Another, and for literature a hardly less important, consequence of this intention of being heard, was that probably from the very first, and certainly from an early period, a distinction, not very different from that afterwards occasioned by the drama, took place between the _trouvere_ who invented the _chanson_ and the _jongleur_ or minstrel who introduced it. At first these parts may, for better or worse, have been doubled. But it would seldom happen that the poet who had the wits to indite would have the skill to perform; and it would happen still seldomer that those whose gifts lay in the direction of interpretation would have the poetical spirit. Nor is it wonderful that, in the poems themselves, we find considerably more about the performer than about the author. In the cases where they were identical, the author would evidently be merged in the actor; in cases where they were not, the actor would take care of himself. Accordingly, though we know if possible even less of the names of the _jongleurs_ than of those of the _trouveres_, we know a good deal about their methods. Very rarely does an author like Nicolas of Padua (_v. supra_) tell us so much as his motive for composing the poems. But the patient study of critics, eked out it may be by a little imagination here and there, has succeeded in elaborating a fairly complete account of the ways and fortunes of the _jongleur_, who also not improbably, even where he was not the author, adjusted to the _chansons_ which were his copyright, extempore _codas_, episodes, tags, and gags of different kinds. Immense pains have been spent upon the _jongleur_. It has been asserted, and it is not improbable, that during the palmiest days--say the eleventh and twelfth centuries--of the _chansons_ a special order of the _jongleur_ or minstrel hierarchy concerned itself with them,--it is at least certain that the phrase _chanter de geste_ occurs several times in a manner, and with a context, which seem to justify its being regarded as a special term of art. And the authors at least present their heroes as deliberately expecting that they will be sung about, and fearing the chance of a dishonourable mention; a fact which, though we must not base any calculations upon it as to the actual sentiments of Roland or Ogier, Raoul or Huon, is a fact in itself. And it is also a fact that in the _fabliaux_ and other light verse of the time we find _jongleurs_ presented as boasting of the particular _chansons_ they can sing. [Sidenote: Jongleresses, _&c._]