"As the progress of mind in all countries is alike, the first essays in the languages, which I have mentioned, were of the poe tical kind; or what more properly might be termed metrical composition: the authors of which, from the word invention, to the honour of which they aspired, acquired the appellation, in the north of France, of Trouveurs; and in the south, of Troubadours. There was a close resemblance in the subjects on which they exerted their powers. They were the supposed feats of heroes, in military songs, with tales of love and merriment, all of which were connected with chivalry, and designed to promote its views. It is, however, maintained by modern authors of the late French school, not only that the productions of the Trouveurs were the most numerous; but likewise that they shew more felicity of invention, and display greater elegance of diction; whilst they represent those of the Troubadours, as deficient in imagery, in interest, and in taste, and producing disgust by a tedious and perpetual monotony. This may be true; but I suspect that the choicest efforts of the more northern muse, if laid before us in their native attire*, would be found not greatly to surpass them in variety of

attraction.

"It is not, I believe, pretended that any of these authors drew from the original stock of their own minds; though-if it can be proved, that the first subjects were borrowed from the Arabians, or from the east, during the intercourse established by the crusades -the subsequent progress of imitation may be easily explained. But whether borrowed or original, disfigured by a thousand defects of method and style, or polluted by the grossest obscenities, the compositions of the Trouveurs and Troubadours, whether in prose or metre, evince the true character of the dialects, which they employed; the talents of the writers; and the taste of those who recited them or who listened to the recital! They shew more for works of fancy, as it has been well observed, written in remote ages, are the best, if not the only, documents, illustrative of the manners and customs, that is, the opinions, prejudices, superstitions, tones of conversation, and modes of life, of the times in which they were composed. When they furnish us with so much valuable information, we may readily overlook their defects; and indeed, these very defects are themselves instructive, as far as they mark the progress which had been made. The historian chronicles the great events of life, the revolutions of governments, the characters and deaths of princes, the issue of battles, the altercations of polemics, the ravages of war and fa

* "The French editor of the Fabliuux ou Contes, Mr. Le Grand, has taken the liberty to omit, to suppress, to add, and to arrange, as might seem to please a modern reader best; and his English imitator, Mr. Way, in his highly elegant poetical translations, has taken still greater liberties. We have not from either the real effusions of the Trouveurs, as is pretended, of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries."

mine; while the Trouveur or Troubadour, be he poet, fabler, or romancer, explores the diversified scenes of common life, and describes men as they are. If the personages whom he introduces are not real, and the events which he describes never happened; still the manners which he paints are true.” P. 388.

"While, in the south, the Troubadours amused their countrymen, and diffused some taste of letters by reciting or singing their compositions, the Italians caught the flame, adapted their subjects to their own more melodious tongue, and improving both it and them, left their masters far behind. For a time, however, attracted, probably by the charms of these novel productions, they themselves cultivated the Provençal dialect; and we read of many who composed in it, and who, in the courts of their princes, practised the seductive arts of the Troubadours. The Italian tongue, as the historian of its literature candidly owns, not completely formed, even in the thirteenth century, possesed not those elegancies which can allure the poet, to its use: whereas the Provençal, from long practice in rhyme and verse, presented an easy phraseology, and was preferred by the Italians themselves. But this did not last long; competition produced excellence; and the new language of the Italian cities, was soon without a rival in every species of composition.

"In the north, the Trouveurs, whose language had been carried into distant countries, conveyed also their compositions with their language; and thus we were enriched. If, however, it be true, as evidently appears from their popular tales, that they had borrowed much from the old bards of Britain and Armorica, or latterly from the history of Geoffrey of Monmouth, we took back only, as far these stories went, the fictions of our ancestors, clothed in a new attire. By the side of the glorious achievements of Charlemagne and his heroes, are placed the exploits of Arthur and the Knights of the Round-table, and the incantations of the magician Merlin, are an unrivalled source of wonder." P. 341.

Indeed the whole theory which confines the names of Trouveurs to the langue Romane or Romance, spoken to the north of the Loire, and of Troubadours to the langue Romance or Provençal, which was spoken by those south of the same river, is entirely unknown to ns; nor did we ever hear that these northern Trouveurs were the most numerous, and much less, that they displayed more felicity of invention and a greater elegance of diction*, than the Troubadours.

We have always considered upon authority which appears to

* This distinction between the Trouveurs and Troubadours, has indeed been asserted by a modern writer of note; but as he considers the Trouveurs to have been prose writers, and the Troubadours poets, his authority can be of no use to Mr. Berington; his work will form the subject of a future Number, and for this reason we shall not for the present analyze this curious theory.

is unquestionable, that these Troubadours or Trombadours, Trouveors, Trouveurs, Trouverses, or Trouvebours, as they have been severally called, were the very same set of people; that they flourished for more than 250 years, that is from the year 1120, to the year 1382; that during this period they had acquired so much celebrity, and enjoyed so many privileges, that nobles, princes and monarchs, did not think it beneath their dignity to follow the profession. And although some writers have observed, that they failed for want of a Mecenas by the death of Jane I. queen of Naples and Sicily, and countess of Provence, yet we are inclined to think that their fate was the consequence of their excesses. The monarchs and nobles having withdrawn from their society, which had become too vicious and relaxed, by degrees they fell into disrepute and disappeared; and when others wished to follow the footsteps of the first Troubadours, not possessing their abilities and their influence they were despised. It was then that those who still followed the profession divided; and it is perhaps of this divi sion Mr. Berington wishes to speak; but he ought to have remembered, that at this period they were no longer Troubadours, for even the name was laid aside. Some took the appellation of minstrels, and went on playing on their harps and singing the verses which they had learned from, and sung for the Troubadours their masters; and occasionally adding some composition of their own. Others under the name of Jongleurs, quasi joculatores, from which the Italians have made giocolieri, though occasionally they sang verses, yet for the most part they con fined themselves to the mere playing the buffoon, just as they had done in the suite of the old Troubadours, and still wore as they had formerly done, a particular kind of mimic dress. From the former we may derive the origin of the harpers and bards, whom we find at the courts of all the northern chieftains and sovereigns, most probably the Trouveurs of Mr. Berington; and from the latter, who must be his Troubadours-we may date the fashion of our present buffoons, under the different names of Punch, Pulcinella, Harlequin, Gracioso, Conjurors, Riders, Clowns, and all other despicable characters of the same description. These very soon became as great favorites in the south as the bards were in the north; and so well did they suit the frivolous taste of the age, that for a long time there wasnot any price or any grandee who had not some of them at his court; and it is on this account that they soou obtained and do still retain a place amongst the dramatis personæ of the theatrical compositions of all the nations of modern Europe.

In regard to the formation of the modern languages, it is not our intention, nor indeed within our power, confined as we

are

are within so narrow limits, to enter into any discussion concerning their descent. But as we happen to differ from Mr. Berington on the whole of his theory concerting the langue Romance, or Provençal language, we deem a few words necessary on a branch of modern literature, so interesting and so much neglected. For this reason we shall first of all listen to Mr. Berington.

"In speaking of those idioms which had acquired most maturity, I have just intimated, that they were the Provençal and the Italian. With respect to the first, I might more properly have said that the language, afterwards known by the name of French, was divided into two dialects, both of which bore the name of Romane or Romance, because each was formed on the basis of the Romain: that to the north being adulterated by a mixture of Frankish and Norman words; whilst the dialect of the south was vitiated by words transferred from the language of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Alani. The river Loire, not rigidly taken, was their common boundary. The first might be called the French Romane; the latter the Provençal, because spoken by the subjects of Raimond, Count of Provence, well-known in the armies of the crusaders. The characters of these dialects, however, though owning a common source, were marked by strong lines of differThe Provençal, from a milder climate, from a more constant intercourse with strangers, and from a closer affinity to the mother tongue, was soft and harmonious: the French more harsh, as retaining more of its northern mixture. But if we number the countries in which these languages were now current, it will be seen, that the Provençal was confined within the limits which I assigned it; while the French Romane, overflowing its natural boundaries, became familiar to distant nations. It passed with the conqueror into England, where it was previously fashionable. The Norman settlers rendered it familiar at Naples and in Sicily, though here it was soon vanquished by the superior fascination of the Italian dialect. The crusaders carried it into the east, and planted it in Syria, in Palestine, in Cyprus, and at Constantinople, where it was at least as permanent, as the conquests which they had made." P. 337.

ence.

From this specimen it is evident, that Mr. Berington gives the name of langue Romane, or Romance, both to the Provençal language and northern French; he pretends that both were formed on the basis of the Latin language, the northern by the mixture of Frankish and Norman words, the southern by those of the languages of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Alani; and finally, he asserts that the Loire, not strictly taken, being the boundary of these two tongues, the Provençal language was confined within the south of France, while the French,

which he calls French Romane, overflowing its boundaries, became familiar to distant nations.

We do not know upon what authority Mr. Berington has grounded this ingenious system, for the sake of which he has been obliged to distinguish between the Troubadours and Trouveurs. We have already discussed the merit of this last assertion; and now as far as their language is concerned, we certainly conceive that the fact is quite the reverse of what Mr. Berington has stated. We shall shortly lay down what we think upon the subject.

We agree with Mr. Berington, that the vulgar Latin which was spoken in Gaul during four centuries after the conquest of the Romans, was the mother tongue, or "formed the basis" of the langue Romance; we are even willing to allow that the incursions of the Franks, of the Ostrogoths, Alani, &c.; caused some alteration in the language of the country which they had invaded; but we deny that this alteration was such as to make the Provençal a language intirely distinct from the northern French; we assert that even before the Troubadours, it was the only language spoken not only in France, but even in a great part of the north of Spain, which was not subject to the dominion of the Moors; so that with very little alteration, in progress of time it produced the old French, which in the hands of the writers who flourished under the reign of Louis XIV. became what we now call the French language.

The fact is this; the Romans with their conquest introduced among the nations whom they had conquered, both their language and their laws. But if we except Italy, in which the Latin was the vernacular tongue, all the other nations had a language of their own, when they became the subjects of these proud conquerors of the world. And though the different privileges which many emperors bestowed on the Franks, had fully admitted the Latin language and jurisprudence into Gaul, we are not therefore to believe that the Celtic language was entirely laid aside. For so late as the year 529, we find a law in regard to Fideicommissis, that orders-fideicommissa relinqui possunt non solum sermone Latino vel Graco, sed etiam Punico vel Gallicano. D. 32. 11. in pr. Now from this law it is evident, that it was with the Celtic as it was with the Punic language; since though at the time of St. Augustin, the Latin were the general language of the Diocesis of Hippones, yet we know that he was obliged to entertain clergymen who spake Punic for the sake of the villani who lived far distant in the country, and who did not understand Latin. This difficulty, however, disappeared by degrees, and after four centuries or a little more, the