Taylor, Edgar [Editor]; Austin, Sarah [Editor]: 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)

74 FHANCE.

cal in inflexion and melody; while in other authors
of nearly the same period, it has much more of the
structure of modern French. Thus Benoit (who per-
haps wrote about 1170 or 1180), in describing the
spring in which Rollo quitted England for Neustria,
sings in a strain of very Southern cast:—

Quant li ivers fu trepasser,

Vint li duls tens, e li ester;

Venta 1' aure sueve et quoie,

Chanta li merles et la treie ;

Bois reverdirent e prael,

E gent florirent li ramcl;

Parut la rose buen olanz

E altre flors de main! semblanz.

But Chrestien de Troyes (who died in 1191) uses
what seems to be a ruder style, as in the chanson :—

Joie ne guerrcdons d' amours
Ne vienent pas par bel servir;
Car on voit chaus souvent faillir
Ki servent sans aller allours.

Si m'en air,
Quant celi serf sans repentir
Ki ne me veut faire secours.

Voirs est c' amours est grant doucours
Quant doi cuer sont un sans partir;
Mais amours fait 1" un seul languir,
Et les anuis sentir tousjours.

Bien os gehir:
Que ne puis a amours venir
En amours gist tous mes secours.

The fame of the Trouveres mainly rests on their

lais and fabliaux, to which, at least in the later period

of their reign, they peculiarly devoted themselves,