THE V I O LIN AND ITS MUSIC, GEORGE HART, "HE VIOLIN: ITS ...

THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 53
Henceforth, in the musical . language of Thackeray,
" their melody overflows into the air richly, like the
honey of H ybla ; it wafts down in lazy gusts like the
scent of the thyme from that hill."*
I have hitherto used the term Troubadour in its
broadest sense in reference to the poet minstrels of
Provence ; they were, however, divided into distinct
orders, and named Troubadours, Trouveres, and
Jongleurs : the first were the true Romance poets, the
next were the poets of Northern France, and the last
the wandering minstrels who sang at the courts and
at the houses of the nobility, the heroic achievements
of their ancestors, and accompanied themselves on
instruments. These Jongleurs have been described
by Crescimbeni,t as men of a merry nature, full of
jests and arch sayings, and adopted a kind of fool's
costume for the purpose of entertaining in a burlesque
manner their patrons, for which reason they were
called Jongleurs, quasi J oculatores.
To the Jongleurs and Trouveres may be traced the
old rhymed romances of Charlemagne and his twelve
peers, and those of Arthur and the round table, and it is
interesting to follow M. Paulin Paris in relation to
these and other early romance poems. He tells us­
"After an attentive examination of our ancient
literature, it is impossible to doubt for a moment
that the old monorhyme romances were set to mUSIC
* "An Essay without end."
t Translation of Nostradamus' " Lives of the Proven«al Poets noticed
by Hawkins.