mont-Ferrand, and "the first troubadour, who lived beyond the
mountains (i.e. the Pyrenees, which, however, Marcabrun had previously
crossed)... he was regarded as the best troubadour until Guiraut de
Bornelh appeared.... He was very proud of his talents and despised other
troubadours." Other notices state that he was educated for an
ecclesiastical career and was at one time a canon. He had no small idea
of his own powers: "Peire d'Auvergne," he says in his satire upon other
troubadours "has such a voice that he can sing in all tones and his
melodies are sweet and pleasant: he is master of his art, if he would
but put a little clarity into his poems, which are difficult to
understand." The last observation is entirely correct: his poems are
often very obscure. Peire travelled, in the pursuit of his profession,
to the court of Sancho III. of Castile and made some stay in Spain: he
is also found at the courts of Raimon V. of Toulouse and, like Peire
Rogier, at Narbonne. Among his poems, two are especially well known. In
a love poem he makes the nightingale his messenger, as Marcabrun had [68]
used the starling and as others used the swallow or parrot. But in
comparison with Marcabrun, Peire d'Auvergne worked out the idea with a
far more delicate poetical touch. The other poem is a _sirventes_ which
is of interest as being the first attempt at literary satire among the
troubadours; the satire is often rather of a personal than of a literary
character; the following quotations referring to troubadours already
named will show Peire's ideas of literary criticism. "Peire Rogier sings
of love without restraint and it would befit him better to carry the
psalter in the church or to bear the lights with the great burning
candles. Guiraut de Bornelh is like a sun-bleached cloth with his thin
miserable song which might suit an old Norman water-carrier. Bernart de
Ventadour is even smaller than Guiraut de Bornelh by a thumb's length;
but he had a servant for his father who shot well with the long bow
while his mother tended the furnace." The satiric _sirventes_ soon found
imitators: the Monk of Montaudon produced a similar composition. Like
many other troubadours, Peire ended his life in a monastery. To this
period of his career probably, belong his religious poems of which we
shall have occasion to speak later.

We have already observed that the Church contributed members, though
with some reluctance, to the ranks of the troubad