JOHN HUBERT CORNYN, Editorial Staff of The Americana.
PROVENcAL LITERATURE made its appearance in southern France toward the close of the 11th century; although previous to this date there undoubtedly existed ballad and other verse in the vernacular of the masses, which seems to have been handed down from one reciter or singer to another and not to have been committed to writing. At this time Latin formed the sole literary medium of the poets and other writers who lived the life of the court and courtly society. But while Latin maintained its entrenched position as the vehicle of the literary expression of the court and the nobility, the masses were shaping the Romanic tongue of southern France to their own ends. Just when this new tongue began to take form as a speech apart from Latin and the native language spoken in the country on the advent of the Romans is not known, but a considerable fragment of a poem of the first half of the 11th century which has been preserved shows that at this time the provencal had already assumed a strong individuality of form and a grammatical structure very different from those of the Latin tongue. This poem consists of 257 decasyllabic verses forming the beginning of a composition based on Boethius' consola tione philosophiw.> It is evident that the author was acquainted with Latin, which prob ably influenced his handling of the vernacular; and the form of the poem suggests that it was composed to be sung or recited probably by some professional entertainer. This poem is of considereable interest, since it shows that the importance of the vernacular had already be come great enough to induce a court writer to revamp, in the popular speech, the work of a noted Latin author, and also because it indi cates that, while Christianity had already got the upper hand of Roman paganism, yet the pagan writings, reshaped and commentated, were still serving to entertain the Christianized public.
The poems of William IX, Count of Poitiers, consisting of love songs and occasional com positions of various kinds, which belong to the end of the 11th and first quarter of the 12th centuries, are the earliest extant representatives of the Provencal literature which was soon to become so popular in southern France and the east of Spain. The form of these poems shows they were intended to be sung, probably at the court, to the courtly friends and guests of the sovereign, since the subjects are in no sense popular. They bear evidence that the Provençal tongue had already by the end of the 11th cen tury become the language of the people of southern France, peasant and prince alike. Their lack of resemblance to Latin poetry would seem to prove the contention that they were imitations of the compositions of the joglars (jongleurs) or professional entertain ers, who were welcome guests at the castles of princes and •barons. William of Poitiers seems to have set the style in vernacular poetry for the Provencal writers who followed him. Those love poems in which profound respect is shown by the poet to his lady love, or to some lady of higher rank, perhaps the head of the household or court to which the singer was attached. These poetic effusions were always couched in the most respectful terms and in the highest refinement of language at the command of the poet. Growing up under these conditions and flourishing among the court followers and the families of the barons and knights, Provencal poetry remained, as it was when it first came into notice, the pos session of the privileged class. It was, there
fore, undoubtedly more refined and Latinized than the speech of the masses. This explains the fact that, after a comparatively long period of vogue and noted popularity, it dropped almost completely out of sight for several centuries. Provencal poetry received its first encourage ment and inspiration at the court of William of Poitiers, at a time when it had already acquired sufficient strength, character and indi viduality to fit it to be the medium of the expression of the life and aspirations of the court and its followers. The example set by the royal poet of writing in the vulgar tongue, to the exclusion of Latin, was followed by many writers, not a few of whom were of noble birth. The writing of poetry was soon looked upon as a courtly accomplishment; and it natu rally became fashionable. It would seem as if every one at court wrote or tried to write songs, generally of love. Very often the author also composed the music to which his songs were sung either by himself, his friends or profes sional singers and reciters. Songs of over 400 Provencal poets have been preserved while the poems of many more writers known by name or reputation have been lost. The very re spectable body of Provençal poetry that bas survived is a good indication of the great amount written during the period of its vogue. Being the expression of the sentiment and an idealization of the life of the court, the work of the Provencal poets could never have been popular in the sense that a modern poet is popular; and it is doubtful if it ever penetrated to the masses. Confined to the narrow court circle and idealizing to the extreme a life that was none too ideal, Provencal poetry rapidly became artificial and more and more character istically the voice and the peculiar property of the aristocracy. This result was undoubtedly due to the illiteracy and low condition of the masses who were very far from the ideal dition pictured by the poets of the age. As Provencal poetry became more and more arti ficial it lost considerable of its virility and much of its earlier and charming appearance of naturalness. Its tendency was to assume a stereotyped form from which succeeding poets found it very difficult to break away. It was so inseparably identified with the court life and the ideals of the Provencal aristocracy that, when the latter fell from its high estate on the subjugation of the Provençal domains in the 14th century, the ornate literary branch that had been grafted on its ancient family tree fell by the wayside and perished with the local feudalism it had been used to glorify. But its own peculiar glory did not die with it; for it had already impressed its peculiar mode of thought, its idealism, its literary artificiality on the feudalism of Europe; and left its impress strongly and indelibly upon the literature, prose and poetry alike, of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The Provencal literary movement dur ing this first or aristocratic period embraced not only the French Provencal country but also Catalonia and the outer east coast countries of Spain in which Catalan was and still is the native tongue, Gascony and northern Italy. In all these regions it showed the same character istics; and in none of them was it ever the expression of the life of the masses; nor did it ever deal with the legend story or the history of the earlier life of the people. In this respect the early literature of northern France was superior in rugged strength, in human interest and real dramatic qualities.