NOTES
Seven coblas unissonans of twelve lines, with three tornadas, each of four lines: a’ b b a c c d d e e f f (ors, ics, er, eis, itz, ortz), lines of eight syllables. Frank 598:9.
Stanza order. Jeanroy (Studi Torraca, p. 481) and Zingarelli (Engles, p. 126) have demonstrated the superiority of the stanza order of group a, in which the conventional and romantic theme of nostalgic love, developed in stanzas 1–4, is superseded in stanzas 5–7 (the sirventes proper) by the main theme of military triumph and imperial conquest (a succession characteristic of the canso-sirventes). Tornada 8, confidently predicting the liberation of Jerusalem, develops the proud affirmations of stanza 7; tornada 9 is an anathema directed against the deserters who refused to share the dangers and glory of their companions, while tornada 10, containing the dedication, forms a natural conclusion. Jeanroy (loc. cit., p. 475) characterises this strikingly beautiful poem as follows: “La pièce No m’agrada commence par une élégie et se termine par un chant de victoire et la promesse de nouveaux exploits: énergique et fier coup de clairon succédant a un mélodieux soupir de flûte. Rarement, même dans la littérature provençale, des accents plus mâles se sont associés à une mélancolie aussi pénétrante”. For the circumstances of the poem, see the Introduction, I, 16.
9. d’amor. Confirmed by C; the variant damdos is an alteration of damor induced by l. 7.
16. honors. Confirmed by SU; the variant valors appears more appropriately in l. 49.
17. sab?. Jeaoroy (followed here and throughout by De Bartholomaeis) rejects this reading of group a as being less expressive than fazia of group β. It appears to us on the contrary more forceful, as indicating the poet’s awareness of his own merit.
24. merma. Unlike refortz, this verb does not require the reflexive pronoun offered by several of the MSS.
29. aver. As Jeanroy points out, the idea of possession is necessary here; the variant vezer of group β is due to vei in the same line.
33. It is indeed curious (as Crescini observes, Ancora, p. 102) that Raimbaut attributes his newly-acquired wealth to his own valour, and not to the liberality of his patron, to which it was undoubtedly due (cf. the Epic Letter). Perhaps the poet, who in ll. 71–2 is making an appeal for fresh support for the Latin cause, is purposely exaggerating the opportunities for material rewards.
36. confortz. This reading is preferable to conortz. Jeanroy and De Bartholomaeis reject the latter variant, and also valors (16), bastitz (81) and faiditz (89), on the ground that these words recur elsewhere in the rhyme. This is not however a valid argument, Since the recurrence of rhyme-words appears to be characteristic of the poem (cf. desconortz 12, 23; conortz 47, 95; esfortz 59, 71, 96; estortz 60 ,87; conqueritz 70, 86; sortz 72, 88).
38. De Bartholomaeis places a colon at the end of this line and a comma at the end of l. 40.
39. fis amics. This conventional term for the lover goes with amatz, and is not, as Zingarelli believed (op. cit., p. 131), an allusion to the poet’s friendship with the Marquis (= Engles). Lines 39–40 appear to provide additional confirmation for the identity of Engles, since Raimbaut’s sentimental experiences in Provence were distinctly unhappy (cf. V–VIII).
40. De Bartholomaeis, who accepts the identification of Engles with Boniface in l. 93, curiously enough suggests that the same “senhal” may here refer to a lady. The object of the poet s affections is, of course, Bel Cavalier of l. 45.
42. Cf: the Vida: “E det li gran terra e gran renda el regisme de Salonic.”
47. naissera. A rarer word than the variant venra of group β and therefore preferable.
49. valors. The variant amors is obviously faulty; cf. note to l. 16.
52. perda. This reading of group a has some support from the other group; for the sentiments here expressed, cf. VIII, st. 1.
52. This line is undoubtedly the basis for the erroneous statement in the common version of the Vida that Boniface conferred the knighthood on Raimbaut in the East.
57. The allusion in this line, important for the dating of the poem, is to the invasion of the Latin Empire (Romania) by Johannitza, Tsar of the Wallacho-Bulgarians, following the defeat of the Emperor Baldwin at Adrianople on April 14th 1205 (cf. XX, 36 and note). Boniface had hastened north from the Peloponnese at the end of May to meet the serious threat to Salonika (cf. ll. 61–4 and Villehardouin §§ 389, 392–4, 398).
Drogoiz. The Drogobites, a people inhabiting Macedonia to the west of Salonika are not mentioned by any other writer of the period, though they appear in several documents (cf. the Partitio Regnt Graeci of Baldwin of Flanders. in Tafel-Thomas, XII, 485, 493, and also Tobler, ZRP VI, 121). Previously considered to be of Slav origin, they have been recently identified as Rumanian by D. Gadzaru, Actes et Mém. du 1er Congrès International de Langue et Litt. du Midi de la France (Avignon, 1957), p. 111 (for earlier and incorrect interpretations of Drogoiz, cf. Raynouard III 78 and Chabaneau, RLR 21, 240).
61. n’es. De Bartholomaeis omits n’ (with M), but this adverb, offered by U, is confirmed by the corrupt readings nei (S) and uez (C).
62. Campanes. This is not ViIlehardouin, Marshal of Champagne and Romania (who is normally referred to. by his title, cf. XX, 61), but in all probability Guillaume of Champlitte, a councillor of Boniface, who with the latter’s consent had conquered the Peloponnese in the winter of 1205 along with the Marshal’s nephew, to whom he handed Modon, lost earlier by him to the Greeks (cf. l. 63; Epic LetterII, 28, note; Villehardouin §§ 325–30). Guillaume had probably taken the surname “Champenois” from his brother Eudes, who died the year before.
coms Enricx. Henry of Flanders, brother of Baldwin, had returned in haste from Asia Minor to save the army and the capital from the threat of destruction after the Adrianople disaster (cf. Villehardouin §§ 380 ff.). Appointed Regent in April, he was elected the second Latin Emperor in August (in December he married Agnes, a daughter of Boniface). The title coms thus provides a terminus date for the poem.
63. Sicar. It is impossible to identify with certainty this place-name, since no locality bearing this name is to be found in the theatre of military operations of this time. Neither Crescini (Ancora, p. 101) nor Jeanroy offers any suggestions, and those put forward by Schultz-Gora, Briefe, p. 12 (Zagora, on the Bulgarian frontier, known in the French chronicles as Veroi), and De Bartholomaeis (Zychna, an unimportant locality near Serres, known in the chronicles as La Gige) are unconvincing. The poet, whose interest is clearly centred on events in the kingdom of Salonika, may be referring to some local action unknown to the chroniclers. But one is tempted to interpret the reading of the closely-related MSS. CSU as si c’ar, and to supply between Costantinople and socors of the following line the verb es, which could easily have been omitted in the source of these MSS.
Montos. This is Modon, an important port in the south-west of the Peloponnese; cf. Epic Letter II, 32, note.
67. ateis. De Bartholomaeis reads asseys (with C), rendering “consegui”, but asseys in not attested in this sense, and is here probably a scribal error.
68. With De Bartholomaeis, we consider apareys the principal verb; the awkward construction of the sentence is due to the necessities of the rhyme.
71–2. These lines reveal the main purpose of the poem, which is an appeal to the West for reinforcements. For the urgent request for help sent at this time by the leading Crusaders to the Pope and others, cf. Villehardouin § 388.
72. coissi·s. With Jeanroy, we adopt here the reading of M. De Bartholomaeis erroneously reads c’aissi·s.
73–9. Cf. Robert de Clari LXXXI: “puis que chis siecles fu estorés, si grans avoirs, ne si nobles, ne si rikes, ne fu veus ne conquis, ne au tans Alixandre, ne au tans Charlemaine”. —Aimerics (l. 75) is Aimeri de Narbonne, father of Guillaume d’Orange; according to G. Paris (Rom. VII, 457), this allusion to the hero of the Narbonne epic cycle stems from the popular 12th century epic poem Foucon de Candie, which is also the source of the heroic deeds attributed to Charlemagne’s son Louis (Lodoics of l. 74), referred to also in XIII, 10.
80. The use of the plurals emperadors, reis is rhetorical (as in the case of reys, princeps of the Epic Letter I, 29), since only one emperor (Baldwin) and one king (Boniface) can be intended here (the latter did not even assume the title, cf. Epic Letter I, 4, note). Villehardouin however mentions three duchies (§§ 304, 316).
81. garnitz. This reading is less forceful than bastitz of group β, but it is supported by a1, and Villehardouin uses the same term in this connection (§§ 312, 319, 321). For an account of the Latin occupation in the autumn of 1204 of lands beyond the Bosphorus, “devers la Turchie”, cf. Villehardouin §§ 304 ff.; Robert de Clari CXI.
82. prop. De Bartholomaeis: pres (with A); Zingarelli, op. cit., p. 128 and Berry erroneously consider this a past participle of prendre.
84. Brandiz is Brindisi, and the Bratz Sain Jorz, so named after the monastery in Constantinople situated on the shores of the Propontis, is the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.
85. A similar expression of the poet’s faith in the fulfilment of the Crusade is found in XX, 49–50 (cf. note); but Crescini points out (R. di Vaqueiras a Baldovino Imp., p. 907, n. 4) that this faith was no longer universally shared at the time our poem was written.
nos. We adopt the reading of MR with Jeanroy, De Bartholomaeis and Crescini (Ancora, p. 101); Cs variant vos is undoubtedly a consequential alteration induced by the stanza order of this MS., in which the dedicatory tornada 10 precedes 8. Zingarelli, loc. cit. (followed by Bergin), accepting the stanza order of C in Mahn’s edition, rejects nos as inconsistent with the laudatory epithets of the dedication, and inadmissibly infers that the poet here considers Boniface (= Engles) as destined to fulfil the purpose of the Crusade. We have already seen however that tornada 8 is the logical continuation of stanza 7, and Zingarelli’s argument thus falls to the ground.
88. This is probably a reference to the Arab prophecy of the destruction of Islam by the Crusaders, composed not later than the beginning of the 13th century according to P. Meyer, Prise de Damiette en 1219 (Bibl. de l’Éc. des Ch., t. XXXVIII, 1877, pp. 510–4. 540–5; this text contains a Provençal version of the prophecy). Chabaneau; RLR 21, 241, compares with this line Elias Cairel, 133, 11, st. 3: Q’al Caire son Arabit e Persan, Cordin e Ture de paor entrepres .... Q’en lor sortz an trobat senes faillir Qe crestian devon sobr’els venir E la terra confluistar e desfaire. Cf. also Marcabru (Appel, Prov. Ch., no. 72, ll. 44–5). —Bergin mistranslates: “tali cose i Turchi troveranno nella lor sorte”.
89–92. The violent denunciation in this tornada (which provides the terminus a quo for the poem) is directed against the body of armed men (7000 according to Villehardouin) lying in the harbour of Constantinople who, panic-stricken by the news of the Adrianople disaster, abandoned the almost defenceless capital, and despite the entreaties of the military and religious leaders sailed for home on April 17th; cd. Villehardouin §§ 367–8, 375–9, and Faral, Villehardouin, II, p. 189, n. 1.
89. perjurs. Schultz-Gora (Briefe, p. 11) remarks that this accusation seems unjustified.
fraiditz. The usual meaning of the MS. faiditz is unsuitable here, while its figurative meaning “wretched, worthless” is attested in only one or two cases, cf. Levy SW III, 379. We therefore follow Jeanroy and De Bartholomaeis, who emend to fraiditz (but without comment). This word is admittedly rare (cf. Raynouard III, 381; Levy SW III, 580), but the meaning of the Old High German freidi, fireidi (= “perjured, faithless, deserter”, cf. Grimm, Deutsches Wörterb., IV, I, 102; Lexer, Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterb., III, 495) is precisely that required by the context, and is also suitable for the only undisputed example in Raynouard, whose rendering “infâme, vil, misérable” is therefore not quite accurate (A. Langfors, Les chansons de Guilhem de Cabestanh, CFMA, 1924, translates the phrase per us vars fraiditz (III, 12) as “pour de perfides misérables”, but queries “misérable” in the glossary).
90. camp. We correct the plural form of the MS., with all the editors.
91–2. Cf. the strikingly similar language of Villehardouin § 379: “Mult en reçurent grant blasme en celui païs ou il alerent et en icelui dont il partirent ... et pour ce dit on que mult fait mal qui par paor de mort fait chose qui li est reprovee a toz jorz.” —In both these lines we regularise the characteristic -ors spelling of M.
93. Zingarelli, op. cit., p. 130, points out that the poet appropriately reverts to the “senhal” in the dedication.
94. essernilz. We reject the repetitive e noiritz of C (with Jeanroy and De Bartholomaeis) in favour of the reading of SU, of which e fornitz of M appears to be a corruption.
96. It would appear from this line that Raimbaut did not take part in the campaign against the invaders mentioned in ll. 56–7. Zingarelli (loc. cit.), followed by De Bartholomaeis, finds confirmation of this in R’s version of l. 57: guerreye lay blancx e drogitz; but lay is there an isolated reading, introduced no doubt to restore the syllabic count.
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