I COVET not a high-born dame;
An equal in degree

Is all I seek; for wealth and fame
Heaven never meant for me.
I wish not for the joys that reign
Mid courtiers great and high;
For were I sure success to gain,
It would not bring me joy.

I ever loved the single bird

That sings beside my bower,
More than the noisy songsters heard
At distance, hovering o'er;
Nor would I seek the lady's grace

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

Who thus my love can share.

To her, then, will I grateful bow,
And willing thanks repay

For kind and courteous acts, that show
More fair each coming day.

Nor shall it cost a single sigh

That higher dames there be;
Since few indeed can rank so high,-
So fair, so bright is she.

Thus equal, not too high or low,
Happy I love; and, loving, know
How blest I am ;—more blest by far
Than if my love more lofty were.

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 Nostradamus places him late; but the historical reference in the following song cannot certainly be to a later date than the crusade of St. Louis in 1269.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,
A l'ombra d'un fust domesgier,
En aiziment de blancas flors
E de novelh chan costumier,
Trobey sola, ses companhier,
Selha que no vol mon solatz.

By yonder fountain in the grove,

Where the green grass e'en from above
Down to the water's pebbly bed

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
His own her titled father calls:

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:

"O thou," she cried, "the world's great King,— Saviour! from thee my sorrows spring;

Thy griefs are mine; since thus for thee

The brave ones of the earth must be

Wanderers in distant climes ;-such is thy high de

cree.

"For thee my heart's delight goes forth,

The noblest, best, in wit or worth;

And sorrow only tarries here—

Care, and the ever-flowing tear.

Woe to thee, Louis! whose command

This anguish for my soul hath plann'd :

Woe to thee, king! who love hast banish'd from the land!"

I heard; and, as I heard, drew near,
And stood beside that fountain clear:
And, "O fair maid," I cried, "forbear,
Nor mar that face, nor let despair
Thus deep upon thy spirit seize ;

He that can clothe the barren trees

With new-born leaves again, thine anguish can appease."

"Sir knight, I have not now to learn,"

She said, "how Heaven in love can turn

To me and thousand sinners more,

In distant days, when time is o'er;

But chide not thou, though tears I shed :
It is enough-my joy is fled,

And far, far off the joy which thou hast promised."

Though there seems every probability that the above song is intended as the lament of a lady at her separation from a knight who had followed St. Louis to the crusades, it is possible that the separation might be occasioned by the unrelenting persecutions which were directed against the Albigenses. The ultimate result of the contest was the complete extinction of chivalry and poetry in the South; and the lady would in this view of the case be a sorrower over the loss of her heretical love. In connexion with this subject we may introduce, rather for its historical curiosity than for the merit either of the original or our translation, the following song by Tomiers, a knight of Tarrascon, stimulating the martial spirits of the South to resist the cruel bigotry and hypocrisy with which the French court was laying waste the fairest provinces, under the pretence of zeal for the interests of religion.