composed an equally strong reply addressed [101]
to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours
became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is
certainly Sordello.

There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he
was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of noble family. His name is not
to be derived from _sordidus_, but from _Surdus_, a not uncommon
patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early
years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court
of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell
in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, _Par._ ix.
32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely
obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a
family feud, while others assert that the elopement took place with the
connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (_Inf_.
xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and
Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the
Provencal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his
flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He
thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France,
where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, [102]
penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is
the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose _sirventes_ speaks of him
as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso
IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this
no date can be assigned. Allusions in his poems show that he was in
Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of
the Countess Beatrice (_Par._ vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar,
Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have
been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur
and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady
cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin
treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known nobles,
and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is
uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in
1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Ch