imself wrote many poems in the Galician or
Portuguese dialect; perhaps his choice was dictated by reasons analogous
to those which impelled Italian and Catalonian poets to write in
Provencal. The general body of Portuguese poetry declares itself by form
and content to be directly borrowed from the troubadours: it appeals to
an aristocratic audience; the idea of love as a feudal relation is
preserved with the accompanying ideas of _amour courtois_, and the lyric
forms developed in Southern France are imitated. The Provencal manner
took root in Portugal as it failed to do in Spain, because it found the
ground to some extent prepared by the existence of a popular lyric
poetry which was remodelled under Provencal influence. The most popular
of the types thus developed were _Cantigas de amor e de amigo_ and
_Cantigas de_ _escarnho e de maldizer_; the former were love
songs: when the poet speaks the song was one _de amor_; when the lady
speaks (and she is unmarried, in contrast to Provencal usage) the song was
_de amigo_. This latter is a type developed independently by the
Portuguese school. _Cantigas de escarnho_ correspond in intention [126]
to the Provencal _sirventes_; if their satire was open and unrestrained
they were _cantigas de maldizer_. They dealt for the most part with
trivial court and personal affairs and not with questions of national policy
upon which the troubadours so often expressed their opinions. Changes in
taste and political upheavals brought this literature to an end about
1385 and the progress of Portuguese poetry then ceases for some fifty
years.

CHAPTER IX [127]

PROVENCAL INFLUENCE IN GERMANY, FRANCE AND ENGLAND

Provencal influence in Germany is apparent in the lyric poetry of the
minnesingers. Of these, two schools existed, connected geographically
with two great rivers. The earlier, the Austro-Bavarian school,
flourished in the valley of the Danube: the later minnesingers form the
Rhine school. In the latter case, Provencal influence is not disputed;
but the question whether the Austro-Bavarian school was exempt from it,
has given rise to considerable discussion. The truth seems to be, that
the earliest existing texts representing this school do show traces of
Provencal influence; but there was certainly a primitive native poetry
in these Danube districts which had reached an advanced stage of
development before Provencal