COMPANION dear! or sleeping or awaking, Companion dear! with carols sweet I'll call thee; Companion dear! forth from the window looking, Companion dear! since thou from hence wert straying, Companion dear! hence to the fields with me! Me thou forbad'st to slumber through the night, And I have watch'd that livelong night for thee; But thou in song or me hast no delight, And now the morn is near. ANSWER. Companion dear! so happily sojourning, GAUBERT AMIELS. GAUBERT AMIELS was a knight of Gascony; of what precise time is not known. He had the merit of making harmonious verses, of being humble in spirit and affectionate in heart. The following song is taken up at the second verse. De trop ric' amor non ai soing, I COVET not a high-born dame; Is all I seek; for wealth and fame I wish not for the joys that reign I ever loved the single bird That sings beside my bower, Who seeketh not for mine, Like that poor swain who left his place For regal dame to pine. For lofty aims I do not care, To courtiers leave them free: But there is ONE, whose chain I wear, For she has vanquish'd me: From Paris e'en to the Garonne There is not one so fair, Nor, noble though they be, not one To her, then, will I grateful bow, For kind and courteous acts, that show Nor shall it cost a single sigh That higher dames there be; Thus equal, not too high or low, MARCABRUS. THE precise age of this Troubadour is uncertain. Nostradamus places him late; but the historical reference in the following song cannot certainly be to a later date than the crusade of St. Louis in 1269. A la fontana del vergier, On l'erb er vertz, josta 'l gravier, By yonder fountain in the grove, Its verdant covering hath outspread, There, 'neath a tree, 'mid white flowers springing, Lovely and sad, a new song singing, Sat the disdainful fair whose scorn my heart is wringing. Beauteous her form ;-yon castle walls And when I thought the birds' sweet art And blooming spring might touch her heart, And by their eloquence prepare For me a more attentive ear, Sudden the scene was changed, and all was sorrow there. And there, beside the stream, she grieved, And tears she shed, and sighs up-heaved : |