critical analysis

In his fourth Cantiga de Santa Maria, Alfonso narrates the conversion of a Jewish mother and son to Christianity after the father attempts to burn the son alive for receiving communion from the Virgin Mary. Mary acts as a guide towards the vera vía of Christianity by giving the Jewish boy communion; although she still acts as a powerful domna, she is much less sexualized and physically idealized than the domnas of previous troubadours. She presents an image that Alfonso describes as "resplendent" as she cradles her son in her arms.

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare dramatizes many of the themes present in Giraut de Bornelh’s “Reis Glorios.” The watchman’s insistencies that the lover must rise in Bornelh’s poem are transformed into a dialogue between Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare. In Bornelh’s poem, the signs of the approaching day, the sunlight, the birds’ singing and the threat of a “jealous one,” are described by the watchman in stanzas I to VI and they are discarded in stanza VII by the lover (“I care nothing for my foolish rival or the dawn!”).

Macabru’s A la Fontana del vergier depicts a noble woman’s reaction to the news that her lover is leaving to join King Louis VII’s crusade. The Scène dramatique from the ballet Giselle depicts La folie de Giselle after she learns that her lover is actually a prince engaged to a noble lady. Here, Giselle goes through a series of emotions that mimic some of those expressed in Macabru’s song after the lady’s “preoccupations suddenly changed”, leading to her “undoing”.

The Troubadour King, Alfonso X (King of Castille and Lord of the Holy Roman Empire), composed songs for the Virgin Mary. “And that which I seek is to praise the Virgin, Mother of our Lord, Holy Mary, the most wondrous of His creations. Therefore I wish, from this day forth to be Her troubadour, and I pray that She will have me for Her troubadour and accept my songs, for through them I seek to reveal the miracles She performed.