The Monk of Montaudon, as the reader will perceive, was little given to sentimentality, and the love-songs which he wrote, in compliance with the custom of the time, show accordingly more cleverness than true feeling. They are, however, full of happy turns of expression, and particularly abound with well-chosen similes—a proof that the poet was by no means wanting in imagination. Nevertheless, it must be confessed that satire was his true field of action, and we are not surprised at seeing a man of his keen sense of ridicule turn this weapon against those objects of superlative romantic adoration—women. The weaknesses of the fair sex are indeed the theme of two remarkable _sirventeses_ by our troubadour, which we now must consider a little more closely. They deserve attention, both by the original boldness of their satire and by the quaint disguise in which this main purpose is clad. The form adopted by the monk is that of a vision, familiar to the reader from those two great monuments of mediæval literature, the ‘Divina Commedia’ and ‘Piers the Ploughman.’ Heaven itself, indeed, is the scene of the troubadour’s poem, but a heaven how different from the celestial abode to which the inspired Italian singer was welcomed by Beatrice! The Monk of Montaudon introduces us into the midst of a legal action, the cause of which is, I am almost ashamed to say, that immemorial privilege of the fair sex to counteract the ravages of time by the rosy bloom of artificial colour. The scene of the action, as has been seen before, is heaven; the Judge, the Deity itself; the monks act as accusers; the ladies are defendants. The painted cheeks of the latter are alleged to outshine the votive pictures in the monasteries. Painting, and the mixing of colours, the monks assert to be their own inventions, to the use of which the ladies have no claim or title. This monstrous allegation the ladies, of course, deny indignantly. Colouring, they say, is their natural birthright, and has been practised by them long before either monks or votive pictures were thought of.