ttempt at preciosity of style. He was one of
the first troubadours who attempted to analyse the effects of love from
a psychological standpoint; his analysis often proceeds in the form of a
dialogue with himself, an attempt to show the hearer by what methods he
arrived at his conclusions. "How is it, in the name of God, that when I
wish to sing, I weep? Can the reason be that love has conquered me? And
does love bring me no delight? Yes, delight is mine. Then why am I sad
and melancholy? I cannot tell. I have lost my lady's favour and the
delight of love has no more sweetness for me. Had ever a lover such
misfortune? But am I a lover? No! Have I ceased to love passionately?
No! Am I then a lover? Yes, if my lady would suffer my love." Guiraut's [55]
moral _sirventes_ are reprobations of the decadence of his age. He saw a
gradual decline of the true spirit of chivalry. The great lords were
fonder of war and pillage than of poetry and courtly state. He had
himself suffered from the change, if his biographer is to be believed;
the Viscount of Limoges had plundered and burnt his house. He compares
the evils of his own day with the splendours of the past, and asks
whether the accident of birth is the real source of nobility; a man must
be judged by himself and his acts and not by the rank of his
forefathers; these were the sentiments that gained him a mention in the
Fourth Book of Dante's _Convivio_.[22]

The question why Dante should have preferred Arnaut Daniel to Guiraut de
Bornelh[23] has given rise to much discussion. The solution turns upon
Dante's conception of style, which is too large a problem for
consideration here. Dante preferred the difficult and artificial style
of Arnaut to the simple style of the opposition school; from Arnaut he
borrowed the sestina form; and at the end of the canto he puts the
well-known lines, "Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan," into the
troubadour's mouth. We know little of Arnaut's life; he was a noble of
Riberac in Perigord. The biography relates an incident in his life which
is said to have taken place at the court of Richard Coeur de Lion.

A certain troubadour had boasted before the king that he could compose a [56]
better poem than Arnaut. The latter accepted the challenge and the king
confined the poets to their rooms for a certain time at the end of which
they were to recite their composition before him. Arnaut's inspiration
totally failed him, but from his room he could