2. ni. Rochegude’s correction of the meter is excellent.
3. ric menuzier. Not the ‘rich cabinetmakers,’ but the nobles (cf. ric ome ‘man of high rank’) who are, however, menuzier (or menudier), ‘insignifiant, mesquin’ in Levy, Petit Dictionnaire. ( 1)
14. Rochegude’s omission of ieu (hypermetric) is again a good correction. —gay. I have not added nom. -s in this poem where the MS does not have it: 15 joy, 49 mur, 53 aital.
17. Tarzana. Diez (see Previous Editions) proposes tentatively Taurissane, in the Minervois (Hérault and Aude, not far east of Carcassonne). This fits the sense (cf. Carcasses, v. 22), but the form presents difficulties. Another possibility is Tersanne (Drôme), which is farther away from the scene of action. The name is not found in any other troubadour lyric.
18. Depending on the identification of Balaguier, one could read E vas ‘and near’ with all the editors, instead of Devas ‘from the vicinity of.’ Diez mentions a Balaguier in Chercorb, a “Landschaft der Diöcese von Toulouse,” which I have been unable to locate; there is also a Balaguier in Aveyron (cant. Saint-Sernin), which may not be too far away for this poem. The two other occurrences of the name in troubadour verse both refer to Balaguer in Spain (prov. Lérida): Albert de Sestaro, Ab son gai (16,2) and Peire Vidal, Drogoman senher (364,18); and I am inclined to think that this is the town designated here also; Peter of Aragon (see n. 19) is leading an army into France from this very part of Spain. I have therefore kept the MS reading Devas.
19. pros rei. Peter II of Aragon (1196-1213), killed during the battle of Muret. His sister Eleanor was the wife of Raymond VI of Toulouse, and he betrothed his daughter to Raymond’s son (see our first poem, note on v. 33).
31-39. The attributes of war are contrasted with the pursuits of peace: hunting with dogs, dressing up in one’s finery, and the attrition of one’s property in time of peace; war brings the possibility of financial gain and the winning of honor.
42-43. En vos, cuy aurai, / Dona. The MS has en uos dona cuy aurai, but Rochegude’s change of word order, tacitly accepted by the other editors, seems clearly called for by sense and meter.
44. m’es en defes. You ‘are protected against me, inaccessible to me.’ Cf. Topsfield, Raimon de Miraval, pp. 277-278, note on vv. 21-22; Stroński, Folquet de Marseille, p. 84*; and Levy, SW 2:44, 1 and 4. ( 2)
45. s’autra m’agues. ‘If another had me’ seems odd; the logic suggests rather ‘if I possessed another.’ This is a possible interpretation, though syntactically a bit strained, if we take m’ as a dative of interest: ‘if I possessed another for myself.’ The only examples of s’aver reflexive in the dictionaries, however, convey the meaning ‘behave, comport oneself,’ as in Old French; with no further proof, I can only offer my suggestion as a hypothesis.
49. dezanvana. Raynouard, Lexique roman, 2:69, and Levy, SW, 2:214, give only this passage under the word dezanvanar; the MS, incidentally, reads dezanvana, not dezenvana, as Raynouard has it. Raynouard translates ‘crumbles,’ as does Diez (see Previous Editions); but Levy quotes a later example of the word from G. Anelier’s Guerre de Navarre (ed. Francisque Michel, p. 552) as authority for the meaning ‘perdre sa plateforme,’ derived evidently from amban or anvan, for which Levy (SW, 1:56) gives the further meanings ‘parapet, gallery.’
50. verdier. This is the reading of all editions, and is eminently acceptable; but to me the MS is by no means clear.
51. creis e gensa. This combination occurs also in Peire d’Alvernhe’s Ab fina joia (323,2), v. 43. In his edition, Del Monte ( 3) translates ‘cresce e si perfeziona.’ Here, the idea is probably that of the organization of straggling bands into an orderly fighting force.
54. rei engles. John Lackland, whose claim to Aquitaine and other possessions in France was becoming tenuous as the result of quarrels with the pope.
61-64. King John would become a paragon of pretz if he would give the war cry “Guiana” appropriate in his realms of Aquitaine or Guyenne; that is, if he would take sides openly against the French crusaders attacking Raymond VI for not suppressing the heretical Cathars. John did attempt to sail for Poitou in July 1213, in order to attack Philip Augustus of France; but his barons refused to accompany him.
65-66. The Count is Raymond VI (see the following note), who would naturally support John if the latter took a position against their common enemies, the French army led by Simon de Montfort.
67-69. These lines are obscure (Levy, SW, 4:353, says “Ich verstehe die Stelle nicht”). They seem to mean that the count’s seal bears an inscription which is so short that the poet does not repeat it (because it would be obvious to his hearers?). Presumably, this inscription would be the name of the Count’s domain. Since the tornada (76-81) is addressed to the Lord of Toulouse and Agen, it is logical to suppose that the legend on the seal would be Tolzan or Toloza, and the count, therefore, Raymond VI.
72. The line is two syllables short, although no lacuna is evident either in the MS or in the sense.
76-81. The Lord of Tolzá (Tolzan) and Aganes (the regions of Toulouse and Agen) is of course Raymond VI (see the note on 67-69). The lines as they stand do not form a complete sentence, and it is quite possible that they are garbled or that the copyist omitted part of the tornada.
Notes:
1) Emil Levy, Petit dictionnaire provençal-français (Heidelberg, 1923). Hereafter, Levy, PD. (↑)
2) L. T. Topsfield, Les Poésies du troubadour Raimon de Miraval (Paris, 1971). Stanisław Stroński, Le Troubadour Folquet de Marseille (Cracovie, 1910). For Levy, see Levy, Provenzalisches Supplement-Wörterbuch, 8 vols. (Leipzig, 1894-1928). (↑)
3) Alberto Del Monte, Peire d’Alvernha, Liriche (Torino, 1955). (↑) |
