Pastorela

The pastorela (Old Occitan [pastuˈɾɛla], "little/young shepherdess") was an Occitan lyric genre used by the troubadours. It gave rise to the Old French pastourelle. The central topic was always meeting of a knight with a shepherdess, which may lead to any of a number of possible conclusions. They are usually humorous pieces. The genre was allegedly invented by Cercamon, whose examples did not survive, and most famously taken up by his (alleged) pupil Marcabru.

Table of pastorelas

Only few pastorelas have survived; Audiau counts 24 "true" Old Occitan ones, 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