cond half of the thirteenth century
that English lyric poetry appeared. Nevertheless, traces of Provencal
influence are unmistakably apparent in this Middle English lyric poetry.
But even before this time Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature was
similarly affected. William of Malmesbury says that the Norman Thomas,
Archbishop of York, the opponent of Anselm wrote religious songs in
imitation of those performed by jongleurs; "si quis in auditu ejus arte
joculatoria aliquid vocale sonaret, statim illud in divinas laudes
effigiabat." These were possibly hymns to the Virgin. There remain also
political poems written against John and Henry III. which may be fairly
called _sirventes_, Latin disputes, such as those Inter Aquam et Vinum,
Inter Cor et Oculum, De Phillide et Flora, are constructed upon the [136]
principles of the _tenso_ or _partimen_. The use of equivocal and
"derivative" rimes as they are called in the Leys d'Amors is seen in the
following Anglo-Norman stanzas. A poem with similar rimes and grouped in
the same order is attributed to the Countess of Die, the Provencal
_trobairitz_; but this, as M. Paul Meyer points out, may be pure
coincidence.[36]

En lo sesoun qe l'erbe poynt
E reverdist la matinee
E sil oysel chauntent a poynt
En temps d'avril en la ramee,
Lores est ma dolur dublee
Que jeo sui en si dure poynt
Que jeo n'en ai de joie poynt,
Tant me greve la destinee.

Murnes et pensif m'en depart,
Que trop me greve la partie;
Si n'en puis aler cele part,
Que ele n'eyt a sa partie
Mon quor tot enter saunz partie.
E puis qu'el ad le men saunz part,
E jeo n'oy unkes del soen part
A moi est dure la partie.

"In the season when the grass springs and the morn is green and the
birds sing exultantly in April time in the branches, then is my grief
doubled, for I am in so hard a case that I have no joy at all, so heavy
is my fate upon me.

"Sad and thoughtful I depart, for the case is too grievous for me: yet [137]
I cannot go thither, for she has in her power my heart whole and
undivided. And since she has mine undivided and I never have any part of
hers, the division is a hard one to me."

This influence was continued in Middle English lyric poetry. These
lyrics are often lacking in polish; the tendency to use alliteration as
an ornament has nothing to do with such occasional troubadour examples
of the trick as may be found in Peire d'Auvergne. Sometimes a refrai