The transition from this rigid ecclesiastic spirit to a freer, more imaginative literature is to be seen in the lyric poetry inspired by the Virgin, in the legends of the saints which bulk so largely in the poetry of the 12th century, and in the general trend towards mysticism.
The disturbing and disintegrating element in the literature of the 13th century was thus the substitution of a utilitarian.didacticism for the idealism of chivalry.
The literature of the middle of the century was not wanting in achievement, but there was nothing buoyant or youthful about it; most significant of all, the generation between 1848 and 1880 was either oblivious or indifferent to the good work and to the new and germinating ideas which it produced.
Consequently Romanic literatures in general (and this is especially true of Provencal, as it does not extend beyond the medieval period) afford only an incomplete representation of the intellectual development cf each country.
Songs of love addressed to them soon became an accepted and almost conventional form of literature; and, as in social position the authors were generally far below those to whom they directed their amorous plaints, this kind of poetry was always distinguished by great reserve and an essentially respectful style.
From the beginning the sentiments, real or assumed, of the poets are expressed in such a refined and guarded style that some historians, over-estimating the virtue of the ladies of that time, have been misled to the belief that the love of the troubadour for the mistress of his thoughts was generally platonic and conventional.
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