beneath the mask of conventionality, real emotion is often apparent, as
in the famous lament upon Richard Coeur de Lion composed by Gaucelm
Faidit.

Reference has been already made to the _tenso_, one of the most
characteristic of Provençal lyric forms. The name (Lat. _tentionem_)
implies a contention or strife, which was conducted in the form of a
dialogue and possibly owed its origin to the custom in early vogue among
many different peoples of holding poetical tournaments, in which one [32]
poet challenged another by uttering a poetical phrase to which the
opponent replied in similar metrical form. Such, at any rate, is the
form of the _tenso_; a poet propounds a theme in the first stanza and
his interlocutor replies in a stanza of identical metrical form; the
dispute usually continues for some half dozen stanzas. One class of
tenso was obviously fictitious, as the dialogue is carried on with
animals or even lifeless objects, such as a lady's cloak, and it is
possible that some at least of the discussions ostensibly conducted
between two poets may have emanated from the brain of one sole author.
Sometimes three or four interlocutors take part; the subject of
discussion was then known as a _joc partit_, a divided game, or
_partimen_, a title eventually transferred to the poem itself. The most
varied questions were discussed in the _tenso_, but casuistical problems
concerning love are the most frequent: Is the death or the treachery of
a loved one easier to bear? Is a lover's feeling for his lady stronger
before she has accepted him or afterwards? Is a bad noble or a poor but
upright man more worthy to find favour? The discussion of such questions
provided an opportunity of displaying both poetical dexterity and also
dialectical acumen. But rarely did either of the disputants declare
himself convinced or vanquished by his opponents' arguments the question [33]
was left undecided or was referred by agreement to an arbitrator.