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330 CURIOSITIES OF MUSIC.
this fertile field, they would not wholly confine themselves to Love, but that an occasional poem on Nature, or War, would attest their versatility 60 that even the puerile " Courts of Love," of the chivalric age, brought a general onward impulse to art; it was not to be expected that the knights could step at once from a condition of rudeness, to a state of culture, and it is not surprising to see a vast exaggeration of politeness, where little had been before.
In the beautiful country of Provence (South France), this branch of art took its rise. The lyrical songs of the troubadours were written in the Provencal tongue, which soon became, for all South France the court language for amatory poetry. It was called also the Langue d'oc (from the affirmative " Oc," or "yes"), to distinguish it from the Lingua di Si (Italian) and the Langue (Toil (North France); the name afterwards was attached to another province of France. The Trouveres, were the poets and minstrels of North France, and wrote in the langue cVoil. They wrote chiefly epic poetry, (fabie*. tales and romances), while the lyrical school was left to their southern competitors.
The troubadours composed and sang their own songs, but did not play their own accompaniments; that branch of music was turned over to hired musicians, called jongleurs.
Celebrated troubadours had often several jongleurs in their employ. Those who made music a means of gaining a livelihood, were classed much |
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