I quote the first verse of
one of these:

Le coms m'a mandat e mogut
Per N'Arramon Luc d'Esparro,
Qu'eu fassa per lui tal chanso,
On sian trenchat mil escut,
Elm e ausberc e alcoto
E perponh faussat e romput.

The count he sent to me one day
Sir Arramon Luc d'Esparro;
A song I was to make him--so
That thousand shields with ring and stay
And mail and armour of the foe
To fragments shivered in dismay.

The poetry of the Provencal troubadours had already passed its prime
when, in the other European countries, lyric art was still in its
infancy. The crusade against the Albigenses (1209), undertaken by
Gregory VII. with the object of killing the new spirit and the new
secular civilisation, drove many troubadours to Italy, among others the
famous Sordello, who is mentioned in Dante's _Divine Comedy_. Others
went to Sicily, to the court of the art-loving Emperor, Frederick II.,
where a distinct, but not very original, poetic art arose. In Italy the
perfection of mediaeval poetry was reached in the "sweet, new style"
immortalised by Dante. But not only the great Italians, the trouveres
from the North of France also, and--to some extent--the German
minnesingers, were influenced by the art, and above all, the ideals
which had originated in Provence. The poetry of the earliest Rhenish and
Austrian minnesingers closely follows German folklore, and the songs of
Dietmar of Aist and others are still quite innocent of any trace of
neo-Latin characteristics. But very soon the technical perfection of the
Provencal poetry and the Provencal ideal of courtesy and love, famous
all over Europe, strongly influenced the German mind.

The new poetry and the ideal of chivalry and the service of woman were
the first independent developments able to hold their own by the side of
ecclesiastical culture. The rigid Latin was superseded; the soul of man
sang in its own language of the return of spring, the beauty of woman,
knighthood and adventure. Poetry became the most important source of
secular education, and as each nation sang in its own tongue, national
characteristics shone out through the individuality of the singer.
Provencals, Frenchmen, Germans and Italians realised that they belonged
to different races. This was particularly the case during the Crusades
when, under the auspices of the Church, the nations of Europe had
apparently undertaken a common task.

In Provence,