AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 469 
The defence, however, of some disputed argument, was not the 
only object of the denson ; on the contrary, we find that satire, love, 
revenge, and friendship, are all, in turn, discussed. Sometimes it 
consisted merely of a series of invectives between the rival poets ; 
and sometimes, assuming a more pleasing aspect, it breathed only 
of love, and as the medium of exchanging vows of fidelity and devo- 
tion between two lovers, must be considered as a love-song in the 
form of a dialogue. In some cases the number of debaters exceeded 
two, in which case it was called a Torneyamen. A specimen of this 
species of composition is given by Raynouard,* in which three gallant 
knights maintain a warm dispute as to the comparative favour of a look 
or a touch from their mistress. It was customary for the poet who un- 
dertook to answer any of the questions which might be proposed as the 
subjects of debate, to frame his reply in a stanza similar in measure 
to his antagonist’s proposition, and very frequently having the same 
rhymes. It is from this circumstance that it has been supposed that 
these productions were each, like the Eclogues of Virgil, the entire 
work of one poet. There is, however, abundant proof that the 
tensons were, what they purport to be, the extemporaneous effusions 
of rival poets, as, in addition to other historical proofs, they bear 
evident marks of the jealousy and undisguised animosity of their 
authors.t There are, it is true, some few remaining specimens 
“ Guillems m’a dat et Guiraut pensamen 
De lur tenso jutgar, don m’an somos ; 
En razos es l'us a l'autre ginhos 
D'est dos baros, que donan engalmen ; 
Guillems mante sel c’als estranhs valer 
Vol, non als sieus, don sa razos et fortz, 
E Guiraut sel c’als sieus fa be tot ]'an 
Et als estranhs non ten per pauc ni gran. 
E nos avem volgut cosselh aver 
E dir lo dreg, e dizem que conortz 
Es de pretz dar e bos faitz on que an; 
Ma pus fin pretz a selh qu’al sieus l’espan.” 
“ Raynouard, Choir des Poesies des Troub. tom. ii, p. 199; Sismondi, Litt, 
of the South of Europe, tom. ii, p. 106. 
+ See Sismondi, vol. i, p. 137, who, asa specimen of the animosity of the 
poets, cites a tenson between Rambaut de Vaqueiras and the Marquis Albert 
Malespina, two of the most powerful and valiant captains of the age, in which 
they mutually accuse each other of highway robbery and perjury. There is 
also abundant proof, from the compositions of the Troubadours themselyes, 
that the tensons were the productions of more than one author; what can be 
more decisive than the following, in which one poet cries to another, “‘ Ha! 
