TROUBADOUR, the name given to the poets of southern France and of northern Spain and Italy who wrote in the langue d'oc from the 12th to the 14th centuries. In Provençal the word is spelt trobaire or trovador, and is derived from the verb trobar, to find, or to invent (Fr. trouver). The troubadour was one who invented, and originally improvised, poetry, who "found out" new and striking stanzaic forms for the elaborate lyrics he composed.
The earliest troubadour of whom anything definite is known is Guilhem IX. (b. 1071), count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine, whose career was typical of that of his whole class, for "he knew well how to sing and make verses, and for a long time he roamed all through the land to deceive the ladies." The high rank of this founder of the tradition was typical of its continuation; by far the largest number of the troubadours belonged to the noble class, while no fewer than 23 of their number were reigning princes.
Among them is a king of England, Richard I., who is believed to have written in langue d'oil as well as in langue d'oc, and who has left at least one canzo, that written in prison, of remarkable beauty. These noble troubadours were distinguished by their wealth and independence from those who made their song their profession, and who wandered from castle to castle and from bower to bower. But whether dependent or independent, the poets exercised a social influence paralleled by nothing before it in the history of mediaeval poetry. They had great privileges of speech and censure, they entered into questions of politics, and above all they created around the ladies of the court an atmos phere of cultivation and amenity which nothing had hitherto approached. The troubadour was occasionally accompanied by an apprentice or servant, called a joglar, who provided a musical setting for the poet's words, and sometimes sang the songs.
There were recognized about 400 troubadours, during the whole period in which they flourished, from Guilhem de Poitiers down to Guiraut Riquier (c. 1230-94). Several ms. collections of biographies have been preserved, and from these we gain some idea of the careers of no fewer than III of the poets. The
principal source of the lives of the troubadours is a collection, by various hands, made towards the middle of the 13th century. Of these Uc of Saint Cyr (c. 1200-40), himself a troubadour, was certainly one of the authors. Another, but unreliable, source of information is the Vies des plus celebres et anciens poetes pro vencaux, published by Jehan de Notredame or Nostradamus, in 1575. Even the numerous genuine biographies are often em broidered with fantastic and whimsical statements which make a severe demand upon the credulity of a modern reader. One late troubadour, Rambaud of Orange, left a commentary on his own poems, and Guiraut Riquier one on those of a fellow trouba dour, Guiraut of Calanson (1280). This proves the poetry of Provence to have passed early into the critical stage, and to have been treated very seriously by those who were proficient in it. This is further shown by the respect with which the Provencal poets are mentioned by Dante, Petrarch and others.
The verse form most frequently employed by the troubadours was the sirventes, a term which is earliest met with in the second half of the 12th century. The troubadours also employed the ballada, which was a song with a long refrain, not much like the formal ballade of the north of France; the pastourella; and the alba. This last took its name from the circumstance that the word alba (dawn) was repeated in each stanza. This was a morning-song, as the serena, a later invention, was an evensong. The plank was a funeral elegy, composed by the troubadour for the obsequies of his protector, or for those of the lady of his devotion. Most interesting of all, perhaps, was the tenson, which was a lyrical dialogue between two persons, who discussed in it, as a rule, some point of amorous casuistry, or matters of a religious, metaphysical or satirical nature. The troubadours were essentially lyrical (see PROVENcAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE).