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the high species of lyrical poetry among all nations. Feeling must occupy the first place wherever it is to be powerfully and poetically represented; and when feeling is predominant, variety and richness of thought are always things of very secondary importance. The truth is, that great variety in lyric poetry is never to be found, except in those ages of imitation when men are fond of treating of all manner of subjects in all manner of forms. Then indeed we often find the tone and taste of twenty different ages and nations brought together within the same collection, and observe that the popularity of the poet is increased in proportion as he descends from his proper dignity."

The poetry of the German Minnesingers is the main object of this volume, and of course of these introductory remarks; yet in reviewing the intimate connection between the early efforts of modern poetry in different countries, the subject seems properly to open with the Troubadours of Southern France, or Provence, in the widest sense of the word, which strictly speaking however includes only a small part of this land of song.

It cannot be said that the history or literature of these minstrels (who certainly take the lead in point of time in

that art which so quickly diffused itself over Europe) has been neglected; on the contrary, no theme has been more laboriously handled, and yet the true materials for judging their character, which have hitherto been laid before the public, are exceedingly scanty. M. Schlegel very justly observes, "Tout le monde parlait des Troubadours et personne ne les connaissait.” Abundance of treatises were written, and elaborate judgements pronounced, while scarcely an author thought it necessary to produce his evidence, and enable his readers to exercise their own judgement. Unfortunately the majority of French critics appear to entertain a sovereign contempt for every thing which is not in the court dress of Louis XIV., and are content to let the fine language of their ancestors rest in cheerless oblivion. All, and particularly Millot, seem studiously to keep the originals in the back ground; it is difficult to say why, unless it were felt to be most prudent to deny to the world the means of judging of the competency or fidelity of the alledged translations. Those who will take the pains to examine them will often see that this precaution was by no means impolitic.

Even M. Ginguené and M. Sismondi appear to be satisfied with conclusions drawn at second hand from the works of Millot, scarcely ever venture on a translation of their own, and furnish only here and there an original fragment, selected with no view to the

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.

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accuracy. Much has doubtless perished; for the lished 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

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