The sirrentes, or service song. was written to fit some well-known and popular air. The sub ject was moral or religious, political or personal. The poet, with great freedom of language, scourges the vices of nobles or women or clergy, laments the decay of ancient manners and the growth of avarice, stimulates leaders and popu lace to war, exalts a patron for his political vir tues and his generosity, avenges an injury by virulent personal invective, or exhorts laggards to the crusade. Without an intimate acquaint ance with the events to which they relate, many of these pieces are now unintelligible. yet to the student of medifeval life they are most interest ing: for they constitute the journalism of the age.
The 'tcnso. with which may be included the partimen, joes partitz, and tornenamcn. was a poetical dispute, a play of wit, in which, often with biting mockery and intense personal bitter ness. two or more poets debated, in alternate stanzas. some question of love casuistry. -melt as: Which are the greater, the benefits or the ills of love? Whieh contribute more to keep a lover faithful, the eyes or the heart? The decision is commonly left to some lord or lady. Such were the leading artificial forms of the Provencal lyric. There were, however, some others which retain a stronger impress of popular origin: the elba. or dawn-song, portraying the parting of lovers; the ballada, dansa, and rondo, to he sung to the dance: the pastorela, copied some think from the French, a dialogue between a knight or a clerk and a shepherdess.
The earliest lyrical writer whose songs have been preserved is William IX.. Duke of Aqui Lillie and Count of Poitou, hut his pieces show such sure skill in treatment, such stability of language, metrical form and artistic character, as could not have been attained without the foun dation of a considerable earlier literature. After the middle of the twelfth century the poets be came numerous and their art soon reached its culmination. Among the most notable singers are: Marcabrun, distinguished for his biting satire; ;Ulf* Rudel, Prince of Blain, hero of a romantic tale, charudngly dramatized by Edmond R,stand in his Prinecssc lointuinc; Rambaut d'Orange, who exchanged love songs with Beatrice, Countess of Die; Peire Rogier, who ex celled in exaggerated devotion to Ermengarde, the masculine Countess of Narbonne; Bernart de Ventadour, the greatest singer of love: Peire krAlverhne, who wrote largely in the difficult style; Arnant de Marenil, referred to by Pe trareh, in comparison with Arnaut Daniel, as 'the less famous Arnaut:' Guiraut de Borneil, `the master of the troubadours:' Peire Vidal, an erratic genius; Bertran de Born, often called, on account of his stirring war songs, 'the Tyrta-us of Provence,' and put by Dante into hell among the stirrers of dissension (inf. xxviii.) : Folquet
de Marseille, who sang of love in his youth, then entered the Church, rose to be Bishop of Tou louse, and was one of the most ferocious persecu tors of the Albigenses; Pons de Capdueil, Ram bent de Vaqueiras, and Peirol, all three lovers and crusaders; Arnaut Daniel, whom Dante met in the last circle of Purgatory, and whom he re gards as the greatest of all poets of love (Burg. xxvi.) ; Raimon de Niraval, who sang light heartedly of amorous intrigues while his coun try was being devastated by a cruel war and ruin stalked through the land.
After the beginning of the thirteenth century the Provencal lyric rapidly declined. Moral poems largely took the place of songs of love and war. Among the writers worthy of mention are: Aimeric de Peguilhan, the favorite of many nobles; Peire Cardinal, master of the moral sirrentes; bordello, the Mantuan, made famous by Dante and Browning; and Guiraut Riquier, who may well be regarded as the last of the Trou badours.
The fall- of this brilliant literature began with the Albigensian Crusade of 1209, which soon turned into a savage war of conquest. and ended in the absorption of the fiefs of the south by the French monarchy. The elegant and liberal life of the Provencal nobility, the fount from which this lyric drew all its vitality, was destroyed. The stream of court poetry was dried up at its source. Even the language was condemned by authority. The culture of the became en tirely French, and the longue Woe declined into a mere group of dialects, with a dialectal litera ture. The poets took refuge in Catalonia, Ara gon, and Italy, where for another century their profession flourished.
The art, abandoned by the aristocracy, was taken up by the citizens of the towns. In 1323 seven burghers of Toulouse founded the "Sobre gaya Companhia dell VII. Trohadors de Tholoza," the purpose of was to further their native poetry. This company developed into a format society with many sharply defined grades of mem bership. Their chancellor prepared in 1355 a manual of poetic art, the Leys d'Amors. degrees of bachelor and doctor of the 'gay science' were conferred, and annual competitions in song were held, called the "Floral Gaines," from the fact that gold and silver flowers' constituted the prizes. The pieces composed for these competi tions celebrated the Virgin under the names Arrows and C/cinensa. the stereotyped love-formu las of the ancient poets being employed in the service of religion. Being written according to rule, these poems are uninspired and of small literary value.