Seven Troubadours

The best troubadour poetry is characterized by a metaphysical wit—contrary to the sentimental, humorless picture sometimes drawn by scholars and artists—and this volume is well designed to demonstrate the richness and wit of early troubadour poetry.

Professor Wilhelm has selected seven distinct lyric poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, among them Duke William IX of Aquitaine, Marcabrun, Bernart de Ventadorn, and Jaufre Rudel—and revealed the particular poetic ethos of each. The precise quality of each poet’s work is set forth in discussion and illustrated in translation. The result is poetry full of vigor and variety, set against a historical background that is part of the personal drama of the poet.

This study gives economically but generously an unusual sense of the history, the culture, and the poetry of an exciting place and time—twelfth-century Southern France. The medievalist, the general reader, and students of comparative literature will find it useful and enjoyable work.