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.]