The charming poems of Melusine and
the beautiful Magelone, which to this day delight the reader, were
composed during the same period.
Before the eleventh century poetry in the true sense of the word did not
exist. There were only Latin Church hymns and legends, perverted
reminiscences of antiquity, and, in the vulgar tongue, legends of the
saints and simple dancing-songs for the amusement of the lower classes.
Thanks to the relentless war which the clergy waged against them, a few
only have been preserved. There can be no doubt that Provence was the
birthplace of European poetry. The "sweet language" of Provence was the
first to reach perfection and perfect maturity. It drove the language of
the German conquerors eastwards and prepared the ground for the French
tongue.
The beginning of the twelfth century saw the birth of the poetry of the
troubadours, which possessed from the first in great perfection
everything that distinguishes modern lyric poetry from the antique.
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