[486] I am quite aware, that, in the important passage already cited from Mendez Silva, on the first acting of plays in 1492, we have the words, “Año de 1492 comenzaron en Castilla las compañías á representar _publicamente_ comedias de Juan de la Enzina”; but what the word _publicamente_ was intended to mean is shown by the words that follow: “_festejando con ellas á D. Fadrique de Toledo, Enriquez Almirante de Castilla, y á Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza segundo Duque del Infantado._” So that the representations in the halls and chapels of these great houses were accounted _public_ representations. But though men like Juan de la Enzina, Gil Vicente, and Naharro had turned their thoughts towards dramatic composition, they seem to have had no idea of founding a popular national drama. For this we must look to the next period; since, as late as the end of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, there is no trace of such a theatre in Spain. CHAPTER XVI. PROVENÇAL LITERATURE IN SPAIN.--PROVENCE.--BURGUNDIANS.--ORIGIN OF THE PROVENÇAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.--BARCELONA.--DIALECT OF CATALONIA.--ARAGON.--TROUBADOUR POETS IN CATALONIA AND ARAGON.--WAR OF THE ALBIGENSES.--PETER THE SECOND.--JAMES THE CONQUEROR AND HIS CHRONICLE.--RAMON MUNTANER AND HIS CHRONICLE.--DECAY OF POETRY IN PROVENCE, AND DECAY OF PROVENÇAL POETRY IN SPAIN.--CATALONIAN DIALECT. Provençal literature appeared in Spain as early as any portion of the Castilian, with which we have thus far been exclusively occupied. Its introduction was natural, and, being intimately connected with the history of political power in both Provence and Spain, can be at once explained, at least so far as to account for its prevalence in the quarter of the Peninsula where, during three centuries, it predominated, and for its large influence throughout the rest of the country, both at that time and afterwards. Provence--or, in other words, that part of the South of France which extends from Italy to Spain, and which originally obtained its name in consequence of the consideration it enjoyed as an early and most important province of Rome--was singularly fortunate, during the latter period of the Middle Ages, in its exemption from many of the troubles of those troubled times.[487] While the great movement of the Northern nations lasted, Provence was disturbed chiefly by the Visigoths, who soon passed onward to Spain, leaving few traces of their character behind them, and by the Burgundians, the mildest of all the Teutonic invaders, who did not reach the South of France till they had been long resident in Italy, and, when they came, established themselves at once as the permanent masters of that tempting country. [487] F. Diez, Troubadours, Zwickau, 1826, 8vo, p. 5.