50

his days amid the sober scenes and subduing
influences of an abbey in the Limousin.

Retiring from the world into the bosom. of the
Church, seems to have been a favorite closing act
among the Troubadours. Many of them did so from
ignoble or selfish motives, but some were actuated
by religious convictions, no doubt. Great ladies,
also, whose beauty had been made famous by the
Troubadours, frequently sought in the end, peace-
ful nunneries from which they never came forth
again.

Many of the productions of the Troubadours con-
tained from fifteen to twenty thousand verses, and

therefore required much time in the delivery, es- .

pecially. as they were accompanied by music.

When one performer became weary another
took his place, and thus continued the linked
sweetness to an almost
endless length. The
‘Troubadour was a reformer
of manners and the creator
of many pleasing offices,
some of which exist to
this day. For instance:
In the reign of Eleanor
of Provence, queen of
England, we have our first
glimpse of a poet-laureate ;
and the office since be-.
come so glorious with
song, undoubtedly sprung
out of the literary tastes
of the Provengal queen,
who was herself a singer,
and had been surrounded
in her youth by Trouba-
dours and minstrels. But
this kindly harboring of
Troubadours came near

being the death of the king,
' her husband; for one night a gentleman known
as “a mad poet” was so well used in the hall
that he got into high spirits and amused the royal
household by “joculating for their entertainment,
and singing some choice minstrelsy.” But he
seems all the while to have had another end in
view, for at a convenient moment he crept into
the king’s bedchamber armed with a very sharp
knife which he plunged into the royal couch. For-

tunately the king was not there, and although the.

THE TROUBADOURS.

mad poet called loudly for Henry, demanding that
he show himself and be killed, the search was in
vain. The poor poet had to pay for this attempt,
being executed at Coventry.

For many years the Troubadours continued
to sing at ancient windows and in lordly halls,
But their numbers gradually grew less, until few
were left of all that happy profession. As times
grew more peaceful, and pleasq ‘ter occupations
increased, the romance of chivalry, the wild leg-
endry of feudal courts and fields waned in inter-
est for the people, until only an occasional stroller
was seen no more in princely dress, slowly travel-
ling along some lonely road in quest of such
warmth or comfort as a charitable or inquisitive
person might give him by listening to his worn-out
songs. Instead of receiving a cloak of cloth of sil-

 

THE LAST MINSTREL.

/

ver inwoven with gold as a reward, he was. content
with a bed of straw. There is much pathos in
those lines of Walter Scott which describe the last
minstrel as forsaken by all except an orphan boy :

The bigots of the iron time _

Had called his harmless art a crime.

A wandering harper, scorned and poor,
He begged his bread from door to door;
And tuned to please a peasant’s ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.