Satirical Songs of the Second Term: A Deep Dive into Medieval Iberian Poetry
**Thematic Characterization of Satirical Songs of the Second Term**
**Classification of Songs**
The second term encompasses satirical songs that treat the classification of songs according to scorn and scolding: political satire, religious-moral-social satire, and personal satire.
**A. Political Satire**
We can distinguish:
- Compositions referring to the war between Sancho II and Count of Boulogne for the throne of Portugal in the mid-13th century. They triumph in Boulogne, criticizing the knights who surrendered their castles to Afonso III in Boulogne in the Portuguese war of 1246, breaking the vassalage obligations that linked them to Sancho II. In this cycle of compositions, the corruption of the church and nobility is highlighted, who took advantage of the situation but did not act as they should have in law.
- Poems related to the war of Granada. Alfonso X was abandoned by many of the nobles at the first taking of Granada in 1264. The king himself, along with other troubadours, accused many knights of cowardice and disloyalty.
**B. Social Satire**
The theme of poverty and decadence of the lower nobility is repeated and abundant. In these moments, the bourgeoisie is being set aside. Social criticism reaches the most diverse activities, from courtiers to merchants. In general, two groups stand out that cause well-nourished nuclei of songs. The poor knights and squires are criticized and ridiculed for their noble pretensions and the misery in which they live.
These songs are a precious document for the study of the decadence of some noble classes.
**C. Moral-Religious Satire**
Moral service expresses a radical rejection of the world and laments the moral degeneration and corruption of customs that falls on the society of the time, comparing it to a previous golden age. One can also lament the disappearance of specific virtues or values (true love). The songs leave a trail of melancholy and bitterness, which leads us to consider synchronicity between the monotony and commonplace poetry of others. Still, sparks of moral satires properly speaking are well known, such as Airas Nunes (who is the search for truth), and Martin Moxa, who tells us about the hardships and misery of the century, as a sign of the next arrival of the Antichrist.
**D. Personal Satire**
The themes that appear within this group are very varied, most of the 400 songs of scorn and scolding:
*Satire of the Jograis*
The scorn that troubadours direct to the *jograis* and *segreis*, and also among themselves, are very frequent. Sometimes they criticize the ability in the interpretation. Other times they criticize other people’s compositions. As we said, many satirical songs have literature itself and its practitioners as their subject. This is understandable if we consider the environment in which many troubadours and *jograis* lived daily: confrontations were the first spark of the game engine to demonstrate literary ability and the ability to get out of personal rivalry. We distinguish three fundamental cycles:
- The confrontations between *jograis* and troubadours, in which the *jograis* claimed the role of composer and subject, therefore, of courtly love, a privilege reserved for nobles. This cycle also includes angry attacks on *jograis* for lack of artistic quality.
- The parodies of the code of courtly love, in which thematic reasons (dying of love, for example) or the love language of songs are ridiculed. We can also find parodies of other serious songs.
- The “cycle of *aidos* and *tecidos*”, a well-nourished group of poems motivated by the whim of the Portuguese noble João Soares Coelho to create the first love song. This serious alteration of the code of love – a lady should always be of a higher social condition – caused the mockery of troubadours such as Fernão Garcia Esgaravunha, Airas Perez Vuituron, or *jograis* Lourenço and Julião Bolseiro, among others.
*Satire of specific elements or social groups*
Such as the *soldadeiras*, homosexuals, doctors, judges, lawyers, the king’s favorites, public offices, corrupt clergymen and abbesses, and minorities. The poems dedicated to Maria Perez Balteira stand out, present in a dozen songs. This woman, of great beauty in her youth, was the object of mockery by poets such as Pero da Ponte, Pero Garcia Burgalês, and Fernão Velho.