• Gerault de Berneil of Limoges, born of poor parents, but a man of talent and learning, was one of the most famous Troubadours of the thirteenth century. The old Provençal biographer, quoted by Raynouard, Choix de Poésies , V 166, says:⁠— “He was a better poet than any who preceded or followed him, and was therefore called the Master of the Troubadours.⁠ ⁠… He passed his winters in study, and his summers in wandering from court to court with two minstrels who sang his songs.” The following specimen of his poems is from [Taylor’s] Lays of the Minnesingers and Troubadours , p. 247. It is an Aubade , or song of the morning:⁠— “Companion dear! or sleeping or awaking, Sleep not again! for lo! the morn is nigh, And in the east that early star is breaking, The day’s forerunner, known unto mine eye; The morn, the morn is near. “Companion dear! with carols sweet I call thee; Sleep not again! I hear the birds’ blithe song Loud in the woodlands; evil may befall thee, And jealous eyes awaken, tarrying long, Now that the morn is near. “Companion dear! forth from the window looking, Attentive mark the signs of yonder heaven; Judge if aright I read what they betoken: Thine all the loss, if vain the warning given; The morn, the morn is near. “Companion dear!