AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 47] 
was, in fact, the very ground-work of their versification, the pecu- 
liar feature which distinguished it from that of the classical ages. 
The great variety of stanzas in which they indulged must also be 
remembered. So great, indeed, was the license permitted in this 
respect, that Rambaut de Vaqueiras, surnamed ‘Je Bel Cavalier,” 
has left a poem in six stanzas, each of which is in a different dia- 
lect ;* the first beingin Romance, the second in Tuscan, the third in 
French, the fourth in Gascon, the fifth in Spanish, and the sixth in 
a most curious mélange of all these idioms. It must also be consi- 
dered that these poems were framed with the strictest regard to har- 
mony, that they were composed for music, and were expressly 
adapted to the melodious tones of the harp. It was by this power- 
ful and heart-stirring combination of two of the most powerful of 
the imitative arts,t of poetical enthusiasm and of musical expression, 
Andres, attribute it to an Arabian origin, while Muratori, Tyrwhitt, and the 
ingenious Hallam, deduce it from the Latin rhythmical verses, which, in the 
decline of that language, became current among those who were unable to ap- 
preciate the true force of syllabic quantity. Is it not possible, however, that 
rhyme, like chivalry, may have had its origin with the “barbarous Goths 2” 
may it not have arisen ’mid the fogs of Iceland and the mists of Scandinavia? 
We think it may ; and doubt not that ere long it will be satisfactorily proved 
that the “lords of the lion heart and eagle eye,” the authors of the Edda and 
the Wiebelungen, the tribes who first raised the female character to the proud 
pre-eminence which it now enjoys, were the originators and inventors of that 
chief beauty of modern poésy—rhyme. 
* Compositions of this description, when each stanza was composed sepa- 
rately, and without any stated return of rhyme or equality of metre, were 
termed Descorts, an expression signifying discordance. This style appears to 
have been adopted by the Troubadours to denote the contending feelings 
which filled their breasts when their mistress proved unfaithful or unkind: as 
is the case in the instances which we have cited of Rambaut de Vaqueiras (the 
same “el cavalier” who the Marquis Malespina charged with highway rob- 
bery), who afterwards mentions the infidelity of his mistress, and states that as 
sufficient reason for the discordance of his poetry, The acort was precisely the 
opposite, and was meant to signify the delights arising from a favoured pas- 
sion. Thus, Guiraut de Salignac informs us that as long as his mistress 
proves faithful he will never compose a descort, but will occupy himself with 
acorts. 
“¥ ja no feira descort 
S'ieu acort 
Ebon accordansa 
Trobes ab lieys, qu'am plus fort.” 
Raynouard, Choix des Poesies, §c. tom. iii, p. 396; Diez, Poesie der Troub. 
p- 116. 
+ On the powerful effects of the union of music and poetry, the reader is 
referred to the philological works of G. J. Vossius, and more especially to his 
