SONG. 



Goths, or Franks ; and has traced its ufe as early as the 

 time of Quintihan, who tells us, that he had often heard the 

 crowd in the Circus applaud, or demand fomething of the 

 champions, in a barbarous language ; that is, in a vulgar and 

 plebeian dialeft, different from pure Latin. Sammonicus, 

 who lived in the time of Septimius Severus, names the vulgar 

 language. And both Pliny and St. Jerome fpeak of the 

 mihtary language as of that kind ; the latter even tells us 

 that Fortunatianus, bifhopof Aquileia, wrote a commentary 

 on the Evangelifts in this vulgar language, rujlico fermone, 

 during the time of Conftantine. But this was a fmgular 

 inftance, which was not imitated. 



It appears, however, from the Dialogues of St. Gregory 

 the Great, written J93, that there was then a language 

 merely colloquial at Rome. For he tells us that a new con- 

 vert, of whom he is fpeaking, was fent to a convent with 

 two veflels of wine, which the vulgar call flai]<s. 



And Gregory of Tours, fo early as 572, complains of 

 this vulgar or ruftic tongue gaining ground in France, 

 and being more in favour than Latin, the language of the 

 learned. 



It was therefore by degrees that Latin ceafed to be under- 

 ftood by the common people, and the Romance language had 

 admiflion into books. And in 8 1 3 it was ordered by a canon 

 at the council of Tours, tbat the bifhops fhould be employed 

 in tranllating homilies into the Roman ruftic tongue, that 

 they might be the more eafily underitood by the common 

 people. The fame canon, we are told, was renewed in a 

 council at Aries in 851. 



In the ninth century hiftorians tell us, that Charlemagne 

 and his fons and fucceflbrs fpoke the Romance language, 

 fpecimens of which may be feen in Fauchet, Pafquier, and 

 feveral other writers on the French language. And in the 

 twelfth century it began to be the general language of 

 poets and polite writers. Some of the iermons written and 

 preached by St. Bernard, about 1137, in this language, are 

 ilill preferved among the MSS. of the convent of Feuillans, 

 in the rue St. Honorc at Paris. 



The colloquial language ufed only in familiar converfation 

 was called by the Romans_/tvmo ufualis, quotidianus, pedejlris, 

 vulgaris, mUitaris, rujllcus, &c. It is fuppofed by M. Bo- 

 namy, as well as by others, that from this vulgar Latin not 

 only the French language and its different dialefts but the 

 Spanifli and Italian are derived. Indeed, it is moit probable 

 that the Latin tongue, in its periods of greateft purity, was 

 only the language of the learned, in the Roman provinces 

 temote from the capital ; and that it was never fo generally 

 cultivated in other times as to exclude the vulgar dialedl. 



In the frequent revolutions and ftruggles for empire during 

 thefe ages, the Roman language mult have been debafed and 

 corrupted, while new tongues were forming, which, though 

 not iufiicieiitly fixed and grammatical to be ufed in books, 

 were doubtlefs long the vulgar and colloquial dialefts be- 

 fore the Latin cealed to be the common language of the 

 learned. 



It was about this time that the art of rhyming, or uni- 

 fonoiis termmations of vcrfcs, ilole into poetical compofition, 

 in a manner whicli the learned and judicious author of an 

 Etfay on the Language and Verfification of Chaucer, feems 

 to have traced to its fource. Leonine vcrfes, fuppofed to 

 have been fo called from a pope or monk Leo, their author, 

 in the feventh century, are by feme thoughc the firlt attempt 

 at rhyme ; while others imagine the hymn to St. John the 

 Baptilt, by Paul Diaconus, written about the latter end of 

 the eighth century, to be not only rendered memorable by 

 Guide's fcale, but by having been the model of all other 



monkifh rhymes in Latin, as well as in modem languages 

 Ut queant laxis, &c. 



But neither of thefe genealogies fatisfies all enquirers. 

 Gravina thinks it as abfurd to afcribe the invention of 

 rhyme to any one writer, as to attribute to an individual the 

 propagation of the plague, which is caufed by the univerfal 

 contagion of the air. 



The Arabs had rhyme, according to Don Calmet, before 

 the time of Mahomet, who died 632, and in the fecond cen- 

 tury ufed a kind of poetry in meafures fimilar to the Greek, 

 and fet to mufic. See Rhyme. 



While the new languages were unfettled, and but par- 

 tially known, even in the fingle kingdom or province where 

 they were forming, it was not uncommon to write half a 

 poem in Latin and half in a vulgar tongue. Indeed Dante 

 has left a poem in three languages, Latin, Provencal, and 

 Italian ; and Rambaud de Vachieras, a Provencal poet, 

 in five. 



Petrarca and Muratori think that the Sicilians firft com- 

 pofed and wrote fongs in a vulgar language ; that from them 

 the cuftom went into Provence, and from Provence into 

 Italy. Indeed Sicily and Provence were long under the 

 dominion of the fame princes, and the fame language may 

 have been cultivated at the courts of both countries ; but as 

 no veftiges remain of Sicilian poetry refembhng the Pro- 

 vencal, the opinions of thefe authors, however eminent, and, 

 on other accounts, refpeftable, while unfupported by reafons 

 and fafts, can have but little weight. 



Cardinal jBembo, however, w as of opinion that the firlt 

 rhymers and poets who wrote in a modern language were of 

 Provence ; after them the Tufcans, who had more affiftance 

 from them in their poetry than from any other people. 

 And both Crefcembeni and Gravina make the fame con- 

 ceflion. 



Noltradamus, in his lives of the Provengal poets, fays 

 that Provence was called the mother of Troubadours and 

 Minftrels ; and that Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, and other 

 Tufcan poet?, enriched both their language and fancy from 

 the produftions of his countrymen. However, as no ver/i 

 fciohi, or poetical hues without rhymes, are to be found \n 

 the Provencal poets, though tlicy abound among the Ita- 

 lians, it is natural to fuppofe that in thefe meafures of blank 

 verfe the Italians imitated their ancellors the Romans, and 

 that in rhyming, the Provenjals were their models. 



It was the opinion of Voltaire that this language began 

 to be formed in the ninth century, out of Latm and Teu- 

 tonic ; that it was the mother of French, Spanifh, and Ita- 

 lian ; " continued in favour till the reign of the emperor 

 Frederic II. and is itiU fpoken in fome villages of the Gri- 

 fous, and near Switzerland." 



Carpentier derives the word Troubadour from Troba, Pro- 

 vencal, Jigmentum. H'inc Troubadours appellati poet£ Pro- 

 vindahs. 



It was in the eleventh century, during the firft crufade, 

 according to the abbe Millot, tiiat Europe began to emerge 

 from the barbarous ftupidity and ignorance kito which it 

 had long been plunged. And while its inhabitants were 

 exercifing every fpecies of rapine, plunder, and pious cruelty 

 in Afia, art, ingenuity, and reafon, infenfibly civilized and 

 foftencd their minds. 



It was then that the poets and fongfters known by the 

 name of Troubadours were multiplied, and their profeflion 

 honoured by the patronage and encouragement of the count 

 of Poitou, and many other powerful princes and barons, 

 who had themfelves fuccefsfuUy cultivated poetry and 

 mufic. At the courts of thefe munificent patrons they 



were 



