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336 CURIOSITIES OF MUSIC.
are much better behaved, and thus carry on the discussion, and call your companions to you to decide the questions.' "
"We also give two extracts from the poems of that famous troubadour, Bertrand De Born. He was a poet far more given to martial songs, than to the lyrical muse. His enemies dreaded his pen as much as his sword. He describes his belligerÂent qualities without any exaggeration, for he was literally never contented except when at war with some of his neighbors. One of his poems (addressed to a lady) begins smoothly enough, but before he is half done, he breaks into an abrupt praise of fighting.
In the following, he warns Williams of Gordon, against Richard of Poitou, and hurls invective at the latter.
" I love you well," Bertran says, u but my enemies want to make a fool and a dupe of you, and the time seems long to them before they see you in their ranks." " To Perigeux, close to the wall, so that I can throw my battle axe over it, I will come well armed, and riding on my horse, Bayard; and if I find the glutton of Poitou* he shall know the cut of my sword. A mixture of brain and splinters of iron he shall wear on his brow."
Here follows a frank avowal of his delight in war.
''All daylong," he says, "I fight, and am at work, to make a thrust at them and defend my-
• Richard. |
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