A PROVENÇAL DEBAT ON YOUTH AND AGE IN WOMEN
In an edition of the songs of Jausbert de Puycibot published in 1924 (1) I alluded to the poems here edited for the first time, and promised an edition of them. Though many difficulties of interpretation still remain, their intrinsic interest and their unusual character have induced me to fulfil that promise now. They are the songs that bear in Bartsch’s Verzeichniss the numbers 37,1 and 174,2; they have never before appeared in print, except in Mahn’s diplomatic (and often inexact) reprints of the manuscripts CIK, in his Gedichte der Troubadours.
A first question arises as to the authorship of these songs and their relation to the tenso 173,5. (2) The subject, the comparative merits of old and young women, is the same in all three. The interlocutors of the tenso 173,5, are Bertran and Jausbert, probably Jausbert de Puycibot, since the MS D ascribes this piece to “Lo Monge de Poicibot.” In 37,1 there are references to “En Bertrans” as the opponent, probably the same Bertran as in 173,5. In 174,2, however, the references to the opponent are more puzzling. Once (vs. 12) he is called “En Jausbert”; but in two other passages (vss. 14 and 31) there are allusions to “Audebert” or “mos Audebertz” as upholder of the opposing thesis. Are Jausbert and Audebert the same person? Apparently they are, since both are considered as champions of “las joves,” and it is not likely that the sirventes should be directed against two poets at the same time.
The attributions in the manuscripts vary. The piece 37,1 is ascribed by IK to “Ogiers,” while D has the curious attribution “Gaubertz en Bernartz de Durfort.” The piece 174,2 is given by C to Gavaudan, by D to Bertran de Preissac, by IK to Albertet Cailla. M. Jeanroy, in his edition of the poetry of Gavaudan, (3) rejects the first ascription absolutely, but does not express his opinion as to the authorship of the piece 174,2. Relying on a statement in a charter quoted by Paul Meyer (4) that Raymond V, count of Toulouse, and Bernard de Durfort called each other “Albert,” Schultz(-Gora) (5) conjectured that the names Jausbert, Gausbert, and Audebert are all by-forms of Albert, and that the interlocutor of 174,2 and the author of 37,1 was Bernard de Durfort. This conjecture was accepted an and carried a step farther by J. Müller, (6) who ascribed 37,1 to “Albert Bernard de Durfort,” and 174,2 to Bertran de Preissac. I see no reason, however, to change the names given in the songs. It is evident that the attributions of the manuscripts, differing as they do, have no weight. So all we can say is that the author of 174,2 is a certain Bertran, possibly Bertran de Preissac, (7) and that the composer of 37,1 is a Jausbert, called also Audebert, who may possibly be the same as Jausbert de Puycibot.
The two poems constitute really a tenso in the form of two sirventes. Their subject is the comparative merit of youth or age in women; Bertran defends the cause of “las vielhas” with considerable warmth of feeling, while Jausbert (or Audebert) upholds “las joves.” Examples of similar sirventes-tensos are rather uncommon in Provençal literature. For comparison, however, the following pieces may be cited: Gr. 119,1; 45,1; 448,1, a three-part discussion between the Dalfin and Bauzan (ed. Kolsen, Trobadorgedichte, pp. 8-13); Gr. 356,7 and 389,34, a débat between Peire Rogier and Raimbaut d’Orange with different rhymes but the same metrical scheme (ed. Appel, Das Leben und die Lieder des Trobadors Peire Rogier, pp. 60-67); Gr. 217,2 177,1, of which the first is the celebrated sirventes directed against the Roman court by Guilhem Figueira, and the second the answer to the same, in defense of Rome, with the same rhymes and metrical scheme, by “Na Gormonda” (ed. Levy, in his edition of G. Figueira, pp. 35-43, 74-78). All these resemble more or less the present débat; but I know of no other case, either in Provençal or in French, in which the debaters, after having discussed the subject in a tenso of regular form, have taken0 again the same topic in sirventes form.
In the following pages I have attempted to establish a comprehensible text of these two pieces, with a translation. The latter task is rendered the more difficult by the number of rare or unknown words and by the corrupt manuscript tradition. As will be seen, all that is possible in the case of some words, or even of a whole line, is a more or less plausible guess.
The metrical structure of both songs is the same, the measures of one being repeated in the other. Each consists of five coblas singulars, of thirteen verses each, all ending with the same feminine rhyme. So the metrical formula is as follows:
7a 7a 10a 7a 7a 10a 7a 7a 10a 13a 13a 13a 13a 13a
The last four verses in each cobla contain two interior rhymes. This formula is unique in Provençal poetry.
I have adopted C as base, though it has often been necessary to modify its readings with the aid of the other manuscripts. Orthography of C.
Notes:
1) Classiques français du Moyen Age, No. 46, pp. x-xi.
2) Edited in my edition of Jausbert de Puycibot, pp. 14-17.
3) Romania, XXXIV, 500, n. 4.
4) Histoire générale de Languedoc, VII, 445; see also Stroński, Annales du Midi, XXV, 290, and Jeanroy, “Etudes sur l’ancienne poésie provençale,” Neuphil. Mitteilungen, XXX (1929), 12.
5) Zeits. für roman. Phil., VII, 182.
6) Ibid., XXIII, 93. The same conclusion is also apparently accepted by Appel, Studi medievali, new ser., II (1929), 393.
7) Probably Preyssac in the Dordogne, arrondissement of Périgueux, canton of Excideuil.
