In Northern France the poet was called a trouvere, in Provence a troubadour, in Germany a minnesinger.The traveling minstrel was in France a jongleur (Provencal jogleur).The distinction between trouvere or troubadour and jongleur is not always to be sharply drawn.Sometimes in France and Provence the same poet composed his verses and sang them--was both trouvere or troubadour and jongleur; while in Germany the minnesingers were generally both poets and minstrels.
IV.TALES AND FABLES.
No distinct line can be drawn between Tales and Fables; between Romances and Tales; nor between Fables and Allegories.These varieties of writings merge into one another.
The number of tales in circulation in Mediaeval Europe was exceedingly large.These tales came from many different sources:
from Oriental lands, introduced by the Moors, or brought back by the crusaders; from ancient classical literature; from traditions of the church and the lives of the saints; from the old mythologies; from common life and experience.Among many mediaeval collections of them, the most famous are the "Decameron" of Boccaccio, and the "Geste Romanorum", a collection made and used by the priests in instructing their people.
V.DIDACTIC AND ALLEGORICAL LITERATURE.
Under didactic literature we would include a large mass of writing not strictly to be called pure literature--sermons, homilies, chronicles, bestiaries, and chronologies.Nearly all these were written in verse, as prose did not begin to be used for literature until very late in the Middle Ages.
The mediaeval mind, under the influence of the scholastic theology, grew very fond of allegory.The list of allegories is exhaustless, and some of the allegories well-nigh interminable.
It is not easy to say whether the "Romance of Reynard the Fox" is a series of fables or an allegory.The fact that a satire on human affairs runs through it constantly, warrants us in calling it an allegory.Some phase of the Reynard legend formed the medium of expression of the thought of every mediaeval nation in Europe.Perhaps the most popular and influential allegory of the Middle Ages was "The Romance of the Rose", written in France but translated or imitated in every other country.Dante's "Divine Comedy" is an allegory of a very elevated kind.
VI.THE DRAMA.
The origin and line of development of the drama in all the countries of Mediaeval Europe is this: Dramatic representations in connection with the liturgy of the church were first used in the service; then they were extended to church festivals and ceremonies.By degrees portions of Bible history were thrown into dramatic form; then the lives of the saints furnished material.Adistinction grew up between Mystery Plays--those founded on Bible history--and Miracle Plays--those founded on the lives of the saints.These plays were performed both in the churches and in the open air.They were written usually by the clergy.Gradually there grew up a play in which the places of religious characters were taken by abstract virtues and vices personified, and plays called Moralities were produced.They were played chiefly by tradesmen's guilds.Alongside the sacred drama are to be found occasional secular dramatic attempts, farces, carnival plays, and profane mysteries.But their number and significance are small.
The medivaeval drama is historically interesting, but in itself does not contain much interest.It is impossible to give an idea of it by selection.
SONG AND LEGEND FROM THE MIDDLE AGES.
