of the French Minstrels, who, doubtlefs, as a body, exifted fome time before, and continued long after the Troubadours; but are by no means to be confidered as fuch an extraordinary or refpectable fet of men. They poffeffed, however, in a certain degree, the fame talents of pleafing; they fung, either their own compofitions, or the compofitions of others, to the harp, the vielle, viol, cymbal, and other inftruments, danced to the tabour, played tricks of legerdemain and buffoonry, and, in fhort, accommodated theirfelves to every mode of infpiring festivity and mirth: fo that they were every where welcome, and every where rewarded. The courts of France abounded with them: and, during the reign of our Norman princes, they seem to have been no lefs numerous in England. Many of our old monkish historians complain of the fhoals of Minstrels which a coronation or royal feftival allured to the English court. But though it is certain that the French had fongs before the Provençal poetry was known, it is equally certain that their beft writers were afterwards content to imitate the Troubadours; who may, therefor, be ftill confidered as the founders of the French Song. Of those who compofed fongs in the French tongue, and, as we need not repeat, in the Provençal mode, the moft celebrated, and probably the firft, at leaft of any rank or confequence, is the famous Count of Champagne, Thibaut, afterwards king of Navarre (82), generally filed the father of the French fong. His compofitions, which are numerous, and poffefs abundant merit, have been printed with accuracy and elegance (83). Specimens, with fpirited tranflations, are given by the ingenious dr. Burney in the fecond volume of his very curious and entertaining hittery. The names and performances of feveral illuftrious French fong writers of the age of Thibaut are still preferved. We fhall, however, only mention one of them; Raoul, chatelain de Coucy, contemporary and intimate (82) Born in 1201; dyed in 1253 or 1254. (83) In two volumes, 12mo. Paris, 1742. with that monarch, and equally celebrated for his poetry and his love. He adored the lady of the feigneur of Fayel with a chafte Platonic affection, and had his paffion returned in the fame ftile. Having received a mortal wound in an engagement with the Saracens at the fiege of Rhodes (84), he made his faithful fquire swear to carry his heart to the miftrefs of his affections. The fquire was furprised, near the caftle, by the feigneur; and the heart of the unfortunate chatelain experienced the fame treatment, and produced the fame effect which that of the troubadour Cabestan had done. We have this affecting ftory, but doubtlefs from the French, in an old poem of Henry the Eighths time, under the title of The Knight of Curtefy and the Lady of Faguel. Several of his Chanfons are ftill extant, They are remarkably tender, elegant and pathetic. Dr. Burney has inferted two of them, with their original melodies (85). The works of many of the old French poets or minstrels are yet preserved. Fauchet has given a lift of no lefs than 127, moftly fong writers, who flourished before the year 1300. Song continued to be cultivated in France in every reign, and through all the national convulfions. From the time of Francis I. who revived the ancient fplendour of the French court, the number of eminent fongfters feems to have encreased: but it will not be neceffary, in this treatise, to take particular notice of them. One may, however, mention that both Francis and his grandfon Charles IX. are in the lift. In which we are likewife authorised to rank that amiable, ac (84) So the romance. Fauchet, who has given the ftory from an old chronicle, fays, it was at the fiege of Mafloure. Là, fays Joinville, fut tué le comte d'Artois & le fire de Coucy qu'on apelloit Raoul. This, however, feems to have been a predeceffor of Raoul the poet, as the affair of Massoure, although placed by Fauchet in 1249, actually happened in 1191. (85) The Coucys appear to have been always eminently attached to fong: Engueran, who was in England in the time of K. John, and dyed in 1240, dansoit & chantoit bien. Froiffart, t. 1. c. 219. (M. l'E. de la Ravailliere.) complished, .. complished, and, thence, unfortunate princess, Mary Queen of Scots. One of her performances is preferved in the Anthologie, and breathes a delicacy and elegance peculiar to its illuftrious author. The following translation of it, in the original meafure, is given, chiefly, as a fpecimen of the French Song, which delights in a pointed and epigrammatic turn. It appears to have been written when the left France on the death of her firft husband, Francis II. But half of me :-- I leave with thee, dear France, to prove And bring the other to thy mind. We fhall now clofe our account of the French Song. The age of Lewis XIV. improved it along with every thing else. But it is faid to have declined fince, and to be at prefent far unequal to what it was. The spirited and judicious author fo often cited in the margin has enumerated and characterised most of the writers of celebrity or merit from the fixteenth century to nearly his own time. The number of fongs and ballads which the French have is prodigious. "If it were poflible," fays this very ingenious and elegant writer, to collect all the hiftorical fongs written "fince the commencement of the monarchy, under each reign, we should be furnished with the most curious and rich collection of anecdotes. In proportion as "the French language has been formed, polished and "enriched, the more has poetry been cultivated with us, the more has Song (a fpecies fo agreeable to our natural gaiety, and moreover within every perfons capacity, if not always the most eafy) become familiar to us. Thus the reign of Lewis XIV. fhould have produced, as it certainly did produce, more fongfters .. 66 "and "and fongs than all the other reigns. One might "form a library with the hiftorical fongs only, of which "there are, in the cabinets, collections more or lefs nu66 merous. With refpect to gallant and Bacchanalian "fongs, printed, engraved or in manufcript, we are loft " in the number of the volumes. 66 66 "An exact and fucceffive hiftory of the laft reign "[i. e. that of Lewis XIV.] all in fongs, would neither "be an impracticable work, nor perhaps a defpicable attempt. Since the birth of our princes, which fome chanting mufes always take care to celebrate, few of "the tranfactions of, their life known to the public pafs "without fome couplet which makes an epocha, and "these couplets are the medals of that clafs of the curious who form collections or port folios. "In time of war there is no battle won or loft with"out a Vaudeville; the Frenchman fings his conquefts, "his profperity, his defeats, even his miferies, and his "misfortunes. Conquering or conquered, in plenty 66 or in want, happy or unhappy, forrowful or gay, "he always fings; and one would fay that the fong is. "his natural expreffion. In fine, in all fituations in "which we would fpeak of the French, we might always afk, as the late king of Sardinia did: Well! bow goes the little fong?" 5. Spain has been long and justly famous for the multiplicity and excellence of her fongs and ballads, which the natives call Canciones, Romances, and Coplas Their most ancient lyric compofitions, at prefent known, are Las coplas de la zarabanda, common vulgar fongs, of an amourous, fatyrical or jocofe turn, to light quick movements; originally no doubt ufed for the dance, and generally fung at weddings, feafts, and other convivial meetings. Thefe, which are conjectured to be as old as even the twelfth century (86), anfwer to the Canzone a ballo of the Italians: and it is certain that this was the primitive use of poetry and mufic in all countries. (86) P. Sarmiento, Memorias para la hiftoria de la poefia, y poetas Efpan'oles. Madrid, 1775. 4to. p. 230. The The Spaniards had anciently their Decidores or Trobas dores, their Copleros and their Juglares, all fignifying a maker, and, perhaps, finger of fongs by profeffion. They likewife called the poetical art la gaia ciencia. For this laft name, at leaft, they feem to have been indebted to the French. Toward the end of the fourteenth century, John I. king of Arragon fent ambaffadors to the king of France, requesting him to com mand the college of Troubadours at Toulouse to furnish him with certain profeffors, that he might establish in his dominions the ftudy of the Gay Science of fuch national importance were in thofe days confidered the cultivation and improvement of poetry and fong! Two of this body were accordingly dispatched to Barcelona, where they formed a new confiftory for their favourite art, which remained till the death of Martin the fucceffor of John (87). : Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis de Santa Julliana (88), in a curious treatife on the origin and history of the Caftilian poetry, written about the year 1440, mentions, as an excellent compofer, and admirable mufician, of his own time, one Mofen (Don or Master) Jorge de Sant Forde, a Valencian, the author of a poem intitled la Pafion de Amor, in which he had introduced many fongs of merit, fome of which were, then, very ancient (89). He defcribes another as un gran Trobador, and a perfon of a highly elevated spirit. (87) Idem, §. 770. This learned writer would not perhaps have allowed the justice of the above inference. He contends (§. 764.) that Lyric poetry, having been introduced into Spain by the Moors, traveled through Catalonia into Provence; whence it afterwards returned (as mentioned in the text), by the way of Toulouse, to Barcelona, and thence paffed into Andalucia and the Caftiles, where it had first fet out. (88) Vulgarly Santillana, a brave cavalier, and a famous poet; born 1398; dyed 1458. (89) The reverend mr. Warton, in his Hiftory of English Poetry, a work replete with errors and mifinformation, gives this poet the name of Men Jordi, and afferts him to have been imitated by Petrarch: without recollecting the difficulty which the latter muft |