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Appendices
APPENDIX I
Extract from Les Vies des plus célèbres et anciens Poètes provensaux, qui ont floury du Temps des Comtes de Provence, Jehan de Nostre Dame, Lyons, 1575, pp. 202-4. (Chabaneau-Anglade edition, pp. 122-3.)
De Peyre Roger
Pierre Rogier fut chanoyne de Clermont. Sainct Cezari, et le Monge des Isles d’Or (lesquels de leur seule auctorité et renom vaincroyent tous les autres qui ont escript de nos poëtes Provensaux, ores qu’il n’amenassent aucune rayson), dyent qu’il estoit chanoyne d’Arles, et de Nynmes: ayant quicté le canonicat, se voyant jeune, beau et de bonne qualité, estant asseuré qu’il feroit plus de proffict au monde, qu’ en religion ou il ne voyait que toutes abominations, envies, et debatz entre les Religieus, sortant de son cloistre s’addonna ala poësie en nostre langue vulguere Provensalle, et se feist Comique, et inventa de belles et ingenieuses Comedies, qu’il jouoit par les cours des Princes et grands seigneurs avec grand appareil. Tout ce qu’il faisoit et inventoit estoit trouvé bon et plaisant: arriva a la cour de dame Esmengarde de Narbonne femme de Roger Bernard Comte de Foix, dame de grand valleur, belle et bien aprise aux lettres, de laquelle Pierre Roger receut beaucoup de biens et de faveurs, et devint amoureux de l’une des damoyselles de la Comtesse nommee Huguette des Baulx, surnommee Baussette, fille de Hugues des Baux qui fut depuis mariee à Blacaz de Beaudinar sieur d’Aulps en Provence, pour laquelle il chanta plusieurs bonnes chansons. Sainct Cezari dict, qu’il receut d’elle de grandes faveurs, et les derniers effects d’amour: laquelle chose ne fault croyre, car par une chanson qu’elle luy envoya il appert, qu’ elle ne se soucioit et ne avoit agreable rien qu’il feist qui se commence,
Lo non m’en kal de tas rymas grossieras
Ny mays d’y estre (ont que sia) mentauguda,
Sabes qu’y ha, fay qu’yeu en sia moguda,
Car non las hay ren en grat volontieras.
Toutesfois le Monge des Isles d’Or dict qu’elle ne luy envoya ceste chanson a autres fins, que pour couvrir l’amour, et l’affection qu’elle luy portoit, et que Roger luy adressa un traicte Contra la dama de mala merce. Sainct Cezari poursuyvant la vie de ce Roger dict qu’il fleurissoit du temps du roy Robert de Sicille Comte de Provence, et testifie neantmoins le dict Roger avoir esté present en la Cité de Grasse en Provence, lors que Pierre de Corbaria antipape surnomme Nicolas 5. du nom, en un presche qu’il feist dans l’eglise, se desdict publiquement des erreurs qu’il avoit tenus, que fut environ 1330, duquel temps ce pauvre Roger fut mys traistrusement a mort par les parans de dame Huguette par faux rapport.
APPENDIX II
Ermengarda, Viscountess of Narbonne, and her relations with other troubadours
Ermengarda’s court is described in the Histoire générale de Languedoc (VI, p. 151) as one of the most flourishing in the Midi at that time. This description and Ermengarda’s general renown are borne out by the number of troubadours who, apart from Peire Rogier, appear to have been acquainted with her.
Bernart de Ventadour sends his poem La dousa votz ai auzida to midons a Narbona (l. 58) (Appel, B. von Vent., 23, pp. 134-7). The close relationship between the lines which refer to midons a Narbona and the earlier lines 53-6 which concern the poet’s beloved lady suggests to Appel that it is a question of the same lady in each case (op. cit., p. 139). He follows for l. 58 the MS which offers a Narbona in preference to the other MS which gives de Narbona, and suggests that Bernart may be alluding to his lady in Narbonne and not to Ermengarda, the lady of Narbonne. Diez (Leben und Werke, p. 30) and Jeanroy (AdM., XVIII, 1906, 249) also express doubts about the identification of Ermengarda with midons.
On the other hand, the brief description of the lady in question would certainly seem to match the reputation which Ermengarda had acquired.
que tuih sei faih son enter,
c’om no·n pot dire folatge. (ll. 59-60)
Bergert (Damen, pp. 9-10) is confident that Ermengarda is the lady concerned. He refers to the possible similarity in content between this poem and other poems, addressed to Conort and Tristan, in which Bernart complains about his lady’s conduct in paying heed to the lauzengers. Bergert’s view, however, is that, far from being identified in the poem with the object of the troubadour’s complaints, Ermengarda is intended to form a striking contrast with her, as the generous description cited above would suggest. It is therefore in her capacity as a renowned patron of the troubadours and their poetry that, according to Bergert, the viscountess is named here. Appel (op. cit., p. lii) observes, in fact, that midons can have merely a titular meaning (‘lady’) and is not always used to denote the poet’s beloved lady. He gives as an example ll. 27 and 29 of Bertran de Born’s Domna, pois de me no·us chal (Appel, B. von Born, 5, p. 12), in which the two meanings of midons are used side by side.
The same joglar (Corona) who is charged with the poem discussed above is asked to deliver to midons the poem Per melhs cobrir lo mal pes e·l cossire (Appel, B. von Vent., 35, pp. 199-202). Bergert (op. cit., p. 10) considers that midons is clearly the lady of Narbonne, whereas Appel (op. cit., p. lii) is more cautious and leaves the question open. Anglade (RLR, LVIII, 1915, p. 221, ‘Onomastique des troubadours’) indicates that a reference to Errnengarda may perhaps also be found in Lancan vei la folha (Appel, op. cit., 25, pp. 145-9), but there appears to be no evidence to support this suggestion.
Although we cannot be certain that Bernart ever sang of Ermengarda in his love poems, it would not be unreasonable to assume that he visited the court of Narbonne, particularly as the similarity between his poetry and Peire Rogier’s may suggest that the two troubadours knew each other. (Cf. Introduction, 2. References to Peire Rogier in the works of other troubadours and Appel, op. cit., p. lii.)
Peire d’Alvernhe’s poem Ab fina joia comensa (Del Monte, P. d’Alvernha, III, pp. 34-8) is sent to Narbonne as well as to the Counts in Provence:
Als comtes mand en Proenssa
lo vers e sai a Narbona
lai on pren joi mantenenssa
segond aqels per cui reigna. (ll. 49-52)
Zenker (P. von Auvergne, p. 30) identifies the counts as Raimon Bérenguer IV of Barcelona and his nephew, Raimon Bérenguer III of Provence, and, with Diez (op. cit., p. 62), sees in the next line a reference to Ermengarda. The viscountess was, as we have noted above, a close ally of Raimon Bérenguer IV and supported him with her troops against the Sarracens at the siege of Tortosa in 1148 (see Hist. gen. Lang., III, p. 737). The following two lines of the tornada would confirm the reputation which Ermengarda had gained. The words sai a Narbona imply that Peire d’Alvernhe was not far from Narbonne at the time. (Cf. Zenker, loc. cit.; Bergert, op. cit., p. 9.) Anglade goes as far as assuming that the poem was actually composed at Narbonne, and sees in subsequent lines a further reference to Errnengarda in the person of the dompna who retains the troubadour described as her amaire. Both Zenker (loc. cit.) and Bergert (loc. cit.), however, reject this view and believe that it is a question of a different lady altogether from the viscountess. Jeanroy (loc. cit.), on the other hand, accepts that one lady only is involved but hesitates to identify her with Ermengarda.
Azalaïs de Porcairagues, who was born of a noble family, probably about the middle of the twelfth century, and became one of the earliest trobairitz (cf. M. G. Charvet, Les Troubadours d’Alaïs aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles, p. 131), sends her one extant poem, Ar em al freg temps vengut, to Narbonne to lei cui jois e jovens guida. (Riquer, Lírica, pp. 392-4; see ll. 49-52.) It is generally assumed that Ermengarda is the lady in question. (Cf. Riquer, op. cit., p. 391; G. Azaïs, Les Troubadours de Béziers, p. 146; M. G. Charvet, op. cit., p. 135.)
According to the Vida, Sail d’Escola stayed with ‘N’Ainermada de Nerbona’ and when she died returned to Bragairac (Bergerac, Dordogne), his place of birth. (See Boutière and Schutz, Biographies, p. 64, No. X.) Boutière and Schutz (loc. cit., note 3) consider that the lady concerned is probably Ermengarda, whose name may well have been corrupted in copying. The brief mention in the Histoire générale de Languedoc (VI, p. 151) of Sail d’Escola’s relations with Ermengarda is no doubt based entirely on the reference in the Vida.
Appel (P. Rogier, p. 6, note) seeks confirmation of the troubadour’s acquaintance with the viscountess in the Monk of Montaudon’s Pois Peire d’Alverne a chantat, the eleventh stanza of which is devoted to Sail and contains a reference to Narbones:
E quant a vendutz sos conres
El s’en vai pois en Narbones
Ab u fals cantar per presen (ll. 64-6)
(O. Klein, Die Dichtungen des Mönchs von Montaudon, Marburg, 1885, I, pp. 22-30). However, a comparison between the stanza as a whole and the Vida reveals very little difference in the information contained in them. It is therefore quite possible that the stanza, rather than confirming the details found in the Vida, was itself the source from which the biographer obtained his material. (Cf. Jeanroy, Poésie Lyrique, I, p. 166, note 3.) If this were the case it would be difficult to establish with certainty Sail d’Escola’s relationship with Ermengarda, as the stanza refers only to Narbones and does not mention the viscountess by name. It should also be noted that the only poem attributed to Sail d’Escola (Gran esfortz fai qui chanta ni·s deporta (Riquer, op. cit., pp. 308-9)) makes no reference to Ermengarda or to Narbonne. (*)
In his poem La flors del verjan Giraut de Bornelh suggests consulting Midons de Narbona about a particular matter of love. The question is whether a lover, by being impetuous and gaining a certain amount of immediate enjoyment from love, does not lose, in the process, the promise of a thousand times more enjoyment (Kolsen, G. de Born., 26, ll. 99-105). Kolsen (op. cit., II, p. 57) considers that Giraut may be alluding here to the fate of Peire Rogier, whom he had perhaps met at Raimbaut d’Orange’s court or whose misfortune he may have heard about there. (Cf. pp. 24-5 on the relationship between Giraut and Raimbaut.) It would not be unreasonable to suppose, however, that Giraut’s reason for referring to Ermengarda was her reputation for resolving general questions of this kind relating to the theory of love. (Cf. G. Paris, ‘Les cours d’amour ...; étude d’histoire littéraire’, Journal des Savants, 1888, second article, p. 732.) Chabaneau (RLR, XXV, 1884, p. 102, note 1) has suggested that Andreas Capellanus may even have known this poem of Giraut’s at the time he wrote the second book of De Amore, in which he attributes to Ermengarda five of the twenty judgements listed. (Trattato d’amore—Andreae Capellani Regii Francorum ‘De amore’ Libri Tres, Latin text and translation by S. Battaglia, Rome, 1947, pp. 320-30 (Nos. VIII, IX, X, XI, XV).) We have noted earlier Ermengarda’s role as arbiter in disputes of a general nature between eminent lords and princes.
Anglade is of the view that velha rica, mentioned in Peire Vidal’s poem Car’ amiga dols’e franca, may possibly be an allusion either to Ermengarda or to Eleanor of Aquitaine. (Cf. Les Póesies de Peire Vidal, Paris, 1913, p. 184 (reference to VI, l. 41) and Onomastique.) The suggestion is refuted by Avalle, who gives the poem a date later than that of Ermengarda’s death and considers that the reference has no historical basis but relates to a literary type. (Cf. Peire Vidal: poesie, Milan, 1960, I, p. 138, note to XV, l. 41.) We discuss earlier a possible reference by Peire Vidal to a close relative of Ermengarda (see note on VIII, l. 36).
According to Anglade (Mélanges Chabaneau, p. 743), the following allusion to Narbones in the tornada of one of the two cansos attributed to Pons d’Ortafas enables us only to speculate about the possibility of a connection between the troubadour and Ermengarda’s court:
En Narbones es gent plantatz
L’arbres que·m fai aman morir,
Et a Cabestanh gent cazatz,
En mout rie loc senes mentir.
(Mahn, Gedichte, 13: Aissi cum la naus en mar (text of C))
Anglade (loc. cit.) suggests that Cabestanh denotes the village of that name in the Eastern Pyrenees, where Ortaffa itself is situated (canton of Perpignan), (**) and that the lord Bérenger mentioned earlier in the poem is probably Pons’s lord, Raimon Bérenguer IV of Barcelona, whose friendship with Ermengarda we have already noted above. However, the later period in which Jeanroy (op. cit., I, p. 414) tentatively places Pons would rule out the possibility of a connection with the viscountess: he suggests that Pons is perhaps to be identified with Pons I, lord of Ortaffa, who is named in a document of 1217 and whose will is dated 1240.
Ermengarda may possibly have been on unfriendly terms with the troubadour Bérenguier de Poizrenger, of whose work only one cobla is extant. (Pillet and Carstens, 48, 1; cf. Bergert, op. cit., p. 10.) The Histoire générale de Languedoc (III, p. 844) reports the dispute of 1164, which was referred to King Louis le Jeune, between the viscountess and one of her vassals, Béranger, lord of Puiserguier. We cannot be certain, however, that this is a reference to the troubadour, as his birthplace may have been the Puyrenier in the commune of Mareuil, arrondissement of Nontron (Dordogne), rather than this Puiserguier situated in the arrondissement of Béziers. (Cf. Jeanroy, op. cit., I, p. 342.)
It has been suggested that Ermengarda’s reputation had also reached the ears of the Vikings of the Orkneys (cf. Appel, B. von Vent., p. lii). The Orkneyinga Saga (G. Vigfusson, Orkneyinga Saga, 1887; trans. G. W. Dasent, The Orkneyingers’ Saga, London, 1894, pp. 163-8) recounts that in 1151 a fleet of ships, led by Earl Rognvald, set sail for Galicia in Spain, and that on the way south they stayed for a time at a ‘sea town’ named Nerbon where they were received with lavish hospitality by the head of the town, Ermingerda. We are told that Ermingerda’s father, the former head, had died and that she was governing his lands with the counsel of the most noble of her kinsfolk. Rognvald and one or two of his followers sang songs of love in her honour both during their stay in Nerbon and later as they continued their voyage to Galicia.
In view of the difficulties raised by the geographical position of the Nerbon in question as well as by the identity of Ermingerda’s father, whom the saga names as Germanus, we cannot conclude with any certainty that the lady concerned is Ermengarda. (***)
Notes:
*) These observations on the eleventh stanza of the satire were suggested to me by Dr. Michael Routledge during his work on a critical edition of the satire. (See RLR, LXXVIII (1969), 102-37.) (↑)
**) Anglade (loc. cit.) observes that Barbieri (MS X) offers a different reading, mentioning Monpeslier instead of Cabestanh and attributing the poem to Miquel de la Tor (see Pillet and Carstens, 300a). (↑)
***) Arguments for and against identification with Narbonne and Ermengarda are found in the following works: Vigfusson, op. cit., p. 163, note 2; R. Dozy, Recherches sur l’histoire et la littérature de l’Espagne pendant le moyen-âge, Paris and Leyden, 1881; J. S. Clouston, A History of Orkney, Kirkwall, 1932; A. B. Taylor, Proceedings of the Orkney Antiquarian Society (Kirkwall), XI (1933), and The Orkneyinga Saga, Edinburgh and London, 1938 (in which reference is made to earlier articles by the following scholars: H. Gering, ‘Die Episode von Rognvaldr und Ermingerdr’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, XLIII (1911), 428-34, and XLVI (1914), 1-17; F. Jónsson, ‘Rognvald jarls Jorsalfaerd,’ in the Danish Historisk Tidsskrift, 8, R. IV (1912), 151-65; R. Meissner, ‘Ermengarde und Rognvaldr’, Arkiv for nordisk Filologi, XLI (1925), 140-91). (↑)
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