very existence of its lyric
poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations
between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early
period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean
was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local nobles were
connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman
Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and _joglars_ to visit the
Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian
dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their
poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to
troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal
was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the
Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of [96]
Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less
importance offered a welcome to Provencal poets. More than twenty
troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to
have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their
poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provencal became
the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of
troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure.

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career
(1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour
quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor
noble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of
Orange; he exchanged _tensos_ with his patron with whom he seems to have
been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym
Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time
later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence
of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a
wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of
Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in
which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady.

"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart [97]
is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded
if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than
if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up."