The Iron Pincers or Mylio and Karvel Part 22

[1] Trouvere was the name given to certain "improvisers," or poets, of northern France. In the south of France the counterpart of the Trouvere was called "troubadour."

[2] This form of writing was used by the trouveres of the XIII century, and were called "Jeux," that is, plays, as _The Play of the Shepherd and the Shepherdess_, by Adam le Hale (Ancient Fables, vol. II, p. 193, Le Grand d'Aussy). In these "plays," which were dialogues, like the modern drama, and which were recited by the strolling trouvere, the dialogue was made to supply the place of descriptions of scenes, etc.

[3] The authentic letter of Pope Innocent III; _L. N._, March, 10, 1208, p. 317, X.

[4] This song was composed by Mylio during the invasion of Languedoc by the Catholic Crusaders. Leaving his wife Florette in the care of Karvel and Morise, he went singing the poem from city to city, while Goose-Skin, accompanying the trouvere, sang his own composition, the refrain of which ran:

"Pouah! Pouah! These monks!

They are rank of the mire, of lechery and blood!"