From various statements in the above remarks, the reader will have seen that the popular idea of a troubadour as a singer of love, and of nothing but love, is as incorrect and one-sided as popular ideas frequently are. There is, indeed, no important topic of political, social, and literary history of the time, which does not find an echo in the poetry of these gay singers. The form of art in which these and kindred questions are treated is collectively called the _sirventes_,[19] and the study of this branch of Provençal literature is of engrossing interest, both by the variety of contemporary topics touched upon, and by the display of brilliant wit and trenchant personal satire, with which many of these songs abound; the latter feature being in strong contrast with the charming but somewhat monotonous sweetness of the _canzo_, or love-song. The _sirventes_ of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has been compared with the newspaper press of the nineteenth; and it may indeed seem doubtful to which of these two organs of public opinion the greater influence on the contemporary mind ought to be attributed, leaving, of course, the international importance of modern journalism out of the question. The rapid circulation of the censuring _sirventes_ amongst those concerned was amply provided for by vagrant joglars, whose lively recitations gave additional zest to satirical points; and the boldness and fierce castigation of public or private enemies indulged in by the troubadours throw all similar attempts of modern writers into the shade. Cobbett and the early Quarterly Reviewers would appear mild in such juxtaposition. The eagerness with which princes and great nobles tried to ward off, or return with equal force, the attacks of poets infinitely their inferiors in rank and power, proves the dangerous nature of the weapon. According to its subject-matter the _sirventes_ may be divided into four important groups: the personal, the social-and-political, the moral, and the religious _sirventes_; the last-named term being applicable chiefly to the poems relating to the Albigeois crusade. Theological and more especially dogmatic subjects gave little concern to the troubadours, although they had a keen eye for the weaknesses of the clergy both secular and monastic. All these classes of polemic literature will be treated at length in the course of this work. To complete the outline of the subject it is necessary only to refer briefly to two minor branches of the _sirventes_. They are the _planh_ or complaint, and the crusader’s song, the former belonging more especially to the personal, the latter to the religious, class of poems.