The Troubadours Part 6

We have already referred to the pilgrim route to the shrine of Compostella, by which a steady stream of foreign influence entered the country. The same effect was produced by crusaders who came to help the Spaniards in their struggle against the Moors, and by foreign colonists who helped to Christianise the territories conquered from the Mohammedans. The capture of Lisbon in 1147 increased maritime intercourse with the North. Individuals from Portugal also visited Northern and Southern France, after the example of their Spanish neighbours. References to Portugal in the poetry of the troubadours are very scarce, nor is there any definite evidence that any troubadour visited the country. This fact is in striking contrast with the loud praises of the Spanish courts. None the less, such visits must have taken place: Sancho I. had French _jongleurs_ in his pay during [125]

the twelfth century and the Portuguese element in the five-language _descort_ of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras shows that communication between Provencal poets and Portuguese or Galician districts must have existed.

The general silence of the troubadours may be due to the fact that communication began at a comparatively late period and was maintained between Portugal and Spanish courts, and not directly between Portugal and Southern France.

Alfonso X. of Castile himself wrote many poems in the Galician or Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons a.n.a.logous to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in Provencal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is preserved with the accompanying ideas of _amour courtois_, and the lyric forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provencal manner took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric poetry which was remodelled under Provencal influence. The most popular of the types thus developed were _Cantigas de amor e de amigo_ and _Cantigas de_ _escarnho e de maldizer_; the former were love songs: when the poet speaks the song was one _de amor_; when the lady speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provencal usage) the song was _de amigo_. This latter is a type developed independently by the Portuguese school. _Cantigas de escarnho_ correspond in intention [126]

to the Provencal _sirventes_; if their satire was open and unrestrained they were _cantigas de maldizer_. They dealt for the most part with trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about 1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty years.

CHAPTER IX [127]

PROVENcAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND

Provencal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school, flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the Rhine school. In the latter case, Provencal influence is not disputed; but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it, has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of Provencal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of development before Provencal influence affected it. Austria undoubtedly came into touch with this influence at an early date. The Danube valley was a high road for the armies of crusaders; another route led from Northern Italy to Vienna, by which Peire Vidal probably found his way to Hungary. At the same time, though Provencal influence was strong, the [128]

Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or translation of troubadour productions. Dietmar von Aist, one of the earliest minnesingers, who flourished in the latter half of the twelfth century has, for instance, the Provencal _alba_ theme. Two lovers part at daybreak, when awakened by a bird on the linden: if the theme is Provencal, the simplicity of the poet's treatment is extremely fresh and natural. This difference is further apparent in the att.i.tude of minnesingers and troubadours towards the conception of "love." The minnesong is the literary expression of the social convention known as "Frauendienst," the term "minne" connoting the code which prescribed the nature of the relation existing between the lover and his lady; the dominant principle was a reverence for womanhood as such, and in this respect the German minnesang is inspired by a less selfish spirit than the Provencal troubadour poetry. Typical of the difference is Walter von der Vogelweide's--

Swer guotes wibes minne hat, der schamt sich aller missetat.

("He who has a good woman's love is ashamed of every ill deed"), compared with Bernart de Ventadour's--

Non es meravilha s'ieu chan [129]

Melhs de nul autre chantador Car plus trai mos cors ves Amor E melhs sui faitz a son coman.

("It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart draws nearer to love and I am better made for love's command.") The troubadour _amor_, especially in its Italian development, eventually attained the moral power of the _minne_; but in its early stages, it was a personal and selfish influence. The stanza form and rime distribution of the minnesinger poems continually betray Provencal influence: the principle of tripart.i.tion is constantly followed and the arrangement of rimes is often a repet.i.tion of that adopted in troubadour stanzas.

Friedrich von Hausen, the Count Rudolf von Fenis, Heinrich von Morungen and others sometimes translate almost literally from troubadour poetry, though these imitations do not justify the lines of Uhland.

In den Thalern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen, Kind des Fruhlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen.

Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and "chansons de toile." Provencal influence here was inevitable. It is apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel [130]

Provencal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact that Provencal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics.

Provencal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provencal influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter, Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the _De arte honeste amandi_ of Andre le Chapelain, written at the outset of the thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chretien de Troyes.

The Provencal school in Northern France began during the latter half of the twelfth century. The _chanson_ properly so called is naturally most strongly represented: but the Provencal forms, the _tencon_ (Prov.

_tenso_) and a variant of it, the _jeu-parti_ (Prov. _jocs part.i.tz_ or _partimens_) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called, because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that [131]

he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the contestants often left the decision in an _envoi_ to one or more arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of these _envois_ gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love,"

as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace Brule and the Chatelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre (1201-1253), shared in the Albigeois crusade and thus helped in the destruction of the poetry which he imitated. One of the poems attributed to him by Dante (_De Vulg. El._) belongs to Gace Brule; his love affair with Blanche of Castile is probably legendary. Several crusade songs are attributed to Thibaut among some thirty poems of the kind that remain to us from the output of this school. These crusade poems exhibit the characteristics of their Provencal models: there are exhortations to take the cross in the form of versified sermons; there are also love poems which depict the poet's mind divided between his duty as a crusader and his reluctance to leave his lady; or we find the lady [132]

bewailing her lover's departure, or again, lady and lover lament their approaching separation in alternate stanzas. There is more real feeling in some of these poems than is apparent in the ordinary chanson of the Northern French courtly school: the following stanzas are from a poem by Guiot de Dijon,[34] the lament of a lady for her absent lover--

Chanterai por mon corage Que je vueill reconforter Car avec mon grant damage Ne quier morir n'afoler, Quant de la terra sauvage Ne voi nului retorner Ou cil est qui m'a.s.soage Le cuer, quant j'en oi parler Dex, quant crieront outree, Sire, aidies au pelerin Por cui sui espoentee, Car felon sunt Sarrazin.

De ce sui bone atente Que je son homage pris, E quant la douce ore vente Qui vient de cel douz pas Ou cil est qui m'atalente, Volontiers i tor mon vis: Adont m'est vis que jel sente Par desoz mon mantel gris.

Dex, etc.

"I will sing for my heart which I will comfort, for in spite of my great loss I do not wish to die, and yet I see no one return from the wild [133]

land where he is who calms my heart when I hear mention of him. G.o.d!

when they cry Outre (a pilgrim marching cry), Lord help the pilgrim for whom I tremble, for wicked are the Saracens.

"From this fact have I confidence, that I have received his vows and when the gentle breeze blows which comes from the sweet country where he is whom I desire, readily do I turn my face thither: then I think I feel him beneath my grey mantle."

The idea in the second stanza quoted is borrowed from Bernard de Ventadour--

Quant la douss' aura venta Deves vostre pas.

Vejaire m'es qu'eu senta Un ven de Paradis.

The greater part of this poetry repeats, in another language, the well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated emotion and appealed only to a restricted cla.s.s of the initiated.

Changes in the const.i.tution and customs of society brought this school [134]

to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache Deschamps.

Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject has. .h.i.therto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in orbe." The ma.n.u.scripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I.

(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a Provencal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.[35]

From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant [135]

communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number of Provencals visited England at different times and especially in the reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided for the entry of Provencal influence during the period when a general stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of that age and it was not until the second half of the thirteenth century that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provencal influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry.

But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas, Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly called _sirventes_, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum, Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the [136]

principles of the _tenso_ or _partimen_. The use of equivocal and "derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provencal _trobairitz_; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure coincidence.[36]

En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt E reverdist la matinee E sil oysel chauntent a poynt En temps d'avril en la ramee, Lores est ma dolur dublee Que jeo sui en si dure poynt Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt, Tant me greve la destinee.

Murnes et pensif m'en depart, Que trop me greve la partie; Si n'en puis aler cele part, Que ele n'eyt a sa partie Mon quor tot enter saunz partie.

E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part, E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part A moi est dure la partie.

"In the season when the gra.s.s springs and the morn is green and the birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy is my fate upon me.

"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet [137]

I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of hers, the division is a hard one to me."

This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrain of distinctly popular origin is added to a stanza of courtly and artificial character. Generally, however, there is a freshness and vigour in these poems which may be vainly sought in the products of continental decadence. But Provencal influence, whether exerted directly or indirectly through the Northern French lyric school, is plainly visible in many cases. Of the lyrics found in the important MS. Harleian 2253,[37] "Alysoun" has the same rime scheme as a poem by Gaucelm Faidit: it opens with the conventional appeal to spring; the poet's feelings deprive him of sleep. The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many troubadour formulae: the concluding lines--

He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze, [138]

pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze, heuene he hevede here.

are a troubadour commonplace. Many other cases might be quoted. Hymns and songs to the Virgin exhibit the same characteristics of form. The few Provencal words which became English are interesting;[38] colander or cullender (now a vegetable strainer; Prov. colador), funnel, puncheon, rack, spigot, league, noose are directly derived from Provencal and not through Northern French and are words connected with shipping and the wine trade, the port for which was Bordeaux.

In the year 1323 a society was formed in Toulouse of seven troubadours, the "sobregaya companhia," for the purpose of preserving and encouraging lyric poetry (lo gay saber). The middle cla.s.s of Toulouse seems at all times to have felt an interest in poetry and had already produced such well-known troubadours as Aimeric de Pegulhan, Peire Vidal and Guillem Figueira. The society offered an annual prize of a golden violet for the best _chanso_; other prizes were added at a later date for the best dance song and the best _sirventes_. Compet.i.tors found that songs to the Virgin were given the preference and she eventually became the one subject of these prize compet.i.tions. The society produced a grammatical [139]

work, the Leys d'Amors, under the name of its president, Guillem Molinier, in 1356,[39] no doubt for the reference and instruction of intending compet.i.tors. The compet.i.tion produced a few admirable poems, but anxiety to preserve the old troubadour style resulted generally in dry and stilted compositions. The _Academie des jeux floraux_[40]

altered the character of the compet.i.tion by admitting French poems after 1694. At the end of the sixteenth century, Provencal poetry underwent a revival; in our own time, poets such as Jasmin, Aubanel, Roumanille and above all, Mistral, have raised their language from a patois to a literary power. The work of the felibres has been to synthetise the best elements of the various local dialects and to create a literary language by a process not wholly dissimilar to that described at the outset of this book. But the old troubadour spirit had died long before; it had accomplished its share in the history of European literature and had given an impulse to the development of lyric poetry, the effects of which are perceptible even at the present day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES

LITERARY HISTORY

F. Diez, _Leben und Werke der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., re-edited by K.

Bartsch, Leipsic, 1882. _Die Poesie der Troubadours_, 2nd edit., re-edited by K. Bartsch, Leipsic, 1883.