PROVENgAL 



PROVERBS 



455 



England, of Germany, and of Italy was yet in its 

 infancy. 



Kapid as had been the rise of Proven9al 

 poetry, as rapid was its decline. What more 

 than anything else was the cause of this decline 

 was the war against the Albigenses (q.v. ) in the 

 13th century, which proved disastrous to the 

 nobles of the south of trance. Their lands were 

 laid waste, their castles destroyed. Besides this, 

 with the establishment of the French domination 

 in the south the French language began to be 

 generally used among the upper classes ; thus there 

 was no longer any encouragement for the trouba- 

 dours. Their poetry ceased to be cultivated as 

 formerly. The clergy, too, in their fanatic en- 

 deavours to extinguish heresy, destroyed large 

 numbers of Provencal works, and in a bull Pope 

 Innocent IV. styles the Provencal a heretical lan- 

 guage, and forbade the use of it to the clergy. 

 With the 13th century the real literary life of 

 the Provencals had disappeared. The two follow- 

 ing centuries can only l>e regarded as an after- 

 period in which the traditions of the troubadours 

 still lingered on. In the first half of the 14th 

 century an effort was made to revive the old 

 poetry. Seven citizens of Toulouse, under the 

 title "La sobregaya companhia dels set trobadors de 

 Tolosa, established in that city a society of song. 

 Under the auspices of this society were organised 

 Jeiix Floraux, or poetic contests, at which prizes 

 were given. The activity of the society was not 

 confined to Toulouse ; branch societies were formed 

 throughout the south of France, and even in 

 Catalonia and Aragon ; but, though it existed for 

 several centuries, this society could never effect 

 what it aimed at viz. the restoration of the 

 brilliant period of Provencal song. In the 14th and 

 loth centuries prose works became more numerous. 

 Such were learned treatises theological, medical, 

 legal, and philological local chronicles, and pious 

 tales or legends. 



During the following three centuries there are 

 almost no Provencal works worthy of notice. In 

 the 19th century, 'however, a new poetic activity 

 began to manifest itself, commencing with the 

 poet Jacques Jansemin, or Jasmin (q.v. ), and 

 after him Komanille, the founder of the Society of 

 the Felibres (which has in view the preservation 

 of the Provencal language and customs), Mistral 

 <q.v. ), a poet of great genius, Aubanel, and others. 

 Poetic festivals, like the Jeux Floraux, have also 

 been introduced to aid the movement. 



On the subject of the Provencal Language see Diez, 

 Grammatik der Romanise/inn Xprachen ( 1836-.S8 ; 5th ed. 

 1882); Raynouard, Lexique Roman (1838-44), and his 

 Grammaire compares df Lanrjues de VEuroix Latine 

 ( 18?1 ) ; Malm, Grammatik u. Worterbuch der Altproven- 

 zalischrn Sprache (18K5 et seq.); D. li. Kitchin, An 

 Introduction to the Study of Proretifnl (1887). On the 

 literature see Diez, Die Poisie der Troubadours (2d ed. 

 1883), and Altromanische Sprachdenkm'iler (1846); 

 Kaynouard, Ohoix de Pncx\es oriffiuales des Troubadours 

 (1816-21 ) ; Fauriel, Hintoire de la Literature Prmencale 

 ( 1846 ) ; Bartsch, Grundries zur Ocxchiehte der Proeen- 

 zalischen Literatur (1872). and Chrentomathie Prorenfale 

 (4th ed. 1880); Hueffer, The Troultadou.ru, a History of 

 Provencal Life and Literature (Lond. 1878); Malm, Die 

 Biographien der Troubadonrt (2d ed. 1878); Gatien- 

 Arnoult, Monument! de la Literature Romaine depuin le 

 14" Siicle; Mila y Fontanals, Los Travadores en Etpaita 

 ( Barcelona, 1861 ) ; Paul Meyer, Lei derniers Trouba- 

 dours de la Province; and Bohmer, Die Prcrvenzaliche 

 Poeiie der Gegenwart ( 1877 ). 



Provence, formerly a maritime province of 

 France, was bounded on the S. by the Mediter- 

 ranean, and comprised the modern departments 

 of Benches du Rhone, Var, Basses-Alpes, and parts 

 of Alpes Maritimes and Vaucluse. It included a 

 portion of the Koman province of Gaul generally 



called simply Provincia ( ' the Province ' ), whence 

 it derived its name. The Provencal (q.v.) tongue, 

 however, was spoken over a much larger area 

 (see also the section on the language and literature 

 of FRANCE). Provence was overrun in the 5th 

 century by the Visigoths and Burgundians, for a 

 time was under the Saracens, and in 870 was mostly 

 incorporated with Cisjuran Burgundy (q.v.) and 

 with it was attached to Germany. The main part 

 of the region remained, however, under the Counts 

 of Aries, also known as Counts of Provence, and 

 was practically independent. Early in the 12th 

 century the countship passed by inheritance to 

 Raymond Berengar, Count of Barcelona, and under 

 the protection of his successors Provencal poetry 

 attained its zenith. In 1245 the last count died, 

 and the inheritance passed, through his daughter, 

 to her husband Charles of Anjou, \vlio united 

 Provence with Naples. Under the Angevin princes 

 the constitution of Provence, with its three estates 

 holding the power of the purse, was well balanced 

 and free ; and it is possible that through Simon de 

 Montfort (q.v.) the English parliamentary consti- 

 tution may be indebted to it. The last of the 

 counts, Charles, grandson of Rene the Good (q.v.), 

 bequeathed his county to the dauphin of France ; 

 and it was united to that county in 1486 by 

 Charles VIII. 



Several of Daudet's works give vivid pictures of Pro- 

 vencal scenery, life, and character ; and there are histories 

 of Provence by Papon ( 1777-86) and Mercy ( J830), and 

 descriptive works by Garcin ( 1833) and Lentherin ( 1879). 

 Descriptive sketches of some of the antiquities and archi- 

 tecture are given in Baring-Gould's In Troubadour Land 

 ( 1891 ). See also ANJOU, FRANCE, AVIGNON. 



Proverbs. All attempts to define a proverb, 

 from the time of Aristotle downwards, have been 

 unsuccessful. One of the difficulties is to find an 

 essential difference that will not admit or exclude 

 too much, and another is the diversity of opinion 

 among paitcmiographers as to where the line should 

 be drawn. Some would include almost any form 

 of popular phrase, while others, like Giusti, refuse 

 to recognise anything that is not a sentence con- 

 taining a precept or admonition of some sort. In 

 default of an exact definition we must be content 

 with descriptions, such as Earl Russell's ' The 

 wisdom of many, and the wit of one,' or that of 

 Cervantes ' Short sentences drawn from long ex- 

 perience,' or the more complete if less pithy one of 

 Cipriano de Valera 'Short sayings, sententious 

 and true, and long since accepted as such by 

 common consent.' This last has the merit of 

 recognising what is in truth the distinctive char- 

 acteristic of the proverb, that it is a popular 

 current saying adopted as a convenience by the 

 community. All the qualities said to be essential 

 to it, shortness, sense, salt, and the rest, are sub- 

 sidiary to this. To be current it must be easily 

 remembered, and therefore, within certain limits, 

 short ; without sense it would have no value, and 

 without salt it would not take the popular fancy. 

 But there is another quality no less essential than 

 these which seems to be always ignored, and that 

 is general applicability. Unless a saying is cap- 

 able of being applied to a variety of cases it can 

 never become a proverb. Lord Palmerston's famous 

 dictum, 'Dirt is only matter in the wrong place,' 

 has sense, salt, and shortness, but it will never be 

 a proverb. It is of no use except in sanitary 

 discussion and when dirt is in question. Lord 

 Derby's answer, after trying a South African port 

 specially recommended for gouty subjects, ' I prefer 

 the gout,' has a much better chance, for it serves 

 every purpose of ' The remedy is worse than the 

 disease,' and is far richer in salt. A proverb is in 

 fact a colloquial coin, not for exclusive dealing 

 at any one particular stall in the market, but 



