PROVENCAL LITERATURE.
[Sidenote: Langue d'Oc.]
The Romance language, spoken in the country now called France, has two
great divisions, the Langue d'Oc and the Langue d'Oil[44], which stand
to one another in hardly more intimate relationship than the first of
them does to Spanish or Italian. In strictness, the Langue d'Oc ought
not to be called French at all, inasmuch as those who spoke it applied
that term exclusively to Northern speech, calling their own Limousin, or
Provencal, or Auvergnat. At the time, moreover, when Provencal
literature flourished, the districts which contributed to it were in
very loose relationship with the kingdom of France; and when that
relationship was drawn tighter, Provencal literature began to wither and
die. Yet it is not possible to avoid giving some sketch of the literary
developments of Southern France in any history of French literature, as
well because of the connection which subsisted between the two branches,
as because of the altogether mistaken views which have been not
unfrequently held as to that connection. Lord Macaulay[45] speaks of
Provencal in the twelfth century as 'the only one of the vernacular
languages of Europe which had yet been extensively employed for literary
purposes;' and the ignorance of their older literature which, until a
very recent period, distinguished Frenchmen has made it common for
writers in France to speak of the Troubadours as their own literary
ancestors. We have already seen that this supposition as applied to Epic
poetry is entirely false; we shall see hereafter that, except as regards
some lyrical developments, and those not the most characteristic, it is
equally ill-grounded as to other kinds of composition. But the
literature of the South is quite interesting enough in itself without
borrowing what does not belong to it, and it exhibits not a few
characteristics which were afterwards blended with those of the
literature of the kingdom at large.
[Sidenote: Range and characteristics.]
The domain of the Langue d'Oc is included between two lines, the
northernmost of which starts from the Atlantic coast at or about the
Charente, follows the northern boundaries of the old provinces of
Perigord, Limousin, Auvergne, and Dauphine, and overlaps Savoy and a
small portion of Switzerland. The southern limit is formed by the
Pyrenees, the Gulf of Lyons, and the Alps, while Catalonia is overlapped
to the south-west just as Savoy is taken in on the north-east. This wide
district gives room for not a few dialectic varieties with which we need
not here busy ourselves. The general language is distinguished from
northern French by the survival to a greater degree of the vowel
character of Latin. The vocabulary is less dissolved and corroded by
foreign influence, and the inflections remain more distinct. The result,
as in Spanish and Italian, is a language more harmonious, softer, and
more cunningly cadenced than northern French, but endowed with far less
vigour, variety, and freshness. The separate development of the two
tongues must have begun at a very early period. A few early monuments,
such as the Passion of Christ[46] and the Mystery of the Ten
Virgins[47], contain mixed dialects. But the earliest piece of
literature in pure Provencal is assigned in its original form to the
tenth century, and is entirely different from northern French[48]. It is
arranged in _laisses_ and assonanced. The uniformity, however, of the
terminations of Provencal makes the assonances more closely approach
rhyme than is the case in northern poetry. Of the eleventh century the
principal monuments are a few charters, a translation of part of St.
John's Gospel, and several religious pieces in prose and verse. Not
till the extreme end of this century does the Troubadour begin to make
himself heard. The earliest of these minstrels whose songs we possess is
William IX, Count of Poitiers. With him Provencal literature, properly
so called, begins.
[Sidenote: Periods of Provencal Literature.]
The admirable historian of Provencal literature, Karl Bartsch, divides
its products into three periods; the first reaching to the end of the
eleventh century, and comprising the beginnings and experiments of the
language as a literary medium; the second covering the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, the most flourishing time of the Troubadour
poetry, and possessing also specimens of many other forms of literary
composition; the third, the period of decadence, including the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and remarkable chiefly for some
religious literature, and for the contests of the Toulouse school of
poets. In a complete history of Provencal literature notice would also
have to be taken of the fitful and spasmodic attempts of the last four
centuries to restore the dialect to the rank of a literary language,
attempts which have never been made with greater energy and success than
in our own time[49], but which hardly call for notice here.
[Sidenote: First Period.]
The most remarkable works of the first period have been already alluded
to. This period may possibly have produced original epics of the Chanson
form, though, as has been pointed out, no indications of any such exist,
except in the solitary instance of _Girartz de Rossilho_. The important
poem of Auberi of Besancon on Alexander is lost, except the first
hundred verses. It is thought to be the oldest vernacular poem on the
subject, and is in a mixed dialect partaking of the forms both of north
and south. Hymns, sometimes in mixed Latin and Provencal, sometimes
entirely in the latter, are found early. A single prose monument remains
in the shape of a fragmentary translation of the Gospel of St. John. But
by far the most important example of this period is the _Boethius_. The
poem, as we have it, extends to 238 decasyllabic verses arranged on the
fashion of a Chanson de Geste, and dates from the eleventh century, or
at latest from the beginning of the twelfth, but is thought to be a
rehandling of another poem which may have been written nearly two
centuries earlier. The narrative part of the work is a mere
introduction, the bulk of it consisting of moral reflections taken from
the _De Consolatione_.
[Sidenote: Second Period.]
It is only in the second period that Provencal literature becomes of
real importance. The stimulus which brought it to perfection has been
generally taken to be that of the crusades, aided by the great
development of peaceful civilisation at home which Provence and
Languedoc then saw. The spirit of chivalry rose and was diffused all
over Europe at this time, and in some of its aspects it received a
greater welcome in Provence than anywhere else. For the mystical, the
adventurous, and other sides of the chivalrous character, we must look
to the North, and especially to the Arthurian legends, and the Romans
d'Aventures which they influenced. But, for what has been well called
'la passion souveraine, aveugle, idolatre, qui eclipse tous les autres
sentiments, qui dedaigne tous les devoirs, qui se moque de l'enfer et du
ciel, qui absorbe et possede l'ame entiere[50],' we must come to the
literature of the south of France. Passion is indeed not the only motive
of the Troubadours, but it is their favourite motive, and their most
successful. The connection of this predominant instinct with the
elaborate and unmatched attention to form which characterises them is a
psychological question very interesting to discuss, but hardly suitable
to these pages. It is sufficient here to say that these various motives
and influences produced the Troubadours and their literature. This
literature was chiefly lyrical in form, but also included many other
kinds, of which a short account may be given.
_Girartz de Rossilho_ belongs in all probability to the earliest years
of the period, though the only Provencal manuscript in existence dates
from the end of the thirteenth century. In the third decade of the
twelfth Guillem Bechada had written a poem on the conquest of Jerusalem
by the Crusaders, which, however, has perished, though the northern
cycle of the Chevalier au Cygne may represent it in part. Guillem of
Poitiers also wrote a historical poem on the Crusades with similar ill
fate. But the most famous of historical poems in Provencal has
fortunately been preserved to us. This is the chronicle of the
Albigensian War, written in Alexandrines by William of Tudela and an
anonymous writer. We also possess a rhymed chronicle of the war of
1276-77 in Navarre, by Guillem Anelier. In connection with the Arthurian
cycle there exists a Provencal Roman d'Aventures, entitled _Jaufre_. The
testimony of Wolfram von Eschenbach would appear to be decisive as to
the existence of a Provencal continuation of Chrestien's _Percevale_ by
a certain Kiot or Guyot, but nothing more is known of this. _Blandin de
Cornoalha_ is another existing romance, and so is the far more
interesting _Flamenca_, a lively picture of manners dating from the
middle of the thirteenth century. In shorter and slighter narrative
poems Provencal is still less fruitful, though Raimon Vidal, Arnaut de
Zurcasses, and one or two other writers have left work of this kind. A
very few narrative poems of a sacred character are also found, and
vestiges of drama may be traced. But, as we have said, the real
importance of the period consists in its lyrical poetry, the poetry of
the Troubadours. The names of 460 separate poets are given, and 251
pieces have come down to us without the names of their writers. We have
here no space for dwelling on individual persons; it is sufficient to
mention as the most celebrated Arnaut Daniel, Bernart de Ventadorn,
Bertran de Born, Cercamon, Folquet de Marseilha, Gaucelm Faidit, Guillem
of Poitiers, Guillem de Cabestanh, Guiraut de Borneilh, Guiraut Riquier,
Jaufre Rudel, Marcabrun, Peire Cardenal, Peire Vidal, Peirol, Raimbaut
de Vaqueiras, Sordel.
[Sidenote: Forms of Troubadour Poetry.]
The chief forms in which these poets exercised their ingenuity were as
follows. The simplest and oldest was called simply _vers_; it had few
artificial rules, was written in octosyllabic lines, and arranged in
stanzas. From this was developed the _canso_, the most usual of
Provencal forms. Here the rhymes were interlaced, and the alternation of
masculine and feminine by degrees observed. The length of the lines
varied. Both these forms were consecrated to love verse; the Sirvente,
on the other hand, is panegyrical or satirical, its meaning being
literally 'Song of Service.' It consisted for the most part of short
stanzas, simply rhyme, and corresponding exactly to one another. The
_planh_ or Complaint was a dirge or funeral song written generally in
decasyllabics. The _tenson_ or debate is in dialogue form, and when
there are more than two disputants is called _torneijamens_. The
narrative Romance existed in Provencal as well as the _balada_ or
three-stanza poem, usually with refrain. The _retroensa_ is a longer
refrain poem of later date, but in neither is the return of the same
rhyme in each stanza necessarily observed, as in the French _ballade_.
The _alba_ is a leave-taking poem at morning, and the _serena_ (if it
can be called a form, for scarcely more than a single example exists) a
poem of remembrance and longing at eventide. The _pastorela_, which had
numerous sub-divisions, explains itself. The _descort_ is a poem
something like the irregular ode, which varies the structure of its
stanzas. The _sextine_, in six stanzas of identical and complicated
versification, is the stateliest of all Provencal forms. Not merely the
rhymes but the words which rhyme are repeated on a regular scheme. The
_breu-doble_ (double-short) is a curious little form on three rhymes,
two of which are repeated twice in three four-lined stanzas, and given
once in a concluding couplet, while the third finishes each quatrain.
Other forms are often mentioned and given, but they are not of much
consequence.
The prose of the best period of Provencal literature is of little
importance. Its most considerable remains, besides religious works and a
few scientific and grammatical treatises, are a prose version of the
_Chanson des Albigeois_, and an interesting collection of contemporary
lives of the Troubadours.
[Sidenote: Third Period.]
The productiveness of the last two centuries of Provencal literature
proper has been spoken of by the highest living authority as at most an
aftermath. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Arnaut Vidal
wrote a Roman d'Aventures entitled _Guillem de la Barra_. This poet,
like most of the other literary names of the period, belongs to the
school of Toulouse, a somewhat artificial band of writers who flourished
throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, held poetical
tournaments on the first Sunday in May, invented or adopted the famous
phrase _gai saber_ for their pursuits, and received, if they were
successful, the equally famous Golden Violet and minor trinkets of the
same sort. The brotherhood directed itself by an art of poetry in which
the half-forgotten traditions of more spontaneous times were gathered
up.
To this period, and to its latter part, the Waldensian writings entitled
_La Nobla Leyczon_, to which ignorance and sectarian enthusiasm had
given a much earlier date, are now assigned. There is also a
considerable mass of miscellaneous literature, but nothing of great
value, or having much to do with the only point which is here of
importance, the distinctive character of Provencal literature, and the
influence of that literature upon the development of letters in France
generally. With a few words on these two points this chapter may be
concluded.
[Sidenote: Literary Relation of Provencal and French.]
[Sidenote: Defects of Provencal Literature.]
It may be regarded as not proven that any initial influence was
exercised over northern French literature by the literature of the
South, and more than this, it may be held to be unlikely that any such
influence was exerted. For in the first place all the more important
developments of the latter, the Epic, the Drama, the Fabliau, are
distinctly of northern birth, and either do not exist in Provencal at
all, or exist for the most part as imitations of northern originals.
With regard to lyric poetry the case is rather different. The earliest
existing lyrics of the North are somewhat later than the earliest songs
of the Troubadours, and no great lyrical variety or elegance is reached
until the Troubadours' work had, by means of Thibaut de Champagne and
others, had an opportunity of penetrating into northern France. On the
other hand, the forms which finished lyric adopted in the North are by
no means identical with those of the Troubadours. The scientific and
melodious figures of the Ballade, the Rondeau, the Chant-royal, the
Rondel, and the Villanelle, cannot by any ingenuity be deduced from
Canso or Balada, Retroensa or Breu-Doble. The Alba and the Pastorela
agree in subject with the Aubade and the Pastourelle, but have no
necessary or obvious connection of form. It would, however, be almost as
great a mistake to deny the influence of the spirit of Provencal
literature over French, as to regard the two as standing in the
position of mother and daughter. The Troubadours undoubtedly preceded
their Northern brethren in scrupulous attention to poetical form, and in
elaborate devices for ensuring such attention. They preceded them too in
recognising that quality in poetry for which there is perhaps no other
word than elegance. There can be little doubt that they sacrificed to
these two divinities, elegance and the formal limitation of verse,
matters almost equally if not more important. The motives of their poems
are few, and the treatment of those motives monotonous. Love, war, and
personal enmity, with a certain amount of more or less frigid didactics,
almost complete the list. In dealing with the first and the most
fruitful, they fell into the deadly error of stereotyping their manner
of expression. Objection has sometimes been taken to the 'eternal
hawthorn and nightingale' of Provencal poetry. The objection would
hardly be fatal, if this eternity did not extend to a great many things
besides hawthorn and nightingales. In the later Troubadours especially,
the fault which has been urged against French dramatic literature just
before the Romantic movement was conspicuously anticipated. Every mood,
every situation of passion, was catalogued and analysed, and the proper
method of treatment, with similes and metaphors complete, was assigned.
There was no freshness and no variety, and in the absence of variety and
freshness, that of vigour was necessarily implied. It may even be
doubted whether the influence of this hot-house verse on the more
natural literature of the North was not injurious rather than
beneficial. Certain it is that the artificial poetry of the Trouveres
went (in the persons of the Rondeau and Ballade-writing Rhetoriqueurs of
the fifteenth century) the same way and came to the same end, that its
elder sister had already trodden and reached with the competitors for
the Violet, the Eglantine, and the Marigold of Toulouse.
FOOTNOTES:
[44] _Oc_ and _oil_ (_hoc_ and _hoc illud_), the respective terms
indicating affirmation. In this chapter the information given is based
on a smaller acquaintance at first hand with the subject than is the
case in the chapters on French proper. Herr Karl Bartsch has been the
guide chiefly followed.
[45] Essay on Ranke's History of the Popes.
[46] See chap. i.
[47] See chap. x.
[48] The poem on Boethius. See chap. i.
[49] By the school of the so-called _Felibres_, of whom Mistral and
Aubanel are the chief.
[50] Moland and Hericault's Introduction to _Aucassin et Nicolette_.
Paris, 1856.