The Troubadours Part 1

The Troubadours.

by H.J. Chaytor.

PREFACE

This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real importance has been omitted.

H.J. CHAYTOR.

THE COLLEGE, PLYMOUTH, March 1912.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provencal poetry was already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is Provencal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provencal until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouveres" in Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in [2]

early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of Provencal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative literature.

The northern limit of the Provencal language formed a line starting from the Pointe de Grave at the mouth of the Gironde, pa.s.sing through Lesparre, Bordeaux, Libourne, Perigueux, rising northward to Nontron, la Rochefoucauld, Confolens, Bellac, then turning eastward to Gueret and Montlucon; it then went south-east to Clermont-Ferrand, Boen, Saint Georges, Saint Sauveur near Annonay. The Dauphine above Gren.o.ble, most of the Franche-Comte, French Switzerland and Savoy, are regarded as a separate linguistic group known as Franco-Provencal, for the reason that the dialects of that district display characteristics common to both French and Provencal.[1] On the south-west, Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Isles must also be included in the Provencal region. As concerns the Northern limit, it must not be regarded as a definite line of demarcation between the langue d'oil or the Northern French dialects and the langue d'oc or Provencal. The boundary is, of course, determined by noting the points at which certain linguistic features peculiar to Provencal cease and are replaced by the characteristics of Northern [3]

French. Such a characteristic, for instance, is the Latin tonic _a_ before a single consonant, and not preceded by a palatal consonant, which remains in Provencal but becomes _e_ in French; Latin cant_a_re becomes chant_a_r in Provencal but chant_e_r in French. But north and south of the boundary thus determined there was, in the absence of any great mountain range or definite geographical line of demarcation, an indeterminate zone, in which one dialect probably shaded off by easy gradations into the other.

Within the region thus described as Provencal, several separate dialects existed, as at the present day. Apart from the Franco-Provencal on the north-east, which we have excluded, there was Gascon in the south-west and the modern _departements_ of the Ba.s.ses and Hautes Pyrenees; Catalonian, the dialect of Roussillon, which was brought into Spain in the seventh century and still survives in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The rest of the country may be subdivided by a line to the north of which _c_ before _a_ becomes _ch_ as in French, cant_a_re producing chant_a_r, while southwards we find _c(k)_ remaining. The Southern dialects are those of Languedoc and Provence; north of the line were the Limousin and Auvergne dialects. At the present day these dialects have diverged very widely. In the early middle ages the difference between them was by no means so great. Moreover, a literary [4]

language grew up by degrees, owing to the wide circulation of poems and the necessity of using a dialect which could be universally intelligible. It was the Limousin dialect which became, so to speak, the backbone of this literary language, now generally known as Provencal, just as the Tuscan became predominant for literary purposes among the Italian dialects. It was in Limousin that the earliest troubadour lyrics known to us were composed, and this district with the adjacent Poitou and Saintonge may therefore be reasonably regarded as the birthplace of Provencal lyric poetry.

Hence the term "Provencal" is not entirely appropriate to describe the literary language of the troubadours, as it may also be restricted to denote the dialects spoken in the "Provincia". This difficulty was felt at an early date. The first troubadours spoke of their language as _roman_ or _lingua romana,_ a term equally applicable to any other romance language. _Lemosin_ was also used, which was too restricted a term, and was also appropriated by the Catalonians to denote their own dialect. A third term in use was the _lingua d'oc,_ which has the authority of Dante [2] and was used by some of the later troubadours; however, the term "Provencal" has been generally accepted, and must henceforward be understood to denote the literary language common to the [5]

south of France and not the dialect of Provence properly so-called.

For obvious reasons Southern France during the early middle ages had far outstripped the Northern provinces in art, learning, and the refinements of civilisation. Roman culture had made its way into Southern Gaul at an early date and had been readily accepted by the inhabitants, while Ma.r.s.eilles and Narbonne had also known something of Greek civilisation.

Bordeaux, Toulouse, Arles, Lyons and other towns were flourishing and brilliant centres of civilisation at a time when Northern France was struggling with foreign invaders. It was in Southern Gaul, again, that Christianity first obtained a footing; here the barbarian invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries proved less destructive to civilisation than in Northern France, and the Visigoths seem to have been more amenable to the influences of culture than the Northern Franks. Thus the towns of Southern Gaul apparently remained centres in which artistic and literary traditions were preserved more or less successfully until the revival of cla.s.sical studies during the age of Charlemagne. The climate, again, of Southern France is milder and warmer than that of the North, and these influences produced a difference which may almost be termed racial. It is a difference visible even to-day and is well expressed by [6]

the chronicler Raoul de Caen, who speaks of the Provencal Crusaders, saying that the French were prouder in bearing and more war-like in action than the Provencals, who especially contrasted with them by their skill in procuring food in times of famine: "inde est, quod adhuc puerorum decantat naenia, Franci ad bella, Provinciales ad victualia".[3]

Only a century and a half later than Charlemagne appeared the first poetical productions in Provencal which are known to us, a fragment of a commentary upon the De Consolatione of Boethius[4] and a poem upon St Foy of Agen. The first troubadour, William, Count of Poitiers, belongs to the close of the eleventh century.

Though the Count of Poitiers is the first troubadour known to us, the relatively high excellence of his technique, as regards stanza construction and rime, and the capacity of his language for expressing lofty and refined ideas in poetical form (in spite of his occasional lapses into coa.r.s.eness), entirely preclude the supposition that he was the first troubadour in point of time. The artistic conventions apparent in his poetry and his obviously careful respect for fixed rules oblige us to regard his poetry as the outcome of a considerable stage of previous development. At what point this development began and what influences stimulated its progress are questions which still remain in [7]

dispute. Three theories have been proposed. It is, in the first place, obviously tempting to explain the origin of Provencal poetry as being a continuation of Latin poetry in its decadence. When the Romans settled in Gaul they brought with them their amus.e.m.e.nts as well as their laws and inst.i.tutions. Their _scurrae_, _thymelici_ and _joculatores_, the tumblers, clowns and mountebanks, who amused the common people by day and the n.o.bles after their banquets by night and travelled from town to town in pursuit of their livelihood, were accustomed to accompany their performances by some sort of rude song and music. In the uncivilised North they remained buffoons; but in the South, where the greater refinement of life demanded more artistic performance, the musical part of their entertainment became predominant and the _joculator_ became the _joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), a wandering musician and eventually a troubadour, a composer of his own poems. These latter were no longer the gross and coa.r.s.e songs of the earlier mountebank age, which Alcuin characterised as _turp.i.s.sima_ and _vanissima_, but the grave and artificially wrought stanzas of the troubadour _chanso_.

Secondly, it has been felt that some explanation is required to account for the extreme complexity and artificiality of troubadour poetry in its most highly developed stage. Some nine hundred different forms of stanza [8]

construction are to be found in the body of troubadour poetry,[5] and few, if any schools of lyric poetry in the world, can show a higher degree of technical perfection in point of metrical diversity, complex stanza construction and accuracy in the use of rime. This result has been ascribed to Arabic influence during the eighth century; but no sufficient proof has ever been produced that the complexities of Arabic and Provencal poetry have sufficient in common to make this hypothesis anything more than an ingenious conjecture.

One important fact stands in contradiction to these theories. All indications go to prove that the origin of troubadour poetry can be definitely localised in a particular part of Southern France. We have seen that the Limousin dialect became the basis of the literary language, and that the first troubadour known to us belonged to Poitou.

It is also apparent that in the Poitou district, upon the border line of the French and Provencal languages, popular songs existed and were current among the country people; these were songs in honour of spring, pastorals or dialogues between a knight and a shepherdess (our "Where are you going, my pretty maid?" is of the same type), _albas_ or dawn songs which represent a friend as watching near the meeting-place of a lover and his lady and giving him due warning of the approach of dawn or [9]

of any other danger; there are also _ballatas_ or dance songs of an obviously popular type.[6] Whatever influence may have been exercised by the Latin poetry of the decadence or by Arab poetry, it is in these popular and native productions that we must look for the origins of the troubadour lyrics. This popular poetry with its simple themes and homely treatment of them is to be found in many countries, and diversity of race is often no bar to strange coincidence in the matter of this poetry. It is thus useless to attempt to fix any date for the beginnings of troubadour poetry; its primitive form doubtless existed as soon as the language was sufficiently advanced to become a medium of poetical expression.

Some of these popular themes were retained by the troubadours, the _alba_ and _pastorela_ for instance, and were often treated by them in a direct and simple manner. The Gascon troubadour Cercamon is said to have composed pastorals in "the old style." But in general, between troubadour poetry and the popular poetry of folk-lore, a great gulf is fixed, the gulf of artificiality. The very name "troubadour" points to this characteristic. _Trobador_ is the oblique case of the nominative _trobaire_, a substantive from the verb _trobar_, in modern French _trouver_. The Northern French _trouvere_ is a nominative form, and _trouveor_ should more properly correspond with _trobador_. The accusative form, which should have persisted, was superseded by the [10]

nominative _trouvere_, which grammarians brought into fashion at the end of the eighteenth century. The verb _trobar_ is said to be derived from the low Latin _tropus_ [Greek: tropus], an air or melody: hence the primitive meaning of _trobador_ is the "composer" or "inventor," in the first instance, of new melodies. As such, he differs from the _vates_, the inspired bard of the Romans and the [Greek: poeta], poeta, the creative poet of the Greeks, the "maker" of Germanic literature. Skilful variation upon a given theme, rather than inspired or creative power, is generally characteristic of the troubadour.

Thus, whatever may have been the origin of troubadour poetry, it appears at the outset of the twelfth century as a poetry essentially aristocratic, intended for n.o.bles and for courts, appealing but rarely to the middle cla.s.ses and to the common people not at all. The environment which enabled this poetry to exist was provided by the feudal society of Southern France. Kings, princes and n.o.bles themselves pursued the art and also became the patrons of troubadours who had risen from the lower cla.s.ses. Occasionally troubadours existed with sufficient resources of their own to remain independent; Folquet of Ma.r.s.eilles seems to have been a merchant of wealth, above the necessity of seeking patronage. But troubadours such as Bernart de Ventadour, the son of the [11]

stoker in the castle of Ventadour, Perdigon the son of a fisherman, and many others of like origin depended for their livelihood and advancement upon the favour of patrons. Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church looked somewhat askance upon the profession. Women are also numbered among the troubadours; Beatrice, the Countess of Die, is the most famous of these.

A famous troubadour usually circulated his poems by the mouth of a _joglar_ (Northern French, _jongleur_), who recited them at different courts and was often sent long distances by his master for this purpose.

A joglar of originality might rise to the position of a troubadour, and a troubadour who fell upon evil days might sink to the profession of joglar. Hence there was naturally some confusion between the troubadour and the joglar, and poets sometimes combined the two functions. In course of time the joglar was regarded with some contempt, and like his forbear, the Roman joculator, was cla.s.sed with the jugglers, acrobats, animal tamers and clowns who amused the n.o.bles after their feasts. Nor, under certain conditions, was the troubadour's position one of dignity; [12]

when he was dependent upon his patron's bounty, he would stoop to threats or to adulation in order to obtain the horse or the garments or the money of his desire; such largesse, in fact, came to be denoted by a special term, _messio_. Jealousy between rival troubadours, accusations of slander in their poems and quarrels with their patrons were of constant occurrence. These naturally affected the joglars in their service, who received a share of any gifts that the troubadour might obtain.

The troubadours who were established more or less permanently as court poets under a patron lord were few; a wandering life and a desire for change of scene is characteristic of the cla.s.s. They travelled far and wide, not only to France, Spain and Italy, but to the Balkan peninsula, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and England; Elias Cairel is said to have visited most of the then known world, and the biographer of Albertet Calha relates, as an unusual fact, that this troubadour never left his native district. Not only love, but all social and political questions of the age attracted their attention. They satirised political and religious opponents, preached crusades, sang funeral laments upon the death of famous patrons, and the support of their poetical powers was often in demand by princes and n.o.bles involved in a struggle. Noteworthy also is the fact that a considerable number retired to some monastery or [13]

religious house to end their days (_se rendet_, was the technical phrase). So Bertran of Born, Bernart of Ventadour, Peire Rogier, Cadenet and many others retired from the disappointments of the world to end their days in peace; Folquet of Ma.r.s.eilles, who similarly entered the Cistercian order, became abbot of his monastery of Torondet, Bishop of Toulouse, a leader of the Albigeois crusade and a founder of the Inquisition.

CHAPTER II [14]

THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE

Troubador poetry dealt with war, politics, personal satire and other subjects: but the theme which is predominant and in which real originality was shown, is love. The troubadours were the first lyric poets in mediaeval Europe to deal exhaustively with this subject, and as their att.i.tude was imitated with certain modifications by French, Italian, Portuguese and German poets, the nature of its treatment is a matter of considerable importance.

Of the many ladies whose praises were sung or whose favours were desired by troubadours, the majority were married. Troubadours who made their songs to a maiden, as did Gui d'Ussel or Gausbert de Puegsibot, are quite exceptional. Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object. This conventional character was derived from the fact that troubadour love was const.i.tuted upon the a.n.a.logy of feudal relationship. If chivalry was the outcome of the Germanic theory of knighthood as modified by the influence of Christianity, it may be said that troubadour love is the [15]

outcome of the same theory under the influence of mariolatry. In the eleventh century the worship of the Virgin Mary became widely popular; the reverence bestowed upon the Virgin was extended to the female s.e.x in general, and as a va.s.sal owed obedience to his feudal overlord, so did he owe service and devotion to his lady. Moreover, under the feudal system, the lady might often be called upon to represent her husband's suzerainty to his va.s.sals, when she was left in charge of affairs during his absence in time of war. Unmarried women were inconspicuous figures in the society of the age.

Thus there was a service of love as there was a service of va.s.salage, and the lover stood to his lady in a position a.n.a.logous to that of the va.s.sal to his overlord. He attained this position only by stages; "there are four stages in love: the first is that of aspirant (_fegnedor_), the second that of suppliant (_precador_), the third that of recognised suitor (_entendedor_) and the fourth that of accepted lover (_drut_)."

The lover was formally installed as such by the lady, took an oath of fidelity to her and received a kiss to seal it, a ring or some other personal possession. For practical purposes the contract merely implied that the lady was prepared to receive the troubadour's homage in poetry and to be the subject of his song. As secrecy was a duty inc.u.mbent upon [16]

the troubadour, he usually referred to the lady by a pseudonym (_senhal_); naturally, the lady's reputation was increased if her attraction for a famous troubadour was known, and the _senhal_ was no doubt an open secret at times. How far or how often the bounds of his formal and conventional relationship were transgressed is impossible to say; "en somme, a.s.sez immoral" is the judgment of Gaston Paris upon the society of the age, and is confirmed by expressions of desire occurring from time to time in various troubadours, which cannot be interpreted as the outcome of a merely conventional or "platonic" devotion. In the troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn from this source.

However, transgression was probably exceptional. The idea of troubadour love was intellectual rather than emotional; love was an art, restricted, like poetry, by formal rules; the terms "love" and "poetry"

were identified, and the fourteenth century treatise which summarises the principles of grammar and metre bore the t.i.tle _Leys d'Amors_, the Laws of Love. The pathology of the emotion was studied; it was treated from a psychological standpoint and a technical vocabulary came into use, for which it is often impossible to find English equivalents. The first effect of love is to produce a mental exaltation, a desire to live [17]

a life worthy of the beloved lady and redounding to her praise, an inspiring stimulus known as _joi_ or _joi d'amor_ (_amor_ in Provencal is usually feminine).[7] Other virtues are produced by the influence of this affection: the lover must have _valor_, that is, he must be worthy of his lady; this worth implies the possession of _cortesia_, pleasure in the pleasure of another and the desire to please; this quality is acquired by the observance of _mesura_, wisdom and self-restraint in word and deed.

The poetry which expresses such a state of mind is usually idealised and pictures the relationship rather as it might have been than as it was.

The troubadour who knew his business would begin with praises of his beloved; she is physically and morally perfect, her beauty illuminates the night, her presence heals the sick, cheers the sad, makes the boor courteous and so forth. For her the singer's love and devotion is infinite: separation from her would be worse than death; her death would leave the world cheerless, and to her he owes any thoughts of good or beauty that he may have. It is only because he loves her that he can sing. Hence he would rather suffer any pain or punishment at her hands than receive the highest favours from another. The effects of this love are obvious in his person. His voice quavers with supreme delight or [18]

breaks in dark despair; he sighs and weeps and wakes at night to think of the one subject of contemplation. Waves of heat and cold pa.s.s over him, and even when he prays, her image is before his eyes. This pa.s.sion has transformed his nature: he is a better and stronger man than ever before, ready to forgive his enemies and to undergo any physical privations; winter is to him as the cheerful spring, ice and snow as soft lawns and flowery meads. Yet, if unrequited, his pa.s.sion may destroy him; he loses his self-control, does not hear when he is addressed, cannot eat or sleep, grows thin and feeble, and is sinking slowly to an early tomb. Even so, he does not regret his love, though it lead to suffering and death; his pa.s.sion grows ever stronger, for it is ever supported by hope. But if his hopes are realised, he will owe everything to the gracious favour of his lady, for his own merits can avail nothing. Sometimes he is not prepared for such complete self-renunciation; he reproaches his lady for her coldness, complains that she has led him on by a show of kindness, has deceived him and will be the cause of his death; or his patience is at an end, he will live in spite of her and try his fortune elsewhere.[8]

Such, in very general terms, is the course that might be followed in developing a well-worn theme, on which many variations are possible. The [19]

most common form of introduction is a reference to the spring or winter, and to the influence of the seasons upon the poet's frame of mind or the desire of the lady or of his patron for a song. In song the poet seeks consolation for his miseries or hopes to increase the renown of his lady. As will be seen in the following chapter, manner was even more important than matter in troubadour lyrics, and commonplaces were revivified by intricate rime-schemes and stanza construction accompanied by new melodies. The conventional nature of the whole business may be partly attested by the fact that no undoubted instance of death or suicide for love has been handed down to us.

Reference should here be made to a legendary inst.i.tution which seems to have gripped the imagination of almost every tourist who writes a book of travels in Southern France, the so-called _Courts of Love_.[9] In modern times the famous Provencal scholar, Raynouard, attempted to demonstrate the existence of these inst.i.tutions, relying upon the evidence of the _Art d'Aimer_ by Andre le Chapelain, a work written in the thirteenth century and upon the statements of Nostradamus (_Vies des plus celebres et anciens poetes provencaux_, Lyons 1575). The latter writer, the younger brother of the famous prophet, was obviously well acquainted with Provencal literature and had access to sources of [20]

information which are now lost to us. But instead of attempting to write history, he embellished the lives of the troubadours by drawing upon his own extremely fertile imagination when the actual facts seemed too dull or prosaic to arouse interest. He professed to have derived his information from a ma.n.u.script left by a learned monk, the _Moine des Iles d'Or_, of the monastery of St Honorat in the Ile de Lerins. The late M. Camille Chabaneau has shown that the story is a pure fiction, and that the monk's pretended name was an anagram upon the name of a friend of Nostradamus.[10] Hence it is almost impossible to separate the truth from the fiction in this book and any statements made by Nostradamus must be received with the utmost caution. Andre le Chapelain seems to have had no intention to deceive, but his knowledge of Provencal society was entirely second-hand, and his statements concerning the Courts of Love are no more worthy of credence than those of Nostradamus. According to these two unreliable authorities, courts for the decision of lovers' perplexities existed in Gascony, Provence, Avignon and elsewhere; the seat of justice was held by some famous lady, and the courts decided such questions as whether a lover could love two ladies at the same time, whether lovers or married couples were the more affectionate, whether love was compatible with avarice, and the like. [21]

A special poetical form which was popular among the troubadours may have given rise to the legend. This was the _tenso_,[11] in which one troubadour propounded a problem of love in an opening stanza and his opponent or interlocutor gave his view in a second stanza, which preserved the metre and rime-scheme of the first. The propounder then replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding the contest. Raynouard quotes the conclusion of a _tenso_ given by Nostradamus in which one of the interlocutors says, "I shall overcome you if the court is loyal: I will send the _tenso_ to Pierrefeu, where the fair lady holds her court of instruction." The "court" here in question was a social and not a judicial court. Had any such inst.i.tution as a judicial "court of love" ever been an integral part of Provencal custom, it is scarcely conceivable that we should be informed of its existence only by a few vague and scattered allusions in the large body of Provencal literature. For these reasons the theory that such an inst.i.tution existed has been generally rejected by all scholars of repute.

CHAPTER III [22]

TECHNIQUE

Provencal literature contains examples of almost every poetical _genre_.

Epic poetry is represented by Girart of Roussillon,[12] a story of long struggles between Charles Martel and one of his barons, by the Roman de Jaufre, the adventures of a knight of the Round Table, by Flamenca, a love story which provides an admirable picture of the manners and customs of the time, and by other fragments and _novelas_ or shorter stories in the same style. Didactic poetry includes historical works such as the poem of the Albigeois crusade, ethical or moralising _ensenhamens_ and religious poetry. But the dominating element in Provencal literature is lyrical, and during the short cla.s.sical age of this literature lyric poetry was supreme. Nearly five hundred different troubadours are known to us at least by name and almost a thousand different stanza forms have been enumerated. While examples of the fine careless rapture of inspiration are by no means wanting, artificiality reigns supreme in the majority of cases. Questions of technique receive the most sedulous attention, and the principles of stanza construction, rime correspondence and rime distribution, as evolved by the [23]