The madrigals are of Spanish origin as their name sufficiently proves. The word gala signifies in Spanish a kind of favour, an honour rendered, a gallantry, a present. Thus Madrid-gala arises from a gallantry in the Madrid fashion.
The sylves, called sirves or sirventes by the troubadours, were kinds of serious poems, ordinarily satirical. These words come from the Latin sylva which, according to Quintilius, is said of a piece of verse recited ex-tempore (l. x., c. 3).
[189] Voyez Laborde, Essai sur la Musique, t. i., p. 112, et t. ii., p. 168. On trouve, de la page 149 à la page 232 de ce même volume, un catalogue de tous les anciens romanciers français. On peut voir, pour les Italiens, Crescembini, Della Volgar Poësia.
[190] See Laborde. It is believed that this Guilhaume, bishop of Paris, is the author of the hieroglyphic figures which adorn the portal of Notre-Dame, and that they have some connection with the hermetic science. ((Biblioth. des Phil. Chim.)., t. iv. Saint-Foix, Essai (sur Paris).)
[191] Perhaps one is astonished to see that I give the name of sirventes, or sylves, to that which is commonly called the poems of Dante; but in order to understand me, it is necessary to consider that these poems, composed of stanzas of three verses joined in couplets, are properly only long songs on a serious subject, which agrees with the sirvente. The poems of Bojardo, of Ariosto, of Tasso, are, as to form, only long ballads. They are poems because of the unity which, notwithstanding the innumerable episodes with which they are filled, constitutes the principal subject.
[192] Pasquier, (Hist. et Recherch. des Antiq.), l. vii., ch. 12. Henri-Etienne, (Précellence du Lang. Franç.), p. 12. D’Olivet, (Prosod.), art. i., § 2. Delisle-de-Salles, (Hist. de la Trag.), t. i., p. 154, à la note.
[193] D’Olivet, (Prosod.), art. V., § 1.
[194] Ibidem.
[195] William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. i.
[196] Ibid., vol. i., p. 425.