The pastorela was an Occitan lyric

Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...

 genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 used by the troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....

s. It gave rise to the Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

 pastourelle

Pastourelle

The pastourelle 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 wit battle and who displays general coyness. The narrator usually has sexual relations, either consensual or...

. 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 invented by Marcabru

Marcabru

Marcabru 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, not on independent information.According to the brief life in MS...

, a chronic moraliser, who portrayed the "courtly" knight as a bumbling fool and the witty shepherdess as successfully blocking his advances.

Table of pastorelas

Composer	Incipit Incipit Incipit is a Latin word meaning "it begins". The incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is the first few words of its opening line. In music, it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits...	Notes
Marcabru Marcabru Marcabru 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, not on independent information.According to the brief life in MS...	L'autr' ier jost' una sebissa
Marcabru	L'autr' ier, a l'issida d'abriu
Giraut de Bornelh Giraut de Bornelh Giraut de Bornelh , whose first name is also spelled Guiraut and whose nickname was Borneil or Borneyll, was a troubadour, born to a lower class family in the Limousin, probably in Bourney, near Excideuil...	L'autrier, lo primier jorn d'aost
Giraut de Bornelh	Lo dous chan d'un auzel
Gavaudan Gavaudan Gavaudan was a troubadour and hired soldier at the courts of both Raymond V and Raymond VI of Toulouse and later on in Castile. He was from Gévaudan, as his name implies...	Desamparatz, ses companho
Gavaudan	L'autre dia per un mati
Cadenet Cadenet (troubadour) Cadenet was a Provençal troubadour who lived and wrote at the court of Raymond VI of Toulouse and eventually made a reputation in Spain. Of his twenty-five surviving songs, twenty-one are cansos, with one alba, one partimen, one pastorela, and one religious piece represented...	L'autrier lonc un bosc folhos
Gui d'Ussel Gui d'Ussel Gui d'Ussel, d'Ussèl, or d'Uisel was a turn-of-the-thirteenth-century troubadour of the Limousin. Twenty of his poems survive: eight cansos, two pastorelas, two coblas, and eight tensos, several with his relatives and including a partimen with Maria de Ventadorn...	L'autre jorn cost' una via
Gui d'Ussel	L'autr' ier cavalcava
Gui d'Ussel	L'autre jorn per aventura
Paulet de Marselha Paulet de Marselha Paulet de Marselha was a Provençal troubadour from Marseille. Three of his eight surviving works are dedicated to Barral dels Baus, the viscount of Marseille. Three were love songs composed in Marseille during an era of peace...	L'autrier manei ab cor pensiu
Guiraut Riquier Guiraut Riquier Guiraut Riquier is among the last of the Provençal troubadours. He is well known because of his great care in writing out his works and keeping them together—the New Grove Encyclopedia considers him an "anthologist" of his own works....	L'autre jorn m'anava	1260 1260 in poetry -Works published:*Gerra e trebailh e brega.m plaz by Bonifaci VI de Castellana, attack on Charles of Anjou*L'autre jorn m'anava, a pastorela by Guiraut Riquier-Deaths:*26 August — Alberico da Romano , patron and troubadour, executed...
Guiraut Riquier	L'autr' ier trobei la bergeira d'antan	1262 1262 in poetry -Works published:*Sitot no m'es fort gaya la sazos by Bonifaci VI de Castellana, written at Montpellier, an attack on Charles of Anjou*Quascus planh le sieu damnatge, a planh of Raimon Gaucelm de Bezers for a bourgeois of Béziers named Guiraut de Linhan and the only such poem surviving for a...
Guiraut Riquier	Gaia, pastorela	1264 1264 in poetry -Deaths:* Gonzalo de Berceo , Spanish poet especially on religious themes...
Guiraut Riquier	L'autr' ier trobei la bergeira	1267 1267 in poetry -Births:* James II of Aragon , a Catalan troubadour...
Guiraut Riquier	D'Astarac venia	1276 1276 in poetry -Events:*26 August — Matieu de Caersi composed a planh on the death of James I of Aragon and so did Cerverí de Girona...
Guiraut Riquier	A Sant Pos de Tomeiras	1282 1282 in poetry -Deaths:* Abû 'Uthmân Sa'îd ibn Hakam al Qurashi , Ra'îs of Manûrqa, poet, scholar, writer; in Arabic in Minorca...
Joan Esteve	L'autr' ier al gai tems de Pascor	1275 1275 in poetry -Births:* Dnyaneshwar , Maharashtran saint, poet, philosopher and yogi* Manuel Philes , Byzantine* Robert Mannyng , English monk, writing in Middle English, French and Latin...
Joan Esteve	El dous tems quan la flor sesplan	1285 1285 in poetry -Events:*Summer — five troubadours compose a literary cycle of sirventes on the topic of the Aragonese Crusade: Bernart d'Auriac, Peter III of Aragon, Pere Salvatge, Roger Bernard III of Foix, and an anonymous.-Deaths:...
Joan Esteve	Ogan al freg que fazia	1288 1288 in poetry -Events:*Joan Esteve, troubadour, composes the pastorela "Ogan, ab freg que fazia"-Deaths:* Adam de la Halle , a French trouvère, poet and musician* Shang Ting , writer of Chinese Sanqu poetry...
Guiraut d'Espanha Guiraut d'Espanha Guiraut d'Espanha or de Tholoza was of the last generation of troubadours, working in Provence at the court of Charles of Anjou and Countess Beatrice. Many of his poems were addressed to Beatrice. Guiraut was either from Spain or Toulouse—the manuscripts differ—but ten of his dansas, a...  ?	Per amor soi gai
Cerverí de Girona Cerverí de Girona Cerverí de Girona was a Catalan troubadour born Guillem de Cervera in Girona. He was the most prolific troubadour, leaving behind some 114 lyric poems among other works, including an ensenhamen of proverbs for his son, totaling about 130. He was a court poet to James the Conqueror and Peter the...	Entre Lerida e Belvis
Cerverí de Girona	Entre Caldes e Penedes
Cerverí de Girona	En mai, can per la calor
Cerverí de Girona	Pres d'un jardi, encontrei l'altredia
Joyos de Tolosa Joyos de Tolosa Joyos de Tolosa , whose first named is also spelled Joios, was a troubadour from Toulouse . He has left behind only one pastorela, "L'autr' ier el dous tems de Pascor", in which he names himself as the author...	L'autr' ier el dous tems de Pascor
Guilhem d'Autpol Guilhem d'Autpol Guilhem d'Autpol or Daspol was a troubadour from Hautpoul in the Languedoc. He wrote four works that survive, three dwelling on intensely religious themes. There exists some evidence internal in his songs that he was a jongleur early on.Esperansa de totz ferms esperans is a religious alba...	L'autr' ier a l'issida d'abril
Anonymous	L'autrier al quint jorn d'Abril
Anonymous	Quant escavalcai l'autr' er	Called a balada Dansa A dansa was an Occitan form of lyric poetry developed in the late thirteenth century among the troubadours. It is related to the English term "dance" and was often accompanied by dancing. A closely related form, the balada or balaresc, had a more complex structure, and is related to the ballade... .
Anonymous	Mentre per una ribeira	Entitled Porquieira.