in the equally stereotyped ode or bar form, by now the stock formal mold for channeling lofty expression
(Ex. 4-4).
The foregoing pair of songs, by a pair of kings, shows how closely the early trouvère repertory was
modeled on its Provençal progenitor. As long as the art of the trouvère remained an art of the castle, it
seemed to differ little, except in language, from the art of the troubadour. And yet from the very beginning
there were in fact some subtle but significant differences, both on the level of form and style and on that of
social attitude and practice; and they became more pronounced with the passage of time.
EX. 4-4 Thibaut IV de Champagne, De bone amour vient seance et bonté (first verse)SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
To begin with, narrative genres loomed much larger in the trouvère repertory and vied more seriously
with the lyric genres for pride of place. The lai, a sequence-like series of changing stanzas held together
by a story line, was much more important to the trouvères than its Provençal counterpart, the descort, had
ever been to the troubadours. This reflects the longstanding popularity of narrative poetry (romances and
chansons de geste, “songs of deeds”) in the north. It was a Celtic rather than a Mediterranean inheritance.
One of the earliest trouvères, Chrétien de Troyes, who was active at the court of Marie of Champagne
from the 1160s to the 1190s, was much better known for his epic romances, including the original
Arthurian legends of Perceval and Lancelot, than for his handful of lyrics.
New genres of narrative song based on the folklike pastorela (pastourelle) idiom became popular in
thirteenth-century France. One of these, the chanson de toile, always reflected the woman’s point of view,
whatever the sex of the singer. The name of the genre, literally “picture-song” (from toile, “a canvas”),
referred to the opening device of setting a domestic scene (what in painting is called a “genre scene”),
usually of a lovely maiden (Bele Doette, Bele Ysabiauz, Bele Yolanz, etc.) spinning, weaving, or reading
a book—but mainly pining for her lover. Each stanza ended with an exclamatory refrain to underscore the
maiden’s tender feelings.
Most chansons de toile have come down to us without attribution. The name of only one poet is
primarily associated with this genre: Audefroi le Bastart, to whom are attributed six out of the two dozen
or more specimens that survive. Like the songs of Thibaut IV, Audefroi’s Bele Ydoine is found in the so-