abbon, fair reader, if we weary 
you ; but it seems fitting here to 
give a brief account of the cel¬ 
ebrated Floral Games of Toulouse. 
The south of France was, per¬ 
haps, the cradle of all our modern 
poetry ; for while the language 
of the surrounding nations was scarcely formed, the 
Provencal was already a copious, expressive, and ele¬ 
gant tongue. The love for polite literature made 
such progress in Toulouse during the reign of the 
house of Raymond, that one of the old writers calls 
it “ the flower and rose of all cities.” 
The origin of the Troubadours goes back to ob¬ 
scurity ; but we know that through the middle ages 
poetical courts, called Puys d'Amour, were of frequent 
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