a chaplain and monk wearing beards and by the sharp +beak of the slanderer." The monk's satire upon other troubadours is +stated by himself to be a continuation of that by Peire d'Auvergne; the +criticism is, as might be expected, personal. Two _tensos_ deal with the +vanities of women, especially the habit of painting the face: in one of +them the dispute proceeds before God as judge, between the poet and the +women: the scene of the other is laid in Paradise and the interlocutors +are the Almighty and the poet, who, represents that self-adornment is a +habit inherent in female nature. In neither poem is reverence a [71] +prominent feature. + +One of the most extraordinary figures in the whole gallery of troubadour +portraits is Peire Vidal, whose career extended, roughly speaking, from +1175 to 1215. He was one of those characters who naturally become the +nucleus of apocryphal stories, and how much truth there may be in some +of the fantastic incidents, in which he figures as the hero, will +probably never be discovered. He was undoubtedly an attractive +character, for he enjoyed the favour of the most distinguished men and +women of his time. He was also a poet of real power: ease and facility +are characteristics of his poems as compared with the ingenious +obscurity of Arnaut Daniel or Peire d'Auvergne. But there was a +whimsical and fantastic strain in his character, which led him often to +conjoin the functions of court-fool with those of court poet: "he was +the most foolish man in the world" says his biographer. His +"foolishness" also induced him to fall in love with every woman he met, +and to believe that his personal attractions made him invincible. + +Peire Vidal was the son of a Toulouse merchant. He began his troubadour +wanderings early and at the outset of his career we find him in +Catalonia, Aragon and Castile. He is then found in the service of Raimon +Gaufridi Barral,[24] Viscount of Marseilles, a bluff, genial tournament [72] +warrior and the husband of Azalais de Porcellet whose praises were sung +by Folquet of Marseilles. It was Barral who was attracted by Peire's +peculiar talents: his wife seems to have tolerated the troubadour from +deference to her husband. Peire, however, says in one of his poems that +husbands feared him more than fire or sword, and believing himself +irresistible interpreted Azalais' favours as seriously meant. When he +stole a kiss from her as she slept, she insisted upon Peire's departure, +though her husband seems to have regarded the matter as a jest and the +troubadour took refuge in Genoa. Eventually, Azalais pardoned him and he +was able to return to Marseilles. Peire is said to have followed Richard +Coeur de Lion on his crusade; it was in 1190 that Richard embarked at +Marseilles for the Holy Land, and as a patron of troubadours, he was no +doubt personally acquainted with Peire. The troubadour, however, is said +to have gone no farther than Cyprus. There he married a Greek woman and +was somehow persuaded that his wife was a daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople, and that he, therefore, had a claim to the throne of +Greece. He assumed royal state, added a throne to his personal +possessions and began to raise a fleet for the conquest of his kingdom. +How long this farce continued is unknown. Barral died in 1192 and Peire +transferred his affections to a lady of Carcassonne, Loba de Pennautier. [73] +The biography relates that her name Loba (wolf) induced the troubadour +to approach her in a wolf's skin, which disguise was so successful that +he was attacked by a pack of dogs and seriously mauled. Probably the +story that an outraged husband had the troubadour's tongue cut out at an +earlier period of his life contains an equal substratum of truth. The +last period of his career was spent in Hungary and Lombardy. His +political _sirventes_ show an insight into the affairs of his age, which +is in strong contrast to the whimsicality which seems to have misguided +his own life. + +Guillem de Cabestanh (between 1181 and 1196) deserves mention for the +story which the Provencal biography has attached to his name, a +Provencal variation of the thirteenth century romance of the _Chatelaine +de Coucy_.[25] He belonged to the Roussillon district, on the borders of +Catalonia and fell in love with the wife of his overlord, Raimon of +Roussillon. Margarida or Seremonda, as she is respectively named in the +two versions of the story, was attracted by Guillem's songs, with the +result that Raimon's jealousy was aroused and meeting the troubadour one +day, when he was out hunting, he killed him. The Provencal version +proceeds as follows: he then took out the heart and sent it by a squire +to the castle. He caused it to be roasted with pepper and gave it to his [74] +wife to eat. And when she had eaten it, her lord told her what it was +and she lost the power of sight and hearing. And when she came to +herself, she said, "my lord, you have given me such good meat that never +will I eat such meat again." He made at her to strike her but she threw +herself from the window and was killed. Thereupon the barons of +Catalonia and Aragon, led by King Alfonso, are said to have made a +combined attack upon Raimon and to have ravaged his lands, in +indignation at his barbarity. + +The Provencal biography, like the romance of the _Chatelain de Coucy_, +belongs to the thirteenth century, and the story cannot be accepted as +authentic. But the period of decadence had begun. By the close of the +twelfth century the golden age of troubadour poetry was over. Guiraut de +Bornelh's complaints that refinement was vanishing and that nobles were +growing hard-hearted and avaricious soon became common-places in +troubadour poetry. The extravagances of the previous age and the rise of +a strong middle and commercial class diminished both the wealth and the +influence of the nobles, while the peace of the country was further +disturbed by theological disputes and by the rise of the Albigeois +heresy. + + + +CHAPTER VI [75] + + +THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE + +The feudal society in which troubadour poetry had flourished, and by +which alone it could be maintained, was already showing signs of +decadence. Its downfall was precipitated by the religious and political +movement, the Albigeois Crusade, which was the first step towards the +unification of France, but which also broke up the local fiefs, +destroyed the conditions under which the troubadours had flourished and +scattered them abroad in other lands or forced them to seek other means +of livelihood. This is not the place to discuss the origin and the +nature of the Albigeois heresy.[26] The general opinion has almost +invariably considered the heretics as dualists and their belief as a +variation of Manicheism: but a plausible case has been made out for +regarding the heresy as a variant of the Adoptionism which is found +successively in Armenia, in the Balkan peninsula and in Spain, and +perhaps sporadically in Italy and Germany. Whatever its real nature was, +the following facts are clear: it was not an isolated movement, but was +in continuity with beliefs prevalent in many other parts of Europe. It [76] +was largely a poor man's heresy and therefore emerges into the light of +history only when it happens to attract aristocratic adherents or large +masses of people. It was also a pre-Reformation movement and essentially +in opposition to Roman Catholicism. Albi was the first head-quarters of +the heresy, though Toulouse speedily rivalled its importance in this +respect. The Vaudois heresy which became notorious at Lyons about the +same time was a schismatic, not a heretic movement. The Vaudois objected +to the profligacy and worldliness of the Roman Catholic clergy, but did +not quarrel with church doctrine. The Albigenses were no less zealous +than the Vaudois in reproving the church clergy and setting an example +of purity and unselfishness of life. But they also differed profoundly +from the church in matters of doctrine. + +Upon the election of Otho as Emperor, in 1208, Germany and Rome were at +peace, and Pope Innocent III. found himself at liberty to devote some +attention to affairs in Southern France. He had already made some +efforts to oppose the growth of heresy: his first emissaries were unable +to produce the least effect and in 1208 he had sent Arnaut of Citeaux +and two Cistercian monks into Southern France with full powers to act. +Their efforts proved fruitless, because Philippe Auguste was no less +indifferent than the provincial lords, who actually favoured the [77] +heretics in many cases; the Roman Catholic bishops also were jealous of +the pope's legates and refused to support them. Not only the laity but +many of the clergy had been seduced: the heretics had translated large +portions of scripture (translations which still remain to us) and +constantly appealed to the scriptures in opposition to the canon laws +and the immorality of Rome. They had a full parochial and diocesan +organisation and were in regular communication with the heretics of +other countries. It was clear that the authority of Southern France was +doomed, unless some vigorous steps to assert her authority were speedily +taken. "Ita per omnes terras multiplicati sunt ut grande periculum +patiatur ecclesia Dei." [27] The efforts of St Dominic were followed by +the murder of the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in 1208, which +created an excitement comparable with that aroused by the murder of +Thomas a Becket, thirty-eight years before, and gave Innocent III. his +opportunity. In the summer of 1209 a great army of crusaders assembled +at Lyons, and Southern France was invaded by a horde composed partly of +religious fanatics, of men who were anxious to gain the indulgences +awarded to crusaders without the danger of a journey overseas, and of +men who were simply bent on plunder. The last stage in the development +of the crusade movement was thereby reached: originally begun to recover [78] +the Holy Sepulchre, it had been extended to other countries against the +avowed enemies of Christianity. Now the movement was to be turned +against erring members of the Christian Church and in the terms of a +metaphor much abused at that period, the Crusader was not only to +destroy the wolf, but to drive the vagrant sheep back into the fold.[28] +Beziers and Carcassonne were captured with massacre; Toulouse was spared +upon the humiliating submission of Raimon VI., and little organised +opposition was offered to the crusading forces under Simon de Montfort. +The following years saw the revolt of Toulouse and the excommunication +of Raimon VI. (1211), the battle of Muret in which Raimon was defeated +and his supporter Pedro of Aragon, was killed (1213), the Lateran +Council (1215), the siege of Toulouse and the death of Simon de Montfort +(1218). The foundation of the Dominican order and of the Inquisition +marked the close of the struggle. + +Folquet of Marseilles is a troubadour whose life belongs to these years +of turmoil. He was the son of a Genoese merchant by name Anfos, who +apparently settled in Marseilles for business reasons: Genoa was in +close commercial relations with the South of France during the twelfth +century, as is attested by treaties concluded with Marseilles in 1138 +and with Raimon of Toulouse in 1174. Folquet (or Fulco in Latin form) [79] +seems to have carried on his father's business and to have amused his +leisure hours by poetical composition. The Monk of Montandon refers to +him as a merchant in his _sirventes_ upon other troubadours. He is +placed in Paradise by Dante and is the only troubadour who there +appears, no doubt because of his services to the Church. His earliest +poems, written after 1180, were composed in honour of Azalais, the lady +whose favour was sought by Peire Vidal, and to whom Folquet refers by +the _senhal_ of Aimant (magnet). His poems are ingenious dissertations +upon love and we catch little trace of real feeling in them. The stories +of the jealousy of Azalais' sister which drove Folquet to leave +Marseilles are probably apocryphal. Folquet also addressed poems to the +wife of the Count of Montpelier, the daughter of the Emperor of +Constantinople. He wrote a fine _planh_ on the death of Barral of +Marseilles in 1192 and it was about this time that he resolved to enter +the church. His last poem belongs to the year 1195. No doubt the wealth +which he may have brought to the Church as a successful merchant +contributed to his advancement, but Folquet was also an indomitably +energetic character. + +Unlike so many of his fellow poets, who retired to monasteries and there +lived out their lives in seclusion, Folquet displayed special talents or [80] +special enthusiasm for the order which he joined. Of the Cistercian +abbey of Toronet in the diocese of Frejus he became abbot, and in 1205 +was made Bishop of Toulouse. He then, in company with St Dominic, +becomes one of the great figures of the Albigeois crusade: in 1209 he +was acting with Simon de Montfort against Raimon VI., the son of his old +patron and benefactor, and persuaded the count to surrender the citadel +of Toulouse to de Montfort and the papal legate. He travelled in +Northern France in order to stir up enthusiasm for the crusade. The +legend is related that, hearing one of his love songs sung by a minstrel +at Paris, he imposed penance upon himself. He helped to establish the +Inquisition in Languedoc, and at the Lateran council of 1215 was the +most violent opponent of Count Raimon. To enter into his history in +detail during this period would be to recount a large portion of the +somewhat intricate history of the crusade. Of his fanaticism, and of the +cruelty with which he waged war upon the heretics, the Count Raimon +Roger of Foix speaks at the Lateran council, when defending himself +against the accusation of heresy. + + E die vos de l'avesque, que tant n'es afortitz, + qu'en la sua semblansa es Dieus e nos trazitz, + que ab cansos messongeiras e ab motz coladitz, + dont totz horn es perdutz qui.ls canta ni los ditz, [81] + ez ab sos reproverbis afilatz e forbitz + ez ab los nostres dos, don fo eniotglaritz, + ez ab mala doctrina es tant fort enriquitz + c'om non auza ren dire a so qu'el contraditz. + Pero cant el fo abas ni monges revestitz + en la sua abadia fo si.l lums eseurzitz + qu'anc no i ac be ni pauza, tro qu'el ne fo ichitz; + e cant fo de Tholosa avesques elegitz + per trastota la terra es tals focs espanditz + que ia mais per nulha aiga no sira escantitz; + que plus de D.M., que de grans que petitz, + i fe perdre las vidas e.ls cors e.ls esperitz. + Per la fe qu'icu vos deg, als sous faitz e als ditz + ez a la captenensa sembla mielhs Antecritz + que messatges de Roma. + +"And of the bishop, who is so zealous, I tell you that in him both God +and we ourselves are betrayed; for with lying songs and insinuating +words, which are the damnation of any who sings or speaks them, and by +his keen polished admonitions, and by our presents wherewith he +maintained himself as _joglar_, and by his evil doctrine, he has risen +so high, that one dare say nothing to that which he opposes. So when he +was vested as abbot and monk, was the light in his abbey put out in such +wise that therein was no comfort or rest, until that he was gone forth +from thence; and when he was chosen bishop of Toulouse such a fire was +spread throughout the land that never for any water will it be quenched; +for there did he bring destruction of life and body and soul upon more [82] +than fifteen hundred of high and low. By the faith which I owe to you, +by his deeds and his words and his dealings, more like is he to +Anti-Christ than to an envoy of Rome." (_Chanson de la croisade contre +les Albigeois_, v. 3309.) + +Folquet died on December 25, 1231, and was buried at the Cistercian +Abbey of Grandselve, some thirty miles north-west of Toulouse. Such +troubadours as Guilhem Figueira and Peire Cardenal, who inveighed +against the action of the Church during the crusade, say nothing of him, +and upon their silence and that of the biography as regards his +ecclesiastical life the argument has been founded that Folquet the +troubadour and Folquet the bishop were two different persons. There is +no evidence to support this theory. Folquet's poems enjoyed a high +reputation. The minnesinger, Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg (end of the +twelfth century) imitated him, as also did the Italians Rinaldo d'Aquino +and Jacopo da Lentino. + +The troubadours as a rule stood aloof from the religious quarrels of the +age. But few seem to have joined the crusaders, as Perdigon did. Most of +their patrons were struggling for their existence: when the invaders +succeeded in establishing themselves, they had no desire for court +poetry. The troubadour's occupation was gone, and those who wished for +an audience were obliged to seek beyond the borders of France. Hence it [83] +is somewhat remarkable to find the troubadour Raimon de Miraval, of +Carcassonne, continuing to sing, as though perfect tranquillity +prevailed. His wife, Gaudairenca, was a poetess, and Paul Heyse has made +her the central figure of one of his charming _Troubadour Novellen_. +Raimon's poems betray no forebodings of the coming storm; when it broke, +he lost his estate and fled to Raimon of Toulouse for shelter. The +arrival of Pedro II. of Aragon at Toulouse in 1213 and his alliance with +the Count of Toulouse cheered the troubadour's spirits: he thought there +was a chance that he might recover his estate. He compliments Pedro on +his determination in one poem and in another tells his lady, "the king +has promised me that in a short time, I shall have Miraval again and my +Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will +regain their lost delights." Such was the attitude of many troubadours +towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain +section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of +patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of +their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole +acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no +attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such [84] +attempts was forth-coming. + +On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real +courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in +maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first +energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse +been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to +reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty +lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as +little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy. +His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the _Chanson de +la Croisade_ reflects their hopes and fears and describes their +struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic +splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in +the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders +who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest +poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within +the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that +he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a noble +and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he +was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and [85] +went from court to court, accompanied by a _joglar_: he was especially +favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a +hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his _chansos_ +that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case +of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral _sirventes_: he +was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and +immorality and the special objects of his animosity are the Roman +Catholic clergy and the high nobles. "The clergy call themselves +shepherds and are murderers under a show of saintliness: when I look +upon their dress I remember Isengrin (the wolf in the romance of +Reynard, the Fox) who wished one day to break into the sheep-fold: but +for fear of the dogs he dressed himself in a sheepskin and then devoured +as many as he would. Kings and emperors, dukes, counts and knights used +to rule the world; now the priests have the power which they have gained +by robbery and treachery, by hypocrisy, force and preaching." "Eagles +and vultures smell not the carrion so readily as priests and preachers +smell out the rich: a rich man is their friend and should a sickness +strike him down, he must make them presents to the loss of his +relations. Frenchmen and priests are reputed bad and rightly so: usurers [86] +and traitors possess the whole world, for with deceit have they so +confounded the world that there is no class to whom their doctrine is +unknown." Peire inveighs against the disgraces of particular orders; the +Preaching Friars or Jacobin monks who discuss the relative merits of +special wines after their feasts, whose lives are spent in disputes and +who declare all who differ from them to be Vaudois heretics, who worm +men's private affairs out of them, that they may make themselves feared: +some of his charges against the monastic orders are quite unprintable. + +No less vigorous are his invectives against the rich and the social +evils of his time. The tone of regret that underlies Guiraut de +Bornelh's satires in this theme is replaced in Peire Cardenal's +_sirventes_ by a burning sense of injustice. Covetousness, the love of +pleasure, injustice to the poor, treachery and deceit and moral laxity +are among his favourite themes. "He who abhors truth and hates the +right, careers to hell and directs his course to the abyss: for many a +man builds walls and palaces with the goods of others and yet the +witless world says that he is on the right path, because he is clever +and prosperous. As silver is refined in the fire, so the patient poor +are purified under grievous oppression: and with what splendour the +shameless rich man may feed and clothe himself, his riches bring him +nought but pain, grief and vexation of spirit. But that affrights him [87] +not: capons and game, good wine and the dainties of the earth console +him and cheer his heart. Then he prays to God and says 'I am poor and in +misery.' Were God to answer him He would say, 'thou liest!'" To +illustrate the degeneracy of the age, Peire relates a fable, perhaps the +only instance of this literary form among the troubadours, upon the +theme that if all the world were mad, the one sane man would be in a +lunatic asylum: "there was a certain town, I know not where, upon which +a rain fell of such a nature that all the inhabitants upon whom it fell, +lost their reason. All lost their reason except one, who escaped because +he was asleep in his house when the rain came. When he awoke, he rose: +the rain had ceased, and he went out among the people who were all +committing follies. One was clothed, another naked, another was spitting +at the sky: some were throwing sticks and stones, tearing their coats, +striking and pushing... The sane man was deeply surprised and saw that +they were mad; nor could he find a single man in his senses. Yet greater +was their surprise at him, and as they saw that he did not follow their +example, they concluded that he had lost his senses.... So one strikes +him in front, another behind; he is dashed to the ground and trampled +under foot... at length he flees to his house covered with mud, bruised [88] +and half dead and thankful for his escape": The mad town, says Peire +Cardenal, is the present world: the highest form of intelligence is the +love and fear of God, but this has been replaced by greed, pride and +malice; consequently the "sense of God" seems madness to the world and +he who refuses to follow the "sense of the world" is treated as a +madman. + +Peire Cardenal is thus by temperament a moral preacher; he is not merely +critical of errors, but has also a positive faith to propound. He is not +an opponent of the papacy as an institution: the confession of faith +which he utters in one of his _sirventes_ shows that he would have been +perfectly satisfied with the Roman ecclesiastical and doctrinal system, +had it been properly worked. In this respect he differs from a +contemporary troubadour, Guillem Figueira, whose violent satire against +Rome shows him as opposed to the whole system from the papacy downwards. +He was a native of Toulouse and migrated to Lombardy and to the court of +Frederick II. when the crusade drove him from his home. "I wonder not, +Rome, that men go astray, for thou hast cast the world into strife and +misery; virtue and good works die and are buried because of thee, +treacherous Rome, thou guiding-star, thou root and branch of all +iniquity... Greed blindeth thy eyes, and too close dost thou shear thy [89] +sheep... thou forgivest sins for money, thou loadest thyself with a +shameful burden. Rome, we know of a truth that with the bait of false +forgiveness, thou hast snared in misery the nobility of France, the +people of Paris and the noble King Louis (VIII., who died in the course +of the Albigeois crusade); thou didst bring him to his death, for thy +false preaching enticed him from his land. Rome, thou has the outward +semblance of a lamb, so innocent is thy countenance, but within thou are +a ravening wolf, a crowned snake begotten of a viper and therefore the +devil greeteth thee as the friend of his bosom." This sirventes was +answered by a _trobairitz_, Germonde of Montpelier, but her reply lacks +the vigour and eloquence of the attack. + +It is not to be supposed that the troubadours turned to religious poetry +simply because the Albigeois crusade had raised the religious question. +Purely devotional poetry is found at an earlier period.[29] It appears +at first only sporadically, and some of the greatest troubadours have +left no religious poems that have reached us. The fact is, that the +nature of troubadour poetry and its homage to the married woman were +incompatible with the highest standard of religious devotion. The famous +_alba_ of Guiraut de Bornelh invokes the "glorious king, true light and +splendour, Lord Almighty," for the purpose of praying that the lovers [90] +for whom the speaker is keeping watch may be undisturbed in interchange +of their affections. Prayer for the success of attempted adultery is a +contradiction in terms. For a theory of religion which could regard the +Deity as a possible accomplice in crime, the Church of Southern France +in the twelfth century is to blame: we cannot expect that the +troubadours in general should be more religious than the professional +exponents of religion. On the other hand, poems of real devotional +feeling are found, even from the earliest times: the sensual Count of +Poitiers, the first troubadour known to us, concludes his career with a +poem of resignation bidding farewell to the world, "leaving all that I +love, the brilliant life of chivalry, but since it pleases God, I resign +myself and pray Him to keep me among His own." Many troubadours, as has +been said, ended their lives in monasteries and the disappointments or +griefs which drove them to this course often aroused religious feelings, +regrets for past follies and resolutions of repentance, which found +expression in poetry. Peire d'Auvergne wrote several religious hymns +after his retirement from the world; these are largely composed of +reiterated articles of the Christian faith in metrical form and are as +unpoetical as they are orthodox, Crusade poems and _planhs_ upon the [91] +deaths of famous nobles or patrons are religious only in a secondary +sense. A fine religious _alba_ is ascribed to Folquet of Marseilles-- + + Vers Dieus, e.l vostre nom e de sancta Maria + m'esvelherai hueimais, pus l'estela del dia + ven daus Jerusalem que' m'ensenha qu'ien dia: + estatz sus e levatz, + senhor, que Dieu amatz! + que.l jorns es aprosmatz + e la nuech ten sa via; + e sia.n Dieus lauzatz + per nos e adoratz, + e.l preguem que.ens don patz + a tota nostra via. + La nuech vai e.l jorns ve + ab elar eel e sere, + e l'alba no's rete + ans ven belh' e complia. + +"True God, in Thy name and in the name of Saint Mary will I awake +henceforth, since the star of day rises from o'er Jerusalem, bidding me +say, 'Up and arise, sirs, who love God! For the day is nigh, and the +night departs; and let God be praised and adored by us and let us pray +Him that He give us peace for all our lives. Night goes and day comes +with clear serene sky, and the dawn delays not but comes fair and +perfect.'" + +At the close of the Albigeois crusade the Virgin Mary becomes the theme +of an increasing number of lyric poems. These are not like the farewells [92] +to the world, uttered by weary troubadours, and dictated by individual +circumstances, but are inspired by an increase of religious feeling in +the public to whom the troubadours appealed. Peire Cardenal began the +series and a similar poem is attributed to Perdigon, a troubadour who +joined the crusaders and fought against his old patrons; though the poem +is probably not his, it belongs to a time but little posterior to the +crusade. The cult of the Virgin had obvious attractions as a subject for +troubadours whose profane songs would not have been countenanced by St +Dominic and his preachers and religious poetry dealing with the subject +could easily borrow not only the metrical forms but also many technical +expressions which troubadours had used in singing of worldly love. They +could be the servants of a heavenly mistress and attribute to her all +the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that +the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the +supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut +Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new +_genre_: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem +admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many +poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with +classical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from [93] +the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea +of the character of this poetry. + + Domna, rosa ses espina, + sobre totas flors olens, + verga seca frug fazens, + terra que ses labor grana, + estela, del solelh maire, + noirissa del vostre paire, + el mon nulha no.us semelha + ni londana ni vezina. + + Domna, verge pura e fina, + ans que fos l'enfantamens, + et apres tot eissamens, + receup en vos carn humana + Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire, + si com ses trencamen faire + intra.l bels rais, quan solelha, + per la fenestra veirina. + + Domna, estela marina + de las autras plus luzens, + la mars nos combat e.l vens; + mostra nos via certana; + car si.ns vols a bon port traire + non tem nau ni governaire + ni tempest que.ns destorbelha + ni.l sobern de la marina. + +"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing +fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun, +nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, [94] +neither far nor near. + +Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same, +Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without +causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun +shines. + +Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the +wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to +a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it +trouble us." + + + +CHAPTER VII [95] + + +THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY + +To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of +its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The +movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and +the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the very existence of its lyric +poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations +between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early +period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean +was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local nobles were +connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman +Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and _joglars_ to visit the +Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian +dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their +poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to +troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal +was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the +Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of [96] +Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less +importance offered a welcome to Provencal poets. More than twenty +troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to +have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their +poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provencal became +the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of +troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure. + +Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career +(1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour +quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor +noble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of +Orange; he exchanged _tensos_ with his patron with whom he seems to have +been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym +Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time +later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence +of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a +wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of +Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in +which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady. + +"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart [97] +is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded +if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than +if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up." +The lady then replies in her own Genoese dialect: she knows nothing of +the conventions of courtly love, and informs the troubadour that her +husband is a better man than he and that she will have nothing to do +with him. The poem is nothing but a _jeu d'esprit_ based upon the +contrast between troubadour sentiments and the honest but unpoetical +views of the middle class; it is interesting to philologists as +containing one of the earliest known specimens of Italian dialect. An +example of the Tuscan dialect is also found in the _descort_ by +Raimbaut. This is a poem in irregular metre, intended to show the +perturbation of the poet's mind. Raimbaut increased this effect by +writing in five different languages. He found a ready welcome from +Bonifacio II. at the court of Montferrat which Peire Vidal also visited. +The marquis dubbed him knight and made him his brother in arms. Raimbaut +fell in love with Beatrice, the sister of the marquis, an intimacy which +proceeded upon the regular lines of courtly love. He soon found an +opportunity of showing his devotion to the marquis. In 1194 Henry VI. [98] +made an expedition to Sicily to secure the claims of his wife, +Constance, to that kingdom: the Marquis Boniface as a vassal of the +imperial house followed the Emperor and Raimbaut accompanied his +contingent. He refers to his share in the campaign in a later letter to +the marquis.[30] + + Et ai per vos estat en greu preyzo + Per vostra guerra e n'ai a vostro pro + Fag maynt assaut et ars maynta maiso + Et a Messina vos cobri del blizo; + En la batalha vos vinc en tal sazo + Que.us ferion pel pietz e pel mento + Dartz e cairels, sagetas e trenso. + +"For your sake I have been in hard captivity in your war, and to do you +service I have made many an assault and burned many a house. At Messina +I covered you with the shield; I came to you in the battle at the moment +when they hurled at your breast and chin darts and quarrels, arrows and +lance-shafts." The captivity was endured in the course of the marquis's +wars in Italy, and the troubadour refers to a seafight between the +forces of Genoa and Pisa in the Sicilian campaign. In 1202 he followed +his master upon the crusade which practically ended at Constantinople. +He had composed a vigorous _sirventes_ urging Christian men to join the +movement, but he does not himself show any great enthusiasm to take the [99] +cross. "I would rather, if it please you, die in that land than live and +remain here. For us God was raised upon the cross, received death, +suffered the passion, was scourged and loaded with chains and crowned +with thorns upon the cross.... Fair Cavalier (i.e. Beatrice) I know not +whether I shall stay for your sake or take the cross; I know not whether +I shall go or remain, for I die with grief if I see you and I am like to +die if I am far from you." So also in the letter quoted above. + + E cant anetz per crozar a Saysso, + Ieu non avia cor--Dieus m'o perdo-- + Que passes mar, mas per vostre resso + Levey la crotz e pris confessio. + +"And when you went to Soissons to take the cross, I did not intend--may +God forgive me--to cross the sea, but to increase your fame I took the +cross and made confession." The count lost his life, as Villehardouin +relates, in a skirmish with the Bulgarians in 1207. Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras probably fell at the same time. + +This is enough to show that troubadours who came to Italy could make the +country a second home, and find as much occupation in love, war and +politics as they had ever found in Southern France. Aimeric de Pegulhan, +Gaucelm Faidit, Uc de Saint-Circ,[31] the author of some troubadour [100] +biographies, were among the best known of those who visited Italy. The +last named is known to have visited Pisa and another troubadour of minor +importance, Guillem de la Tor, was in Florence. Thus the visits of the +troubadours were by no means confined to the north. + +It was, therefore, natural that Italians should imitate the troubadours +whose art proved so successful at Italian courts and some thirty Italian +troubadours are known to us. Count Manfred II. and Albert, the Marquis +of Malaspina, engaged in _tensos_ with Peire Vidal and Raimbaut de +Vaqueiras respectively and are the first Italians known to have written +in Provencal. Genoa produced a number of Italian troubadours of whom the +best were Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo. The latter was a wanderer +and spent some time in Castile at the court of Alfonso X. Lanfranc +Cigala was a judge in his native town: from him survive a _sirventes_ +against Bonifacio III. of Montferrat who had abandoned the cause of +Frederick II., crusade poems and a _sirventes_ against the obscure +style. The Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi was a prisoner at Genoa from 1266 +to 1273, having been captured by the Genoese. The troubadour of Genoa, +Bonifacio Calvo, had written a vigorous invective against Venice, to +which the captive troubadour composed an equally strong reply addressed [101] +to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours +became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is +certainly Sordello. + +There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he +was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of noble family. His name is not +to be derived from _sordidus_, but from _Surdus_, a not uncommon +patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early +years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court +of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell +in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, _Par._ ix. +32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely +obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a +family feud, while others assert that the elopement took place with the +connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (_Inf_. +xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and +Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the +Provencal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his +flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He +thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France, +where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, [102] +penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is +the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose _sirventes_ speaks of him +as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso +IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this +no date can be assigned. Allusions in his poems show that he was in +Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of +the Countess Beatrice (_Par._ vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar, +Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have +been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur +and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady +cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin +treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known nobles, +and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is +uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in +1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Charles on his +Italian expedition against Manfred in 1265, and seems to have been +captured by the Ghibellines before reaching Naples. At any rate, he was +a prisoner at Novara in September 1266; Pope Clement IV. induced Charles +to ransom him, and in 1269, as a recompense for his services, he +received five castles in the Abruzzi, near the river Pescara: shortly [103] +afterwards he died. The circumstances of his death are unknown, but from +the fact that he is placed by Dante among those who were cut off before +they could repent it has been conjectured that he came to a violent end. + +Sordello's restless life and his intrigues could be exemplified from the +history of many another troubadour and neither his career nor his +poetry, which with two exceptions, is of no special originality, seems +to justify the portrait drawn of him by Dante; while Browning's famous +poem has nothing in common with the troubadour except the name. These +exceptions, however, are notable. The first is a _sirventes_ composed by +Sordello on the death of his patron Blacatz in 1237. He invites to the +funeral feast the Roman emperor, Frederick II., the kings of France, +England and Aragon, the counts of Champagne, Toulouse and Provence. They +are urged to eat of the dead man's heart, that they may gain some +tincture of his courage and nobility. Each is invited in a separate +stanza in which the poet reprehends the failings of the several +potentates. + + Del rey engles me platz, quar es paue coratjos, + Que manje pro del cor, pueys er valens e bos, + E cobrara la terra, per que viu de pretz blos, + Que.l tol lo reys de Fransa, quar lo sap nualhos; + E lo reys castelas tanh qu'en manje per dos, [104] + Quar dos regismes ten, e per l'un non es pros; + Mas, s'elh en vol manjar, tanh qu'en manj'a rescos, + Que, si.l mair'o sabra, batria.l ab bastos. + +"As concerns the English King (Henry III.) it pleases me, for he is +little courageous, that he should eat well of the heart; then he will be +valiant and good and will recover the land (for loss of which he lives +bereft of worth), which the King of France took from him, for he knows +him to be of no account. And the King of Castile (Ferdinand III. of +Castile and Leon), it is fitting that he eat of it for two, for he holds +two realms and he is not sufficient for one; but if he will eat of it, +'twere well that he eat in secret: for if his mother were to know it, +she would beat him with staves." + +This idea, which is a commonplace in the folklore of many countries, +attracted attention. Two contemporary troubadours attempted to improve +upon it. Bertran d'Alamanon said that the heart should not be divided +among the cowards, enumerated by Sordello, but given to the noble ladies +of the age: Peire Bremen proposed a division of the body. The point is +that Dante in the Purgatorio represents Sordello as showing to Virgil +the souls of those who, while singing _Salve Regina_, ask to be pardoned +for their neglect of duty and among them appear the rulers whom Sordello +had satirised in his _sirventes_. Hence it seems that it was this [105] +composition which attracted Dante's attention to Sordello. The other +important poem is the _Ensenhamen_, a didactic work of instruction upon +the manner and conduct proper to a courtier and a lover. Here, and also +in some of his lyric poems, Sordello represents the transition to a new +idea of love which was more fully developed by the school of Guido +Guinicelli and found its highest expression in Dante's lyrics and Vita +Nuova. Love is now rather a mystical idea than a direct affection for a +particular lady: the lover is swayed by a spiritual and intellectual +ideal, and the motive of physical attraction recedes to the background. +The cause of love, however, remains unchanged: love enters through the +eyes; sight is delight. + +We must now turn southwards. A school of poetry had grown up in Sicily +at the court of Frederick II. No doubt he favoured those troubadours +whose animosity to the papacy had been aroused by the Albigeois crusade: +such invective as that which Guillem Figueira could pour forth would be +useful to him in his struggle against the popes. But the emperor was +himself a man of unusual culture, with a keen interest in literary and +scientific pursuits: he founded a university at Naples, collected +manuscripts and did much to make Arabic learning known to the West. He +was a poet and the importance of the Sicilian school consists in the [106] +fact that while the subject matter of their songs was lifted from +troubadour poetry, the language which they used belonged to the Italian +peninsula. The dialect of these _provenzaleggianti_ was not pure +Sicilian but was probably a literary language containing elements drawn +from other dialects, as happened long before in the case of the +troubadours themselves. The best known representatives of this school, +Pier delle Vigne, Jacopo da Lentini and Guido delle Colonne are familiar +to students of Dante. After their time no one questioned the fact that +lyric poetry written in Italian was a possible achievement. The +influence of the Sicilian school extended to Central Italy and Tuscany; +Dante tells us that all Italian poetry preceding his own age was known +as Sicilian. The early Tuscan poets were, mediately or immediately, +strongly influenced by Provencal. The first examples of the sonnet, by +Dante da Majano, were written in that language. But such poetry was +little more than a rhetorical exercise. It was the revival of learning +and the Universities, in particular that of Bologna, which inspired the +_dolce stil nuovo_, of which the first exponent was Guido Giunicelli. +Love was now treated from a philosophical point of view: hitherto, the +Provencal school had maintained the thesis that "sight is delight," that +love originated from seeing and pleasing, penetrated to the heart and [107] +occupied the thoughts, after passing through the eyes. So Aimeric de +Pegulhan. + + Perque tuit li fin aman + Sapchan qu'amors es fina bevolenza + Que nais del cor e dels huelh, ses duptar. + +"Wherefore let all pure lovers know that love is pure unselfishness +which is born undoubtedly from the heart and from the eyes," a sentiment +thus repeated by Guido delle Colonne of the Sicilian school. + + Dal cor si move un spirito in vedere + D'in ochi'n ochi, di femina e d'omo + Per lo quel si concria uno piacere. + +The philosophical school entirely transformed this conception. Love +seeks the noble heart by affinity, as the bird seeks the tree: the noble +heart cannot but love, and love inflames and purifies its nobility, as +the power of the Deity is transmitted to the heavenly beings. When this +idea had been once evolved, Provencal poetry could no longer be a moving +force; it was studied but was not imitated. Its influence had lasted +some 150 years, and as far as Italy is concerned it was Arabic learning, +Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas who slew the troubadours more certainly +than Simon de Montfort and his crusaders. The day of superficial [108] +prettiness and of the cult of form had passed; love conjoined with +learning, a desire to pierce to the roots of things, a greater depth of +thought and earnestness were the characteristics of the new school. + +Dante's debt to the troubadours, with whose literature he was well +acquainted, is therefore the debt of Italian literature as a whole. Had +not the troubadours developed their theory of courtly love, with its +influence upon human nature, we cannot say what course early Italian +literature might have run. Moreover, the troubadours provided Italy and +other countries also with perfect models of poetical form. The sonnet, +the terza rima and any other form used by Dante are of Provencal origin. +And what is true of Dante and his Beatrice is no less true of Petrarch +and his Laura and of many another who may be sought in histories +specially devoted to this subject. + + + +CHAPTER VIII [109] + + +THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN + +The South of France had been connected with the North of Spain from a +period long antecedent to the first appearance of troubadour poetry. As +early as the Visigoth period, Catalonia had been united to Southern +France; in the case of this province the tie was further strengthened by +community of language. On the western side of the Pyrenees a steady +stream of pilgrims entered the Spanish peninsula on their way to the +shrine of St James of Compostella in Galicia; this road was, indeed, +known in Spain as the "French road." Catalonia was again united with +Provence by the marriage of Raimon Berengar III. with a Provencal +heiress in 1112. As the counts of Barcelona and the kings of Aragon held +possessions in Southern France, communications between the two countries +were naturally frequent. + +We have already had occasion to refer to the visits of various +troubadours to the courts of Spain. The "reconquista," the reconquest of +Spain from the Moors, was in progress during the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, and various crusade poems were written by troubadours [110] +summoning help to the Spaniards in their struggles. Marcabrun was the +author of one of the earliest of these, composed for the benefit of +Alfonso VIII. of Castile and possibly referring to his expedition +against the Moors in 1147, which was undertaken in conjunction with the +kings of Navarre and Aragon. The poem is interesting for its repetition +of the word _lavador_ or piscina, used as an emblem of the crusade in +which the participants would be cleansed of their sins.[32] + + Pax in nomine Domini! + Fetz Marcabrus los motz e.l so. + Aujatz que di: + Cum nos a fait per sa doussor, + Lo Seignorius celestiaus + Probet de nos un lavador + C'ane, fors outramar, no.n' fon taus, + En de lai deves Josaphas: + E d'aquest de sai vos conort. + +"Pax, etc.,---Marcabrun composed the words and the air. Hear what he +says. How, by his goodness, the Lord of Heaven, has made near us a +piscina, such as there never was, except beyond the sea, there by +Josaphat, and for this one near here do I exhort you." + +Alfonso II. of Aragon (1162-1196) was a constant patron of the +troubadours, and himself an exponent of their art. He belonged to the +family of the counts of Barcelona which became in his time one of the [111] +most powerful royal houses in the West of Europe. He was the grandson of +Raimon Berengar III. and united to Barcelona by marriage and diplomacy, +the kingdom of Aragon, Provence and Roussillon. His continual visits to +the French part of his dominions gave every opportunity to the +troubadours to gain his favour: several were continually about him and +there were few who did not praise his liberality. A discordant note is +raised by Bertran de Born, who composed some violent _sirventes_ against +Alfonso; he was actuated by political motives: Alfonso had joined the +King of England in his operations against Raimon V. of Toulouse and +Bertran's other allies and had been present at the capture of Bertran's +castle of Hautefort in 1183. The biography relates that in the course of +the siege, the King of Aragon, who had formerly been in friendly +relations with Bertran, sent a messenger into the fortress asking for +provisions. These Bertran supplied with the request that the king would +secure the removal of the siege engines from a particular piece of wall, +which was on the point of destruction and would keep the information +secret. Alfonso, however, betrayed the message and the fortress was +captured. The _razo_ further relates the touching scene to which we have +already referred when Bertran moved Henry II. to clemency by a reference [112] +to the death of the "young king." The account of Alfonso's supposed +treachery is probably no less unhistorical: the siege lasted only a week +and it is unlikely that the besiegers would have been reduced to want in +so short a time. It was probably invented to explain the hostility on +Bertran's part which dated from the wars between Alfonso and Raimon V. +of Toulouse. This animosity was trumpeted forth in two lampooning +_sirventes_ criticising the public policy and the private life of the +Spanish King. His accusations of meanness and trickery seem to be based +on nothing more reliable than current gossip. + +Peire Vidal, with the majority of the troubadours, shows himself a +vigorous supporter of Alfonso. Referring to this same expedition of 1183 +he asserted "Had I but a speedy horse, the king might sleep in peace at +Balaguer: I would keep Provence and Montpelier in such order that +robbers and freebooters should no longer plunder Venaissin and Crau. +When I have put on my shining cuirass and girded on the sword that Guigo +lately gave me, the earth trembles beneath my feet; no enemy so mighty +who does not forthwith avoid out of my path, so great is their fear of +me when they hear my steps." These boasts in the style of Captain +Matamoros are, of course, not serious: the poet's personal appearance +seems to have been enough to preclude any suppositions of the kind. In [113] +another poem he sings the praises of Sancha, daughter of Alfonso VIII. +of Castile, who married Alfonso II. of Aragon in 1174. With the common +sense in political matters which is so strangely conjoined with the +whimsicality of his actions, he puts his finger upon the weak spot in +Spanish politics when he refers to the disunion between the four kings, +Alfonso II. of Aragon, Alfonso IX. of Leon, Alfonso VIII. of Castile and +Sancho Garces of Navarre: "little honour is due to the four kings of +Spain for that they cannot keep peace with one another; since in other +respects they are of great worth, dexterous, open, courteous and loyal, +so that they should direct their efforts to better purpose and wage war +elsewhere against the people who do not believe our law, until the whole +of Spain professes one and the same faith." + +The Monk of Montaudon, Peire Raimon of Toulouse, Uc de San Circ, Uc +Brunet and other troubadours of less importance also enjoyed Alfonso's +patronage. Guiraut de Bornelh sent a poem to the Catalonian court in +terms which seemed to show that the simple style of poetry was there +preferred to complicated obscurities. The same troubadour was +sufficiently familiar with Alfonso's successor, Pedro II., to take part +in a _tenso_ with him. + +Pedro II. (1196-1213) was no less popular with the troubadours than his [114] +father. Aimeric de Pegulhan, though more closely connected with the +court of Castile, is loud in his praises of Pedro, "the flower of +courtesy, the green leaf of delight, the fruit of noble deeds." Pedro +supported his brother-in-law, Raimon VI. of Toulouse, against the +crusaders and Simon de Montfort during the Albigeois crusade and was +killed near Toulouse in the battle of Muret. The Chanson de la Croisade +does not underestimate the impression made by his death. + + Mot fo grans lo dampnatges e.l dols e.l perdementz + Cant lo reis d'Arago remas mort e sagnens, + E mot d'autres baros, don fo grans l'aunimens + A tot crestianesme et a trastotas gens. + +"Great was the damage and the grief and the loss when the King of Aragon +remained dead and bleeding with many other barons, whence was great +shame to all Christendom and to all people." + +The Court of Castile attracted the attention and the visits of the +troubadours, chiefly during the reign of Alfonso VIII. (or III.; +1158-1214) the hero of Las Navas de Tolosa, the most decisive defeat +which the Arab power in the West had sustained since the days of Charles +Martel. The preceding defeat of Alfonso's forces at Alarcos in 1195 had +called forth a fine crusade _sirventes_ from Folquet of Marseilles +appealing to Christians in general and the King of Aragon in particular [115] +to join forces against the infidels. The death of Alfonso's son, +Fernando, in 1211 from an illness contracted in the course of a campaign +against the infidels was lamented by Guiraut de Calanso, a Gascon +troubadour. + + Lo larc e.l franc, lo valen e.l grazitz, + Don cuiavon qu'en fos esmendatz + Lo jove reys, e.n Richartz lo prezatz + E.l coms Jaufres, tug li trey valen fraire. + +"The generous and frank, the worthy and attractive of whom men thought +that in him were increased the qualities of the young king, of Richard +the high renowned, and of the Count Godfrey, all the three valiant +brothers." Peire Vidal in one of the poems which he addressed to Alfonso +VIII., speaks of the attractions of Spain. "Spain is a good country; its +kings and lords are kindly and loving, generous and noble, of courteous +company; other barons there are, noble and hospitable, men of sense and +knowledge, valiant and renowned." Raimon Vidal of Bezaudun, a Catalonian +troubadour has given a description of Alfonso's court in one of his +_novelas_. "I wish to relate a story which I heard a joglar tell at the +court of the wisest king that ever was, King Alfonso of Castile, where +were presents and gifts, judgment, worth and courtesy, spirit and +chivalry, though he was not anointed or sacred, but crowned with praise, [116] +sense, worth and prowess. The king gathered many knights to his court, +many _joglars_ and rich barons and when the court was filled Queen +Eleanor came in dressed so that no one saw her body. She came wrapped +closely in a cloak of silken fabric fine and fair called sisclaton; it +was red with a border of silver and had a golden lion broidered on it. +She bowed to the king and took her seat on one side at some distance. +Then, behold, a _joglar_ come before the king, frank and debonair, who +said 'King, noble emperor, I have come to you thus and I pray you of +your goodness that my tale may be heard,'" The scene concludes, "Joglar, +I hold the story which you have related as good, amusing and fair and +you also the teller of it and I will order such reward to be given to +you that you shall know that the story has indeed pleased me." + +The crown of Castile was united with that of Leon by Fernando III. +(1230-1262) the son of Alfonso IX. of Leon. Lanfranc Cigala, the +troubadour of Genoa, excuses the Spaniards at this time for their +abstention from the Crusades to Jerusalem on the ground that they were +fully occupied in their struggles with the Moors. Fernando is one of the +kings to whom Sordello refers in the famous _sirventes_ of the divided +heart, as also is Jaime I. of Aragon (1213-1276), the "Conquistador," of +whom much is heard in the poetry of the troubadours. He was born at [117] +Montpelier and was fond of revisiting his birthplace; troubadours whom +he there met accompanied him to Spain, joined in his expeditions and +enjoyed his generosity. His court became a place of refuge for those who +had been driven out of Southern France by the Albigeois crusade; Peire +Cardenal, Bernard Sicart de Marvejols and N'At de Mons of Toulouse +visited him. His popularity with the troubadours was considerably shaken +by his policy in 1242, when a final attempt was made to throw off the +yoke imposed upon Southern France as the result of the Albigeois +crusade. Isabella of Angouleme, the widow of John of England, had +married the Count de la Marche; she urged him to rise against the French +and induced her son, Henry III. of England, to support him. Henry hoped +to regain his hold of Poitou and was further informed that the Count of +Toulouse and the Spanish kings would join the alliance. There seems to +have been a general belief that Jaime would take the opportunity of +avenging his father's death at Muret. However, no Spanish help was +forthcoming; the allies were defeated at Saintes and at Taillebourg and +this abortive rising ended in 1243. Guillem de Montanhagol says in a +_sirventes_ upon this event, "If King Jaime, with whom we have never +broken faith, had kept the agreement which is said to have been made [118] +between him and us, the French would certainly have had cause to grieve +and lament." Bernard de Rovenhac shows greater bitterness: "the king of +Aragon is undoubtedly well named Jacme (jac from jazer, to lie down) for +he is too fond of lying down and when anyone despoils him of his land, +he is so feeble that he does not offer the least opposition." Bernard +Sicart de Marvejols voices the grief of his class at the failure of the +rising: "In the day I am full of wrath and in the night I sigh betwixt +sleeping and waking; wherever I turn, I hear the courteous people crying +humbly 'Sire' to the French." These outbursts do not seem to have roused +Jaime to any great animosity against the troubadour class. Aimeric de +Belenoi belauds him, Peire Cardenal is said to have enjoyed his favour, +and other minor troubadours refer to him in flattering terms. + +The greatest Spanish patron of the troubadours was undoubtedly Alfonso +X. of Castile (1254-1284). El Sabio earned his title by reason of his +enlightened interest in matters intellectual; he was himself a poet, +procured the translation of many scientific books and provided Castile +with a famous code of laws. The Italian troubadours Bonifaci Calvo and +Bartolomeo Zorzi were welcomed to his court, to which many others came +from Provence. One of his favourites was the troubadour who was the last [119] +representative of the old school, Guiraut Riquier of Narbonne. He was +born between 1230 and 1235, when the Albigeois crusade was practically +over and when troubadour poetry was dying, as much from its own inherent +lack of vitality as from the change of social and political environment +which the upheaval of the previous twenty years had produced. Guiraut +Riquier applied to a Northern patron for protection, a proceeding +unexampled in troubadour history and the patron he selected was the King +of France himself. Neither Saint Louis nor his wife were in the least +likely to provide a market for Guiraut's wares and the Paris of that day +was by no means a centre of literary culture. The troubadour, therefore, +tried his fortune with Alfonso X. whose liberality had become almost +proverbial. There he seems to have remained for some years and to have +been well content, in spite of occasional friction with other suitors +for the king's favour. His description of Catalonia is interesting. + + Pus astres no m'es donatz + Que de mi dons bes m'eschaia, + Ni nulho nos plazers no.l platz, + Ni ay poder que.m n'estraia, + Ops m'es qu'ieu sia fondatz + En via d'amor veraia, + E puesc n'apenre assatz + + En Cataluenha la gaia, [120] + Entrels Catalas valens + E las donas avinens. + + Quar dompneys, pretz e valors, + Joys e gratz e cortesia, + Sens e sabers et honors, + Bels parlars, bella paria, + E largueza et amors, + Conoyssensa e cundia, + Troban manten e socors + + En Cataluenha a tria, + Entrels, etc. + +"Since my star has not granted me that from my lady happiness should +fall to me, since no pleasure that I can give pleases her and I have no +power to forget her, I must needs enter upon the road of true love and I +can learn it well enough in gay Catalonia among the Catalonians, men of +worth, and their kindly ladies. For courtesy, worth, joy, gratitude and +gallantry, sense, knowledge, honour, fair speech, fair company, +liberality and love, learning and grace find maintenance and support in +Catalonia entirely." + +Between thirty and forty poets of Spanish extraction are known to have +written Provencal poetry. Guillem de Tudela of Navarre wrote the first +part of the _Chanson de la Croisade albigeoise_; Serveri de Gerona wrote +didactic and devotional poetry, showing at least ingenuity of technique; +Amanieu des Escas has left love letters and didactic works for the [121] +instruction of young people in the rules of polite behaviour. But the +influence of Provencal upon the native poetry of Spain proper was but +small, in spite of the welcome which the troubadours found at the courts +of Castile, Aragon, Leon and Navarre. Troubadour poetry required a +peaceful and an aristocratic environment, and the former at least of +these conditions was not provided by the later years of Alfonso X. +Northern French influence was also strong: numerous French immigrants +were able to settle in towns newly founded or taken from the Moors. The +warlike and adventurous spirit of Northern and Central Spain preferred +epic to lyric poetry: and the outcome was the _cantar de gesta_ and the +_romance_, the lyrico-narrative or ballad poem. + +This was not the course of development followed either in the Eastern or +Western coasts of the peninsula. Catalonia was as much a part of the +Provencal district as of Spain. To the end of the thirteenth century +Catalonian poets continued to write in the language of the troubadours, +often breaking the strict rules of rime correspondence and of grammar, +but refusing to use their native dialect. Religious poems of popular and +native origin appear to have existed, but even the growth of a native +prose was unable to overcome the preference for Provencal in the [122] +composition of lyrics. Guiraut de Cabreira is remembered for the 213 +lines which he wrote to instruct his _joglar_ Cabra; Guiraut upbraids +this performer for his ignorance, and details a long series of legends +and poems which a competent _joglar_ ought to know. Guiraut de Calanso +wrote an imitation of this diatribe. The best known of the Catalonian +troubadours is Raimon Vidal of Besadun, both for his _novelas_ and also +for his work on Provencal grammar and metre, _Las rasos de trobar_,[33] +which was written for the benefit of his compatriots who desired to +avoid solecisms or mistakes when composing. "For as much as I, Raimon +Vidal, have seen and known that few men know or have known the right +manner of composing poetry (trobar) I desire to make this book that men +may know and understand which of the troubadours have composed best and +given the best instruction to those who wish to learn how they should +follow the right manner of composing.... All Christian people, Jews, +Saracens, emperors, princes, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, vavassors +and all other nobles with clergy, citizens and villeins, small and +great, daily give their minds to composing and singing.... In this +science of composing the troubadours are gone astray and I will tell you +wherefore. The hearers who do not understand anything when they hear a +fine poem will pretend that they understand perfectly... because they [123] +think that men would consider it a fault in them if they said that they +did not understand.... And if when they hear a bad troubadour, they do +understand, they will praise his singing because they understand it; or +if they will not praise, at least they will not blame him; and thus the +troubadours are deceived and the hearers are to blame for it." Raimon +Vidal proceeds to say that the pure language is that of Provence or of +Limousin or of Saintonge or Auvergne or Quercy: "wherefore I tell you, +that when I use the term Limousin, I mean all those lands and those +which border them or are between them." He was apparently the first to +use the term Limousin to describe classical Provencal, and when it +became applied to literary Catalonian, as distinguished from _pla +Catala_, the vulgar tongue, the result was some confusion. Provencal +influence was more permanent in Catalonia than in any other part of +Spain; in 1393, the Consistorium of the _Gay saber_ was founded in +imitation of the similar association at Toulouse. Most of the troubadour +poetical forms and the doctrines of the Toulouse _Leys d'Amors_ were +retained, until Italian influence began to oust Provencal towards the +close of the fifteenth century. + +On the western side of Spain, Provencal influence evoked a brief and +brilliant literature in the Galician or Portuguese school. Its most [124] +brilliant period was the age of Alfonso X. of Castile, one of its most +illustrious exponents, and that of Denis of Portugal (1280-1325). The +dates generally accepted for the duration of this literature are +1200-1385; it has left to us some 2000 lyric poems, the work of more +than 150 poets, including four kings and a number of nobles of high +rank. French and Provencal culture had made its way gradually and by +various routes to the western side of the Spanish peninsula. + +We have already referred to the pilgrim route to the shrine of +Compostella, by which a steady stream of foreign influence entered the +country. The same effect was produced by crusaders who came to help the +Spaniards in their struggle against the Moors, and by foreign colonists +who helped to Christianise the territories conquered from the +Mohammedans. The capture of Lisbon in 1147 increased maritime +intercourse with the North. Individuals from Portugal also visited +Northern and Southern France, after the example of their Spanish +neighbours. References to Portugal in the poetry of the troubadours are +very scarce, nor is there any definite evidence that any troubadour +visited the country. This fact is in striking contrast with the loud +praises of the Spanish courts. None the less, such visits must have +taken place: Sancho I. had French _jongleurs_ in his pay during [125] +the twelfth century and the Portuguese element in the five-language +_descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras shows that communication between +Provencal poets and Portuguese or Galician districts must have existed. +The general silence of the troubadours may be due to the fact that +communication began at a comparatively late period and was maintained +between Portugal and Spanish courts, and not directly between Portugal +and Southern France. + +Alfonso X. of Castile himself wrote many poems in the Galician or +Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons analogous +to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in +Provencal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form +and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to +an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is +preserved with the accompanying ideas of _amour courtois_, and the lyric +forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provencal manner +took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the +ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric +poetry which was remodelled under Provencal influence. The most popular +of the types thus developed were _Cantigas de amor e de amigo_ and +_Cantigas de_ _escarnho e de maldizer_; the former were love +songs: when the poet speaks the song was one _de amor_; when the lady +speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provencal usage) the song was +_de amigo_. This latter is a type developed independently by the +Portuguese school. _Cantigas de escarnho_ correspond in intention [126] +to the Provencal _sirventes_; if their satire was open and unrestrained +they were _cantigas de maldizer_. They dealt for the most part with +trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy +upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in +taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about +1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty +years. + + + +CHAPTER IX [127] + + +PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND + +Provencal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the +minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically +with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school, +flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the +Rhine school. In the latter case, Provencal influence is not disputed; +but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it, +has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that +the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of +Provencal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry +in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of +development before Provencal influence affected it. Austria undoubtedly +came into touch with this influence at an early date. The Danube valley +was a high road for the armies of crusaders; another route led from +Northern Italy to Vienna, by which Peire Vidal probably found his way to +Hungary. At the same time, though Provencal influence was strong, the [128] +Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or +translation of troubadour productions. Dietmar von Aist, one of the +earliest minnesingers, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth +century has, for instance, the Provencal _alba_ theme. Two lovers part +at daybreak, when awakened by a bird on the linden: if the theme is +Provencal, the simplicity of the poet's treatment is extremely fresh and +natural. This difference is further apparent in the attitude of +minnesingers and troubadours towards the conception of "love." The +minnesong is the literary expression of the social convention known as +"Frauendienst," the term "minne" connoting the code which prescribed the +nature of the relation existing between the lover and his lady; the +dominant principle was a reverence for womanhood as such, and in this +respect the German minnesang is inspired by a less selfish spirit than +the Provencal troubadour poetry. Typical of the difference is Walter von +der Vogelweide's-- + + Swer guotes wibes minne hat, + der schamt sich aller missetat. + +("He who has a good woman's love is ashamed of every ill deed"), +compared with Bernart de Ventadour's-- + + Non es meravilha s'ieu chan [129] + Melhs de nul autre chantador + Car plus trai mos cors ves Amor + E melhs sui faitz a son coman. + +("It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart +draws nearer to love and I am better made for love's command.") The +troubadour _amor_, especially in its Italian development, eventually +attained the moral power of the _minne_; but in its early stages, it was +a personal and selfish influence. The stanza form and rime distribution +of the minnesinger poems continually betray Provencal influence: the +principle of tripartition is constantly followed and the arrangement of +rimes is often a repetition of that adopted in troubadour stanzas. +Friedrich von Hausen, the Count Rudolf von Fenis, Heinrich von Morungen +and others sometimes translate almost literally from troubadour poetry, +though these imitations do not justify the lines of Uhland. + + In den Thaelern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen, + Kind des Fruehlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen. + +Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous +lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and +"chansons de toile." Provencal influence here was inevitable. It is +apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel [130] +Provencal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact +that Provencal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics. +Provencal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by +means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by +intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provencal +influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of +Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter, +Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal +code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the _De +arte honeste amandi_ of Andre le Chapelain, written at the outset of the +thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and +Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly +love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chretien de Troyes. + +The Provencal school in Northern France began during the latter half of +the twelfth century. The _chanson_ properly so called is naturally most +strongly represented: but the Provencal forms, the _tencon_ (Prov. +_tenso_) and a variant of it, the _jeu-parti_ (Prov. _jocs partitz_ or +_partimens_) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called, +because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his +interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that [131] +he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the +contestants often left the decision in an _envoi_ to one or more +arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of +these _envois_ gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love," +as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest +representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he +took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace +Brule and the Chatelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to +the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre +(1201-1253), shared in the Albigeois crusade and thus helped in the +destruction of the poetry which he imitated. One of the poems attributed +to him by Dante (_De Vulg. El._) belongs to Gace Brule; his love affair +with Blanche of Castile is probably legendary. Several crusade songs are +attributed to Thibaut among some thirty poems of the kind that remain to +us from the output of this school. These crusade poems exhibit the +characteristics of their Provencal models: there are exhortations to +take the cross in the form of versified sermons; there are also love +poems which depict the poet's mind divided between his duty as a +crusader and his reluctance to leave his lady; or we find the lady [132] +bewailing her lover's departure, or again, lady and lover lament their +approaching separation in alternate stanzas. There is more real feeling +in some of these poems than is apparent in the ordinary chanson of the +Northern French courtly school: the following stanzas are from a poem by +Guiot de Dijon,[34] the lament of a lady for her absent lover-- + + Chanterai por mon corage + Que je vueill reconforter + Car avec mon grant damage + Ne quier morir n'afoler, + Quant de la terra sauvage + Ne voi nului retorner + Ou cil est qui m'assoage + Le cuer, quant j'en oi parler + Dex, quant crieront outree, + Sire, aidies au pelerin + Por cui sui espoentee, + Car felon sunt Sarrazin. + + De ce sui bone atente + Que je son homage pris, + E quant la douce ore vente + Qui vient de cel douz pais + Ou cil est qui m'atalente, + Volontiers i tor mon vis: + Adont m'est vis que jel sente + Par desoz mon mantel gris. + Dex, etc. + +"I will sing for my heart which I will comfort, for in spite of my great +loss I do not wish to die, and yet I see no one return from the wild [133] +land where he is who calms my heart when I hear mention of him. God! +when they cry Outre (a pilgrim marching cry), Lord help the pilgrim for +whom I tremble, for wicked are the Saracens. + +"From this fact have I confidence, that I have received his vows and +when the gentle breeze blows which comes from the sweet country where he +is whom I desire, readily do I turn my face thither: then I think I feel +him beneath my grey mantle." + +The idea in the second stanza quoted is borrowed from Bernard de +Ventadour-- + + Quant la douss' aura venta + Deves vostre pais. + Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta + Un ven de Paradis. + +The greater part of this poetry repeats, in another language, the +well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory +references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of +ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from +his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form +and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and +occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that +school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated +emotion and appealed only to a restricted class of the initiated. +Changes in the constitution and customs of society brought this school [134] +to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of +lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache +Deschamps. + +Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject +has hitherto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as +much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was +Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard +followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What +truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his +motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis +emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno +Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo +canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in +orbe." The manuscripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one +referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I. +(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his +imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a +Provencal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's +discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.[35] + +From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant [135] +communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number +of Provencals visited England at different times and especially in the +reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de +Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided +for the entry of Provencal influence during the period when a general +stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman +French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of +that age and it was not until the second half of the thirteenth century +that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provencal +influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry. +But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was +similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas, +Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in +imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte +joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes +effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also +political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly +called _sirventes_, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum, +Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the [136] +principles of the _tenso_ or _partimen_. The use of equivocal and +"derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the +following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in +the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provencal +_trobairitz_; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure +coincidence.[36] + + En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt + E reverdist la matinee + E sil oysel chauntent a poynt + En temps d'avril en la ramee, + Lores est ma dolur dublee + Que jeo sui en si dure poynt + Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt, + Tant me greve la destinee. + + Murnes et pensif m'en depart, + Que trop me greve la partie; + Si n'en puis aler cele part, + Que ele n'eyt a sa partie + Mon quor tot enter saunz partie. + E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part, + E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part + A moi est dure la partie. + +"In the season when the grass springs and the morn is green and the +birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief +doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy +is my fate upon me. + +"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet [137] +I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and +undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of +hers, the division is a hard one to me." + +This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These +lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as +an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples +of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrain of +distinctly popular origin is added to a stanza of courtly and artificial +character. Generally, however, there is a freshness and vigour in these +poems which may be vainly sought in the products of continental +decadence. But Provencal influence, whether exerted directly or +indirectly through the Northern French lyric school, is plainly visible +in many cases. Of the lyrics found in the important MS. Harleian +2253,[37] "Alysoun" has the same rime scheme as a poem by Gaucelm +Faidit: it opens with the conventional appeal to spring; the poet's +feelings deprive him of sleep. The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a +rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut +d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many +troubadour formulae: the concluding lines-- + + He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze, [138] + pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze, + heuene he hevede here. + +are a troubadour commonplace. Many other cases might be quoted. Hymns +and songs to the Virgin exhibit the same characteristics of form. The +few Provencal words which became English are interesting;[38] colander +or cullender (now a vegetable strainer; Prov. colador), funnel, +puncheon, rack, spigot, league, noose are directly derived from +Provencal and not through Northern French and are words connected with +shipping and the wine trade, the port for which was Bordeaux. + + +In the year 1323 a society was formed in Toulouse of seven troubadours, +the "sobregaya companhia," for the purpose of preserving and encouraging +lyric poetry (lo gay saber). The middle class of Toulouse seems at all +times to have felt an interest in poetry and had already produced such +well-known troubadours as Aimeric de Pegulhan, Peire Vidal and Guillem +Figueira. The society offered an annual prize of a golden violet for the +best _chanso_; other prizes were added at a later date for the best +dance song and the best _sirventes_. Competitors found that songs to the +Virgin were given the preference and she eventually became the one +subject of these prize competitions. The society produced a grammatical [139] +work, the Leys d'Amors, under the name of its president, Guillem +Molinier, in 1356,[39] no doubt for the reference and instruction of +intending competitors. The competition produced a few admirable poems, +but anxiety to preserve the old troubadour style resulted generally in +dry and stilted compositions. The _Academie des jeux floraux_[40] +altered the character of the competition by admitting French poems after +1694. At the end of the sixteenth century, Provencal poetry underwent a +revival; in our own time, poets such as Jasmin, Aubanel, Roumanille and +above all, Mistral, have raised their language from a patois to a +literary power. The work of the felibres has been to synthetise the best +elements of the various local dialects and to create a literary language +by a process not wholly dissimilar to that described at the outset of +this book. But the old troubadour spirit had died long before; it had +accomplished its share in the history of European literature and had +given an impulse to the development of lyric poetry, the effects of +which are perceptible even at the present day. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES + + +LITERARY HISTORY + +F. Diez, _Leben und Werke der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., re-edited by K. +Bartsch, Leipsic, 1882. _Die Poesie der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., +re-edited by K. Bartsch, Leipsic, 1883. + +K. Bartsch, _Grundriss zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur_, +Elberfeld, 1872. A new edition of this indispensable work is in +preparation by Prof. A. Pillet of Breslau. The first part of the book +contains a sketch of Provencal literature, and a list of manuscripts. +The second part gives a list of the troubadours in alphabetical order, +with the lyric poems attributed to each troubadour. The first line of +each poem is quoted and followed by a list of the MSS. in which it is +found. Modern editors have generally agreed to follow these lists in +referring to troubadour lyrics: e.g. B. Gr., 202, 4 refers to the fourth +lyric (in alphabetical order) of Guillem Ademar, who is no. 202 in +Bartsch's list. + +A list of corrections to this list is given by Groeber in Boehmer's +_Romanische Studien_, vol. ii. 1875-77, Strassburg. In vol. ix. of the +same is Groebers' study of troubadour MSS. and the relations between +them. + +A. Stimming, _Provenzaliscke Literatur in Groeber's Grundriss der +Romanischen Philologie_, Strassburg, 1888, vol. ii. part ii. contains +useful bibliographical notices. + +A. Restori, _Letteratura provenzale_, Milan, 1891 (_Manuali Hoepli_), an +excellent little work. + +A. Jeanroy, _Les origines de la poesie lyrique en France_, 2nd edit., +Paris, 1904. + +J. Anglade, _Les troubadours_, Paris, 1908, an excellent and trustworthy +work, in popular style, with a good bibliography. + +J. H. Smith, _The troubadours at Home_, 2 vols., New York, 1899; +popularises scientific knowledge by impressions of travel in Southern +France, photographs, and historical imagination: generally stimulating +and suggestive, Most histories of French literature devote some space to +Provencal; e.g. Suchier & Birch-Hirschfeld, _Geschichte der +franzoesischen Litteratur_, Leipsic, 1900. The works of Millot and +Fauriel are now somewhat antiquated. _Trobador Poets_, Barbara Smythe, +London, 1911, contains an introduction and translations from various +troubadours. + + + +DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS + +F. Raynouard, _Lexique roman_, 6 vols., Paris, 1838-1844, +supplemented by. + +E. Levy, _Provenzalisches supplement-Woerterbuch_, Leipsic, 1894, not +yet completed, but indispensable. + +E. Levy, _Petit dictionnaire provencal-francais_, Heidelberg, 1908. + +J. B. Roquefort, _Glossaire de la langue romane_, 3 vols., Paris, 1820. + +W. Meyer-Luebke, _Grammaire des langues romanes_, French translation of +the German, Paris, 1905. + +C. H. Grandgent, _An outline of the phonology and morphology of old +Provencal_, Boston, 1905. + +H. Suchier, _Die franzoesiche und provenzalische Sprache_ in Groeber's +_Grundriss_. A French translation, _Le Francais et le Provencal_, Paris, +1891. + + + +TEXTS + +The following chrestomathies contain tables of grammatical forms (except +in the case of Bartsch) texts and vocabularies. + +_Altprovenzalisches Elementarbuch_, O. Schultz-Gora, Heidelberg, 1906, +an excellent work for beginners. + +_Provenzalische Chrestomathie_, C. Appel, Leipsic, 1907, 3rd edit. + +_Manualetto provenzale_, V. Crescini, Padua, 1905, 2nd edit. + +_Chrestomathie provencal_, K. Bartsch, re-edited by Koschwitz, Marburg, +1904. + +The following editions of individual troubadours have been published. + +Alegret. _Annales du Midi_, no. 74. + +Arnaut Daniel. U. A. Canello, Halle, 1883. + +Bernart de Rovenac. G. Borsdorff, Erlangen, 1907. + +Bartolomeo Zorzi. E. Levy, Halle, 1883. + +Bertran d'Alamanon. J. Salverda de Grave, Toulouse, 1902 (_Bibliotheque +Meridionale_). + +Bertran de Born. A. Thomas, Toulouse, 1888 (_Bibliotheque Meridionale_). + +Bertran de Born. A. Stimming, Halle, 1892 (and in the _Romanischz +Bibliothek_, Leipsic). + +Blacatz. O. Soltau, Leipsic, 1890. + +Cercamon. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1905 (_Annales du Midi_, vol. xvii.). + +Elias de Barjols. Stronski, Paris, 1906 (_Bibliotheque Meridionale_ +vi.). + +Folquet de Marselha. Stronski, Cracow, 1911. + +Folquet de Romans. Zenker (_Romanische Bibliothek_). + +Gavaudan. A. Jeanroy, _Romania_, xxxiv., p. 497. + +Guillaume IX. Comte de Poitiers. A. Jeanroy, Toulouse, 1905. + +Guillem Anelier de Toulouse. M. Gisi, Solothurn, 1877. + +Guillem de Cabestanh. F. Hueffer, Berlin, 1869. + +Guillem Figueira. E. Levy, Berlin, 1880. + +Guillem de Montanhagol. J. Coulet, _Bibliotheque Meridionale_, iv., +Toulouse. + +Guiraut de Bornelh. A. Kolsen, Berlin, 1894 and 1911. + +Guiraut d'Espanha. P. Savi-Lopez. _Studj mediaevali_, Fasc. 3, Turin, +1905. + +Guiraut Riquier, Etude sur, etc. J. Anglade, Paris, 1905. + +Jaufre Rudel. A Stimming, Kiel, 1873. + +Marcabrun. Dr Dejeanne. _Bibliotheque Meridionale_, 1910. + +Marcoat. Dr Dejeanne, Toulouse, 1903 (_Annales du Midi_, xv.). + +Monk of Montaudon. E. Philippson, Halle, 1873; O. Klein, Marburg, 1885. + +N' At de Mons. Bernhard. _Altfranzoesische Bibliothek, Heilbronn_. + +Paulet de Marselha. E. Levy, Paris, 1882. + +Peire d'Alvernhe (d'Auvergne). R. Zenker, Rostock, 1900. + +Peire Vidal. K. Bartsch, Berlin, 1857 (an edition by J. Anglade is about +to appear). + +Peire Rogier. C. Appel, Berlin, 1892. + +Perdigon. H.J. Chaytor, _Annales du Midi_, xxi. + +Pons de Capdoill. M. Napolski, Halle, 1879. + +Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. O. Schultz, Halle, 1893. + +Raimon de Miraval, Etude sur, etc. P. Andraud, Paris, 1902. + +Sordel. De Lollis, Halle, 1896 (_Romanische Bibliothek_). + +Numerous separate pieces have been published in the various periodicals +concerned with Romance philology, as also have diplomatic copies of +several MSS. Of these periodicals, the most important for Provencal are +_Romania, les Annales du Midi, Zeitschrift der Romanischen Philologie, +Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen, Romanische Studien, Studj +di filologia romanza, Revue des langues romanes_. Mahn's _Gedichte der +Troubadours_, 4 vols., Berlin, 1856-71, contains diplomatic copies of +MSS.; his _Werke der Troubadours_, Berlin, 1846-55, contains reprints +from Raynouard, _Choix des poesies originales des Troubadours_, Paris, +1816. Suchier, _Denkmaeler provenzalischer Sprache_, Halle, 1883; Appel, +_Provenzalische Inedita_, Leipsic, 1890; Chabaneau, _Poesies inedites +des Troubadours du Perigord_, Paris, 1885; P. Meyer, _Les derniers +troubadours de Provence_, Paris, 1871, should be mentioned. Most of the +pieces in the _Parnasse Occitanien_, Toulouse, 1819, are to be found +better edited elsewhere. Other pieces are to be found in various +_Festschriften_ and occasional or private publications, too numerous to +be detailed here. C. Chabaneau, _Les biographies des Troubadours_, +Toulouse, 1885 (part of the _Histoire generale de Languedoc_) is full of +valuable information. The biographies have been translated by I. +Farnell, _Lives of the Troubadours_, London, 1896. + + + +NOTES + + +CHAPTER I + +1. See maps at the end of Groeber's _Grundriss_, vol. i. + +2. _De Vulg. El._ I., 8: alii oc, alii oil, alii si affirmando +loquuntur, and _Vita Nuova_, xxv. Dante also knew the term provincialis. + +3. Boethius. F. Huendgen, Oppeln, 1884. For Sainte Foy d'Agen, see +_Romania_ xxxi., p, 177 ff. + +4. P. Meyer in _Romania_ v., p. 257. Bedier, _Les chansons de Croisade_, +Paris, 1909, p. 16. + +5. See P. Maus, _Peire Cardenals Strophenbau_, Marburg, 1884. + +6. See Jeanroy, Origines, etc. + + +CHAPTER II + +7. Provencal has also the feminine _joia_ with the general meaning of +"delight." + +8. See Stimming's article in Groeber's _Grundriss_. + +9. Raynouard, _Les Troubadours et les Cours d'Amour_, Paris, 1817; see +also Diez, _Ueber die Minnehoefe_, Berlin, 1825. Pio Rajna, _Le Corti +d'Amore_, Milan, 1890. + +10. _Annales du Midi_, xix. p. 364. + +11. _Die provenzalische Tenzone_, R. Zenker, Leipsic, 1888. + + +CHAPTER III + +12. Girart de Roussillon, translation by P. Meyer, Paris, 1884: see also +_Romania_, vii. Diplomatic copies of the MSS. in _Romanische Studien_ V. +_Le Roman de Flamenca_, P. Meyer, Paris, 1901. + +13. J. B. Beck, _Die Melodien der Troubadours_, Strasburg, 1908. _La +Musique des Troubadours_, Paris, 1910, by the same author, who there +promised a selection of songs harmonized for performance: this has not +yet appeared. See also _Quatre poesies de Marcabrun_, Jeanroy, Dejeanne +and Aubry, Paris, 1904, with texts, music, and translations. + +14. Schindler, _Die Kreuzzuege in der altprovenzalischen und +mittelhochdeutschen lyrik._, Dresden, 1889. K. Lewent, _Das +altprovenzalische Kreuzlied_, Berlin, 1905. + +15. A. Pillet, _Studien zur Pastourelle_, Breslau, 1902. Roemer, _Die +volkstuemlichen Dichtungsarten der altprovenzalischen Lyrik_, Marburg, +1884. + +16. _Quae judicia de litteris fecerint Provinciales_. P. Andraud, Paris, +1902. + +17. From _Si'm sentis fizels amics_, quoted by Dante, _De Vulg. El._ i. 9. + + +CHAPTER IV + +18. "Paubre motz"; also interpreted as "scanty words," i.e. poems with +short lines. On Jaufre Rudel in literature, see a lecture by Carducci, +Bologna 1888. The latest theory of his mysterious love is that she was +the Virgin Mary; see C. Appel, _Archiv fuer das Studium der neueren +Sprachen_, cvii. 3-4. + +19. Mahn, _Gedichte_, no. 707. An edition of Bernard de Ventadour's +poems is in preparation by Prof. Appel. + +20. _Cp._ Dante, _Par._ xx. 73. + + +CHAPTER V + +21. Dante, _De Vulg. El._ ii. 2. + +22. "Il Provenzale," _Conv._ iv. 11. + +23. _Purg._ xxvi. + +24. On his family see Stronski, _Folquet de Marseille_, p. 15 and +159-172. + +25. See G. Paris, _La Litterature francaise au moyen age_, Sec. 128. + + +CHAPTER VI + +26. The best short account of the Albigenses is to be found in vol. i. +of H.C. Lea's _Histoire de L'Inquisition au moyen age_, Paris, 1903. +This, the French translation, is superior to the English edition as it +contains the author's last corrections, and a number of bibliographical +notes. The Adoptionist theory is stated in the introduction to F.C. +Conybeare's _Key of Truth_, Oxford, 1908. The _Chanson de la Croisade +Albigeoise_, P. Meyer, Paris, 1875, 2 vols., is indispensable to +students of the subject. In these works will be found much of the +extensive bibliography of the heresy and crusade. + +27. Eckbertus, _Serm. adv. Catharos, Migne, Patr. Lat._, tom. 193. p. +73. + +28. _Cf._ Milman, _Latin Christianity_, Book IX. chap. viii. p. 85. + +29. On religious lyric poetry, see Lowinsky, _Zeitschrift fuer +franzoesische Sprache und Litteratur_, xx. p. 163 ff., and the +bibliographical note to Stimming's article in Groeber's _Grundriss_, vol. +ii. part ii. Sec. 32. + + +CHAPTER VII + +Most histories of Italian literature deal with this subject. See +Gaspary's _Italian Literature to the death of Dante_: H. Oelsner, Bohn's +Libraries. See also the chapter, _La poesie francaise en Italie_ in +Jeanroy's _Origines_. For Dante, see _Storia letteraria d'Italia, +scritta di una societa di professori_, Milan, vol. iii., Dante, by +Zingarelli. _The Troubadours of Dante_, Chaytor, Oxford, 1902. Useful +are A. Thomas, _Francesco da Barberino et la litterature provencale en +Italie au moyen age_, Paris, 1883. O. Schultz, _Die Lebensverhaeltnisse +der Italienischen Trobadors_, Berlin, 1883. + +30. Schultz, _Die Briefe des Trobadors Raimbaut de Vaqueiras an Bonifaz +I._, Halle, 1883. + +31. Zingarelli, _Intorno a due Trovatori in Italia_, Florence, 1899. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Mila y Fontanals, _Los trovadores en Espana_, Barcelona, 1861, remains +the best work on the subject. On Portugal, the article in Groeber's +_Grundriss_, ii. 2, p. 129, by C. Michaelis de Vasconcellos and Th. +Braga is admirable: see the bibliographical references there given and +the introduction to R. Lang, _Das Liederbuch des Koenigs Denis von +Portugal_, Halle, 1894. + +32. The date of this poem is disputed, see Dr Dejeanne's edition of +Marcabrun, p. 235. + +33. F. Guessard, _Grammaires Provencales_, Paris, 1858; E. Stengel, _Die +beiden aeltesten prov. Gram._, Marburg, 1878. + + +CHAPTER IX + +Troubadour influence in Germany is discussed at greater or less length +in most histories of German literature. See Jeanroy, _Origines_, p. 270 +ff. A. Luederitz, _Die Liebestheorien der Provenzalen bei den +Minnesingern der Slauferzeit_, Literarhistorische Forschungen, Berlin, +1904. + +For France. A. Jeanroy, _De nostratibus medii aevi poetis qui primum +Aquitaniae carmina imitati sint_, Paris, 1889. + +For England. Schofield, _English Literature from the Norman Conquest to +Chaucer_, London, 1906. O. Heider, _Untersuchungen zur mittelenglischen +erotischen Lyrik_, Halle, 1905. A. Brandl, _Spielmann's verhaeltnisse in +fruehmittelenglischer Zeit_, Sitzungs-berichte der Koenigl. preuss., +Akademie, 1910. + +34. Bedier, _Chansons de Croisade_, Paris, 1909, p. 112. + +35. See introduction to Leo Wiese, _Die Lieder des Blondel de Nesle_, +Dresden, 1904, p. 19 ff. + +36. _Romania_, viii. p. 370. + +37. K. Boeddeker, _Altenglische Dichtungen des MS. Harl._ 2253, Berlin, +1878. + +38. Modern Language Review, vol. 1. p. 285; vol. ii. p. 60, articles by +Prof. Skeat. + +39. P. Leinig, _Grammatik der provenzalischen Leys d'amors verglichen +mit der Sprache der Troubadours_, Breslau, 1890. M. Gatien. Arnoult, +_Monuments de la litterature romane_, Toulouse, 1841. + +40. _Histoire critique de l'Academie des Jeux Floraux_, by F. de Gelis +from the origin to the 17th century will appear shortly in the +Bibliotheque meridionale, Toulouse. Useful anthologies of modern +Provencal are _Flourilege prouvencau_, Toulon, 1909: _Antologia +provenzale_, E Portal, Milan, Hoepli, 1911 (Manuali Hoepli). + + + +INDEX. + + Alamanon, Bertran d', 104 + _Alba_, 33, 128 + Albigeois, 13, 23, 75, ff. + Alcuin, 7 + Alfonso II. of Aragon, 51, 59, 69, 74, 110, 113 + Alfonso VIII. of Castile, 110, 113, 114 + Alfonso X. of Castile, 118, 124 + Andre le Chapelain, 19, 130 + Aquino, Rinaldo d', 82 + Aquitaine, 42 + Arabs, 8, 105 + Aragon, 54, 71, 110 + ---- Pedro II. of, 78, 83, 113 + Arles, 5 + Aurenga, Raimbaut d', 35, 85, 64 + Auvergne, 3 + ---- Dauphin of, 134 + ---- Peire d', 36, 67, 70, 135 + Azalais, 71, 79 + + + _Ballata_, 33 + Barral, 71, 79 + Belenoi, Aimeric de, 118 + Bethune, Conon de, 131 + Bezaudun, Raimon Vidal of, 115, 122 + Beziers, 50, 78 + Blacatz, 103 + Born, Bertran de, 13, 57, 111, 130 + Bornelh, Giraut de, 23, 35, 37, 53, 68, 86, 113 + Brunei, Uc, 113 + + + Cabestanh, Guillem de, 73 + Cabreira, Guiraut de, 122 + Caen, Raoul de, 6 + Cairel, Elias, 12 + Calanso, Guiraut de, 115, 122 + Calha, Albertet, 12 + Calvo, Bonifacio, 100, 118 + Carcassonne, 78 + Cardenal, Peire, 11, 82, 84, 92, 117, 118 + Castile, 54, 71 + ---- Sancho III. of, 67 + Catalonia, 3, 5, 71, 109, 121 ff. + Cercamon, 9, 42 + Chabaneau, 20 + _Chanso_, 23 + Cigala, Lanfranc, 39, 100, 116 + Circ, Uc de San, 100, 113 + Corbiac, Peire de, 93 + _Comjat_, 23 + Compostella, 109, 124 + Courts of Love, 19 + Cunizza, 101 + + + Daniel, Arnaut, 55 + Dante, 24, 53, 55, 57, 63, 104, 108, 131 + Denis, 124 + _Descort_, 33, 97 + Die, Countess of, 11, 65 + Dietmar von Aist, 128 + Dominic, 77, 80 + + + Ebles II., 46 + Eleanor of Aquitaine, 42, 46, 59, 130 + Escas Amanieu des, 121 + _Escondig_, 33 + Estampida, 33 + Este, 95 + Ezzelino III., 101 + + + Faidit, Gaucelm, 99, 135 + Ferdinand III. of Castile, 104, 116 + Figueira, Guillem, 82, 138 + Flamenca, 23 + Florence, 100 + Frederick II. of Sicily, 88, 105 + Friedrich von Hausen, 129 + + + Galicia, 123 + _Gasson_, 3, 9, 115 + Genoa, 78, 100 + Gerona, Serveri de, 120 + Guido delle Colonne, 106, 107 + Guido Guinicelli, 106 + Guiot de Dijon, 132 + + + Hautefort, 60, 111 + Henry II. of England, 47, 59, 63 + Henry III. of England, 104, 117 + + + Innocent III., 76, 77 + Inquisition, 80 + Isabella of Angouleme, 117 + + + Jaime I. of Aragon, 85 + Jaufre, Roman de, 23 + + + Languedoc, 3 + Lemosin, 5 + Lentino, Jacopo da, 82 + Leys d'Amors, 16, 23, 33, 138 + Limousin, 3, 4, 8, 123 + Louis VII. of France, 60, 69 + Louis VIII. of France, 89 + Lyons, 5, 77 + + + Malaspina, Marquis of, 100 + Malmesbury, William of, 41 + Manfred II., 100, 102 + Mantua, 101 + Marcabrun, 35, 43, 68, 85, 110, 135 + Mareuil, Arnaut de, 50, 53 + Marseilles, 5, 10 + ---- Barral of 71, 79 + ---- Folquet of, 10, 13, 72, 78, 91 + Marie of Champagne, 130 + Marvejols, Bernard Sicart de, 84, 117, 118 + Mauleon, Savaric de, 135 + Minnesingers, 128 + Miraval, Raimon de, 39, 83 + Montanhagol, Guillem de, 117 + Montaudon, Monk of, 11, 69, 79, 113 + ---- Beatrice of, 97 + Montpelier, Germonde de, 89 + ---- William VII. of, 51, 79 + Muret 78, 114 + Music, 26 ff. + + + Narbonne, 5, 59, 67 + Navarre, 54, 110 + ---- Guillem de Tudela of, 120 + Nesles, Blondel de, 131, 134 + Nostradamus, 19 + Novara, 102 + + + Orange, William IV. of, 96 + + + _Partimen_, 130 + _Pastorela_, 33 + Pegulhan, Aimeric de, 99, 107, 114, 138 + Perdigon, 11 + Pisa, 100 + _Planh_, 30 + Poitou, 4 + Poitiers, 6, 8 + ---- William of, 6, 41, 65, 90 + Portugal, Denis of, 124 + Provence, 3 + ---- Beatrice of, 102 + Puegsibot, Gausbert de, 14 + Puy, 69 + + + Raynouard, 19 + Richard Coeur de Lion, 55, 58, 69, 72, 134 + Riquier, Guiraut, 92, 118 + Rogier, Peire, 66 + Rovenhac, Bernart de, 118 + Roussillon, 3 + ---- Girart de, 22 + Rudel, Jaufre, 23, 44 + Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg, 82 + + + Savoy, 96 + _Serena_, 33 + Simon de Montfort, 78 + _Sirventes_, 30, 135 + Sordello, 96, 101, 116 + _Stanza_, 24, ff. + + + _Tenso_, 21, 31, 130 + Thibaut IV. of Champagne, 131 + Tor, Guillem de la, 100 + Toronet, 79 + Toulouse, 5, 13, 78, 80, 84, 138 + ---- N'At de Mons of, 117 + ---- Peire Raimon of, 113 + ---- Raimon V. of, 49, 50, 60, 67, 111 + ---- Raimon VI. of, 78, 80, 114 + Tripoli, Countess of, 44 + _Trobar clus_, 34 + Turin, 96 + + + Ussel, Gui d', 14 + + + Vaqueiras, Raimbaut de, 96, 100 + Vaudois, 76 + Venice, 100 + Ventadour, 11 + ---- Bernart of, 11, 13, 46, 68, 128, 130, 133, 135 + Verona, 96 + _Vers_, 23 + Vidal, Peire, 71, 95, 97, 100, 112, 115, 127, 138 + Virgin Mary, 15, 91 + + + Zorzi, Bartolomeo, 100, 118 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Troubadours, by H.J. 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