454 



I'K<>\ KNQAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 



The cnnipi.-iiiiin- of the troubadours were in 

 tended to ! sung to the accompaniment of Home 

 musical in-triinnMit. In most cases tin- JMMS tliem- 

 elves roin|Hiwd tin 1 melodies for their pieces. The 

 text was called mat:, the melody ton. There is no 

 doulit tliat niiinx "i the troubadours Ban); an>l 

 accompanied their own compositions. But those 

 wlu> were unahle to do HO were obliged to have 

 recourse to professional musicians to sing and 

 play for them. These professional nni-ician- they 

 found unions tlie iiyliirs ( Fr. jongleurs) or wander- 

 ing inin-iiels. Tin 1 in i-iri of the jog/art dates hock 

 to the time of the Unman- : they were the descend- 

 ants of \\\o joculutorrs, who took purl in tlie ancient 

 circus-games. T\\ejot//<in of the middle ages were a 

 sort of travelling snowmen, who gave performances 

 at village iV.-i.-i-. and were often M6MB{MBiad by 

 trained dogs ami monkeys. There were some of 

 tlirm, however, whose piotV ion was rather more 

 artistic than mere buffoonery or jugglery ; they 

 became the singer* and accompanist- of the trouba- 

 dours. Some were in the service of the troulia- 

 dours, and travelled about with them ; others went 

 about imli'|K'iulently, singing the pieces they had 

 either bought or had presented to them by the 

 tiiiiilwulours. The latter, as a class, held them- 

 selves much above \\iejoglars, though it sometimes 

 hap]>ened that joglart rune to the ranks of the 

 troubadour-. 



It was only from the 12th century that a poetic 

 system began to be lixed, and the different 

 branches of lyric verse received distinctive titles. 

 Previous to that period every lyric poem was 

 termed rrn>, from the Latin versus, 'a hymn,' be- 

 cause the rarly lyric compositions were modelled 

 on the ecclesiastical verses, whatever their subject 

 might lie. Kpic eompQcitiOM were termed jtrusti. 

 The two principal branches of lyric poetry were 

 the eauto or love-song and the tirrenta or satire. 

 The c 11 nun was the outward expression of love 

 and its various phases. In order to write the love- 

 song (to trolHir) it WOK essential, according to the 

 ideas of Provencals, that the poet should be in 

 love himself, that he should be inspired by the 

 passion before he could give expression to it. I'ln-ir 

 idea of love, it may be remarked, was not wholly 

 that of romantic adoration ; hence the many licen- 

 tious pieces among the lyrics of the trouluulours. 

 The cauw generally clotted with a few lines in 

 which the poet apostrophised himself or his song, 

 and commissioned it to explain his sentiments to 

 his lady-love. This was termed the Ivrnat/a. The 

 term tirrentes or rirvcntexr was used to comprise not 

 only satirical poems, but generally every class of 

 lyric rompo-ition that did not treat of love. These 

 were divided into various classes personal, social, 

 political, moral, and religious the last named 

 iiii-l inline the songs of the Crusades. In their social 

 -at i res 1 1 ic t rou liadours attacked with energy the vices 

 ami oppression of the nobles. Attacks, too, on the 

 clergy were frequent, more especially at the time 

 of tlie Allii^i'ii-e- war, when tlie poets sided (with 

 one or two exceptions) with the heretics against 

 the Church of Koine. In doing so they do not 

 ap|>car to have been influenced so much by i|iir-tinn- 

 of doctrine as by hostility to the northrin French 

 intruders, and we do not find any of them nutting 

 forward heretical opinions in their works, with the 

 single exception of one pii-re by I'eire Cardinal. 



The crusades against the Saracens formed a 

 constant theme enabling the troubadours to 

 celebrate in song their love of daring and glory. 

 Mont of the crusade songs we possess relate to 

 the third crusade, which took place during the 

 most flourishing |>eriiHl of Provencal poetry. In 

 these songs they exlioried ibeir countrymen to rise 

 and take up amis against the infidels. War in 

 general not merely religious was a favourite sub- 



ject with the troubadours. The most famous writer 

 of warlike xirrenta was Berlrand de Born (q.v.), a 

 typical mediii-val Won. 



I'he tr.tuo was a sort of dispute or conten 

 lion in verse in the form of a dialogue between 

 two tionlMtdours, generally upon some question 

 relating to love or chivalry. Tenses actually did 

 take place among the troubadours, although in 

 many of their poem- the antagonists would appear 

 to lie merely fictitious persons. This form of verse 

 was of eastern origin, and was common among the 

 Arabs and Persians. 



Besides the cansu, tirventet, and tetao, there existed 

 also simpler, more popular forms of lyric verse. 

 Originallv the balatln w.i- a poem intended to he 

 sung in dancing. It consisted generally of time 

 .-implies, and was remarkable for its graceful 

 dance-like rhythm. The pttttorela (pastoreta), or 

 shepherd's song, was always a favourite form oi 

 verse with the Provencal poets. The alba (or dawn 

 sonjj) and the terrna (or even-song) were also 

 cultivated by the Provencals. The latter is to 

 be distinguished from the serenade, and was a 

 poem depicting the longing of the poet for the 

 approach of the night and the meeting with his 

 beloved. A'ovos tales in verse (compare the north 

 French Fabliaux, q.v.) were few and unimport- 

 ant among the Provencals compared with those of 

 the French. 



The Provencal system of versification was most 

 highly elaborated, the poets observing the most 

 intricate metrical rules in their composition- 

 All instance of such elaborate verse is the ses- 

 tiiin. which was invented by Arnaut Daniel 

 and imitated by Dante, Petrarch, and other poei-. 

 The .ii'xtinii was a species of verse consisting 

 of six stanzas, each of six lines, in which the 

 rhyming words of the first stanza were carried 

 on through all the others in an inverted order. 

 The opposite of the aestina was the detrurl, 

 which was subject to no definite rules as regards 

 either metre, rhyme, or length of stanzas. Some 

 poets even pVfMM|y sought after discordance. A 

 distinguished troubadour, Haimbaut of Yiu|ucirns 

 (1180-1207), in one of his pieces uses five differ- 

 ent languages ( vi/. Provencal, Tuscan, French, 

 Gascon, and Catalan) in five succeeding verses, 

 the sixth being a mixture of all live. The sonnet 

 is frequently supposed to have been of Provencal 

 origin. But the only two examples we know of 

 in that language were by an Italian who composed 

 in Provencal, Dante da Majano. The probability 

 is that it was peculiar to the Italian-, though 

 doubtless it was the outcome of the influence oi 

 Provencal versification. Sonet in Provencal is simply 

 identical with ton, meaning melody. 



The two distinguishing characteristics of Pro- 

 vencal versification are the rhyme and the s\ I 

 labic accent. Some have supixised that in tin ir 

 predilection for rhyme they were influenced by 

 the Moors, but it is more than likely it \MI- 

 natnral to the Provencals. The great number of 

 final syllables of the same sounu existing in the 

 declensions and conjugations of their lan^n 

 offered great ease of rhyming, and doubtless tliis 

 had much to do with the formation of their poei i \ . 

 Owing to their excessive regard for form, tnere is 

 noticeable in the lyrics of the troubadours a certain 

 sameness or want of variety of sentiment, and a 

 tendency to lie artificial rather than natural. Yet 

 the higli merit of their poetry must be acknow- 

 ledged when we consider how rough were the 

 times in which they lived, and how few literary 

 models they had to guide them. The culture of 

 the (jreeks and Romans had long been extinct, 

 and of classical literature they knew nothing, 

 whilst at the time of the highest point of their 

 development the poetry of northern France, of 



