7. Johan = ‘infidel’? (see note by Bartholomaeis, loc. cit.). Or perhaps a generic term applied by the Saracens to the Crusading soldiers? Cf. modern ‘Tommy’, ‘Fritz’, etc.
8. C has bona vie which makes the line one of nine syllables only. Apparently the copyist of R noted this difficulty and employs mar. This reading has been adopted to avoid the strong hiatus which would be necessary between via and e to make up the requisite number of syllables.
12. It is here necessary to adopt the hiatus between Acre and e.
Sirven = the ‘minores fratres’ attached to the Military Orders. See Bartholomaeis, loc. cit.
e·l rey Johan = Jean de Brienne?
13. The Hospital of the Knights of St John.
14. Is Rotlan a paleographical error for ‘Jordan’?
Bartholomaeis suggests that this refers to a fountain constructed by the Crusaders.
Stanzas 3 and 4 are strikingly reminiscent of some of Giraut de Bornelh’s sirventes.
16. Richard I of England (1189-99), the leading figure of the Third Crusade.
17. de Fransa . . . bon rey. Philippe Auguste (1180-1223) who took part in the Third Crusade with Richard of England.
19. Montferrat bo marques. Conrad III of Montferrat, defender of Tyre against Saladin; he hoped to become King of Jerusalem with the aid of Richard against the rival claimant, Guy de Lusignan. His ambition was realised in 1193 but he was murdered shortly afterwards by the emissaries of the Old Man of the Mountains. He is the marques of Montferrat on whose behalf Bertran de Born wrote the sirventes, Ara sai eu de pretz quals l’a plus gran. Cf. also Peirol, XXXI, 35.
20. emperador. Frederick Barbarossa (1153-90) who took the Cross at Easter 1188, left Germany in May 1189 and perished in Cilicia in July 1190 before reaching the Holy Land.
26. Frederick II (1212-50) took the Cross for the second time at his coronation in Rome on 22 November 1220. Peirol was presumably in Rome at this time.
28. guasc. See Jeanroy, Anth. des Troub, p. 119. The allusion is to an exemplum.
29. Emperador. Frederick II did not embark for the Holy Land until 1228.
30. Damietta. Captured by the army of the Fifth Crusade on 5 November 1219, but lost again in the summer of 1221. The blanca tors was the citadel of the town. Cf. Diez, Leben und Werke, p. 260.
35. rezegar. Rayn. (v. 175) suggests ‘dessécher, dépérir’. Levy (Prov. Supp.-Wört. VII, 330) notes: ‘Ich weiss nicht, wie zu verstehen ist.’ The sense is probably in this context ‘to diminish’. Or does rezegar = resegar? |
