NOTES
Four coblas singulars of seven lines, the first four having an internal rhyme, and the last line being a refrain: a9 a9 b6’ a7 a3 b3’ b4’ (a: el, ai, or, ar; b: refrain-word, alba; internal rhymes: e, ics, os, eu). Frank 283:1 (stanzas of eleven lines). Only example of this scheme.
Authenticity. There is the same divergence of views regarding the attribution of this alba to Raimbaut as in the case of XXIV, which immediately follows it in the MS. A. Cavaliere (Arch. Roman. XVII, 330) has demonstrated (in our view conclusively) the Provençal origin of Gaita be and the probability of Raimbaut’s authorship as against a Catalan origin favoured by De Bartholomaeis, loc. cit. (Jeanroy, who also rejects the MS. attribution (Poésie lyrique II, 296), considers the poem “une sorte de cantar d’amigo”). The characteristic situation of the Provençal alba (i.e. the presence of three persons, the two lovers and the watchman) is reproduced in Gaila be, and the monologue is also a feature which recurs in two of the seven albas recognised as such by Jeanroy (loc. cit., p. 295 and pp. 339–40, nos. 1 and 8). Cavaliere sees the originality of Raimbaut’s alba as lying in the lover’s invitation to the watchman to keep good watch, repeated in each of the first three stanzas, the lady being addressed only in the fourth stanza, at the moment of separation; and he believes that Gaita be may have influenced the celebrated Gaite de la tor, which alone among the four extant French aubes introduces the watchman. The form of the poem is that of the dance song, with long stanzas of short lines or alternatively fewer lines but with internal rhymes (cf. also Guiraut Riquier 248, 3, MW IV, 95); the date of its composition is unknown.
1. be. Anglade retains the MS. forms ben, ren 2, mi 3, ven 4.
2. bon e bel. A constructio ad sensum; Cavaliere cites a similar example in L. Cigala, ed. Bertoni, Trov. d’Italia, p. 329, ll. 65–6.
3. Massó y Torrents, Anglade: ai a mi tro ·squa l’alba.
6–7. Previous editors have joined these lines together, but l. 6 corresponds metrically to the second hemistiche of l. 3 and should be separated from the refrain.
7. oi. R. Ortiz (ZRP XLIX, 558), pointing out the strange effect of the MS. oc preserved by most editors, suggests the more appropriate oi, which we adopt with Cavaliere (cf. Appel, Prov. Chr., no. 53: oy Dieus, de l’alba, and also XXIV: oy Deus, d’amor); for the confusion between oi and oc, cf. Levy SW V, 457–9.
8. crid’ e bray. Bergin (after Massó y Torrents): crida “bray”(“grida ‘all’erta’”); but it was the custom of the watchman to sing in order to remain awake, and we therefore emend the MS. cridabray with the other editors.
15. Gaitaz vos. For se gaitar de, cf. Levy SW IV, 9; Audiau-Lavaud (and Bergin) incorrectly render: “Guettez, vous aussi”. The plural form provides a suitable rhyme.
16. vostre malvays seynor. De Bartholomaeis, preserving the erroneous vostra of the MS., changes the word-order to malvays v.s. in a misconceived attempt to demonstrate the influence of the Galician-Portuguese cantigas de amor, in which senhor denotes the lady.
18. za jos. For this expression, cf. Folquet de Marseille, ed. Stronski. XIX, 43–4 and Levy SW IV, 274; De Bartholomaeis reads (quez) a jos, considering jos to be a non-Provençal form of jois.
22. puis. This unusual form is undoubtedly due to the Catalan copyist; cf in XXXI, 29 puix in Sg, puig in Ve. Ag. |
