The face is clear and fresh,
the hand white and the hair constantly blonde. The troubadours
seldom speak of the rest of the body. Peire Vidal is an
exception, and his reference to the well-raised breasts may be
placed beside a reference by Bertran de Born. The general
impression conveyed by the love lyrics of the langue d'oc is one
of great convention. There seemed to be no salvation outside
certain phrases and epithets. The woman of Provence, sung by
hundreds of poets, seems to have been composed all of milk and
roses, a blonde Nuremburg doll." (R. Renier, _Il Tipo Estetico
della Donna nel Medioevo_, 1885, pp. 1-24.)
The conventional ideal of the troubadours is, again, thus
described: "She is a lady whose skin is white as milk, whiter
than the driven snow, of peculiar purity in whiteness. Her
cheeks, on which vermilion hues alone appear, are like the
rosebud in spring, when it has not yet opened to the full. Her
hair, which is nearly always bedecked and adorned with flowers,
is invariably of the color of flax, as soft as silk, and
shimmering with a sheen of the finest gold." (J.F. Rowbotham,
_The Troubadours and Courts of Love_, p.
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