Marcoat was a minor Gascon

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) 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 equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

and

joglar A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. The term originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist enterta ...

who flourished in the mid twelfth century. He is often cited in connexion with

Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Aquitaine ( or ; ; , or ; – 1 April 1204) was Duchess of Aquitaine from 1137 to 1204, Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, and Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II. As ...

and is placed in a hypothetical "school" of poetry which includes

Bernart de Ventadorn Bernart de Ventadorn (also Bernard de Ventadour or Bernat del Ventadorn; – ) was an Occitan poet-composer troubadour of the classical age of troubadour poetry. Generally regarded as the most important troubadour in both poetry and music, hi ...

Marcabru Marcabru (; fl. 1130–1150) is one of the earliest troubadours whose poems are known. There is no certain information about him; the two '' vidas'' attached to his poems tell different stories, and both are evidently built on hints in the poems; ...

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 perha ...

Jaufre Rudel Jaufre Rudel (Jaufré in modern Occitan) was the prince of Blaye (''Princes de Blaia'') and a troubadour of the early- to mid-12th century, who probably died during the Second Crusade, in or after 1147. He is noted for developing the theme of ...

Peire Rogier Peire Rogier (born c. 1145) was a twelfth-century Auvergnat troubadour (floruit, fl. 1160 – 1180) and cathedral canon from Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont. He left his cathedral to become a travelling minstrel before settling down for a time in Na ...

, and Peire de Valeria among others. Of all his works, only two ''

sirventes The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours. The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...

'' survive: and .Chambers, 90. Marcoat was an innovator building off the work of the contemporary Gascon Marcabru,Thiolier-Méjean, 114–123. whose death he recalls in one of his works c. 1150. Nonetheless, his works are very simple, the stanzas being composed of three heptasyllables rhyming in the form AAB. It was he who first used the term ''sirventes'' to describe his poems; the word appears in both of his surviving works, twice in one: : : : :. . . : : :''.''Chambers, 91, from the poem ''Mentre m'obri eis huisel''. The meaning of these verses is obscure, as he was an early practitioner of the ''

trobar clus ''Trobar clus'' (), or closed form, was a complex and obscure style of poetry used by troubadours for their more discerning audiences, and it was only truly appreciated by an elite few. It was developed extensively by Marcabru and Arnaut Daniel, ...

'' style.Bloch, 114. According to himself, he wrote (contradictory verses). He was a model for the later troubadour

Raimbaut d'Aurenga Raimbaut of Orange (Old Provençal: Raimbaut d'Aurenga; 1147 – 1173) was the lord of Orange, France, Orange and Aumelas and an influential troubadour in the Kingdom of Arles in the Holy Roman Empire. His properties included the towns of F ...

Sources

*Bloch, R. Howard
''Etymologies and Genealogies: A Literary Anthropology of the French Middle Ages''.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. . *Chambers, Frank M
''An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification''.
Diane Publishing, 1985. . *Dejeanne, Jean-Marie-Lucien. "Marcoat." ''Annales du Midi'', xv (1903). *Harvey, Ruth. "Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Troubadours." ''The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries'', edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. . *Léglu, Catherine. "Moral and satirical poetry.
''The Troubadours: An Introduction''.
edd. Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. . *Pfeffer, Wendy
Review
of Suzanne Thiolier-Méjean, ''La Poétique des Troubadours: Trois Études sur le Sirventes'', in ''

Speculum The term speculum, Latin for "mirror", and its plural specula, may refer to: * ''Speculum'' (journal), a journal of medieval studies published by the Medieval Academy of America * Speculum (medical), a medical tool used for examining body cavities ...

'', 72:1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 230–231. *Thiolier-Méjean, Suzanne. ''La poétique des troubadours: Trois études sur le sirventes''. Paris: Presse de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1994.

Notes

{{authority control Gascons 12th-century French troubadours