The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-08-04 00:00:00

THE TROUBADOURS.

The Troubadours (ar inventors of poetical romance)
composed songs, &c. which an inferior class, calledjungleurs,
sung to the harp at feasts and solemnities. They sung of
war and hattics—of the wonderful adventures of knights
---of the beauty and virtues of damsels. As they adorned
those damsels with every possible grace and accomplish-
ment, the poet sometimes fell in love with tl.e creature of
his own imagination, and continued to make sonnets and
love-songs on women who existed nowhere else ; and if
any of them afterwards met with a lady more interesting
than usual, all the virtues and graces which he had col-
lected in his sonnets, for the use of his ideal mistress, were
applied to this real lady, whom, perhaps, he would continue
di
to celebrate in his poems for years. Thus it often happened
among the Troubadours, that instead of love making the
poet, the poet made the love. Many have believed that
this was the case with Tetrarch. But however that may
be, the works of the Troubadours came every day more into
vogue. The profession was highly respected, and the most
distinguished of those who followed it were cherished in
private society, and great favourites at the Courts. They
were even freed from taxes. Some sovereign princes be-
came so intoxicated with the works of the Troubadours,
that they were vain of being enrolled in their number. The
most eminent of these was Richard the First of England.
This Prince had a passionate taste for poetry. lie had
composed some poetical romances, and was afterwards the
subject of many, particularly of one entitled, " The Ro-
mance of Richard Cceur de Lion," which, with added
fictions, celebrates his warlike exploits during his crusade.
From this poem Mr. Thomas IVarton gives several ex-
. tracts. In that which describes the duel between Richard
and the soldan, at the siege of Babylon, it is said of the
latter—

" A faucon brotle in liontle he bare,
For he thoglit he would share
Have slayne Richarde with treasowne."
The learned gentleman imagines, that by this faucon
brode is meant a hawk, and that the olden is represented
with the bird on his fist to show his indifference or con-
' tempt for the adversary with whom he was going to
fight. Mr. Warton supports this conjecture by mentioning
a curious Gothic picture, the subject of which is supposed
to he this same duel; and some very old tapestry, on which
heroes are represented on horseback with hawks in their
fists. Ile adds, that in feudal times no gentleman ap-
peared on horseback but with a hawk so placed. But
with all due respect to the picture and the tapestry, and all
possible deference to Mr. Warton's opinion, I cannot help
thinking that the faucon blonde signified a broad faulchion
which the soklan had in his band, with which he certainly
had a better chance of killing Richard than with a hawk on
his fist ; unless, indeed, the soltlan had reason to expect
the same assistance from the hawk that Valerions Corous
received from the crow, in his duel with the Gaul.
In the same poem we are informed that Richard carried
a battle-axe from Engladd, that made him more than a
match for the soldan.
" King Richai.le I understonde,
Or he went out of Ettgelo7de,
Let him make an axe for the nonei • '
To brake therewith the Sarucyns bones;
The heed was wrought right well
Therein was twenty pounds of stele,
ATM when he come into Cyprys load.
The axe took tie in his honde,
All that the hytte he all to trapped,
The Oryllims away fast wrapped.
But nothing in this poem can give a higher notion of the
terror with which Richard's prowess had struck the infi-
dels, than what is recorded in plain prose by Joinville,
that when the Saracens were riding their horses, and
spurring them at the same thee, "Et cuides to vie ce soil
le Boy Richert."
IVtint contributed as much as the favour of princes to
prompt young men to become Troubadours, was the great
favour with which they were beheld by the ladies, many
of whom were exceedingly solicitous to have those poets
for their lovers, merely for the pleasure of being celebrated
in their poems.
That the avowed passion of a Troubadour, and his ad-
dressing love-sonnets to a lady, was not injurious to her re-
' potation, or, at least, that many husbands were of this opi-
nion, is evident, fur the husbands in general were as rain
of having a Troubadoer attached to their ladies them-
, selves as the ladies could be. It is highly probable, there-
fore, that this species of attachment of a Troubadour to
the married lady he chose for the theme of his poetry, laid
/he fumtdatien for the eiccsbeism of modern Italy.