Occitan Literature - Didactic and Religious Poetry

Didactic and Religious Poetry

Compositions intended for instruction, correction and edification were very numerous in the south of France as well as elsewhere, and, in spite of the enormous losses sustained by Provençal literature, much of this kind still remains. But it is seldom that such works have much originality or literary value. Originality was naturally absent, as the aim of the writers was mainly to bring the teachings contained in Latin works within the reach of lay hearers or readers. Literary value was not of course excluded by the lack of originality, but by an unfortunate chance the greater part of those who sought to instruct or edify, and attempted to substitute moral works for secular productions in favor with the people, were, with a few exceptions, persons of limited ability. It would be out of question to enumerate here all the didactic treatises, all the lives of saints, all the treatises of popular theology and morals, all the books of devotion, all the pious canticles, composed in Occitan verse during the Middle Ages; still some of these poems may be singled out.

Daude de Pradas (early 13th century), a canon of Maguelone, and at the same time a troubadour, has left a poem, the Auzels cassadors, which is one of the best sources for the study of falconry. Raimon d'Avignon, otherwise unknown, translated in verses, about the year 1200, Rogier of Parme's Surgery (Romania, x. 63 and 496). We may mention also a poem on astrology by a certain C. (Guilhem?), and another, anonymous, on geomancy, both written about the end of the 13th century (Romania, xxvi. 825).

As to moral compositions, we have to recall the Boethius poem (unfortunately a mere fragment) already mentioned as one of the oldest documents of the language, and really a remarkable work; and to notice an early (12th century?) metrical translation of the famous Disticha de moribus of Dionysius Cato (Romania, xxv. 98, and xxix. 445). More original are some compositions of an educational character known under the name of ensenhamenz, and, in some respects, comparable to the English nurture-books.

The most interesting are those of Garin le Brun (12th century), Arnaut de Mareuil, Arnaut Guilhem de Marsan, Amanieu de Sescas. Their general object is the education of ladies of rank. Of metrical lives of saints we possess about a dozen (see Histoire littéraire de la France, vol. xxxii.), among which two or three deserve a particular attention: the Life of Sancta Fides, recently discovered and printed Romania, xxxi.), written early in the 12th century; the Life of St Enimia (13th century), by Bertran of Marseilles, and that of St Honorat of Lerins by Raimon Feraud (about 1300), which is distinguished by variety and elegance of versification, but it is almost entirely a translation from Latin. Lives of saints (St Andrew, St Thomas the Apostle, St John the Evangelist) form a part of a poem, strictly didactic, which stands out by reason of its great extent (nearly thirty-five thousand verses) and the somewhat original conception of its scheme - the Breviars damor, a vast encyclopedia, on a theological basis, composed by the Minorite friar Matfre Ermengaut of Bezers between 1288 and 1300 or thereabout.