Literary History of the Troubadours

...the soul of society? What great events stirred their genius and provided material for their compositions? What are the principal characteristics of their various works? What influence have they had, as well as their language, upon modern literature? Finally, what are the sources from which we have drawn their history? All of these questions seem worthy of some examination.

When one sees barbarians, and even savages, singing of their gods, or their loves, or their exploits, one is easily convinced that poetry is almost as natural to man as language, song, and passion.

Rhythm original: "la mesure"; refers here to poetic meter or cadence pleases his ear: he finds that his ideas and feelings derive from it a force of expression which strikes the heart more deeply, and which... This sentence continues onto the next page.

Vocabulary from the original page: society, genius, compositions, modern literature, poetry, barbarians, savages, passions, expression