AN UrSTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 145 



are continually recurring, and that the poetry, which of all others 

 should be the most glowing and impassioned, is, with few excep- 

 tions, the most insipid and the most heartless. This objection, how- 

 ever, must be not a little qualified, when we reflect that it must 

 apply to all poetry of sentiment : without any incidents to keep the 

 attention from flagging, this class of poetry is to be enjoyed only 

 when the mind is in a fit mood, and then only by morsels. If pe- 

 rused in this manner, few will deny that in many, at least, of the 

 Proven9al love songs, the tenderness and purity of passion are ex- 

 quisitely described ; while in others the gracefulness of the style, 

 combined with the regular return of the metre, present a charm 

 which, though fully sensible of its influence, we find it diflScult to 

 account for. 



In history in general, but more particularly in that of literature, 

 there are few more important errors committed than by the inconsi- 

 derate use of general theories and views ; their great misfortune 

 being, that what may be true of literature, or history as a whole, is 

 frequently totally false as to some of the parts of which it is com- 

 posed. This false criticism is nowhere more plainly seen than in 

 the branch of Provengal literature which we are now discussing, in 

 the consideration of which there are two opposing parties, the one 

 headed by the Schlegels, Raynouard, and the French critics ; the o- 

 ther led by Dunlop, Hallam,* and the generality of our English writ- 

 ers. The opinions of both parties are generally expressed without any 

 limitations, the first affirming that the amatory productions of the 

 Troubadours are exquisitely graceful, and tender, and fervid, and 

 beauteous ; the second fulraining their anathemas, and decrying 

 them as incongruous, insipid, valueless, and obscene. Both parties 

 are partially correct ; for it must be confessed that in many of these 

 poems the boundary of devotional propriety is wantonly overstepped, 

 the language of passion too frequently degenerates into the ungo- 

 vernable ebullitions of lust, and the praises of true chivalry and 

 honour give place to those of inconstancy and libertinism. These 

 effusions it is which render so revolting, so monotonous, and so in- 



• See Dunlop's History of Fiction, vol. ii., p. 184 ; he there says that the 

 compositions of the Provenyals " contain violent satires against the clergy, 

 absurd didactic poems, moral songs versified from Boethius, and insipid pas- 

 torals." Hallam, also, (vol- iii., p. 541, 8vo. edit.) speaking of these bards, 

 says, " These were the celebrated Troubadours whose fame depends far less 

 on their positive excellence than on the darkness of the preceding ages, on 

 the temporary sensation they excited, and on their permanent influence on 

 the state of European poetry." 



VOL. X., NO. XXVIII. 19 



