Marcabrun also, the satirical poet, of whom more will have to be said hereafter, is amongst pastoral poets. He has little of Gui d’Uisel’s lyrical sweetness, and his discourse with a shepherdess—for his poem also takes the form of a dialogue—is not always over-refined. But here again, strange to say, the flatteries of the troubadour find no favour with the maiden—a circumstance the recurrence of which greatly tends to increase one’s belief in the virtue of Provençal shepherdesses. CHAPTER IX. OTHER POPULAR FORMS.—THE ALBA AND SERENA. Songs of the morning and evening—_alba_ and _serena_—are amongst the most characteristic embodiments of Provençal poetry. To us these words come through the medium of northern French, and their original meaning has been lost on the way. _Aubade_ and _serenade_ mean amongst modern nations, from the shores of the Baltic to the shores of the Mediterranean, the musical entertainments performed or arranged by the lover under his lady-love’s window at morning or eventide. In music these words have received a still different technical meaning, founded, however, on the same peculiar significance of the term. For in their _serenades_ and _aubades_ the composers of the last century, at least, employ in preference such instruments as are most adapted for open-air effects. In modern poetry ‘Hark, hark, the lark!’ from ‘Cymbeline,’ may be regarded as the most perfect and typical specimen of the _aubade_. But the difference between this and the Provençal _alba_ is of a radical nature. The _aubade_ shows or implies the lovers to be divided; in the _alba_ they are united; as regards form, the first is an address, the second a dialogue, or, at least, the successive utterance of two persons. One of these speakers, and the principal of the two, is in most and, according to my opinion, in the oldest of these songs, not either of the lovers, but the faithful watcher or sentinel guarding them from intrusion. Hence we find that the wonderfully beautiful morning songs, evidently written in imitation of Provençal models by Wolfram von Eschenbach, the great mediæval German poet, are actually called ‘Wächterlieder,’ or sentinel songs. Reminiscences of the same kind seem also to have inspired Brangaene’s warning, mingled with the love-songs of Tristan and Isolde, in Wagner’s opera.