FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>  
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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>  



Top keywords:
Provencal
 

poetry

 

school

 
influence
 

Portuguese

 

developed

 

Cantigas

 

Austro

 

troubadours

 

speaks


maldizer

 
Bavarian
 

minnesingers

 
popular
 
escarnho
 

Danube

 

PROVENCAL

 

INFLUENCE

 

ceases

 

opinions


expressed

 

Changes

 

political

 

questions

 

national

 
policy
 

upheavals

 

brought

 

GERMANY

 

CHAPTER


progress

 

literature

 
earlier
 

existing

 

earliest

 

representing

 

considerable

 

discussion

 

traces

 

advanced


development
 
reached
 

primitive

 

native

 

districts

 
existed
 

connected

 
geographically
 
schools
 

ENGLAND