composed only for a price, compared with sweet festal songs, easy to
learn, such as I sing." So, too, pronounces the Italian Lanfranc Cigala
(1241-1257): "I could easily compose an obscure, subtle poem if I
wished; but no poem should be so concealed beneath subtlety as not to be
clear as day. For knowledge is of small value if clearness does not
bring light; obscurity has ever been regarded as death, and brightness [40]
as life." The fact is thus sufficiently demonstrated that these two
styles existed in opposition, and that any one troubadour might practise
both.

Enough has now been said to show that troubadour lyric poetry, regarded
as literature, would soon produce a surfeit, if read in bulk. It is
essentially a literature of artificiality and polish. Its importance
consists in the fact that it was the first literature to emphasise the
value of form in poetry, to formulate rules, and, in short, to show that
art must be based upon scientific knowledge. The work of the troubadours
in these respects left an indelible impression upon the general course
of European literature.



CHAPTER IV [41]


THE EARLY TROUBADOURS

The earliest troubadour known to us is William IX, Count of Poitiers
(1071-1127) who led an army of thirty thousand men to the unfortunate
crusade of 1101. He lived an adventurous and often an unedifying life,
and seems to have been a jovial sensualist caring little what kind of