her language, the
well-worn mannerisms of the troubadours: we find the usual introductory
references to the spring or winter seasons, the wounding glances of
ladies' eyes, the tyranny of love, the reluctance to be released from
his chains and so forth, decked out with complications of stanza form
and rime-distribution. Dialectical subtlety is not absent, and
occasionally some glow of natural feeling may be perceived; but that
school in general was careful to avoid the vulgarity of unpremeditated
emotion and appealed only to a restricted class of the initiated.
Changes in the constitution and customs of society brought this school [134]
to an end at the close of the thirteenth century, and a new period of
lyric poetry was introduced by Guillaume de Machaut and Eustache
Deschamps.

Of the troubadours in England there is little to be said. The subject
has hitherto received but scanty attention. Richard Coeur de Lion was as
much French as English; his mother, Queen Eleanor, as we have seen, was
Southern French by birth and a patroness of troubadours. Richard
followed her example; his praises are repeated by many troubadours. What
truth there may be in Roger of Hovenden's statement concerning his
motives cannot be said; "Hic ad augmentum et famam sui nominis
emendicata carmina et rhythmos adulatorios comparabat et de regno
Francorum cantores et joculatores muneribus allexerat ut de illo
canerent in plateis, et jam dicebatur ubique, quod non erat talis in
orbe." The manuscripts have preserved two poems attributed to him, one
referring to a difference with the Dauphin of Auvergne, Robert I.
(1169-1234), the other a lament describing his feelings during his
imprisonment in Germany (1192-1194). Both are in French though a
Provencal verson is extant of the latter. The story of Richard's
discovery by Blondel is pure fiction.[35]

From the time of Henry II. to that of Edward I. England was in constant [135]
communication with Central and Southern France and a considerable number
of Provencals visited England at different times and especially in the
reign of Henry III.; Bernard de Ventadour, Marcabrun and Savaric de
Mauleon are mentioned among them. Though opportunity was thus provided
for the entry of Provencal influence during the period when a general
stimulus was given to lyric poetry throughout Western Europe, Norman
French was the literary language of England during the earlier part of
that age and it was not until the se