Pastorela

The pastorela (Old Occitan: [pastuˈɾɛla], "little/young shepherdess") was an Occitan lyric genre used by the troubadours.

It gave rise to the Old French pastourelle.

The central topic was always the meeting of a knight with a shepherdess, which could lead to any of a number of possible conclusions.

The genre was allegedly invented by Cercamon, whose examples do not survive, and was most famously taken up by his (alleged) pupil Marcabru.

Only a few pastorelas have survived; Audiau counts 24 "true" Old Occitan examples, mentioning 10 others which resemble them but belong to other genres and one which is a translation from French.