Love in troubadour poetry was essentially a conventional relationship, and marriage was not its object.

Finally, the German minnesingers knew and appreciated troubadour lyrics, and imitations or even translations of Provençal poems may be found in Heinrich von Morungen, Friedrich von Hausen, and many others.

These lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne.

These invectives may have been the outcome of personal disappointment; the theory has also been advanced that the troubadour idea of love had not yet secured universal recognition, and that Marcabrun is one who strove to prevent it from becoming the dominant theme of lyric poetry.

Troubadour music is a subject still beset with difficulties: we possess 244 tunes written in Gregorian notation, and as in certain cases the same poem appears in different MSS.

The propounder then replied, and if, as generally, neither would give way, a proposal was made to send the problem to a troubadour-patron or to a lady for settlement, a proposal which came to be a regular formula for concluding the contest.

Troubadour poems were composed for singing, not for recitation, and the music of a poem was an element of no less importance than the words.

One of the most extraordinary figures in the whole gallery of troubadour portraits is Peire Vidal, whose career extended, roughly speaking, from 1175 to 1215.

At the same time, though Provençal influence was strong, the Middle High German lyric rarely relapsed into mere imitation or translation of troubadour productions.

Thus the troubadour ranks included all sorts and conditions of men; monks and churchmen were to be found among them, such as the monk of Montaudon and Peire Cardenal, though the Church looked somewhat askance upon the profession.

He began his troubadour wanderings early and at the outset of his career we find him in Catalonia, Aragon and Castile.

In the troubadour biographies the substratum of historical truth is so overlaid by fiction, that little reliable evidence upon the point can be drawn from this source.

At the same time Bernard's style is simple and clear, though he shows full mastery of the complex stanza form; to call him the Wordsworth of the troubadour world is to exaggerate a single point of coincidence; but he remains the greatest of troubadour poets, as modern taste regards [50] poetry.

The Fair Maid of Ribbesdale has a rime-scheme almost identical with that shown by one of Raimbaut d'Aurenga's poems; the description of the lady's beauty recalls many troubadour formulae: the concluding lines He myhte sayen pat crist hym seze, pat myhte nyhtes neh hyre leze, heuene he hevede here. are a troubadour commonplace.