language of the troubadours,
often breaking the strict rules of rime correspondence and of grammar,
but refusing to use their native dialect. Religious poems of popular and
native origin appear to have existed, but even the growth of a native
prose was unable to overcome the preference for Provencal in the [122]
composition of lyrics. Guiraut de Cabreira is remembered for the 213
lines which he wrote to instruct his _joglar_ Cabra; Guiraut upbraids
this performer for his ignorance, and details a long series of legends
and poems which a competent _joglar_ ought to know. Guiraut de Calanso
wrote an imitation of this diatribe. The best known of the Catalonian
troubadours is Raimon Vidal of Besadun, both for his _novelas_ and also
for his work on Provencal grammar and metre, _Las rasos de trobar_,[33]
which was written for the benefit of his compatriots who desired to
avoid solecisms or mistakes when composing. "For as much as I, Raimon
Vidal, have seen and known that few men know or have known the right
manner of composing poetry (trobar) I desire to make this book that men
may know and understand which of the troubadours have composed best and
given the best instruction to those who wish to learn how they should
follow the right manner of composing.... All Christian people, Jews,
Saracens, emperors, princes, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, vavassors
and all other nobles with clergy, citizens and villeins, small and
great, daily give their minds to composing and singing.... In this
science of composing the troubadours are gone astray and I will tell you
wherefore. The hearers who do not understand anything when they hear a
fine poem will pretend that they understand perfectly... because they [123]
think that men would consider it a fault in them if they said that they
did not understand.... And if when they hear a bad troubadour, they do
understand, they will praise his singing because they understand it; or
if they will not praise, at least they will not blame him; and thus the
troubadours are deceived and the hearers are to blame for it." Raimon
Vidal proceeds to say that the pure language is that of Provence or of
Limousin or of Saintonge or Auvergne or Quercy: "wherefore I tell you,
that when I use the term Limousin, I mean all those lands and those
which border them or are between them." He was apparently the first to
use the term Limousin to describe classical Provencal, and when it
became applied to liter