ABSTRACT
An interesting phase of the process of adaptation is represented by the troubadour, the trouvere and the minnesinger, types of singer more dignified by far than the common jongleur. Vagabond life was by no means disreputable in the Middle Ages, and roving was the prime characteristic of all the poets, but the famous troubadour, trouvere or minnesinger rarely recited or sang his own pieces. The Provence and southern France were already in possession of a well-developed lyric poetry when north of the Loire the first trouvere began to sing; the German minnesinger is likewise of late date. The troubadour confined himself to the dignity of composition, becoming jongleur only by necessity; and when he travelled he was accompanied by a jongleur or a troop of jongleurs whose part it was to turn their master’s songs into profit. The chief seat of troubadour patronage, of course, was its cradle, Provence.
