The enuig or enueg is a genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 of lyric poetry

Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...

 practised by the troubadour

Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....

s. Somewhat similar to the sirventes

Sirventes

The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...

, the enuig was generally a litany of complaints, few of them connect topically to the others. The word "enuig" appears frequently in such works. It is generally regarded more as interesting than as good poetry. The Monge de Montaudon

Monge de Montaudon

The Monge de Montaudon , born Pèire de Vic, was a nobleman, monk, and troubadour from the Auvergne, born at the castle of Vic-sur-Cère near Aurillac, where he became a Benedictine monk around 1180...

 was the first master of the enuig.

Raymond Hill defined an enueg as "the enumeration in epigrammatic style of a series of vexatious things". He finds the genre continued in later medieval Catalan

Catalan literature

Catalan literature is the name conventionally used to refer to literature written in the Catalan language. The Catalan literary tradition is extensive, starting in the Middle Ages....

, Italian

Italian literature

Italian literature is literature written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in Italy in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian....

, French

French literature

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...

, and Galician-Portuguese literature

Galician-Portuguese lyric

In the Middle Ages, the Galician-Portuguese lyric, sometimes called trovadorismo in Portugal and trobadorismo in Galicia, was a lyric poetic school or movement. All told, there are around 1680 texts in the so-called "secular lyric" or lírica profana...

. Ernest Wilkins considered William Shakespeare's

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 Sonnet LXVI an example of an English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 enuig, citing also example from Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

. Richard Levin considers the anonymous English poem beginning "Whear giltles men ar greuously opreste" to be an enuig.

Sources

• Chambers, Frank M. An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification. Diane, 1985. ISBN 0-87169-167-1.
• Levin, Richard. "A Second English Enueg", Philological Quarterly
  Philological Quarterly
  The Philological Quarterly is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on medieval European and modern literature and culture. It was established in 1922 by Hardin Craig. The editor-in-chief is Alvin Snider....
  
  , 53:3 (1974:Summer), pp. 428–30.
• Wilkins, Ernest. "The Enueg in Petrarch and Shakespear", MP, 13 (1915), pp. 495–6.