Romance of a Troubadour - Essay Example

This paper will talk about the troubadours. It will discuss the history and life of the troubadours, courtly love poetry, as well as romance and sex of the past and now. The troubadour tradition dealt mainly with matters of country love along with chivalry. A majority of the troubadours were intellectual, formulaic and metaphysical (Schultz, 2006). Moreover, their works were based on vulgar or humorous satires. Troubadours can be grouped into three kinds. They are trobar leu (light), trobar clus (closed) and trobar ric (rich).

In addition, there were numerous genres (Schultz, 2006). The most admired of the genres was the Canso, Sirventes and Tensos. However, Sirventes and Tensos were mostly popular in the post-classical era, in Italy as well as among the women troubadours, the trobairitz. The phrase, troubadour along with its cognates in other languages such as trovador in Spanish and trovatore, in Italian, is of disputed origin. The word troubadour was used back in the 12th century as trobadors in the Occitan text.

However, the English word, Troubadour originated from the French of pronouncing troubadour (Schultz, 2006). The first troubadour whose works still exist was known as Guilhem de Peitieus. People also referred to Guilhem as Duke William IX of Aquitaine (Delahoyde, 2012). . Some, however, state that troubadour started at the Crusade of 1135. The predecessor of William IX of Aquitaine was Eble II of Ventadorn. Nevertheless, none of the works of Eble exist today. The start of the 12th century witnessed fairly a few recorded troubadours.

Only in the closing years of the century did troubadour compositions explode. Roughly half of all the compositions that continue to exist are from the time of 1180 to 1220 (Schultz, 2006). Altogether, there are over 25,000 troubadour compositions available to be studied as linguistic arts. The troubadour custom had begun in the western Aquitaine, in Saintonge, Poitou and Gascony, before it spread over into the eastern Aquitaine, in Auvergne, Limousin and Provence. At its first break, troubadour was admired in Langedoc, as well as the areas of Toulouse, Rouergue and Quercy.

Finally, in the start of 13th century, troubadour began to spread into Italy, Catalonia and in Spain. The classical era of troubadour lasted from the 1170 to 1220. A majority of the renowned names among the troubadours’ ranks began to emerge during this period (Schultz, 2006). This is the period when troubadour reached its level of popularity. Furthermore, a majority of troubadours that survive are from this period. The troubadours symbolized the poets of the poetry courtly period (Schwartz, 2002).

They initially began to emerge in the 11th century when chivalry started to emerge, and the ideal courtly love found expression in the words, as well as the deeds of medieval man. The phrase troubadour was founded on the Old Occitan verb trobar and was also used in a wide variety of Provencal love poets. Troubadours combined elements of French poetry with Celtic folklore, which created