guished of the Troubadour poets, Bernard de Ventadour, sighed at the feet of this princess when she left the courts of the South to lead the intrigues of the North. It affords a curious commentary on the character in which our history exhibits this princess, to hear her addressed in such lines as these, which the poet seems to have penned to her when she had left France for England; Quan la doss' aura venta Deves vostre pais, M'es veiaire qu'ieu senta Odor de paradis, Per amor de la genta Ves cui ieu sui aclis, Attempts have been made to carry the date of French lyric poetry much higher and in the first place it is observed, that Ives de Chartres complains to Urban II. at the close of the eleventh century, of the popular poetic squibs which his opponent at Orleans had written against him :- "Unam cantilenam de multis metricè et musicè de eo compositam, ex personâ concuborum suorum vobis misi, quam per urbes nostras in compitis et plateis similes illi adolescentes cantitant." Again, Abelard was also a writer of love songs in praise of his Eloisa. Thus she says, "Pleraque amatorio metro vel rhythmo composita reliquisti carmina; quæ pro nimiâ suavi tate, tam dictaminis quam cantûs, tuum in ore omnium nomen tenebant. Frequenti carmine tuam in ore omnium Heloisam ponebas. Me plateæ omnes, me domus singulæ resonabant." And St. Bernard himself is recorded to have composed "cantiunculas mimicas et urbanos modulos;" but the great doubt is, whether (as Ravallière thinks) all these songs were not written in Latin. There is, perhaps, less doubt about the "vulgares cantus" mentioned in the 'Gesta Dei' as being lampoons upon Arnulphus, Patriarch of Jerusalem under Godfrey de Bouillon; but it is not safe to rely on an earlier epoch for the popular use of the French language, at any rate in lyric poetry, than that which we have pointed out. When, however, we point to the reign of Philip Augustus (1180—1228), or that of his predecessor, as the true commencement of the age of early French poetry, we must not connect its progress otherwise than chronologically with the courts of those monarchs. In the early literature of France, the court of Paris had little or no share: it belonged almost entirely to Normandy and England. The Northern Romance was nursed to its maturity by the fostering patronage of the Anglo-Norman princes, and with them continued its riper cultivation. The language was, however, long in an extremely unsettled state : even at the end of the 12th century we find it in some pieces approaching very nearly to the Proven çal in inflexion and melody; while in other authors of nearly the same period, it has much more of the structure of modern French. Thus Benoit (who perhaps wrote about 1170 or 1180), in describing the spring in which Rollo quitted England for Neustria, sings in a strain of very Southern cast: Quant li ivers fu trepasser, Vint li duls tens, e li ester; E altre flors de maint semblanz. But Chrestien de Troyes (who died in 1191) uses what seems to be a ruder style, as in the chanson :Joie ne guerredons d'amours Ne vienent pas par bel servir; Car on voit chaus souvent faillir Ki servent sans aller allours. Si m'en aïr, Que ne puis à amours venir En amours gist tous mes secours. The fame of the Trouvères mainly rests on their lais and fabliaux, to which, at least in the later period of their reign, they peculiarly devoted themselves, and which, by the popularity of the subjects, have raised them in general estimation above their Southern rivals. Yet if their poetic excellence is to be tried by the standard of these compositions, it will, with few exceptions, stand rather low; for certainly tamer or more prosaic performances are scarcely to be met with than the generality of their tales; and in point of talent and poetic feeling, there is no comparison between the powers of these tellers of stories and of the Provençaux, after giving the latter their full share of blame for their follies and conceits. But, though little known (having hitherto been left to slumber in MS.), there is almost as prolific a school of lyric poetry among the Northern as the Southern French poets. Indeed, it would be singular if there were not a great community of subjects when the poets of the two dialects were brought together at such courts as those of Henry II. and Eleanor of Guienne, and of their son Richard Cœur de Lion, who was himself a poet in both tongues, had dominions in each country, and was moreover allied, like most of the monarchs of his day, to a lady of one of the courts of the South-the daughter of the king of Navarre; "Her name was Berengere, faire woman of age, (LANGTOFT'S CHRON.) Accident has prevented our perusing the MS. stores of these neglected and almost unknown singers in the king's library of Paris, and making such selections from them for the present work as were desirable for comparing them with their cotemporaries ; but from all that has been seen, there is little doubt they possess much of the sprightliness of heart which sparkles in the songs of the Troubadours and Minnesingers. The same devotion to the female sex, the same zeal in their service, the same curious blending of religious and amatory feelings and associations, distinguish these writers, as appear in the works of the Troubadours; they had institutions of gallantry corresponding in most respects to those of the South; they had their Puys or courts of love, and their Gieux sous l'ormel in May, where their Gieux-partis were the counterparts of the Provençal Tensons; they were as pathetic martyrs to "cis jolis maux," the pains of love; and that some of them were as keen pursuers of concetti is well known to those who have perused the chansons of king Thibaud, and seen the poet "in the prison of which Love keeps the keys, aided by his three bailiffs, Hope deferred, Beauty, and Anxiety." Among the crowd of lyric poets of about the age of Philip Augustus, rank many of the nobility of the kingdom, such as Henry duke of Brabant, Peter Mauclerc count of Bretagne, the count of Anjou (brother of St. Louis, afterwards king of Naples, and |