POE 
from Normandy, which are unqueftionably very ancient. 
The Sicilians have put in a claim for priority, which muft 
be allowed againft the Italians; and again, the known 
antiquity of Eaftern poetry, and thefaft that the Arabs 
ufed rhyme before the Europeans, coupled with the cir- 
cumftances that rhyme never appeared in Europe til! the 
time when the Saracen power began to fpread itfelf to¬ 
wards us, incline others to think that we are indebted to 
thefe infidels for the revival of poetry. For our own part, 
we cannot believe but that every nation muft have at¬ 
tempted fome fort of poetry, and fallen into many fimilar 
ideas, by their own power of invention and memory. 
That they borrowed of each other, and of the eaftern 
nations, is manifeft ; but any attempt to fettle precedence 
in this matter feems ufelefs. 
The ftate of poetry in the hands of the Troubadours, or 
Provencpal poets, prefents a curious pifture. Deftitute of 
all rational means of amufement, for reading was alnioft 
confined to the clergy, the fociety of the times they lived 
in poffeffed, in the fongs of the rude bards, their only 
amufement. The knight found in them the record 
of his martial achievements; the lady found pleafant 
tales of love. The minftrels became the univerfal favour¬ 
ites of the great and the fair; and kings did not dif- 
dain alternately to pradtife their art, and liften to their 
efforts. 
The Chriftian religion gave men thofe high and ideal 
notions of virtue unknown to Greece and Rome. Love 
in its purity arofe in thefe barbarous times; and from 
this caufe was developed all the intereft of the age of chi¬ 
valry. The knight who had brought his mind to the pitch 
of refpedling female virtue, and of raifing the i8ol of his 
foul till (he almoft mixed with his worfhip, could fcarcely 
fail to love, with true fervour, juftice and the right; and 
hence the flower of chivalry, who lived but for the appro¬ 
bation of the virtuous and his God, who counted his own 
dafety at nought, and who fought out with unabating 
vigour and invincible courage the oppreflor of innocence 
■through all lands, was manifefted. The beautiful pictures 
of the hero of chivalry are not all mere imaginations ; 
there were no doubt fome real exiftences of the kind. 
The fame affeftion which railed woman in eftimation, 
introduced alfo that attention to manners, which is fo 
eflential to the progrefs of enlightenment and virtue. 
And courtefy was indifpenfable to the perfect character of 
the knight. 
The fongs of the minftrels branched out into a variety 
of amufements. The narratives they contained laid a 
foundation for profe romances, which, from their excefs 
of wonders and theother ftrongexcitemenfs they contain¬ 
ed, became fora long time a rage with all claffes; and it 
was not till their perpetual famenefs became tirefome that 
they fell into contempt. On the other hand, the fame 
rude fongs laid the foundation for the peculiar digreflive 
llyle of poetry called romantic or heroic, which the Spanifli 
and Italian poets brought to fuch perfection. A third 
route was taken by the ideas of the minftrels. The monks 
and other pious perfons, who were foiled in endeavouring 
to fupprefs the fongfters, borrowed many of their tales 
and verfes, and with their plagiarifms decorated and 
enlivened fcript ure allegories, and thus formed the begin- 
• ning of the drama. 
How much, then, do we owe to the Troubadours, and 
how juftly did they earn the high honours which kings 
and heroes lavished on them, and the kind regards with 
which the fofter lex favoured them ! But virtue, though 
(lie may be ftrengthened, cannot be fupported by poetry 
alone. As Chriftianity became corrupted under the 
'pontiffs and their debafed priefts, the beau ideal ceafed 
to be fung by the minftrels or praCtifed by their 
heroes. The love-fongs were degraded into the loofe 
ftyle of the ancients; the minftrels, with a few lofty 
exceptions, became clafied with menial attendants, 
and men defpifed. The knights, though they retained 
their courteous manners, and even carried them fo far 
■ Vol. XX. No. 1409. 
TRY. 777 
.1 
that affectation and artifice difplayed themfelves, yet 
forgot the ideal in the material pleafures of love ; and 
licence, the more dangerous from the falfe glofs that hid 
it, became extreme. 
The productions of the Troubadours were compofed 
in the Romanzo, or Romifti, language. This was a cor¬ 
ruption of the Latin. It was fo called by the barbarians, 
to diftinguilh it from the Gothic or Celtic Tongues ; and 
it had the name of Provencal, or Provincial, given it by 
the inhabitants of Rome, to diftinguilh it from the purer 
language which prevailed in that metropolis. At one 
period this Romanzo tongue was fpoken over the whole 
of the Mediterranean coaft, from Barcelona to Pifa; 
and extended far inland along the Po, the Rhone, and 
the Ebro. When, however, the Arabs took poffeflion of 
the fouth of Spain, the Chriftians, who fpoke Romaic,were 
driven into the mountainous parts of the country. The 
fondnefs which they had, however, for the fongs and nar¬ 
rations of their people, remained; and by degrees the 
long narratives that they compofed, fpreading, became 
general favourites. The name of the language was 
ufed alfo to fpecify the produClion itfelf; fo that all 
ftories were called Romances, whether written in the Ro¬ 
maic language or not. Thus, for inftance, Chaucer calls, 
in one place, Ovid’s Metamorphofes a Romaunt. 
The Romaic or provincial language was the language 
of all European courts a long period. It deferved this 
honour. Its verbs poffeffed the fame inflexions with thofe 
of the Italian, and by the variety of terminations permit¬ 
ted the difufe of pronouns, and thus aided the rapidity of 
expreflion. Its fubftantives enjoyed a faculty peculiar to 
that language, of adapting themfelves to the niafculine 
or the feminine gender at the direClion of the writer; and 
this pliability impreffed a certain figurative character on 
the words; for hence inanimate beings affumed a fex at 
the option of the poet, and wore by turns a more proud 
and mafculine port, or foftened and refined themfelves 
to all the purpofes of pleafing and voluptuous fubjeCts. 
Moreover its fubftantives and adjeCtives ndt only exprefl- 
ed augmentation or diminution by their endings, but 
were modified to imprefs the ideas of contempt, ridicule, 
pleafure, pain, and approbation; as we may obferve, 
to a certain degree, in the modern Spanifh and Italian. 
The name of Troubadour, or Trouveur, (for they are 
called differently in the north and the fouth,) implies find¬ 
ers, or inventors; a very appropriate title. The verfes of 
the Troubadours were of that fpontaneous kind prac¬ 
ticed by the improvifatori. Their compofitions were of 
three kinds. Chansos, which treated of love and gallantry; 
'Sirventes, which extended to war, politics, an'd fatire ; 
and Tenfons, which were the moft interefting, the word 
fignifying a ftruggle, or combat. While the baron fur- 
rounded by his peers adminiilered juftice to the brave, 
his lady formed her court, which was defignated the 
Court of Love, with the youngeft and moft brilliant of her 
female vjfitors, and tried candidates for the prize of poefy. 
A knight with a harp in his hand, after having preluded 
on its firings, propofed the objeCl of difpute ; when ano¬ 
ther advanced in his turn, and to the fame air, and fre¬ 
quently in the fame rhymes, anfwered the challenge. This 
dialogue was carried on ex tempore, and the difpute was 
ended in five couplets. The Court of Love deliberated 
gravely on their relpeclive claims; it difcufied not merely 
the merit of the compofition, but that of the queftion 
propofed, and paffed in verfe a fentence of love, by which 
it affecled to decide the point for ever. That thefe dif- 
putes were ftriCily infpired by the moment appears from 
their violent language and their grofs exaggeration of 
abufe, which nothing but rivalry and real refentment 
could have excited. A tenfon is yet extant between Al¬ 
bert Malefpifa and Rambaud de Vaqueiras, two noble 
and brave chieftains of the times, in which they mutually 
accufe each other of robbing on the highway. We mull 
in charity fuppofe, therefore, that the difficulty of the 
rhyme, and the warmth of poetic inspiration, pleaded in 
9 M excufe 
