TROUBADOURS (Fr. troubadour, from Prov. trobodor, troubadour, from trobar, OF. trorer, troarcr, Fr. trourer, to find, compose). The mediawal poets of Southern France, who flourished from about 1100 to about 1400, singers of war and love, whose wandering lives, full of passion and adventure, have made them the typical romantic figures of their age. The feudal conditions of the. region to which they belonged were particularly favorable to the development of this race of bards. Here, as elsewhere, society was divided into three classes, commons, clergy, and nobles, of whom the nobles alone possessed either the means or the desire liberally to reward literary and musical skill. The nobility, more over, consisted of an agglomeration of petty in dependent barons, who tended to attach them selves to powerful local houses, such as that of the counts of Toulouse. There were, therefore. many courts, not too far distant from each other, to which the wandering minstrels could resort. Another social condition which had an important influence upon the character of Provencal poetry was the position of noble ladies. They re ceived fiefs, sometimes by inheritance, sometimes as dowry, and there are instances in which they even governed and presided over a court. Usu ally married young and for social and political reasons rather than for love, they became queens of society, the objects often of fervent passion, always of conventional adoration.
With the accumulation of wealth and the progress of refinement, delight in life became conspicuous. The love of splendor manifested itself in gorgeousness of dress and magnificence of entertainments. Prodigality was the fashion. The ideal prince was he who bestowed gifts lav ishly. In addition to the chase and the tourney, one of the favorite amusements of this society was song, an amusement supplied by the jong leurs and the troubadours. The jongleurs (jocu latorcs) were the successors of the Latin mini. They wandered from town to town, from castle to castle, and supplied amusement to the com mons at the fairs and in the market-place, and to the higher classes at their feasts. The meaner kind not only recited, sang, and played on musical instruments, but performed as jugglers, dancers, acrobats, and exhibitors of trained animals. Nemhers of this class were also to be found in the following of every great lord, among his permanent domestic servants or ministrriales. They fulfilled the function of Court minstrels and entertainers.
From such singers sprang the troubadours. In general, it may he said that the jongleur was one who made a trade of poetry and music: the troubadour one who devoted himself to the pro duction of artistic Court poetry. whether he did this for gain or not. The jongleurs were, there fore, always poor, either by origin or by fate, whereas the troubadours, though largely belong ing to the humble or the middle class, included knights, barons, counts, and even kings.
Most of the troubadours led a wandering life, though they often lingered for several years at the Court of some patron, praising the mistress of the mansion in extravagant terms, and sup porting the policy of its master by vigorous ex hortations to his friends or by bitter denun ciation of his enemies. War and lady service were the chief themes of their songs. (See PRO VENcAL LITERATURE.) Convent ional as this poetry was, there were no schools in which the art was taught. Each troubadour learned from his predecessors, and handed down the tradition to the next generation. Even the art of writing was not necessary, for the pieces were not pre pared for readers, but for hearers. They were almost always sung by the composer himself, to his own accompaniment, but those masters who could not sing taught the words and music to their jongleurs. This was also the natural mode of publishing a poem destined for a wider audi ence than could be reached by the individual author. Poets of high rank, moreover, had their pieces performed by servants, and whenever a lyric was sent to sonic friend at a distance it was not intrusted to writing, but to the voice of a messenger. This poetry. therefore, required a pleasure-loving aristocracy for its. audience, and wealthy and generous patrons for its support. It mirrored the soul of chivalry, an ideal of hero ism, generosity. courtesy, and love. For flatter ing the vanity of the nobles and lending his talent to their taste for pleasure, the singer was rewarded with gifts of money. weapons. horses, or garments. Generosity was naturally praised as the chief of princely virtues, and growing avarice was a sign of the hopeless degeneracy of the times. Richard Cceur de Lion was con sidered the mirror of knighthood, and the prac tical statesmanship of Philip Augustus of France was judged low and unworthy. With the disap pearance of the society they represented, the troubadours also vanished.