Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/545

* PROVENQAL LANGUAGE. 477 PROVENgAL LITERATURE. proren^alisilieii Graminatiken, Lu Donaiz pro- vcitsals und Las rasos de trobar (ilarbiirg. 1878; editions of treatises on grammar and versifica- tion prepared in Provencal as early as the thir- teenth century) ; Suchier, "Die franzosische und provenzalische Sprache und ihre Mundarten," in Grijber, Grundriss der romanischcn Philologie (Strassburg, 1888; in French translation, Le frmn-ais et le proveiiQal, by P. ilonet, Paris. ISni, with corrections by Suchier) : Diez, (Jrammatik der romanischcn Sprachen (3d ed., Bonn, 1870-72) ; Meyer-Liibke, Grammatik der romanischcn Uprachen (Leipzig. 1890 et seq. ; trans, into French as Grammnire dcs langues romanes, Paris, 1890-1900) ; Crescini, Manualet- io provenzale (Verona, 1892) ; !Meyer, Rccueil d'anciens tcxtcs bas-latins, provenQaux et fran- sais (Paris, 1874-77); Suchier, Denkmaler pro- venzalischer Litteratur und Sprache (Halle, 1883) ; Chabaneau, Grammaire limousine (Paris, 1876) ; Lienig, Die Grammatik der provenza- lischen Leys d' Amors verglichen mit der Sprache der Trouhadours (Breslau, 1890) ; Koschwitz, Z'eber die provenzatischeii Felibcr und ihre Vor- giinger (Berlin, 1894); id., Grammaire de la langue des Fclibres (Paris, 1894). Dictionaries: Kaynouard, Lexique roman (6 vols., Paris, 1838- 44) . is to be used only in connection with E. Levy. Provenzalisches Supplement-^Vorterbuch ( Leipzig, 1892 et seq.) ; ilistral, Lou tresor dou Felibrige on Dictionnaire proieni^al-frangais (Paris, 1879- 86). For additional articles recourse may be had to the various reviews dealing with Romance phi- lology, such as the {{omaniu, the Zeitschrift fur romanische Philologie, the Phonetische Studien, the Annates du Midi, the Revue des langues ro- manes, the Romanische Forschungen, the Arehivio glottologico, etc. PROVENgAL LITERATURE. The litera- ture written in the various dialects of the south of France, and more particularly that written during the Middle Ages in the dialect of Li- mousin. Its earliest monument, a fragment of a moral poem called Boethius, belongs to the first half of the eleventh centurv. The courtly lyrics, however, which constitute its main glory, were nearly all written between 1090 and 1350. The songs of over four hundred poets who composed during this period have come down to us. and we know the names of almost seventy others whose works have perished. Among these au- thors we find not only wandering singers and court min.strels. but knights, ladies, barons, counts, and even kings. The amenity of the cli- mate, the refinement of manners, the frequency of travelers, merchants, and pilgrims, the blithe and easy life in rich cities and baronial palaces, favored the development of a form of poetry which found its inspiration and its suppoit in a luxurious and frivolous aristocratic society. The troubadours (q.v. ) wrote, not for readers, but for hearers; their pieces were sung at court fes- tivals either by the authors themselves or by the more humble jongleurs. Music and words were usually composed by the same person. This in- timate connection between words and music strongly influenced the form of these lyrics. Elaborate artificiality is a predominant trait. Every variety of rhyming scheme was attempted, the rhvmes of one stanza being repeated in all the others throughout a poem. Vnrd-play, alliteration, conceits, and forced constructions abound, and difficulties of every kind weic sought. There even grew up a style called the trobar ctus, or oscur, the chief merit of which was that it could hardly be understood. A treatise on verse written in the fourteenth century {Leys d'Amors) mentions many difierent kinds of poems, the most important of which are the vers and canso, the sirventes and the tenso. Between vers and canso no very clear distinction has been ob- served, except that the vers was the earlier and simpler form. The canso was an elaborate Ij-ric of from five to seven stanzas with complicated rhymes, and it dealt always with love, and re- quired a melody of its own. The sort of love thus treated was peculiar to the Middle Ages and seems to have been shaped bv the social condi- tions of the period. The ladies who presided over the almost independent courts of Southern France were the natural subjects of the praise and adoration of the singers, who expressed largely a feigned passion in artificial formulas. Yet. how- ever innocent for the most part these love affairs actually were, the semblance of an illicit rela- tionship was preserved. In general, love is rep- resented as the greatest good, the height of bless- ings, the source of all virtue and glory. Spring- time is its season; its cau.se, beauty which, pene- trating the lover's eyes, smites his heart, within which it inflicts a wound that causes infinite suf- fering. Yet he dares not speak, though he grows pale and sleepless. Nothing can change his de- votion and his absolute submission to his lady's will: for her noble qualities brighten the world and ennoble all who approach lier. Her grace and mercy are his only hope. Such, in general, though played upon in every variety of style, sometimes even in parody, is the subject matter of the canso. The sirventes, or service song, was written to fit some well-known and popular air. The sub- ject was moral or religious, political or personal. The poet, with great freedom of language, scourges the vices of nobles or women or clergy, laments the decay of ancient manners and the growth of avarice, stimulates leaders and popu- lace to war, e.xalts a patron for his political vir- tues and his generosity, avenges an injury by virulent personal invective, or exhorts laggards to the crusade. Without an intimate acquaint- ance with the events to which they relate, many of these pieces are now unintelligible, yet to the student of mediaeval life they are most interest- ing : for they constitute the journalism of the age. The tcnso, with which may be included the partimen, joes partitz. and torneyamcn. was a poetical dispute, a play of wit, in which, often with biting mockery and intense personal bitter- ness, two or more poets debated, in alternate stanzas, some question of love casuistry, such as: Which are the greater, the benefits or the ills of love? Which contribute more to keep a lover faithful, the eyes or the heart? The decision is commonly left to some lord or lady. Such were the leading artificial forms of the Provencal lyric. There were, however, some others which retain a stronger impress of popular origin: the alba, or dawn-song, portraying the parting of lover* : the hallada, dansa. and ronda. to be sung to the dance; the pastorela, copied some think from the French, a dialogue between a knight or a clerk and a shepherdess. The earliest lyrical writer whose songs have been preserved is William IX., Duke of Aqui-