472 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FRENCH LITERATURE. 
that the Troubadours (first fruits of European literature) so rapidly 
acquired that proud pre-eminence, and that universal admiration, 
which, like the chords of their own harps, have long since moul- 
dered in the dust, and are hidden “neath the wreck of ages. Can it, 
then, for a moment, be imagined that these poems, composed upon 
the spur of the moment, when inflamed by love or excited by an 
animated rivalry, will bear to be laid before the searching eye of 
criticism, and, under all the disadvantages of a halting prose trans- 
lation, to be perused solely for the purpose of discovering the senti- 
ments and ideas which they contain? As well might we attempt 
to render interesting in a prose translation the odes of Anacreon, 
the songs of Alemanes, or the lyrics of Alceus. Lyric poetry may 
be compared to a temple, fair, light, tasteful, yet withal fantastic in 
its style, the foundations of which are harmony and enthusiasm ; di_ 
vest it of these, its only supports, and the heavy, shapeless mass of ruins 
which bestrew the ground will, to pursue the metaphor, still bear 
a strong similarity to the dulness and insipidity of the poetry when, 
divested of its choicest beauties, it is reduced to the level of languid 
prose. Inorder fully to appreciate the compositions of the Trouba- 
dours, we must transport ourselves to the age of chivalry ; we must 
conjure up a vision of the days that are past; we must imagine 
knights, esquires, and pages, collected for the celebration of a solemn 
tournament,* and, surrounded by imposing pomp and brilliant page- 
Institutiones Poetice. The treatise by his son Isaac, De Poematum Cantu et 
Viribus Rhythmi, contains a fund of valuable information on the subject, 
mingled, however, with those wild and imaginative notions which distin- 
guished the author. In perusing the works of the younger Vossius, we 
must never forget his love for the marvellous, and his prejudices in favour of 
antiquity. The treatise De Poematum, &c. is written solely with the views 
of extolling the music of the ancients, and depreciating that of modern na- 
tions, except the Chinese, for whom he has a most strange predilection. See 
also Jortin’s Philological Tracts, vol. ii, p. 1. 
* These military diversions have already been so frequently and so ably 
discussed, that another detailed account of them might, perhaps, be deemed 
superfluous and tedious. We cannot, however, let the subject pass without 
adverting to the difference which existed between the jousts and the tourna- 
ments—chivalric institutions, which, though essentially different, are still very 
frequently confounded. The former were the direct offspring of the judicial 
combats, recorded by Tacitus as existing among the northern tribes; in which 
the accused was permitted to meet his accuser face to face, and in single con- 
flict to maintain his innocence, relying, perhaps, less on the strength of his 
individual arm, than on those deep-rooted feelings of superstition which led 
him to believe that “God defends the brave” (Deos fortioribus adesse ). 
The joust was, in fact, the precursor of the modern duel (a mode of trial 
