ss and attribute to her all
the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that
the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the
supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut
Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new
_genre_: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem
admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many
poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with
classical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from [93]
the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea
of the character of this poetry.

Domna, rosa ses espina,
sobre totas flors olens,
verga seca frug fazens,
terra que ses labor grana,
estela, del solelh maire,
noirissa del vostre paire,
el mon nulha no.us semelha
ni londana ni vezina.

Domna, verge pura e fina,
ans que fos l'enfantamens,
et apres tot eissamens,
receup en vos carn humana
Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire,
si com ses trencamen faire
intra.l bels rais, quan solelha,
per la fenestra veirina.

Domna, estela marina
de las autras plus luzens,
la mars nos combat e.l vens;
mostra nos via certana;
car si.ns vols a bon port traire
non tem nau ni governaire
ni tempest que.ns destorbelha
ni.l sobern de la marina.

"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing
fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun,
nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, [94]
neither far nor near.

Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same,
Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without
causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun
shines.

Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the
wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to
a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it
trouble us."

CHAPTER VII [95]

THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY

To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of
its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The
movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and
the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the