Desire in trouvère song is constituted differently according to where it appears within the loose web of genres, genders, registers and voices which make up the entire system. This chapter will examine the system itself and the nature of the relationships within it. The fundamental structuring categories within the system are those of high/low, courtly/non-courtly, and masculine/feminine. Difficulties arise, however, with the attempt to categorize the feminine side. It is not so easy to distinguish between high and low or courtly and uncourtly here because ‘feminine’ is already included on the low, uncourtly side. It is the struggle of femininity with its generic and registral lowness which this book explores.

The chanson, standing at the top of the hierarchy, is the high-style song of fin'amor, pure or refined love – the love which critics since Gaston Paris have often referred to as ‘courtly love’. Roger Dragonetti coined the phrase grand chant courtois for this genre and his usage is sanctioned by the scribes of ms. I, who refer to grans chans in their rubrics. Nonetheless I prefer the simple term chanson (the equivalent of the Occitan canso), because its unmarked status best indicates its value for the trouvères as against marked forms of the term such as chanson d'histoire, one of the designations used in Renart's Roman de la Rose (Psaki l. 1151). This is in line with Dante's use of the Italian term canzone, ‘the supreme form’, for the Italian equivalent of the canso and the chanson (De vulgari eloquentia 73).