illustration of the poetic talent or taste of the school whose works are under consideration, but picked up at random, as a mere specimen of the language or the structure of a verse; and certainly neither of them seems duly sensible of the beauty and force of the fine language which has so unfortunately perished. It is too much to ask us to be contented with an elaborate judgement on the merits of Provençal poetry, prefaced by an author's admission that he has read little or nothing of it, that it is contained in MSS. which he cannot or has not chosen to read, and that his acquaintance with it is almost exclusively through the medium of the Abbé Millot *.

Much remained to be said and learned, and M. Raynouard has at last (in his Recueil des Poesies des Troubadours, 6 vols.) amply supplied the deficiency, particularly in the careful reprint of originals and the formation of a grammar of the language. In this elaborate work the early monuments of the Provençal language and poetry may be found, collected with diligence, and published with taste and critical

* M. Sismondi, in his second edition, has considerably enlarged and improved his notice of the Troubadours, as well as altered the tone of his observations, having availed himself of the intervening publication of M. Raynouard's first volume. Mr. T. Roscoe's elegant translation has added incalculably to the value of his author, by the addition of the original pieces, which M. Sismondi knew only from Millot's translations, or rather parodies.

accuracy. Much has doubtless perished; for the polished style and metrical symmetry of the songs of the earliest known lyric poet, William IX. count of Poictiers, who was born in 1070 and died in 1126, render it hardly probable that a new dialect should at once have started into so perfect and regular a form. But enough has survived to enable the reader to form for himself a correct estimate of the talents and influence of the Troubadour school; and an exceedingly interesting stock of historic materials is laid open to future investigators, often of far higher value than the dry labours of professed chroniclers.

The gay smiling climate of the South of France seemed to combine with the superiority and freedom of its political institutions* to call forth the earliest fruits of chivalry and its attendant song. During the greater part of the 10th century, while Northern France was a prey to intestine commotions, Provence and part of Burgundy and its dependencies

* "Dans le moyen âge," says Papon (Hist. Gen. de Provence, t. 2, p. 208), "il y avoit plus de personnes libres en Provence, que dans aucune autre province, et les revolutions de la Monarchie s'y etant fait beaucoup moins sentir, nos villes durent conserver leur administration municipale: si les malheurs du temps y apporterent quelque interruption, elles en reprirent elles-memes la jouissance, sans que l'autorité du Prince intervint. Elles avoient, dès le commencement du douxième siecle, une forme du gouvernement, qui ressembloit à celle que les Romains leur avoient donné."

had enjoyed repose under the mild rule of Conrad the Pacific. Perhaps we may even look higher up, and trace the superior civilization of some of the Southern states to the influence of the laws of the Burgundians, which certainly formed the most equitable and mild of the codes established on the basis of Roman jurisprudence. The courts of the Berengars, the sovereigns of Catalonia and part of Southern France, became the principal nurseries of the opening talent, and the centre of union with other European nations. The period of their power embraces the whole bloom of Provençal literature, and their patronage of it every where stimulated the foreign courts, with which they were connected, to the cultivation of similar pursuits.

But the once brilliant literature, and even the language, of the South of France was doomed to oblivion and neglect. Its most beautiful regions became the scene of bigoted devastation during the bloody wars against the Albigenses. The poets had never been friends of the church; many of the last efforts of Troubadour song were exerted in vindicating the rights of humanity against the cruelty and corruption of Rome and its retainers; and it is singular also that some of the earliest remains of the poetry of this dialect collected by M. Raynouard are those of the heretic Vaudois or Waldenses. "Avez vous vu" (says the author of 'De l'Amour,' before quoted) "à l'opéra la

finale d'un bel opéra comique? Tout est gaieté, magnificence idéale sur la scène. Nous sommes à mille lieues des vilains côtés de la nature humaine. L'opéra finit, la toile tombe, les spectateurs s'en vont, le lustre s'élève, on éteint les quinquets. L'odeur de lampe maléteinte remplit la salle, le rideau se relève à moitié, l'on aperçoit les polissons sales se démener sur la scène ; ils s'y agitent d'une manière hideuse, ils y tiennent la place des jeunes femmes qui la remplissaient de leurs grâces il n'y a qu'un instant.

"Tel fut pour la royaume de Provence l'effet de la conquête de Toulouse par l'armée des Croisés. Au lieu d'amour, de grâces et de gaieté, on eut les Barbares du Nord et Saint Dominique. Quant aux barbares, c'étaient nos pères; ils tuaient et saccagaient tout; ils détruisaient pour le plaisir de détruire ce qu'ils ne pouvaient emporter; une rage sauvage les animait contre tout ce qui portait quelque trace de civilisation; surtout ils n'entendaient pas un mot de cette belle langue du midi, et leur fureur en était redoublée. Tout fut fini pour les Provençaux; plus d'amour, plus de gaieté, plus de poésie; moins de vingt ans après la conquête ils étaient presque aussi barbares et aussi grossiers que les Francais que nos pères."

The southern provinces lost their independence, and were one by one annexed to the crown of France. With the princes and princesses, nobles and knights of Provence, its poets also vanished, or carried their

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gaiety and gallantry to the rising courts of Naples and Sicily; the romantic tales of chivalry and the gay fabliaux, which appeared in the court dialect of the Norman princes, became the popular favourites; princes and nobles ceased to sing, or adopted, like Thibaut king of Navarre, the more fashionable dialect; and the Provençal muse expired, or lived only in the lingering efforts of some poor minstrel, compelled (to use the words of Albert Marquis de Malespina)

Anar a pe a ley de croy joglar,

Pauvre d'aver, e malastrucx d'amiex;

As vagrant juglar doom'd on foot to rove,
Poor in his purse, and luckless in his love;

till at last it is only left to Nostradamus to lament, that "nostre langue Provensalle s'est tellement avallie et embastardie, que a peine est elle de nous qui sommes du pays entendue."

Several vain attempts were however made in Southern France to rally a spirit which had arisen in a peculiar state of society, and vanished with the circumstances to which it owed its existence. Even so late as 1323 an academy was formed at Toulouse for the cultivation of the Gai Saber; and floral games were instituted, which it is said exist at this day, though the language in which the prizes are contended for is the Northern French. It may be acceptable to some readers to have an opportunity of comparing