Taylor, Edgar [Hrsg.]; Austin, Sarah [Hrsg.]: Lays of the minnesingers or German troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Illustr. by specimens of the contemporary lyric poetry of Provence and other parts of Europe ; With histor. and crit. notes, and engravings from the ms. of the minnesingers in the king's library at Paris, and from other sources (London, 1825)

ON
THE AGE AND tOETRY

OF THE

MINNESINGERS, TROUBADOURS,

SECTION I.

Introductory remarks.—Provence.—Imperfect knowledge of
the works of the Troubadours.—Writers on the subject.—
M. Raynouard.—Early monuments of Provencal poetry.—
Its cultivation.—Decline of the art in the South.— Ascend-
ancy of the North-French dialect or Romance.—Character
of the Troubadours to be sought in their works.—Remarks
on the question, whether the Troubadours confined them-
selves to lyric poetry, or like the Northern poets also com-
posed Romances and Tales.—Remains of Provencal Ro-
mances and Tales.—Real extent of the literary productions
of the Troubadours now uncertain.

1 HOUGH it is perhaps necessary to introduce the
following selections by a few observations on the pe-
riod of history which they serve in some measure to
illustrate, and on the early poetic literature of the