.v.i7mv.i/. 



4*5 



tlic line of demarcation which separated the Tongue of Oil and the Romanic 

 language of the South that the latter 

 took the name of the Tongue of Oc. But 

 it must be expressly mentioned that the 

 trouveurs, notwithstanding certain local 

 imitations of the poetry of the trouba- 

 dours, have nothing in common with 

 the latter in respect to literary inven- 

 tion and poetical genius. It was the 

 trouveurs who had the honour of creating 

 in the eleventh century, or even earlier, 

 the chansons de geste and romances of 

 chivalry which have been translated 

 into every language, and which have no 

 parallel in the literature of the Tongue 

 of Oc. (See previous chapter, Romances.) 

 The Tongue of Oil had from its very 

 inception produced two families of poets 

 of utterly different characteristics, and 

 who represented, so to speak, epic poetry 

 and light poetry. The great trouveurs, 

 those who collected the popular songs 

 and the national traditions to convert 

 them into chansons de geste and romances 

 of chivalry, were, in many cases, in the 

 domestic service of princes and nobles ; 

 they lived all together amongst the 

 warriors for whom they composed the 

 long national poems which they after- 

 wards recited to the sound of the violin 

 at festivals and assemblies. All that 

 relates to romances has been treated of 

 in a previous chapter. But the lesser Fig " 333 Trouveur accompanying himself 



upon the Violin. Sculptured Work upon 



ouveurs, those who may, perhaps, have the Portico of the Abbey of 8t Denis 

 been subject to the influence of the (Twelfth Century), 

 troubadours, and many of whom were no better than strolling players, created 



3 i 



