A history of Spanish literature - Cristo Raul

THE TROVADCR 29
liana's is "a numerous house, with many kinsmen gay" ;
still, in all save success, his case typifies
fashion.
a dominant
In the society of clerkly magnates the trovado^s ac-
and the equipped artist was
complishments developed ;
expected to be master of several instruments, to be pat
with litanies of versified tales, and to have Virgil at
his finger-tips. Schools were founded where aspirants
were taught to trobar and fazer on classic principles,
and the breed multiplied till trovador and juglar pos-
sessed the land. The world entire tall, short, old,
young, nobles, serfs did nought but make or hear
verses, as that trovador errant, Vidal de Besalu, records.
It may be that Poggio's
anecdote of a later time is
literally true : that a poor man, absorbed in Hector's
story, paid the spouter to adjourn the catastrophe from
day to day till, his money being spent, he was forced
to hear the end with tears.
Troubadouring became at last a pestilence no less
mischievous than its successor knight-errantry, and its
net was thrown more widely. Alfonso of Aragon led
the way with a celebrated Provengal ballad, wherein
he avers that " not snow, nor ice, nor summer, but God
and love are the motives of my song " :
" Mas al meu chan neus ni glatz
No m'ajuda, ri'estaz,
Ni res, mas Dieus et amors."
Not every man could hope to be a knight ;
but all ranks
and both sexes could and did sing of God and love.
To emperors and princes must be added the lowlier
figures of Berceo, in Spain, or to go afield for the
extremest case the Joculator Domini, the inspired