Barbe de Verrue

According to the legendary Poésies de Clotilde, Barbe de Verrue was a French troveresse in the 13th century. She was said to be an adopted child, and a successful singer who travelled and performed her own songs. She performed songs about Griseldis, a poem titled Gallic Orpheus about the Gauls, and another titled Aucassin and Nicolette.

Quotes

• Voyd son hyver venir li sages
  Come al fins biau jor, belle nuict;
  Scet que sont roses por toz ages
  Si por toz ages sont ennuict.
  • The wise man sees his winter close
      Like evening on a summer day;
    Each age, he knows, its roses bears,
      Its mournful moments and its gay.
  • From the Poésies de Clotilde (1803), translated by Edgar Taylor, Lays of the Minnesingers and Troubadours (1825), p. 273