Romantic Cities of Provence

by Mona Caird

A troop of demons come in and seize the foolish virgins and drag them down to the flames, while, presumably, their wiser sisters look on complacently, basking in their own virtue and in the consequent favours of the powers that be.

Legends of all sorts made the subjects of literary effort at this time, among them that of the Sacred Tree, in which its seed, with that of the cypress and the fir, is given by an angel in the Garden of Eden to a son of Adam. The sacred seed goes through many adventures, first with Moses in the wilderness, then with David at Jerusalem, where it develops so rapidly that the singer is able to compose his psalms beneath its shade.

Solomon tries in vain to use a beam from the tree in his temple, but it always becomes a few inches too long whenever it is placed in position and shrinks again on removal. Finally it is taken to be made into the Cross of the Saviour.

At this time, just before as well as after the emergence of the troubadour literature, the Court of Ventadour plays an important part.

One of its counts, Eblos III., was called Cantor because of his devotion to "verses of alacrity and joy." He was a contemporary of our William the Conqueror, a fact which perhaps helps one to place in the imagination this cultivated little Court of Limousin.

CASTLE OF MONTMAJOUR, ARLES.
By E. M. Synge.

It was a seigneur of Limousin, William IX. of Poitiers, Duke of Acquitaine, Gascony, and many other provinces, who is usually regarded as the first troubadour; a gay, insouciant soldier, singer, sceptic, and free-thinker of the eleventh century. He is the first trouvère or "finder" (from Spanish trobar) whose poems have come down to us; born in 1071, but doing his work in the succeeding age. From this time onwards we are in the real troubadour-land, and a multitude of singers spring up, as if at the stroke of some magic signal, some mysterious summons from the spiritual realm, to build a new heaven and a new earth for the tormented, war-wearied human race.

Many writers have tried to account for the great movement by the worship of the Virgin Mary; but the Virgin had been worshipped for ages before the birth of chivalry. Certain of its qualities were doubtless fostered by the feudal system which could only continue to exist if men were faithful to their engagements and the word of honour was held sacred. But there was nothing in feudalism to foster respect for women. As we know, it had quite an opposite tendency. Some writers trace the institution to the Arabs, who, after the conquest of Persia in the seventh century, absorbed the culture of the vanquished race. Rather later than this period (as the author of "Feudal and Modern Japan" points out), during the golden age of those islands, with all Christian Europe plunged in darkness, there was literary activity nowhere manifest save in Japan, China, India, the Eastern Caliphæte and Saracenic Spain. With only one of these lands could the South of France have come into direct contact, viz., Saracenic Spain. From here, therefore, one is almost forced to conclude, came the first definite impulse that set stirring the great emotions and great thoughts of the new movement. The Saracen Arabs are described as a nation of chivalrous soldiers, one of the most cultivated and romantic of the earth, and the Crusaders could scarcely fail to be influenced by such a people.