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436 NOTES TO THE VARANGIAN.
the wife of the Lord of Del Carat. When at length he ventured
to declare his passion, the lady replied, '
Welcome, my
new-found lover ; try more and more by your conversation and
actions to render yourself valuable : I retain you for my
knight.' This accords perfectly with the ideas of chivalry,
in
its original and most palmy state. When these lovers quarrelled,
her brother the Marquis reconciled them. We see by
this, the gallantry of the poet was not of a suspicious nature."
Hist, de Troub.
Some of these poets carried their Platonic and romantic attachments
to a most extravagant height. Vidal, of whom there
is extant one of the most beautiful pieces to be found in the
remains of these Troubadours, assumed the name of Loupe, or
wolf, in honour of Louve de Penautier, a lady of Carcussonne,
and for her sake ridiculously submitted to be hunted in the skin
of a wolf by the mountain-shepherds and their dogs ; and
though at last cruelly mangled, would not suffer the dogs to be
taken off him till he was almost killed. He was then carried
home to his mistress dead, as it was supposed. The lady and
her husband, however, took such care of him, though they
laughed heartily at his folly, that he perfectly recovered.
END OF THE VARANGIAN.