[Illustration]
THE TROUBADOURS
O for a draught of vintage that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
KEATS
THE TROUBADOURS
A HISTORY OF
_PROVENÇAL LIFE AND LITERATURE IN
THE MIDDLE AGES_
BY
FRANCIS HUEFFER
[Illustration]
London
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1878
[_The right of translation is reserved_]
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
PREFACE.
Articles by the present writer on the subject of Provençal life and
literature have appeared off and on in the ‘New Quarterly Magazine,’
the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine,’ ‘Macmillan’s Magazine,’ and the late ‘North
British Review.’ But this book is not a reprint of essays, although
some of the materials formerly used have been re-embodied in it. It
claims on the contrary to be the first continuous and at all adequate
account in the English language of the literary epoch which forms its
subject. For I cannot concede that name to a book on ‘The Troubadours,
their Loves and Lyrics,’ published some years ago; for reasons which it
is not my province here to state. And yet, excepting only the English
version of the unsatisfactory book which the Abbé Millot compiled from
St. Palaye’s excellent materials, by that indefatigable translator and
abridger in the last century, Mrs. Dobson, that volume is the only work
on the Troubadours which England can boast of, at least as far as I am
aware,—and of any important contribution to the subject I should be
aware. By the side of the admirable criticisms of old French literature
which we owe to English authors from the days of Cary and the ‘London
Magazine’ to those of Mr. Andrew Lang and other gifted writers of the
present time, this neglect of the _langue d’oc_ appears all the more
glaring, especially when one considers the further fact that many of
the districts in which the troubadours flourished were at the time when
they flourished attached to the English crown. The amount of historical,
and more especially English historical, material to be gleaned from the
biographies and the works of the troubadours is indeed of the utmost
value to the student.
In the composition of this book I have chiefly depended on the original
poetry of the troubadours, but it is far from my wish to deny the
services I owe to the works of French and German scholars, such as
Raynouard, Francisque Michel, Dr. Mahn, and Diez, the founder of the
modern school of Romance philology, a school which counts amongst its
members Professors Bartsch, Tobler, Holland, in Germany, and MM. Paul
Meyer and Gaston Paris in France; to mention only a few of the most
distinguished names. Monographs of single troubadours, especially those
of Peire Vidal by Professor Bartsch, and of the Monk of Montaudon by
Dr. Philipson, have been of great use to me. I may also refer to my own
critical edition of Guillem de Cabestanh’s works. Beyond this general
acknowledgment I have not thought it necessary to encumber these pages
with continuous notes of reference.
For my book is not intended as a scientific and exhaustive treatment of
the subject. The time for that has not yet come in England. My present
purpose was rather to attract learners than to teach more or less
proficient students. In plain language I wished, in the first instance,
to write a readable book, and according to general prejudice such an
achievement is impossible on the scientific principle. For scholarly
purposes, I have, however, added a technical portion, chiefly concerned
with metrical questions, in which the importance of Dante’s scientific
treatise for the classification of Provençal metres, pointed out by
Professor Boehmer, has been for the first time proved by systematic
application. The style and manner of this purely scientific portion
sufficiently distinguish it from the remainder of the book. Still an
additional warning to the unwary reader may not seem superfluous.
As another warning rather than encouragement to the same ingenious
person I have added some interlinear versions of Provençal poems. It is
addressed to those easy-going amateur philologists who believe themselves
able to master a language by simply plunging into its literature without
any previous study of grammar or dictionary. The similarity of Provençal
to the Latin and the more familiar Romance languages offers especially
dangerous temptations in that respect. To test the truth of my remarks,
I would ask the reader to attempt one of the poems at the end of this
book with the sole aid of intelligent ‘guessing,’ and afterwards to
compare the result of his conjecture with the literal version. He will
then come to the conclusion that the _langue d’oc_, owing chiefly to the
number of its homonymous words and the somewhat unsettled condition of
its grammatical structure, is the most difficult, as it is the earliest,
amongst languages sprung from the Latin stock.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PART I.
_GENERAL._
CHAPTER I.
THE LANGUE D’OC.
Decline of classic language 3
Its mixture with German dialects 3
Derivation of Romance languages 4
Provençal branch 5
Its limits 5
Its relations to the sister languages 6
Its dialects 7
Its perfection by the Troubadours 8
Its decline 8
CHAPTER II.
EARLY POPULAR EPICS.
The North-French epic 10
The cycles of Arthur and Charlemagne 11
The popular epic chanted 11
Ferabras 12
Girart de Rossilho 12
CHAPTER III.
THE ARTISTIC EPIC.
Roman de Jauffre 14
Flamenca 15
CHAPTER IV.
OTHER NARRATIVE AND DIDACTIC POEMS.
Castia-Gilos 27
Lay of the Parrot 27
Essenhamen de la Donzela 28
Rhymed chronicle of Navarre 28
The Song of the Crusade 30
Tale of the Heretic 31
Legends 35
Boethius 35
Corbiac’s Tezaur 37
Breviari d’Amor 37
The biographies of the Troubadours 39
Their authors 39
CHAPTER V.
APOCRYPHA.
Provençal literature chiefly lyrical 42
Fauriel’s theory 42
Aversion to epic poems 42
Arnaut Daniel an epic poet 43
His praise by Dante 45
His lost epic of ‘Lancelot’ 47
His obscurity 48
An anecdote from his life 49
CHAPTER VI.
SOCIAL POSITION OF PROVENÇAL POETS.
Joglars and Troubadours 52
Troubadours exclusively lyrical poets 52
Their social origin 53
The sons of citizens 54
Priests 55
Reigning Princes 55
Richard I. of England 56
William IX. of Poitiers 57
Protectors of the Troubadours 58
Reward of the Troubadours 59
Their friendship with princes 60
Intercourse with noble ladies 60
Frequently innocent 61
CHAPTER VII.
THE JOGLAR.
Singers and musical composers 63
Distinction between troubadours and joglars 64
Joglars chiefly narrative poets 67
Guiraut Riquier’s attempted reform 68
His ‘Suplicatio’ 71
CHAPTER VIII.
TRACES OF POPULAR SONG—THE PASTORELA.
Guiraut Riquier’s pastorelas 77
Gui d’Uisel’s pastorelas 84
Marcabrun’s pastorelas 85
CHAPTER IX.
OTHER POPULAR FORMS.
The alba 86
Its oldest form dramatic 87
Guiraut de Bornelh’s alba 87
The common form of the alba 88
Alba by an anonymous poet 91
The serena 93
CHAPTER X.
THE BALADA.
Its age 94
Artistic and popular 95
Subject of the balada love 96
Its musical accompaniment 97
‘Coindeta soi’ 98
The dansa 99
CHAPTER XI.
ARTIFICIAL FORMS OF POETRY.
Comparative simplicity of North-French forms 100
Arnaut Daniel inventor of the sestina 102
Imitated by Dante 103
Metrical scheme of sestina 103
Modern imitations 105
Origin of the sonnet 105
The descort 106
Prose interludes 106
The breu doble 109
The retroensa 110
CHAPTER XII.
THE TENSO.
Form of the tenso 112
Definition of the Leys d’Amors 113
‘Turn and turn about’ 114
Actual discussions 115
Fictitious disputants 115
Topics of discussion 116
Tenso between Bernart de Ventadorn and Peirol 117
Triple tenso 121
Savaric de Mauleon 122
Personal tenso 124
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SIRVENTES.
Its want of formal distinction 127
Its influence on men’s minds 128
General remarks on its tone 128
Etymology of the word 133
Chief divisions of the sirventes 134
The planh 134
Crusader’s song 136
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CANZO.
The canzo representative of Provençal poetry 142
Its frequent monotony 143
Owing to over-elaboration 144
Its beauties 145
Its spontaneity 146
The vers 146
PART II.
_BIOGRAPHICAL._
CHAPTER XV.
GUILLEM DE CABESTANH.
His Provençal biography 152
Discrepancies of other accounts 159
Historical identity of Guillem de Cabestanh 160
The origin of fictitious additions 160
The fatal canzo 161
The story of the eaten heart possibly of mythical origin 162
Morals and manners of medieval Provence 163
One of Guillem’s canzos 165
CHAPTER XVI.
PEIRE VIDAL.
His Provençal biography 169
His eccentricities 170
His love for Viscountess Azalais 171
His journey to Palestine 174
A canzo written during the journey 174
His love for Loba 176
‘Emperor of Greece’ 178
His friendship with King Alfonso 179
A crusader’s song by Peire 182
His death 183
CHAPTER XVII.
BERTRAN DE BORN.
A type of the warlike baron 184
Historic retrospect 185
Bertran’s attachment to Prince Henry of England 187
He instigates the Princes to rebellion against Henry II. 188
CHAPTER XVIII.
BERTRAN AND RICHARD COUNT OF POITOU.
The causes of their quarrel 191
Bertran’s brother Constantine 192
A sirventes by Bertran 193
His connection with the rebellion of Henry II.’s sons 195
Young Henry’s death 199
Bertran’s ‘Complaint’ 200
CHAPTER XIX.
SIEGE OF AUTAFORT—BERTRAN’S DEATH.
King Alfonso’s treachery 203
Fall of the castle 204
Bertran’s meeting with King Henry 204
His friendship with Richard Cœur de Lion 206
Bertran’s canzos 207
His love affairs 208
His death 211
CHAPTER XX.
THE MONK OF MONTAUDON.
His youth 213
His worldly life 214
His office at Puy Ste. Marie 215
His ‘likes and dislikes’ 215
His satires on women 218
His cynicism 220
His satire on the poets 222
CHAPTER XXI.
THE REFORMATION OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
Wide-spread heresy 228
Its chief seat in the South of France 229
The Albigeois and Vaudois 230
The Noble Lesson 232
Doctrines of the Albigenses 232
Great teachers amongst them 235
Noble converts to their sect 235
Raimon VI. of Toulouse 236
Pope Innocent III. his antagonist 236
The first crusade 239
Victory of the Church 239
CHAPTER XXII.
THE EPIC OF THE CRUSADE.
Its authorship 242
Discrepancies between the two parts 243
Description of Simon de Montfort’s death 245
Council of the Lateran 247
The Battle of Muret 249
CHAPTER XXIII.
FOLQUET OF MARSEILLES.
Most troubadours anti-Papal 254
Folquet’s birthplace 255
His love for Azalais 256
A canzo addressed to her 257
Her jealousy 258
Her death 260
He enters the order of Citeaux in consequence 260
His fanaticism 261
CHAPTER XXIV.
GUILLEM FIGUEIRA AND PEIRE CARDINAL.
Guillem Figueira ‘the hater of priests’ 263
His cynicism and love of low life 263
His sirventes against ‘Rome’ 264
Peire Cardinal represents a higher type 265
His life 265
His high moral tone and pessimism 266
A fable 266
His praise of Raimon VI. 268
His accusations of the priests 268
A theological sirventes 270
CHAPTER XXV.
LADIES AND LADY TROUBADOURS.
The lady of Provence 273
Her polite education 274
Her position in society 277
Eleanor, wife of Henry II., the patroness of Bernart de Ventadorn 279
The poems of lady troubadours subjective 282
CHAPTER XXVI.
BEATRICE DE DIE.
The representative lady troubadour 283
Her love for Rambaut of Orange 283
She imitates his style 284
Her tenso written in conjunction with Rambaut 286
Her song of resignation 288
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE COURTS OF LOVE.
Their fictitious character 291
Raynouard’s theory untenable 292
Andreas Capellanus 294
PART III.
_TECHNICAL._
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE ORIGIN OF RHYME.
Definition of rhythm 299
Metrical system of Greek, of Roman, and of early Teutonic poems 300
Different meanings of arsis and thesis 300
The leonine hexameter 302
Rhyme independent of metrical accent 303
Known to ancient poets 303
Wilhelm Grimm’s history of the rhyme 303
Examples from Virgil and Horace 304
Rhyme destructive of the rhythmical principle 306
Influence of rhythm on Provençal poetry 308
CHAPTER XXIX.
RHYTHM.
Stability of metrical rules in Provençal poetry 311
Las Leys d’Amors 311
Dante’s ‘De Vulgari Eloquio’ applicable to Provençal poems 313
The limits of the length of a verse 313
Verses most frequently used 316
The decasyllabic verse (endecasyllabus) 318
The cæsura 318
In ‘Boethius’ and epical poems 320
The lyrical cæsura 323
CHAPTER XXX.
RHYME.
Definition of the Leys d’Amors 326
Accordansa sonan, consonan, and leonisme 326
Rime riche 328
The position of rhyme (‘rims ordinals’) 330
Artificialities 331
Connection of stanzas by means of rhyme 333
The ‘clavis’ 335
Guillem de Cabestanh’s canzo ‘Li douz cossire’ 336
Further artificialities 337
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE STANZA.
Its formation 340
Dante’s work of great value 340
Definition of Leys d’Amors unsatisfactory 341
Musical considerations 342
Pedes and cauda 344
Frons and versus 345
Pedes and versus 347
Frons and cauda 347
Concatenatio 348
The tornada 351
Metrical analysis of a canzo by Bernart de Ventadorn 353
CHAPTER XXXII.
SOME INTERLINEAR VERSIONS.
Canzo by Guillem de Cabestanh (‘Li douz cossire’) 358
Idyll by Marcabrun (‘A la fontana’) 364
_PART I._
GENERAL
CHAPTER I.
THE LANGUE D’OC.
When about the end of the fourth century (A.D.) Germanic and Asiatic
hordes began to invade the Western Empire with more and more irresistible
force, the refined voice of Roman eloquence and poetry was soon drowned
by the noise of barbarous tongues. Even before this irruption of new
elements the language of the Romans had lost much of its classic purity.
It was no longer the idiom of Cicero and of Horace. Familiar phrases,
provincialisms and barbarisms had found their way into the written
language. Thence it is that we find the illiterate expressions of the
comic characters in Plautus and Terence occupying a place as legitimate
words in the dictionaries of the Romance idioms.
When with the already decaying language of the fourth and fifth centuries
the variegated dialects of the conquering barbarians were mingled,
confusion became worse confounded and linguistic chaos seemed at hand.
It need not be said that for artistic purposes this mongrel type of
speech became totally unfit. But in the same measure as the healthy,
though uncultured, peoples of the North were destined to revivify the
old institutions of Roman political life, their languages also added
new vitality to the decaying forms of Roman speech. The chaos was a
preparatory stage of amalgamation and new development. For the formation
of languages, like any other natural process, is ruled by a strict law of
decay and growth.
In the derivation of the Romance dialects from the common Latin
mother-tongue, two main principles are observable. The German invaders,
like all barbarous conquerors, soon adopted the speech of their more
civilised subjects; but they adhered to certain terms and denominations
of objects particularly familiar or dear to them. Thus the terms for
warfare and many of its chief implements were characteristically retained
by them. The French _guerre_ and the Italian _guerra_ are identical
with the old High German _werra_, our _war_; and the title of highest
dignity in the French army of the present day, _Maréchal_ (mediæval Latin
_mariscalcus_), means nothing but _shalc_ (groom) of the mares.
The second cause of transformation and re-formation already inherent
in the Latin language of the second and third centuries (A.C.) is what
philologists term the analytic or dissolving principle. Synthetic or
primitive languages indicate the declension of a noun or the conjugation
of a verb by a modification of the word itself; analytical languages by
the addition of other words. Thus, _patris_ in Latin answers to our
three words _of the father_, or to the French _de le_ (contracted _du_)
_père_. The addition of the article subsequently makes the modification
of the noun itself superfluous; hence _père_ answers to the four
modifications of the Roman _pater_. But the same tendency existed in the
late-Latin speech itself, and the _de le père_ presupposes a _de illo
patre_. In an analogous manner, the _j’ai fait_ or _ho fatto_ of the
French and Italian languages is beyond doubt derived from a Latin _habeo
factum_, instead of the simpler and older _feci_.
Of the various languages of Latin growth, the Provençal was the first to
attain to an independent characteristic type of expression. The limits of
its domain have been variously defined; but it extended far beyond the
boundaries of the later Provence, even beyond those of modern France,
comprising, for instance, parts of Spain, such as Aragon, Valencia,
Catalonia, and the Balearic Islands. Its northern limit may be roughly
stated to be the line drawn from the mouth of the Gironde to that of the
Saone. The political autonomy of the south of France, which secured it
from the international and national troubles of its northern neighbour,
greatly favoured peaceful progress and enjoyment of life. Moreover,
the rich, bountiful soil, and the prosperity and natural gaiety of the
inhabitants, were conducive to the early growth of poetic feeling; and
it may be assumed that long before the time of the Troubadours, rustic
lays, accompanied by the sounds of the viola, used to enliven the harvest
homes of Provençal villages. Of this popular epoch no record now
remains, except the language itself—at once the result and embodiment
of a nation’s longing for utterance. The generic term applied to the
language of southern France seems to have been ‘Provençal,’ in allusion
no doubt to the Provincia Romana of the Cæsars. For this term we have
the weighty authority of Dante, also that of an old Provençal grammar
called ‘Donatus Provincialis.’ The Troubadours themselves, however, never
use this perhaps more scientific denomination. They generally speak of
Lengua Romana, a term which of course applies with equal propriety to
all the languages derived from the Latin. But what do poets care about
philological distinctions? Another term, _langue d’oc_, afterwards
transferred to a province of France, was undoubtedly known in the middle
ages. It is derived from the affirmative particle _oc_, i.e. ‘yes,’ and
chiefly used to distinguish Provençal from its sister-languages, the
_lingua di sì_ (Italian) and the _langue d’oïl_, (northern French, _oïl_
= _oui_). From the latter it was a totally distinct language both in
grammar and pronunciation, quite as distinct, for instance, as Portuguese
from Spanish, or Dutch from English. On the strength of the latter
parallel the much-mooted question as to the possibility of conversation
between Trouvère and Troubadour may perhaps receive some new light from
an adventure of the late Mr. Buckle, who, while travelling in a railway
carriage in Holland, addressed a gentleman in the language of the
country, but received after a time the polite answer that he, the Dutch
gentleman, was sorry he did not understand—Italian.
The _langue d’oc_ was again subdivided into numerous provincial dialects,
but of these little or no trace appears in the songs of the Troubadours.
For they were court poets, and the idiom they used a court language,
spoken in its purity by no one beyond the magic circle of polite society.
It seems, however, that the dialects of Limosin and the neighbouring
districts, and of Provence proper, showed the nearest approach to this
language of poets and courtiers. Such at least is the decided opinion
of the grammarian and poet Raimon Vidal, not himself a native of those
parts. ‘Every person,’ he says, ‘who wants to produce or understand
poetry, ought to know, first of all, that none is the natural and proper
accent of our language but that of Limosin, Provence, Auvergne, and
Quercy. Therefore I tell you, that when I speak of Limosin, you must
understand all these countries and those that are near them or lie
between them; and all people born or brought up in those parts have the
natural and correct accent.’
The origin of the Provençal language can of course not be referred to a
particular year nor even to a particular century. Its development was
gradual and slow. But it is a remarkable fact, that after it had once
taken literary form and substance, no signs of change or further growth
are noticeable. Two centuries in the German or English, or indeed any
living language, constitute enormous differences as regards phraseology,
orthography, and grammatical structure. Johnson had difficulties in fully
understanding Shakespeare, a modern German is puzzled by many expressions
in Luther’s Bible; and this, after these languages had become fixed by
the introduction of printing, and a generally acknowledged standard of
grammatical regularity. But the first troubadour known to us, Guillem of
Poitiers, born in 1071, uses exactly the same grammar, the same structure
of sentences, and even in all essential points the same poetic diction,
as his last successor two hundred years after him.[1] The cause of this
unusual stability must be looked for in the fact already pointed out,
that the Provençal was not, strictly speaking, a living language used
by all, and for all purposes, but the exclusive speech of an exclusive
class, reserved moreover for the expression of courteous love and
chivalry. Even where, for the purposes of satire and personal invective,
the terms of low life are introduced, they have to submit to the strict
rules of grammar and metre.
At the end of the thirteenth century the _langue d’oc_, as a means of
poetic utterance at least, disappears again, as suddenly almost as it
had emerged from obscurity. Learned societies and scholarly poets and
writers vainly tried to keep alive the interest which had vanished with
the last of the knightly singers. _Jeux floraux_ were started, and golden
primroses rewarded the successful efforts of learned competitors. But
the true life of poetry was gone. By the crusade against the Albigeois
and the subsequent conquest of the French south by the north, the spirit
of the Provençal nobility had been broken. No lordly castles invited,
no gifts encouraged the Troubadour, and by his silence all vitality and
zest was lost to the _langue d’oc_, which henceforth degenerated into a
common patois; the rapid intrusion of northern French idioms consequent
on the political events alluded to accelerating its final doom—final,
for all the attempts at reviving the old splendour of the _langue d’oc_
have as yet proved abortive. The patois of Mistral’s _Mireïo_ has little
in common with the language of the mediæval singers, and his gifted
disciples’ strenuous efforts stand little chance against the crushing
influence of an idiom formed by Voltaire’s prose and Alfred de Musset’s
poetry.