The Troubadour; Catalogue of Pictures, and Historical Sketches/Notes to The Troubadour
NOTES
TO
THE TROUBADOUR.
NOTES.
The spent stag on the grass is laid,
But over him is bent a maid,
Her arms and fair hair glistening
With the bright waters of the spring.
The foundation of this tale was taken from the exquisite and wild legend in the Bride of Lammermuir. It is venturing on hallowed ground; but I have the common excuse for most human errors,—I was tempted by beauty.
Bends not the mountain cedar trees,
Folding their branches from the breeze.
Elenore.
This tale is the versification of an old tradition in Russell's Tour through Germany. I have ventured on one or two alterations: the original makes Nero the father; and somewhat similar to the discovery of Bedreddin by his cream-tarts, in the Arabian Nights, the emperor recognizes his daughter by the flavour of a dish she alone knew how to prepare.
Is there a knight who, for love of me,
Into the court below will spring,
And bear from the lion the glove I fling.
This is an anecdote told of De Lorge, a knight of Francis the First's, in whose presence it took place.
And soon I deem'd the time would be,
For many a chief stood leagued with me.
I know not whether it may be necessary to remark, that the period I suppose in this poem is that of the later time of chivaly in Provence, when the spirit of religious enquiry was springing, Phoenix-like, from the ashes of the Albigenses.
Had been but as the lightning's shock,
Shedding rich ore upon the rock.
It is a belief among some savage nations,—the North American Indians, I believe,—that where the lightning strikes it melts into gold.
This ballad is also taken, with some slight change, from a legend in Russell's Germany.
Thoulouse, now the bright resort
Of beauty and the minstrel court.
For this time it is hers to set
The victor's brow with violet.
I have here given to an early age what in reality belongs to a later one; the Golden Violet was a prize given rather for the revival than the encouragement of the Troubadours. The following is Sismondi's account.
"A few versifiers of little note, had assumed, at Thoulouse, the name of Troubadours, and were accustomed to assemble together, in the gardens of the Augustine Monks, where they read their compositions to one another. In 1323, these persons resolved to form themselves into a species of academy del Gai Sabir, and they gave it the title of La Sobrigaza Companhia dels septs Trobudors de Tolosa. This "most gay society" was eagerly joined by the Capitouls, or venerable magistrates of Thoulouse, who wished, by some public festival, to reanimate the spirit of poetry. A circular letter was addressed to all the cities of Languedoc, to give notice that, on the first of May, 1324, a Golden Violet would be decreed, as a prize, to the author of the best poem in the Provençal language."—Sismondi on the Literature of the Troubadours.
But there is a more romantic though less true account of the origin of the Golden Violet; the foundress of this picturesque ceremony was said to have been Clemence Isaure; but Sismondi seems to doubt even her existence.
"If the celebrated Clemence Isaure, whose eulogy was pronounced every year in the assembly of the Floral Games, and whose statue, crowned with flowers, ornamented their festivals, be not merely an imaginary being, she appears to have been the soul of these little meetings before either the magistrates had noticed them, or the public were invited to attend them. But neither the circulars of the Sobrigaza Companhia, nor the registers of the magistrates, make any mention of her; and notwithstanding all the zeal with which, at a subsequent period, the glory of founding the Floral Games has been attributed to her, her existence is still problematical."—Sismondi.
THE END.
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