He drew great houses for several seasons, by his vocal talents in the Gentle Shepherd, the Highland Reel, Cymon, the Lord of the Manor, and other Operas of the Sylvan or romantic cast. His "Ye banks and braes of bonnie Doon," "Saw ye my father," and " Auld Robin Gray," were only second to Miss Stephens's. By degrees, however, the audiences fell off, and several gaping apertures were discernible on the pit benches. He now talked of taking his farewell benefit, when the fortunate idea struck him (as it did Irish Johnston of yore) that something better than singing might be done upon the stage. To guard, however, against the chances of failure, he resolved to make his dé bût in dialogue anonymously. He chose the part of Norval for that purpose, and the decided talents exhibited by him at once stamped him as an actor of first-rate merit. His Macbeth, Sir Archy M'Sarcasm, Richard Cœur de Lion, Scrub, Marplot, and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, are almost equally excellent. In short, nothing equal to him has appeared since "the immortal Mr. Garrick deceased." From his great success in Comedy and Tragedy, he has almost given up Opera. It is remarked of him, however, (such is the force of habit,) that he generally commences every scene by humming half a stave of some old Scotch tune. He is not inattentive to profits on his benefit-night. Upon that occasion, he and Brandon may be seen in one of the pigeon-holes counting the house. It is curious that his name never appears in the bills. Every part he acts is averred to be "by a gentleman," sometimes "by the gentleman who opened in the Gentle Shepherd;" and sometimes "by the gentleman who first appeared in the Lord of the Manor." This is sufficiently absurd. If he requires a fictitious name, why does he not assume one? as Blewit calls himself Barrymore and Cleaver Claremont. As it is, every body knows him to be what nobody chooses to call him. In justice to Mr. M'Naughton I must admit, that he walks steadily upon an eminence that would turn most heads giddy. He now and then still sings a song between the acts. His "Scots wha hae" is by many preferred to Braham's, but his own favourite air is, "I hae saxpence under my thumb." Let me, in conclusion, relate a ridiculous incident that occurred lately on the getting up of Henry the Eighth. Mrs. Oglevie played Queen Catherine. It is customary in her sick arm-chair scene to lull her to sleep with a solemn ditty. By some mistake the prompter had called both Flight and O'Carrol, to officiate in this capacity. The scene drew on-the cue was given-when on walked both these singers from opposite stage-doors. Each struck up "Angels ever bright and fair," to his own separate tune; and as neither seemed disposed to give way, both sang their songs fairly through to a conclusion. This phenomenon effectually roused Queen Catherine, and excited an audible titter throughout the house. Flight's song was, I think, the best; and certain oratorio-frequenting people have censured O'Carrol for intending to burlesque the subject. For my part, I am convinced that he entertained no such idea. ON THE TROUBADOURS. THE Troubadours, or poets of Provence, claim the proud distinction of softening by their strains, dedicated to religion, love, and chivalry, the general asperity of manners; of originating and promoting the desire of learning; of proclaiming and recommending the blessings of social intercourse; and of contributing, in no slight degree, to the perfection of the French language. The Lingua Romana, the vulgar tongue of the country, however barbarous in its origin and grotesque in its combination, (for it was formed of the Celtic, the Greek*, the Latin, and the Tudesque, or German,) gradually acquired, by their taste and feeling, a polish, grace, and harmony, that raised it to notice and celebrity. It was called Provençal from the name of Provincia, given by the Romans to Gallia Narbonensis†, and was spoken, with a considerable variety of idioms, in Provence, Languedoc, Auvergne, Dauphiné, Gascony, and Guyenne. To the poets of that part of France divided from the North by the Loire, the appellation of Troubadours has been long given, while to their rivals of Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, the Isle of France, and the neighbouring provinces, has been assigned that of Trouvères. The two words are synonymous, and designate the true characteristic of poetry, the faculty of invention. In the infancy of their institution, the Troubadours travelled from town to town and from castle to castle. They attended the carousals and public entrances of princes. They were present at processions, jubilees, and fairs, and contended for a pre-eminence which was adjudged to the worthiest. They collected anecdotes, and noted curious characters and events. Their memory was constantly exercised upon subjects of public or private interest. They coupled them with rhyme, and thus produced the sirventes and fabliaux, many of which are at this moment both instructive and amusing. That they were of great utility in an age of rudeness, ignorance, and oppression, when the superior classes pressed upon the inferior with barbarous violence and cruelty, when feudality had outlived whatever was valuable in its system, and servitude, with all its bitter inheritances of fines, penalties, stripes, and imprisonment, had brutalized mankind, is undeniable. The strains of the Troubadours, generally accompanied with music, refined the sulky and morose humour of the times, and imparted a feeling and tone of gaiety and cheerfulness, that led to friendly and generous associations. Marseilles was founded by a colony of Phocians from Asia Minor, nearly six hundred years before Christ, and became justly celebrated for its commerce, laws, literature, and the purity of its morals. The Phocians soon succeeded in extending their is fluence and power into the interior of the country. They built Agde, Nice, and Antibes, and introduced a knowledge of the Greek language, of agriculture, and the useful arts. From the Gauls and Romans who frequented Marseilles, they acquired the Celtic and Latin, and were called Trilingues, "quod et Græcè loquerentur et Latinè et Gallicè (Don Bouquet, Recueil). Cicero speaks of Marseilles in the highest terms of commendation-Ut omnia ejus instituta laudari faciliùs possint quàm imitari." (Orat. pro Flacc.) Greek was spoken in Marseilles during the first and second ages of Christianity, and was used in the service of the Church in several towns of Gallia Narbonensis, up to the fourth century. + Originally called by the Romans Nostra Provincia. The principal seats of education and learning were, Narbonne, Arles, Vienne, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Autun, Marseilles, Nismes, and Lyons. Tacitus says in his Annals, that it supplied Rome with illustrious characters before the reign of Claudius. "Insignes viros è Gallia Narbonensi transivisse." The stupid selfishness of barbarism was charmed and roused from the heavy lethargy in which it had so long and so wretchedly slumbered. New feelings, new affections, and new wants, were inspired, which evinced the value of social relations, and demonstrated the benefits of mental improvement. The gates of the palace, the cathedral, and the cloister, were thrown open to them; and the trumpet of chivalry and the lays of the poet were soon united in celebrating the triumphs of gallantry, religion, and honour. They were received with distinction in the courts of sovereigns and the castles of the great lords, and some raised themselves from obscurity to an equality with the most eminent for rank and fortune*. The singular adventures of some of the poets themselves gave a peculiar éclat, an extraordinary fashion to their verses. They had either realized, or were ready to achieve, what their muse extolled. Sometimes the heroes of their own strains, they wrote as they had loved, fought, and suffered. Their productions acquired additional force and energy from the affection and sympathy infused into an audience by those who recited their own exploits, their delights and sorrows. They excited more attention and interest, because they told, not only that which they had personally witnessed, but in the failure or success of which they had a considerable share. It was not forgotten that the poet was a pars magna of the heroic tale he recounted; and his joy or grief was the more easily communicated to, and the more deeply felt by his auditors. They were united with the most illustrious and valiant knights throughout Europe, and they formed and maintained a brotherhood which flourished for a long time in France, England, Italy, Spain, and Germany. Among their fellows, they counted the Emperor Frederic I., the lion-hearted Richard, Alphonso King of Arragon, Roger King of Naples, Berenger Count of Provence, a duke of Brabant, a dauphin of Auvergne, and Thibaut Count of Champagne, with a long list of lords and barons eminent for their virtues and talents. Most of these were at once knights and Troubadours; and several specimens of the compositions of Frederic, Berenger, Richard, and Thibaut, are still preserved. Those of the English hero come more closely in unison with our feelings. He had been, for several years during the life of his father, Count of Poitou, and had acquired, in consequence of his frequent visits to the court of Berenger, the great resort of the Troubadours, a peculiar taste for the poetry of Provence. He has left two sirventes, or satirical pieces, and part of an ode. In one of the sirventes, given by Pasquier in his "Recherches de la France," and addressed to the Dauphin of Auvergne and his cousin Count Gui, with whom he was at variance, he pledges himself to make war manfully and loyally against them, even should they conduct themselves with perfidy : "Mas una rem + vos outroi, The base treatment of Richard by Leopold Duke of Austria, on his return from the Holy Land, is an historical fact; and in an ode supposed to have been written during his imprisonment, he laments the Nostradamus, Fauchet, Pasquier, Caseneuve, Millot, Massieu, Ravaillere, Roquefort, Raynouard, Ginguené, &c. † chose. I shall be faithful to you, and reward your services worthily, provided they be sincere and do not offend my honour." He was then allowed to fix at the end of his lance the ribands presented to him by his mistress, which were thence called favours. That the Troubadours were often decorated with these testimonies of pure and honourable affection, there can be no doubt. Few were indeed more susceptible of the tender passion than themselves, and among them love had its martyrs, its pilgrims, its visionaries, and hermits. Geoffroy Rudel expired for an imaginary object †; Guillaume de la Tour could not survive his mistress; André de Provence, and Guillaume d'Adhemai ‡ breathed their last for love; Pierre Rogiers, Raimond Jordan, and Richard Barbesieux, became hermits, and Pierre Vidal lost his reason. Some prayed, some fasted, some inflicted the severest punishments on themselves with their own hands, some undertook pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and some, buckling on their armour, joined the Crusades in the name of their mistresses. These courts not only took cognizance of all questions and difficulties between the ladies, the knights, and the poets, but granted injunctions for the prevention of unequal marriages, and stopped proceedings, when it was ascertained, that the inclinations of the parties had not been consulted. The first tribunal was held at Aix, and was maintained with extraordinary dignity and magnificence. There were also three inferior courts in Provence. An attempt to revive the institution at Paris, by the Queen of Charles VI. in 1892, did not prove successful. It gave rise to some whimsical, and perhaps indecent expositions. The corruption of the age was probably too gross for the purity and refinement of the original system; yet it appears, that only forty years before, a special protection for the Courts of Love had been granted by Pope Innocent the VI. § Founded solely Les Jeux Floreaux were of a very different nature. for the encouragement of poetical talent and the improvement of the language, they have continued for very nearly 500 years to promote the general interests of Literature. This society sprang up amidst the abstruse discussion of mystical divinity, and the scholastic disputes of false grammar, false logic, and false metaphysics. Seven gentlemen of Toulouse, poets themselves, and desirous of encouraging the art in others, were accustomed to meet in a pleasant retreat at a small distance from the city. They wished, by increasing their number and reputation, to give stability to the plan of association they had formed; and letters, seen. Amanieu, l'Education des Dames. + Geoffroy Rudel was in love with the Countess of Tripoli, whom he had never He embarked for Africa, accompanied by Allamon, a brother Troubadour. On his arrival at Tripoli, he was so very ill that he could not leave the vessel, and the Countess, learning his singular passion, visited him on board. He expired while she held his hand. A tomb of porphyry was erected at Tripoli to his memory by the Countess. (Pasquier, Recherches de la France.) Guillaume d'Adhemar was a gallant knight and an eminent Troubadour. He was enamoured of the Countess of Die, and hearing that she was to be married to the Count of Embrun, he fell dangerously ill. The Countess, with her mother, visited him in his castle of Grignon, when he was so affected by her presence, that taking her hand, which she had graciously presented to him, he kissed it, sighed, and expired. Adhemar was the author of Lou Catholog de las Donnas illustras.—(Histoire Litteraire de la France, continued by members of the Institut.) Martial d'Auvergne, procureur au parlement de Paris, and no mean poet, compiled about 1470, his Arresta Amorum, founded on the actual proceedings and decisions of these Courts. This compilation was augmented with ample commentaries, signed by the seven Troubadours, were sent round the country, promising a violet of gold to the author of the piece which should be judged the best at an assembly to be held the 3d of May, 1324. Arnauld Vidal obtained the prize, and was honoured with the title of Doctor of the gay science, Docteur en la gaie science. The candidates were at first confined to odes, elegies, and hymns, in honour of God, the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints;-singular subjects for the recreation of a gay society! The meeting, which was annually held, soon became public, and was at length transferred to the townhouse. About the end of the same century, the institution acquired new lustre by the munificence of a lady of Toulouse, Clémence d'Isaure, who settled funds in perpetuity for defraying the expenses, and a rose, an eglantine, and some other flowers were added to the violet. In 1694, letters of confirmation were granted by Lewis XIV. the number of prizes was increased by an amaranth of gold, and the society placed under the protection of the Chancellor of France. The learning of the Troubadours has been much questioned; and it is generally supposed that they were, in this respect, very inferior to their rivals on the other side of the Loire. If we are, however, to rely upon their own assertions, there was scarcely any subject in the circle of human knowledge, as it was then constituted, with which they were unacquainted. Pierre de Corbian, who wrote at the end of the thirteenth century, though speaking of his own accomplishments, gives us, in his Deux Troubadours Rivaux, a rare "taste of the quality" of the brotherhood. The specimen is taken from the sirvente preserved in the Royal Library at Paris. He says, "Although I have neither castles nor domains, I am not poor. I am even richer than others with a thousand marks of gold. My income is small, but my understanding and my manners are much above it. I hold my head as high as he who enjoys power and fortune. I possess a treasure more precious than silks and jewels, a treasure which can neither perish nor be taken from me by thieves, and which, far from diminishing, increases every day. It is the treasure of knowledge." Here he enters into a detail of all the particulars that constitute this knowledge, the origin of which he attributes to God. "It is God," he says, "who created the hierarchy of angels. It is God who created heaven and earth, and finally Adam and Eve, who, tempted by the serpent, were driven out of the terrestrial paradise." He next recapitulates the history of the patriarchs, of the judges and kings of the Israelites, and evinces his knowledge of the Old and New Testament. After some comments on the Apocalypse, and predicting the events that are to happen on the day of judgment, he concludes the first part of his treasure. The second part, on which he seems to set less value, though more difficult to be acquired, comprehends all the liberal arts, somewhat of the theory and practice of physic and surgery, judicial astrology, and magic in all its forms and relations. "I know," observes the learned Troubadour, "mythology better than the ingenious Ovid. I can recite the history of Thebes, Troy, and Rome. I am acquainted with the exand passages from the Erotic poets of antiquity in justification of the theory and practice of the Courts of Love, by a learned civilian, Benôit-de-Cour, who published the work in 1541. The title was, "Les Déclamations, Procédures, et Arrêts d'Amour donnés en la cour et parquet de Cupidon, à cause d'aucuns différends entendus sur cette police." |