ABSTRACT
The considerable body of lyrical poetry to be written in any Western vernacular, the Provencal, dates from the beginning of the twelfth century, when a highly developed and conventionalized school of poets was working in South-West France, between the Loire and the Garonne. The first two centuries of vernacular literature display great developments in poetry designed for singing or reciting, or to accompany a dance. The literature of Northern France in the thirteenth century continued to be the richest in Europe. For alongside the middle-class poetry of Paris and Arras, court writing took a fresh turn about the year 1230 with two works in which the Provencal theme of passionate love was divorced from that of adultery. The subjects of Provencal poetry are by no means limited to that of courtly love; while Bertran de Born sings in praise of war, others indulge in satirical argument in dialogue form, or in political debate.
