1. The measure proves that the correct form of this troubadour’s name is Albert, not Albertet. This is true for all the other songs in which the name occurs, although the copyists frequently use the longer form.
5. For the locution se laissar de, “give up, forsake, abstain from,” see Levy, SW, IV, 311.
6. Zingarelli (op. cit., p. 30), citing the subject of this tenzone, translates as follows: “decidere se sia a preferire una donna che vi accordi i suoi piaceri senza amarvi, od una che non vi dia nulla, ma vi ami.” To translate thus, Zingarelli, who does not give the Provençal text, must evidently read: Que l’ama. This punctuation and interpretation, it seems to me, are excluded by the general tenor of the tenzone, as well as by verses 4 and 7.
Examples of the adverbial accusative lo doble, “doubly,” have not elsewhere been observed in Provençal, to my knowledge. One can compare in Old French: “E jo m’en duil pur duble Ysolt” (“Tristan” of Thomas, ed. Bédier, vs. 524); “Anz deus ne fist Sarrazins et paiens, Se plus estoient ou do doble ou do tiers, Que il doutassent vaillissant un dernier” (“Prise de Cordres et de Sebille,” vss. 1278-80).
14. In this verse it is evident that the MSS DEG have a reading preferable to that of IK. I suspect that the original had: Et vos volez c’am en biais; but I have not ventured to introduce this conjecture into the text.
20. The mej’ amor, “half-love,” that the poet feels for the first lady is contrasted with the tota, “whole love,” that he has for the second.
21. baizan jazen. This asyndetic pairing of participles is not uncomon in Provençal. Cf. “Lo vers fo faitz als enflabotz A Puoich-vert tot jogan rizen,” Peire of Auvergne (ed. Zenker), XII, 85-86.
23-24. This variation of the proverb “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is cited by Cnyrim, Sprichwörter, sprichwörtliche Redensarten und Sentenzen bei den prov. Lyrikern, No. 688.
30. Cf. “Amar ses pro non es frugs que engrais,” Guilhem of Berguedan, 16, 4 (Mahn, Gedichte, No. 167).
39-40. This again has the appearance of a proverb. It is not cited by Cnyrim.
50. As to Beatrice of Este, see Bergert, Üeber die von den Trobadors genannten oder gefeierten Damen, pp. 81-85, and Bertoni, Rambertino Buvalelli, pp. 3-4. She was the daughter of Azzo VI and was born in 1191. She became a nun 1218-20 and died in the cloister May 10, 1226. She is often mentioned by Aimeric and by other troubadours.
53-54. Emilia of Ravenna (see Bergert, op. cit., pp. 76-77) was the wife of Count Pietro Traversara. Her name appears in various documents in the period 1212-25. |
