The ''pastorela'' (, "little/young shepherdess") was an

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

lyric

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

used by the

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

s. It gave rise to the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

pastourelle The pastourelle (; also ''pastorelle'', ''pastorella'', or ''pastorita'' is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets a shepherdess who bests him in a batt ...

''. The central topic was always the meeting of a knight with a shepherdess, which could lead to any of a number of possible conclusions. They were usually humorous pieces. The genre was allegedly invented by

Cercamon Cercamon (, fl. 1135-1145) was one of the earliest troubadours. His true name and other biographical data are unknown. He was apparently a Gascony-born jester of sorts who spent most of his career in the courts of William X of Aquitaine and perh ...

, whose examples do not survive, and was most famously taken up by his (alleged) pupil

Marcabru Marcabru (; floruit, fl. 1130–1150) is one of the earliest troubadours whose poems are known. There is no certain information about him; the two ''vida (Occitan literary form), vidas'' attached to his poems tell different stories, and both are e ...

Table of ''pastorelas''

Only a few pastorelas have survived; Audiau counts 24 "true" Old Occitan examples, mentioning 10 others which resemble them but belong to other genres and one which is a translation from French. Zemp reduces this number further, to 17.

Notes

References

* Jeanroy, Alfred. ''La poésie lyrique des troubadours''. Toulouse: Privat, 1934. {{Western medieval lyric forms Western medieval lyric forms Occitan literary genres