lern der Provence ist der Minnesang entsprossen,
Kind des Fruehlings und der Minne, holder, inniger Genossen.

Northern France, the home of epic poetry, also possessed an indigenous
lyric poetry, including spring and dance songs, pastorals, romances, and
"chansons de toile." Provencal influence here was inevitable. It is
apparent in the form and content of poems, in the attempt to remodel [130]
Provencal poems by altering the words to French forms, and by the fact
that Provencal poems are found in MS. collections of French lyrics.
Provencal poetry first became known in Northern France from the East, by
means of the crusaders and not, as might be expected, by
intercommunication in the centre of the country. The centre of Provencal
influence in Northern France seems to have been the court of Eleanor of
Poitiers the wife of Henry II. of England and the court of her daughter,
Marie of Champagne. Here knights and ladies attempted to form a legal
code governing love affairs, of which a Latin edition exists in the _De
arte honeste amandi_ of Andre le Chapelain, written at the outset of the
thirteenth century. Well-known troubadours such as Bertran de Born and
Bernart de Ventadour visited Eleanor's court and the theory of courtly
love found its way into epic poetry in the hands of Chretien de Troyes.

The Provencal school in Northern France began during the latter half of
the twelfth century. The _chanson_ properly so called is naturally most
strongly represented: but the Provencal forms, the _tencon_ (Prov.
_tenso_) and a variant of it, the _jeu-parti_ (Prov. _jocs partitz_ or
_partimens_) are also found, especially the latter. This was so called,
because the opener of the debate proposed two alternatives to his
interlocutor, of which the latter could choose for support either that [131]
he preferred, the proposer taking the other contrary proposition: the
contestants often left the decision in an _envoi_ to one or more
arbitrators by common consent. Misinterpretation of the language of
these _envois_ gave rise to the legend concerning the "courts of love,"
as we have stated in a previous chapter. One of the earliest
representatives of this school was Conon de Bethune, born in 1155; he
took part in the Crusades of 1189 and 1199. Blondel de Nesles, Gace
Brule and the Chatelain de Coucy are also well-known names belonging to
the twelfth century. Thibaut IV., Count of Champagne and King of Navarre
(1201-1253), shared in t