Note 24 — Chapter XVIII · BERTRAN AND RICHARD COUNT OF POITOU.

I must warn the reader not to mistake the above lines for an attempt at rendering a somewhat similar war-song generally ascribed to Bertran de Born, and translated into English as one of his poems. It is the magnificent sirventes beginning ‘Bem platz lo gais temps de pascor’ (Well I love the gay time of spring), and so much is it in the spirit of our troubadour that even one of the old manuscripts has his name affixed to it. Unfortunately, however, the evidence of numerous other and better manuscripts is against this plausible surmise, and by their authority the poem must be ascribed to William de St. Gregory, a troubadour comparatively little known.