The purest and earliest form of the _alba_, like that of the Scotch ballad, was no doubt purely dramatic, the speaker or speakers beginning their monologue or dialogue without any previous introduction. The narrative stanza at the beginning, found in most of the existing _albas_, is evidently an after-thought. It became necessary, owing to the imagination of the hearers failing to supply the situation at a time, perhaps, when these hearers became partly readers, and the additional help of the joglar’s action and vocal flexibility ceased in consequence. This, however, is mere conjecture from analogy, for the dates of the Provençal specimens are difficult to determine. In the magnificent _alba_ by Guiraut de Bornelh, a celebrated troubadour of the spring-time of Provençal literature, the introductory stanza has been dispensed with. ‘Glorious King,’ is the watchman’s song, ‘true light and brightness, Almighty God and Lord, grant faithful help to my friend, for I have not seen him since the night came, and soon it will be dawn.’ ‘Sweet friend, be you awake or asleep, sleep no longer, but gently rise, for in the East I see growing larger the star which harbingers the morn; for well I know it. And soon it will be dawn.’ ‘Sweet friend, I call to you in my song; sleep no longer, for I hear the bird that goes seeking the day through the grove (_qe vai qeren lo jorn per lo boscatge_), and I fear that the jealous knight may assail you, and soon it will be dawn.’ ‘Sweet true friend,’ the lover replies, in the last stanza, ‘I sojourn in so glorious a place that I wish dawn and day might never appear; for the fairest lady ever born by mother I hold in my arm, and little do I heed the fell jealous knight or the dawn.’