in order to know that birds sing and trees grow green in spring. And generally it is not easy to say whether an apparent echo is a direct imitation or merely a stereotyped phrase. The Portuguese _trobadores_ introduced little of the true spirit of the Provençal _troubadours_--that had passed to Palestine and to the Lady of Tripoli. In their _cantigas de amor_ is no sign of action--unless it be to die of love; no thought of Nature. Jaufre Rudel (1140-70), that prince of lovers, had ‘gone to school to the meadows’ and might sing in his _maint bons vers_ of _la flor aiglentina_ or of _flors d’albespis_, but in the Portuguese _cantigas_ nothing relieves the conventional dullness and excessive monotony (which likewise marked the Provençal school of poets in Sicily). Composed for the most part in iambic decasyllables they describe continually the poet’s _coita d’amor, grave d’endurar_, his grief at parting, his loss of sleep, his pleasure in dying for his _fremosa sennor_. She is described merely as beautiful, or, at most, as Tan mansa e tan fremosa e de bon sen (C. C. B. 206). Fremosa e mansa e d’outro ben comprida (C. C. B. 278). Vocabulary and thought are spectre-thin. Indeed, it was part of the convention to sing vaguely. _Eu ben falarei de sa fremosura_, says one poet[83] (C. C. B. 337)--he will sing of her beauty, but not in such a way that the curious who _non o poden adevinhar_ should guess his secret. As to allusions to Nature, perhaps the climate, with less marked divisions than in Provence, furnished less incentive to sing of spring and the earth’s renewal or to imitate Guiraut de Bornelh in going to school all the winter (_l’ivern estava a escola a aprender_) and singing only with the return of spring. King Dinis, perhaps in reference to that troubadour, declares that his love is independent of the seasons and more sincere than that of the singers of Provence: Proençaes soen mui ben trobar E dizen eles que é con amor, Mais os que troban no tempo da frol E non en outro sei eu ben que non An tan gran coita ... (C. V. 127)