TROUBADOUR (Provencal, trobar; Fr. trouver, to find, of unknown derivation). In Provencal poetry (see TuourkaR), a troubadour was a polished and cultivated poet— what the Germans call a Kenstdichter (art-poet)—•ho did not make a trade of his muse, in opposition to the musician and jongleur, who wandered about the country singing for money. Yet this distinction only gradually showed itself. At first, all classes of the community were nearly equally rude, and what pleased the peasant in the shape of song, pleased the prince also; but by degrees, a superior refinement and sensibility mani fested themselves in the tastes and manners of courts, and this superiority found poetical expression in a more artistic kind of verse than had hitherto prevailed. Great nobles, princes, and kings who practiced verse-making for their pleasure, or out of chivalrous gallantry, were always called troubadours; while inferior knights, court-attendants (M.
Lat. ministeriales; hence menestrels, minstrels), and even citizens and, serfs who lived by their art, or at least took money for the exercise of it, were sometimes called trouba dours, and sometimes jongleurs. Under this last name were classed the musicians, singers, jugglers (a word, in fact, which is only a corruption of jongleur), etc.; :ill, in short, who did not themselves make or invent (trobar) poems, but only recited or chanted them, or whose business it was to accompany the singer on some musical instrument, The more celebrated troubadours had one or several such jongleurs in their service, as it was considered infra dig. for a poet to be his own fiddler. This new troubadour poetry (art de troba•), which it may be remarked was lyrical, while the popular minstrelsy was mainly of the epic ballad sort, exercised a considerable influence on the advancement of literature and culture generally; yet those who practiced it never formed themselves into a guild, or into special schools, but preserved a certain free individualism, which gives a fine picturesqueness to the outlines of their history. At all the courts (great and small) in s. France, n. Spain, and Italy, they were esteemed a brilliant ornament of society; princes and fair dames (often themselves troubadours, as has been remarked) were proud of their praise, and their service of gallantry, or dreaded the biting raillery of their satiric muse; while, on the other hand, the majority of the troubadours. gladly attached themselves to the court of a great prince or noble, sometimes praising their master in sirrentes (service-songs), sometimes censuring him, but at any rate, always selecting some lady as the " mistress of their heart," to whom they, under a general or allegorical name, addressed their love-songs (causes), whose cruelty they bewailed in songs of lamentation (planes), or whose death they mourned in sorrowful threnodies. Although the " love-service" of the troubadours was often nothing more than an arti ficial gallantry, having more esprit than heart in it, yet not uufrequently the sport passed into fatal earnest, and adultery, murder, and revenge were tile consequences.
Further, when, as often happened at great court-festivals, were present. the latter used to indulge in competitions or verse-battles (tensons) among them selves, for the gratification of the high society assembled there; mostly OR questions selected by the ladies from the " Laws of Love;" one or more of these ladies sitting as umpires at such poetic jousts. and deciding who were the victors. But although the troubadours as a rule monotonously confined themselves to themes of gallantry, yet sometimes their muse, especially in its satiric moods, ventured into higher regions, and glanced at the general con litions of society, or the graver evils of the times—as the wars between the English and French armies in southern France; the persecution of the Albi genses; the degeneracy of the clergy; the diminishing zeal for the crusades, etc. ; or they even descended to depict the life of the peasantry, and sang their adventures with shep herdesses, etc., in pastoretas and vagueyras. The most illustrious patrons of the trouba dour poetry were the counts of Provence, particularly Raimund Berengar (1167-Si), Alphonse II. (11964209), and Raimund Berengar IV. (1209-15); the counts of Toulouse, as Raimund de St. Gilles, who joined the ranks of the crusaders in 1090, Raimund V. (1148-91), and Raimund VII. (122'2-49); Richard Occur de Lion of England, himself a troubadour; Eleanor, wife, first of Louis VII. of France and afterward of Henry II of England; Ermengarde, viscountess of Narbonne; the kings of Aragon, as Alfonso II. (1162-93), Pedro II. (1199-1213), and Pedro III. (1276-85); the kings of Castile, as Alfonso IX. (1188-1229), and more especially Alfonso X. (q.v.), surnamed the Wise; several Italian princes, as Bonifacio, count of Montferrat, and after 1204 king of Thes salonica, and Azzo VII. of Este (1215-63). These names also indicate the extent of ter ritory on which the troubadour poetry was cultivated—viz., Provence, Toulouse, Poitou, Dauphine, or briefly France s. of the Loire; Catalonia, Valencia, and Aragon in Spain; and part of Upper Italy. It lasted for about 200 years (1090-1290), and one can distinguish three periods in its history: (1) The period of its genesis or birth, or its development out of mere popular minstrelsy into artistic poetry (1090-1140); (2) its golden age (1140-1250); (3) the period of its decline (1250-90). The first of these periods is marked by a conscious striving after something finer and more poetic than the rude simplicity of the earlier verse; the second, by the loftiest expression of ideal chivalry and gallantry, and the most perfect development of artistic form; the third, by an ever increasing serio-didactic tendency, and a degeneracy in poetic art. Thus the poetry of the troubadours rose, and ruled, and fell with that courtly chivalry which was at once its inspiration and its soul.