THE TROUBADOURS BY REV. H.J. CHAYTOR, M.A. AUTHOR OF "THE TROUBADOURS OF DANTE" ETC. Cambridge: at the University Press 1912 _With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_ PREFACE This book, it is hoped, may serve as an introduction to the literature of the Troubadours for readers who have no detailed or scientific knowledge of the subject. I have, therefore, chosen for treatment the Troubadours who are most famous or who display characteristics useful for the purpose of this book. Students who desire to pursue the subject will find further help in the works mentioned in the bibliography. The latter does not profess to be exhaustive, but I hope nothing of real importance has been omitted. H.J. CHAYTOR. THE COLLEGE, PLYMOUTH, March 1912. CONTENTS PREFACE CHAP. I. INTRODUCTORY II. THE THEORY OF COURTLY LOVE III. TECHNIQUE IV. THE EARLY TROUBADOURS V. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD VI. THE ALBIGEOIS CRUSADE VII. THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY VIII. THE TROUBADOURS IN SPAIN IX. PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND BIBLIOGRAPHY AND NOTES INDEX [Transcriptor's note: Page numbers from the original document have been posted in the right margin to maintain the relevance of the index references.} THE TROUBADOURS [1] CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY Few literatures have exerted so profound an influence upon the literary history of other peoples as the poetry of the troubadours. Attaining the highest point of technical perfection in the last half of the twelfth and the early years of the thirteenth century, Provençal poetry was already popular in Italy and Spain when the Albigeois crusade devastated the south of France and scattered the troubadours abroad or forced them to seek other means of livelihood. The earliest lyric poetry of Italy is Provençal in all but language; almost as much may be said of Portugal and Galicia; Catalonian troubadours continued to write in Provençal until the fourteenth century. The lyric poetry of the "trouvères" in Northern France was deeply influenced both in form and spirit by troubadour poetry, and traces of this influence are perceptible even in [2] early middle-English lyrics. Finally, the German minnesingers knew and appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of Provençal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von Hausen, and many others. Hence the poetry of the troubadours is a subject of first-rate importance to the student of comparative literature.