Of the life of the Monk of Montaudon the old manuscripts tell us little. We are ignorant even of his name, and only know that he was descended from a noble family residing at Castle Vic in Auvergne. Being a younger son he was, as the biography naïvely puts it, ‘made a monk of,’ and entered the Abbey of Orlac (Aurillac), in the vicinity of his father’s castle; some time afterwards he became Prior of Montaudon. Soon, however, it became apparent that the cowl had not made the monk; he began to compose gay stanzas and satiric _sirventeses_ on the events of the day. The knights and barons of the adjacent castles were pleased with the poet’s gay, genial ways. They asked him to feasts and tournaments, and rewarded his songs with rich gifts, conscientiously remitted by him to the treasury of his cloister; a circumstance which goes far to explain the leniency with which his superiors looked on his infringements of the monastic rules. At last the monk asked permission of the Abbot of Orlac to regulate his way of living according to the commands of King Alfonso of Aragon, known to us as the revenger of Guillem de Cabestanh’s death, and a great protector and friend of troubadours in general. The granting of this comprehensive prayer tends to prove at once the lucrativeness of the monk’s poetic endeavours, and the considerate tolerance of the worthy prelate. For no sooner was the permission given than Alfonso bade the monk eat meat, compose gay songs, and court the favour of a lady. ‘Et el si fes,’ ‘and so he did,’ the manuscript adds significantly.