The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9780520321854

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The Poems of the Troubadour Bertrán de Born

The Poems of the Troubadour BerPwm de Bom E D I T E D BY

William D. Paden,Jr., Tilde Sankovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein

University of California Press

Berkeley • Los Angeles • London

The publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the Research Materials Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 1986 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bertran, de Bora, seigneur de Hautefort, 1140?1215.

The poems of the troubadour Bertran de Born. English and Old French. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Paden, William D. (William Doremus), 1941— II. Sankovitch, Tilde. III. Stablein, Patricia H. IV. Title. PC3330.B5A2

1986

8 4 9 ' . 12

ISBN 0 - J 2 0 - 0 4 2 9 7 - 2

81-23993 AACR2

Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3

+

5 6 7 8 9

Contents

Acknowledgments List of Maps List of Musical Scores Key to References Manuscripts

ix xi xiii xv xix Introduction

HISTORICAL THE

LIFE

HIS

ART

BERTRAN

SETTING OF BERTRAN

DE BORN

12 33

DE

LITERARY THIS

I

BORN

AND

TRADITION

EDITION

44 86

The Poems of Bertran de Born I. Firebrand: 1181-82 1. Lo corns m'a mandat e mogut 2. Tortz egerras ejoi d'amor 3. Un sirventes on motz non faill II. Lady's Man 4. Ai Lemozis, fmncha terra cortesa 5. Sei qui camja bon per meillor

104 112 120 130 134

Contents

6. 7. 8. 9.

Eu m'escondisc, dompna, que mal non mier Dompna, puois de mi no-us cal Casutz sui de mal en pena Ges de disnar non for'oimais maitis

142 150 160 168

III. The Revolt of 1183 io. Pois Ventedorns e Comborns ab Segur n. D'un sirventes no-m cal far loignor ganda 12. Un sirventes fatz dels malvatz barons 13. Rassa, tant creis e mont'e poia 14. Ieu chan, que-l reys m'en a preguat is. Mon chanfenis ab dol et ab maltraire 16. Seigner en coms, a blasmar 17. Ges no me desconort 18. Rossa, mes si son primier 19. Ges de far sirventes no-m tartz 20. S'abrils e fuoillas eflors 21. Pois lo gens terminis floritz 22. Qan veipels verriers despleiar 23. Qan la novellaflors par el vergan

176 184 190 194 204 215 224 231 242 248 254 266 274 282

IV. Insights and Insults 24. Belh m'es quan vey camjar lo senhoratge 25. Mal 0 fai domna cant d'amar s'atarja 26. Fuilhetas, ¿/es autres verriers 27. Mailolin, joglars malastruc 28. Mout mi piai quan vey dolenta

294 300 304 310 318

V. Warcry: 1184-88 29. Molt m'es dissendre car col 30. Be-m piai lo gais temps de pascor 31. A totz die qeja mais non voil 32. Al nou doutz termini blanc 33. Pois cds baros enoia en lur pesa

326 334 346 354 362

vii

Contents

34. Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga 35. S'ieu fos aissi segner ni poderos

370 376

VI. The Third Crusade: 1188-94 36. Nostre seingner somonis el mezeis 37. Ane nos poc far maior anta 38. Miez sirventes vueilhfar dels rets amdos 39. Bengrans avoleza intra 40. FuUhetas, vos mipreiatz qe ieu chan 41. Ara sai eu de pretz quais l'a plus ¿¡ran 42. Volontiers fera sirventes 43. Ar ven la coindeta sazos 44. Be-mplatz car trega ni fis

VII. An Active Retirement:

384 388 396 402 408 414 422 428 434

1197-98

4S- Can mi perpens ni m'arbire 46. Gent part nostre reis liouranda 47. Gerr'e trebailh vei et afan Appendix I: Schedule of Historical Sources for the Life of*Bertran de Born Appendix II: List of Rhymes Appendix III: Index of First Lines and Concordance to Principal Earlier Editions Appendix IV: Musical Scores Glossary Selected Bibliography Index

444 452 458

465 479 481 483 505 541 553

Acknowledgments

A great number of friends, colleagues, and institutions have helped us in the preparation of this edition, and we wish to express our deep appreciation for their generous assistance. Among the staff members of the Northwestern University Library who have smoothed practical difficulties in providing us with materials and work instruments, we wish to thank Marjorie L. Carpenter, Adele W. Combs, Rolf H. Erickson, Dorothy A. Gray, and Stephen P. Marek. We are indebted to the librarians of the Biblioteca Estense, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, the Pierpont Morgan Library, and the Pius XII Memorial Library of Saint Louis University, who have kindly provided us with microfilms of manuscripts. A summer stipend awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to William D. Paden, Jr., in 1975 and a fellowship in 1976—77 (F76-115) facilitated completion of the edition. Our gratitude goes to the late W. D. Paden of the University of Kansas, Susan Ney, and Frances F. Paden, who read and criticized our translations with care and sensitivity; and to Robert Lerner of Northwestern University and Edward Peters of the University of Pennsylvania, who read parts of the text with the eye of the historian. Norman B. Spector of Northwestern put at our disposal the resources of the French department; F. Ronald P. Akehurst of the University of Minnesota provided us with a computerized concordance of our texts; and Hendrik van der Werf of the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester) furnished us with transcriptions of the pertinent music as well as with commentary on the melodies in the Introduction (pp. 97-98) and in the notes on the melodies of individual songs (pp. 131, 161, 168, 185, 195, 335, 362, 403, and 428). Madame

x

Acknowledgments

Bernard Barbiche, Conservateur aux Archives Nationales, kindly procured for us photocopies of relevant passages from the Chronicle of Geoffroy de Vigeois, edited by Pierre Botineau, who gave his permission. Above all others we must thank Frances Paden, Anatol Sankovitch, and Kingman Stâblein, who sustained us throughout with their unending patience, their kind encouragement, and their understanding presence.

List of Maps

In each map the names of places where the poet's presence is documented are underlined. I. II. III. IV. V.

Europe and the Mediterranean France Southern France Autafort and Environs Poem 10

3 4 6 13 177

List cfMusical Scores (in Appendix IV)

Poem 4• Ai Lemozis, francha térra cortesa 8. Casutz sui de mal en pena 9. Ges de disnar non for'oimais maitis 11. D'un sirventes no-m calfar loignor¿anda 13. Rassa, tant eréis e montfe poia 30. Be-mplai logáis temps de pascar 1?. Pois ais boros enoia en lur pesa 39. Bengrans avoleza intra 43. Ar ven la coindeta sazos

484. 485 488 490 492 495 499 501 503

Key to References

Poems by troubadours other than Bertran de Born are referred to in the following form: Guillem de Saint-Didier P-C 234,3 Aissi cum es bella 49— 52, ed. Sakari no. 2. This form gives first the name of the poet (unless the context provides it); then the number of the poem in Alfred Pillet and Henry Carstens, Bibliographie der Troubadours; then the incipit, with specific verse numbers as required; and finally the name of the editor whose text has been used, with the number of the poem in that edition. For full information concerning the editions referred to, see the Selected Bibliography. Where no editor is named, we have used the edition preferred by Istvän Frank in the bibliography of his Repertoire metrique de lapoesie des troubadours, vol. 2. Poems in other medieval languages are identified similarly. For Old French lyric poems we refer to Hans Spanke, ed., G. Raynauds Bibliographie des altfranzösischen Liedes neu bearbeitet und ergänzt; for Galician-Portuguese texts, to Giuseppe Tavani, Repertorio metrico della Uricagalego-portoghese; and for Middle High German poems, to Hugo Moser and Helmut Tervooren, eds., Des Minnesangs Frühling.

xvi

Key to References

Manuscripts of troubadour poetry are identified by their conventional sigla, listed separately following this Key to References. Documents pertinent to the life of Bertrán de Born are summarized in the Schedule of Historical Sources and are referred to by their notation in that schedule.

Appel, Lieder. Boutière-Schutz: FEW: Frank: LR: MF: MGH: P-C: PD: Stimming 1879: Stimming 1892: Stimming 1913: SW:

Principal abbreviations used in this volume are as follows: Carl Appel, ed. Die Lieder Bertmns von Born. Halle: Niemeyer, 1932. Jean Boutière and A.-H. Schutz, eds. Biographies des troubadours. 2nd ed. rev. by Jean Boutière and I.-M. Cluzel. Paris: Nizet, 1964. Walther von Wartburg. Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bonn: Klopp, etc., 1928-. István Frank. Répertoire métrique de la poésie des troubadours. 2 vols. Paris: Champion, 1953—57. Raynouard, François-Just-Marie. Lexique roman ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours. 6 vols. Paris: Silvestre, 1844. Hugo Moser and Helmut Tervooren, eds. Des Minnesangs Frühling. 36th ed. Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1977. G. H. Pertz, T. Mommsen, et al., eds. Monumenta Germaniae Histórica. Hanover, Hahn, 1826-. Alfred Pillet and Henry Carstens. Bibliographie der Troubadours. Halle: Niemeyer, 1933. Emil Levy. Petit Dictionnaire Provençal-Français. 3rd ed. Heidelberg: Winter, 1961. Albert Stimming, ed. Bertrán de Born, Sein Leben und Seine Werke. Halle: Niemeyer, 1879. Albert Stimming, ed. Bertrán von Born. Halle: Niemeyer, 1892. Albert Stimming, ed. Bertrán von Born. 2nd ed., rev. Halle: Niemeyer, 1913. Reprint. Geneva: Slatkine, 1975. Emil Levy and Carl Appel. Provenzalisches Supplement-Wörterbuch. 8 vols. Leipzig: Reisland, 1894-1924.

Key to References

Thomas: Antoine Thomas, ed. Poésies complètes de Bertmn de Born. Toulouse: Privat, 1888. Reprint. New York: Johnson, 1971. T-L: Adolf Tobler and Erhard Lommatzsch. Tobler-Lommatzsch Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch. 10 vols, to date. Berlin: Weidmann; Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1925-.

xvii

Manuscripts

For descriptions and bibliography see Alfred Pillet and Henry Carstens, Bibliographie der Troubadours, pp. x—xxxv. All manuscripts have been consulted in microfilm or photographs, except as indicated here. A: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, lat. 5232. B: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 1592. C: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 856. D: Modena, Biblioteca Nazionale Estense, aR.4.4, fF. 1—151. Da: Ibid., fF. 153—211. De: Ibid., fF. 243-60. E: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 1749. F: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Chigiani, L.IV.106. Frammento Romegialli: See Pio Rajna, "Bertran de Born nelle bricciche di un canzoniere provenzale," Romania 50 (1924): 233-46. G: Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, R.71 sup. H: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, lat. 3207. I: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 854. J: Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conventi Soppressi, F.IV.776. K: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 12473. M: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 12474.

xx

Manuscripts

Mh: See Silvio Pellegrini, "Frammento inedito di canzoniere provenzale," Studi Mediolatini e Volgari 15—16 (1968): 89—99. N: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M 819. P: Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-laurenziana, Fondo principale, XLI, cod. 42. Q: Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 2909. R: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 22543. Sg: Barcelona, Biblioteca Central de la Diputación Provincial de Barcelona, 146. T: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 15211. U: Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-laurenziana, Fondo principale, XLI, cod. 43V: Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, fr. App. cod. XI. a: Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 2814. a 1 : Modena, Biblioteca Nazionale Estense, Càmpori y N.8.4.; 11, 12,13. b: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberiniani lat. 4087. c: Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-laurenziana, Fondo principale, XC inf., cod. 26. d: Modena, Biblioteca Nazionale Estense, appendix to D, ff. 262346. e: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberiniani lat. 3965. a: Quotations in Matfre Ermengaud, Breviari d'amor. See Reinhilt Richter, ed., Die Troubadourzitate im "Breviari d'amor" (Modena: S.T.E.M.-Mucchi, 1976), and Peter T. Ricketts, ed., Le "Breviari d'amor" de Matfre Ermengaud, voi. 5 (Leiden: Brill, 1976). ß1: Quotations in Raimon Vidal, So fo e-l temps e'om era iays. See Max Cornicelius, ed., So fo e-l temps c'orn era iays: Novelle von Raimon Vidal (Berlin: Feicht, 1888). ß2: Quotations in Raimon Vidal, Abril issia. See W. H. W. Field, ed., Raimon Vidal: Poetry and Prose, 2: Abril issia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971).

Manuscripts

xxi

/33: Quotations in Raimon Vidal, Razos de trobar. See J. H. Marshall, ed., The "Razos de Trobar" of Raimon Vidal and Associated Texts (London: Oxford University Press, 1972). K: Quotations in Giovanni Maria Barbieri, Dell'origine della poesia rimata, ed. Girolamo Tiraboschi (Modena: Società tipografica, 1790). p: Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barberiniani lat. 3986. The discovery of a new manuscript in The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 135 F 28, was announced by Roberto Crespo while this edition was in press; see his study "Bertran de Born nei frammenti di un canzoniere provenzale," Studi Medievali, 3d ser., 24 (1983): 749-90. The fragments contain poems 1, 3,11,18, 21, and 29; the vida, as in the version of ABFIK; the razos to poems 11, 21, and 22, which were already known; and hitherto unknown razos to poems 16,18, and 29. For all its interest this discovery bears principally upon the prose genres; had we known of the new manuscript earlier, our edition would have been only slighdy different.

Introduction

Historical Setting The voice of Bertran de Born was among the most eloquent of those that contributed to the development, in late twelfth-century France, of the distinctive knightly ethic which expressed the ideals and fears of the aristocracy of the age.1 This social group included both the class of counts descended from the old Carolingian nobility, who held power to exact manorial duties from the peasantry and to command and punish them, and the inferior class of knights owing service to the great lords. By a process of fusion which had begun in some regions a century earlier, but which in Bertran's own world was contemporary with his poetry, i. We have drawn this material on the knightly ethic chiefly from the works of Georges Duby listed in the Bibliography; see also the works of Charles Higounet and Joseph R. Strayer on the situation of the nobility at this time. O n the developing concept of knighthood in the contemporary chansons de geste, see Jean Flori, "La Notion de chevalerie dans les chansons de geste du X l l e siècle: Etude historique de vocabulaire," Moyen Age 81 (1975): 211-44 and 407—45; "Sémantique et société médiévale: Le Verbe adouber et son évolution au X l l e siècle," Annales, economies, sociétés, civilisations 51 (1976): 915-40. The values inherent in the Historia regum Britanniae of Geoffrey o f Monmouth are very similar to those we find in Bertran, according to Valerie I. J. Flint, "The Historia Return Britanniae o f Geoffrey o f Mon-

mouth: Parody and Its Purpose, A Suggestion," Speculum 54 (1979): 4 4 7 - 6 8 , esp. p. 465. The chivalric virtues in contemporary German literature differ radically from Bertran's, at least in their formulation by Walther von der Vogelweide as ère, varnde guot, and gotes hulde ("honor," "movable wealth," and "God's grace"). For discussion o f these German virtues, their supposed systematic relation, and their possible derivation from classical sources, see the collection o f articles edited by Günter Eifler, Ritterliches Tugendsystem, Wege der Forschung, Vol. 56 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1970); on the term and concept Ritter in German literature, see Joachim Bumke, Studien zum Ritterbegriff im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, 2d ed. (Heidelberg: Winter, 1977).

2

Introduction

those who had simply been warriors began to gain political authority, to be considered noble, and to assume appropriate dynastic pretensions, while the great lords took the ideal of knighthood and the tide of knight as their own. The lord and troubadour whom Dante declared the outstanding vernacular poet of arms sang this ideal as it came to life.2 A Dynamic Society For over a century the driving force of social change in Europe had been a surge in population which was never directly reported, but which gradually transformed the least sophisticated of the three Mediterranean cultures into the conqueror of Constantinople and challenger of Islam. Early chroniclers record such side effects of the demographic expansion as increasingly drastic famines, heavier traffic on roadways, and renewed construction of churches. The monastic movement spawned new orders such as that of the Cistercians, who, under the influence of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, sought to recapture the Benedictine ideal of spiritual intensity, which they believed other orders had grown too worldly to maintain. By their flight from centers of population the Cistercians assured more extensive agriculture in remote areas, but their very success as landholders destined them to an eventual loss of esteem in the eyes of the faithful. Monks and secular lords made new clearings on a grand scale, opening the forests which had covered much of Europe. Although European civilization remained predominandy rural, urban life grew more vital. Cities had existed in the south of France since Roman times and earlier as seats of religious and political authority; now those of Aquitaine in particular received a flow of people from the overcrowded countryside, and cities everywhere in France became points of concentrated economic activity as commerce revived, the exchange of money quickened, and prices rose. By living in certain towns for a year and a day, a peasant could gain not only his freedom but also the opportunity to make himself rich. The new mobility of this burgeoning society struck conservative observers as a scandal. With the decline of the central political authority lingering from the Carolingian empire, regional princes struggled for control and local lords gained greater 2. De vulgari eloquentia, 2.2.9.

Historical Setting

3

autonomy, especially in the Midi. The construction of a castle in earthwork and timber (or later in stone) enabled its possessor to defy his enemies, including his nominal lord, who could not reduce him to surrender without a costly siege. As warfare spread in the absence of secular authority, the Church attempted to limit its ravages and ultimately to direct its force against the enemies of the faith: the south of France saw first the Truce of God, which forbade attacks on churchmen

LORRAINE

CASTILE

Historical Setting

5

and the poor, then the Peace of God, which forbade any warfare at all on certain days of the week and of the ecclesiastical calendar, and finally the first of many Crusades to deliver Jerusalem, preached by Pope Urban II in 1095 at Clermont. Meanwhile warfare was becoming more complex and dangerous for mounted knights because of the increased employment of mercenaries, ignoble foot soldiers recruited on the margins of society, in the slums of Brabant and the wilds of Spain, who fought shoulder to shoulder for mutual defense as they shot bows or crossbows from their covering of shields, and who swarmed up to knife any warrior unlucky enough to lose his horse. Military armor became more elaborate; the new custom of the tourney added further expense. Warfare had traditionally been one of the nobility's chief sources of income, along with possession of land, but these developments tended to make it more cosdy at the same time as it was becoming more hazardous.3 Many a knight, like the troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga, forced into debt by his increasing expenses and the decreasing value of his fixed manorial income, found himself obliged to mortgage or sell his inheritance. The Knightly Ethic_ These threats to the position of the warrior lords gave rise to a new self-consciousness on the part of the aristocracy, and produced an ethic of knighthood combining traditional virtues of the warrior in a new synthesis. In the terms of this ideology, individual courage came to be regarded as the principal military virtue necessary to a knight, in contrast to the stubbornness of cowering mercenary bands and to the prudence which had been the mark of knights on the First Crusade.4 With courage was associated the economic virtue of largesse, generosity to one's followers and friends. Secular lords spent lavishly for their fame and their pleasure, just as the lords of the Church spent for the glory of God; the largesse of the nobility contrasted with the avarice of wealthy upstart burghers.5 3. Georges Duby, "Guerre et société dans l'Europe féodale," in Concetto, storia, miti e immagini del Medio Evo, ed. Vittore Branca, pp. 461-71; idem, Guerriers et paysans, VII-Xlle siècle, p. 257. 4. Georges Duby, Le Dimanche de Bouvines, pp. 127-28,134-37; idem, "Guerre et société," pp.

473-82; and Philippe Contamine, "Pour une histoire du courage," in his Guerre au Moyen Age, pp. 406-18. 5. Duby, Guerriers et paysans, pp. 187-91; idem, Hommes et structures du Moyen Age, p. 350.

6

Introduction

Courage and largesse both included an element of deliberate disregard for base practical calculation, for danger, or for gain, a disregard which could if intensified transform these virtues into temerity and prodigality. On the other hand, the social virtue of courtliness or courtesy, including among its ramifications the composition and performance of songs, demanded skill in pleasing the society of one's peers. A dash of folly ran through all these virtues. The tension inherent in the chivalric myth underlies the excitement of Bertran's poetry.

Historical Setting

7

Leaders ofMen Like other men of his age, Bertran de Born found this ideal more fully embodied in adventuresome princes than in kings who bore the responsibility of governance. Among the figures who dominate Bertran's poetry, the oldest was Henry II Plantagenet, king of England, the wealthiest sovereign in Europe. Born in 1133, at age sixteen Henry was knighted and invested as duke of Normandy, a title which derived from his mother Mathilda, granddaughter of William the Conqueror. In 1152 he succeeded his father Geoffrey as count of Anjou and Maine, and in the same year he married Eleanor, heiress to the duchy of Aquitaine and the county of Poitou. The marriage took place a scant few weeks after Eleanor's divorce from Louis VII of France; she was then thirty years old, Henry eighteen. When King Stephen died in 1154, Henry, at the age of twenty-one, succeeded him to the throne of England. During his long reign, which extended until his death in 1189, Henry distinguished himself by his boundless energy, his ambition, his force of character, his duplicity, and his bad temper. He looked like a huntsman—simply dressed, ruddy-faced and rough-handed, powerful in physique. He seldom sat if not to eat or ride. We know little of his inner life, but it is said, surprisingly, that he loved neither violence nor war.6 He outlawed tournaments in England—as the pope had done, less effectively, in all Christendom—and never in his long career as a soldier did he fight a pitched battle. He was frequently generous in alms; intellectually curious, he was well read in French and Latin and inspired the dedications of numerous works of learning.7 As king of England he established the 6. "Discrimen sanguinis et mortes hominum exhorrescens, armis quidem cum aliter non potuit, sed libentius pecuniis cum potuit, pacem quaererc studuit." (Since he dreaded bloodshed and death, he sought peace by arms only when he could not by any other means, but preferred to seek it by money when he could.) William of Newburgh, Historia rerum anglicarum, 3.36, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. Richard Howlett, 1 (London: Longman, 1884): 282. For more rhetorical expressions of the same trait in Henry II by Peter of Blois and Gerald of Wales, see the references in W. L. Warren, Henry II, p. 208, n. 3.

7. On Henry's patronage of letters see Peter Dronke, "Peter of Blois and Poetry at the Court of Henry II," Mediaeval Studies 38 (1976): 185-235; Reto R. Bezzola, Les Origines et la formation de la littérature courtoise en occident (S00-1200), vol. 3, part 1, La Cour d'Angleterre comme centre littéraire sons les rois angevins (Paris: Champion, 1963), 3-207; Rita Lejeune, "Rôle littéraire d'Aliénor d'Aquitaine et de sa famille." Bernart de Ventadorn sent a canso to Henry II (P-C 70,21 Ges de chantar 49-56, ed. Appel, Bernart, no. 21), and may have referred to him several other times, perhaps around 115+-55 (see Appel, Bernart, pp. xxxiv—xxxviii, liv-lix).

Introduction

principal institutions which were to characterize the government of his country during the Middle Ages; he created the English judicial system and the common law, and introduced the use of the jury. Yet he spent more time on the Continent than in his kingdom, using his English revenues in a continual struggle to dominate his French vassals and to defy his French king. It was Henry II who first hired professional mercenary armies regularly and supported them systematically.8 A pragmatic monarch, Henry had slight regard for the quality of individual courage in a warrior-knight, less for the display of generosity, and none for courtly refinement. While admiring his kingship, his contemporaries disliked him as a man.9 Henry outdid Louis VII of France in politics as well as in marriage, but died conquered by Louis's son Philip II. 10 Philip ruled from 1180 to 1223, and was called Augustus by his court biographer because like the Caesars he greatly aug11 mented his domain—at the expense, chiefly, of the Angevins. The benefactor of his people in peace and security, founder of his nation's administrative system, he has been called "one of the greatest kings France ever had" by a distinguished modern historian.12 Philip was a successful general but a physical coward; deft in diplomacy and intrigue, sly, and treacherous, he was small, thin, and sickly in appearance. He played Henry's sons against their father, and against each other after Henry's death, eventually confiscating the entire Continental holdings of the English kingdom from John Lackland in the first decade of the thirteenth century. At the battle of Bouvines, in 1214, though narrowly escaping death at the hands of mercenary foot soldiers, he defeated John's allies and established his authority conclusively. At this time Bertran de Born was an old monk near death, his poetic voice stilled. Of concern to him had been the early years in Philip's struggle with Henry, and the struggles of both these kings with Henry's sons. 8. J. Boussard, "Les Mercenaires au Xlle siècle: Henri II Plantagenêt et les origines de l'armée de métier," Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes 106 (1947) : 189-224, esp. p. 193. See also Contamine, La Guerre au Moyen Age, pp. 397-402. 9. Warren, Henry II, p. 215. 10. In his own dying words, according to Gerald of Wales: "Proh pudor de rege victo! proh pudor!" (O the shame of a conquered king! O shame!)

Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer et al., 8 (London: Stationery Office, 1891): 297. 11. Oeuvres de Rißard et de Guillaume le Breton, ed. H. François Delaborde, 2 vols. (Paris: Renouard, 1882-85), 1:6. 12. Joseph R. Strayer, Western Europe in the Middie Ages: A Short History (New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1955), pp. 123-24.

Historical Setting

9

After having only two daughters in fifteen years of marriage to Louis VII, in fourteen more to Henry Plantagenet Eleanor of Aquitaine delivered five boys and three girls. Upon the death in infancy of the firstborn son, William, the heir apparent of the Angevin domain became Henry, known as the Young King after his father had him crowned in 1170 as king of England—a title he was to enjoy in name alone—in order to insure an orderly succession in the event of the Old King's death. Young Henry grew to be tall, blond, and handsome, affable, graceful, and gallant, the embodiment of personal charm. Knighted at age eighteen by William Marshal, his tutor in chivalry, he soon proved to be a paragon of munificence, far exceeding his means. He shone so brilliantly in tournaments of Flanders and France that it was said chivalry would have died without him. 13 For Gerald of Wales, the Young King was "the very splendor of knighthood, its glory, light, and crown." 14 His perennial conflicts with his father reached a first crisis as early as 1173; ten years later, driven by jealousy of his brother Richard, who held Aquitaine in fact as well as in title, he assumed leadership of the revolt of 1183, in which Bertran de Born was actively involved (see poems 10—15). The Young King's untimely death in June of that year was the signal for a nearly universal outpouring of grief. It was said that the sick were miraculously cured by approaching his tomb, and some people believed he was a saint. To certain modern historians the life of the Young King has appeared to be one of utter futility or worse, and the high regard in which he was held by all who knew him has seemed inexplicable.15 Clearly the failing is on the part of these historians, who have not appreciated that the Young King represented the specific values of the new chivalric culture of his time:

13. "Qu'il raviva chevalerie / Qui a eel tens ert près de mort." (He revived chivalry, which at that time was near death.) Paul Meyer, ed., L'Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, w . 2640-41. 14. "Militiae splendor, gloria, lumen, apex." Opera, 8:174. 15. "The undoubted popularity o f the Young King, whose entire life was a record of the meanest ingratitude and the basest perfidy, remains one o f the paradoxes of history" (Olin H. Moore, The Young

King, Henry Plantagenet [nss-1183], in History, Literature and Tradition, p. 26). Kate Norgate saw in the Young King "one o f the most puzzling figures in the history of the time . . . this undutifiil, rebellious son, this corruptor and betrayer of his younger brothers, this weak and faithless ally, was loved and admired by all men while he lived, and lamented by all men after he was gone" (England under the Angevin Kings, 2:220-21).

io

Introduction

Cil qui out dedenz set enssemble Tote corteisie etproece, Debonairete e largesce.16 He who united in himself all courtesy and prowess, charm and generosity. When the Young King died, Bertran de Born turned to the fourth son of Henry II, Geoffrey, count of Brittany by marriage to the heiress, as the only possible rival to the third son, Duke Richard; 17 but true to his character, Geoffrey capitulated to his father at the first opportunity (poems 16-18). He was endowed with none of the Young King's grace in the eyes of ecclesiastical chroniclers, who remembered him as an eloquent hypocrite, a deceiver, a schemer. Geoffrey emulated the Young King, however, in his dedication to the tournament, which he took up as soon as he had been knighted and followed until he was killed, according to some reports, in a tourney in 1186. In idle moments he amused himself and others with poetry.18 In his planh, or funeral lament, for Geoffrey, Bertran grieves for him as a model of chivalry (poem 31). In 1189 Richard had no serious rival for his father's empire. As count, duke, and then king he remained dedicated to the virtues of the knightly ethic. H e was courtly, although less so than the Young King, and he was an occasional poet like Geoffrey. 19 He was generous, and far more wealthy than his brothers. But it was 16. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, w. 6986-88. 17. The fifth and last son, John, was at this time fifteen years old, and was to be knighted two years later. 18. Geoffrey has been identified uncertainly as the author of an erotic partimen, or debate over alternative propositions, with Gaucelm Faidit, in which he uses French and Gaucelm Provençal, and of the earliest example of the corresponding French genre of the jeu-parti, with Gace Brûlé. The texts are P-C 178,1 Jauseume, in Gaucelm Faidit, ed. Mouzat, no. 47, and Spanke 948 Gace, par droit me respondes, in Recueil général des jeux-partisfrançais,ed. Arthur Lângfors et al., Société des Anciens Textes Français (Paris: Champion, 1926), 1:7—10. For discussion see also Lângfors et al., eds., Recueil général, 1 :xiv-xvii;

Lejeune, "Rôle littéraire," pp. 44-45; Roger Dragonetti, La Technique poétique des trouvères dans la chanson courtoise (Bruges: De Tempel, i960), pp. 325-27; Bezzola, Origines, 3. 1. 227-35. 19. We have two poems by Richard, one a sirventes in French (Spanke 1274a = P-C 420,1 Dalfin), which was answered by Dauphin d'Auvergne in Provençal, the other a complaint from Richard's German prison, which is extant in two versions, one French and one Provençal, both perhaps written by him (Spanke 1891 = P-C 420,2 Ja nuls homprès). While on Crusade in June—July 1192, Richard responded in kind to an insulting song by Hugh of Burgundy, but the text of his answer has not come down to us (Kate Norgate, Richard the Lion Heart, p. 241). Cf. Bezzola's discussion of "Richard et les troubadours," Origines, 3. 1. 220-27.

Historical Setting

n

Richard's valor that won the admiration of all men—valor which he used to ruthless effect in real war. Richard never showed fear of physical danger. As a knight he outshone all others, including his first lord Henry II—although he inherited his father's violence and rage—and his second lord Philip, whom he resembled very little. Richard had been made count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine in 1172. Poitevin French was his native tongue, and he became a competent Latinist; he never learned English. He achieved his first brilliant exploit in 1178, when with stunning cruelty he captured the impregnable casde of Taillebourg in Poitou. In 1187 he took the cross on the morning after he heard that Jerusalem had fallen; when he finally set off for the Holy Land four years later, he was the hero of Europe. As a warrior Richard was extraordinary, as a tactician supreme—though he had little patience with larger questions of strategy. Tales were told of his cutting men in two with a single stroke, and it was said that no less a prince than Saladin was once so impressed by his valor in the thick of battle that, seeing that Richard had lost his horse, he sent him two Arabian stallions; Richard accepted the gift in surprise, mounted, resumed the fight, and forced Saladin to retreat.20 In 1194 Richard legalized tourneys in England, to provide training for his English knights and income for his exchequer from the entry fees. Yet with all his knightly virtues, Richard "was certainly one of the worst rulers that England has ever had." 21 During the reign which lasted until he died in 1199, he spent scarcely six months in his kingdom, nearly two years in Germany as a prisoner after the Crusade, and the rest of the time in the Holy Land or in France. For his ransom and his wars he demanded vast sums of English money. His chief contributions to English government lay in the improved collection of general taxes and in the conclusive proof that England could govern herself in the absence of her king. Strange as it may seem to modern eyes, contemporary lay society disliked Henry II and Philip, and praised the Young King, Geoffrey, and Richard. All these men either were or might have been recognized as lord by Bertran de Born.

20. James A. Brundage, Richard Lion Heart, pp. 170-72. 21. Brundage, Richard Lion Heart, p. 258. A spir-

ited attempt to redeem Richard's poor reputation among historians has been made by John Gillingham, Richard the Lionheart.

¡2

Introduction

His songs preserve the values by which they were judged, and thereby make such sense of their lives and times as can be made in terms of the knightly ethic.

The Life of Bertran de Born To be understood properly, the life of Bertran de Born must be seen against the background of the history of his family. This history begins with the distant origins of the family name, gains importance with the family's rise to prominence as lords of Autafort, and emerges into documentary detail in the time of the poet's grandfather.22 Surname The surname Born derives from a pre-Latin etymon, borna, meaning "spring, fountain," which has produced modern place names written Bord, Bords, and Born.23 It is natural to associate the surname with the pool of Born in the commune of Salagnac (Dordogne: see Map IV), because of the proximity of the pool and the forest of the same name to the troubadour's castle of Autafort. Moreover, the pool and the forest are mentioned in the cartulary of Dalon as early as 11x4—20 (D 15)24 and frequently thereafter, whereas the five other places in Dordogne having the same name appear in documents no earlier than the thirteenth century.25 By a later evolution the name of the pool has lost its n, as Ezra Pound discovered on a walking tour through the region, and has come to be spelled

22. This study is a revised version of an article by William D. Paden, Jr., "De l'identité historique de Bertran de Born," Romania 101 (1980): 192—224. 23. A. Dauzat and Ch. Rostaing, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms tk lieux en France (Paris: Larousse, 1963), p. 98.

2+. The notation (D 15) refers to Appendix I, "Schedule of Historical Sources for the Life of Bertran de Born," section D, item 15. 25. Vicomte de Gourgues, Dictionnaire topographique du département de la Dordogne (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1873); hereafter Diet, topographique.

St - L é o n a r d - de - Noblat 0

Rochechouart

Aureilc

Limoges

° P i e r r e - Buffière

° Cholus

°Lastours

M

0

U

S

o Nontron °Chantre s

Uzerche

o Mayac

Per ¡gueux

Brlve-la Gaillorde

Turenne ° Colombier o

14

Introduction

Bord.26 This evolution has not influenced the surname of the troubadour, however, which has remained fixed in memory of him.27 It would be a mistake to assume that the etymological link between the poet's surname and the toponym corresponds to a close historical association in his own time. In the cartulary of Dalon none of the numerous donors who gave lands around the pool or the forest bears the name Born. The viscounts of Limoges granted to the monks of Dalon full usage in the forest, that is, the rights to pasture their pigs, to cut wood for building and heating, and to mow grass, by acts of 1114-20,1120-37, and 1184 (D 15,16,18). The only trace of a link between the troubadour's family and the place name Born dates from the period 10981109. In that time the count of Angouleme, lord of two forests around Born, among others, granted to the abbey of Baignes in Saintonge (Map III) use of all the forests he held, and Itier de Born, grandfather of the poet, witnessed the donation—possibly because he had some interest in the property (A 2, 3). The nameless casde which has left ruins near the pool of Born, according to Gourgues and Thomas,28 is mentioned nowhere in the cartulary of Dalon and in all likelihood was built more recendy. In the time of the poet his surname was exactly a surname and no more, bearing little if any reference to the place where his ancestors must have originated at an earlier period.29 Autafort When they left the wooded shores of their pool to establish themselves on a promontory ten kilometers to the south, the Born family must have been seeking 26. The name written Born, used of various places in Dordogne, is pronounced without the », according to M. de Mourcin, Annales agricoles et littéraires de la Dordogne 2 (1841): 310-11. Mourcin concludes that one should say Bertran de Bor. Pound mentions "'Borr,' not precisely Altaforte," in Canto 80; for commentary see Peter Makin, Provence and Pound (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 30-31. 27. The family name appears sporadically without » in the generation following the poet. His eldest son is called Bertrannus de Borz in documents from the reign of Philip II (H 1, 2); his second son is

called Iterius de Bort in an act from the cartulary of Dalon dated 1237 (D 37). 28. Diet, topographique, s.v. "Born"; Antoine Thomas, éd., Poésies completes de Bertran de Born, p. xiii. 29. Other surnames in the cartulary of Dalon which have lost contact with the toponyms from which they derive include those of Bernard of Juillac, a knight of Tourtoirac; and Elias of Excideuil, from Mayac (D 33, 93). Cf. the note on Peire de Boussignac in Paden, "De l'identité historique de Bertran de Born," pp. 216-19.

The Life ofBertrán de Born

15

a situation nearer the center of their widespread possessions, as well as the military advantage which gave the troubadour's casde its name. Autafort, "HighStrong," appears for the first time around the beginning of the eleventh century, one castle among the many which sprang up with the progressive weakening of the Carolingian empire and the growing power of local lords. According to Geoffroy, the chronicler of the nearby priory of Vigeois, in this period Guy de Lastours, called the Black, held Lastours near Limoges, Terrasson sixty kilometers southward, and between these points Autafort to the west and Pompadour, which he had constructed to resist the viscount of Limoges, to the east (F 1). Geoffroy adds that Guy the Black did not hold the churches in certain of his lands, a detail which will have significance later in this history. Between the time of Guy the Black and that of the troubadour Bertran de Born, the history of Autafort is difficult to trace. This history has been obscured by a passage in the monumental Histoire généalogique . . . de la maison royale de France, founded in 1674 by le père Anselme and continued by others after his death. In the third edition we find the assertion that the descendant of Guy the Black, Golfier de Lastours, called the Great because of the renown he won as a warrior in the First Crusade, was lord of Autafort, and the Histoire généalogique cites two documents concerning Golfier the Great which the reader might suppose contain evidence that he held the castle.30 After that time, still according to the Histoire généalogique, the castle passed through succeeding generations of the Lastours family until it was inherited by Agnes, wife of Constantine de Born, the troubadour's brother; after their only child, named Golfier de Lastours, died without heirs, Bertran de Born became lord of Autafort. The Histoire généalogique does not say how the castle passed from Golfier de Lastours to his uncle, to the detriment of Constantine, but other genealogists, historians of the casde, and

30. "Golfier de las Tours, dit le Grand, à cause de ses exploits militaires dans la guerre de Jérusalem, fut seigneur de Hautefort. Il passa un accord avec Eustorge évêque de Limoges, touchant l'église d'Obiac l'an 1126. & il fit une donation conjointement avec Agnès d'Aubusson sa femme, dame de la moitié du

château de Gimel, & avec Guy & Olivier de las Tours leurs fils, à Roger abbé de Dalon, qui siégea depuis l'an 1120 jusqu'en 1159." Père Anselme et al., Histoire généalogique, jd éd., 7 (Paris: Compagnie des Libraires Associez, 1732), 326.

i6

Introduction

historians of literature have not failed to decry the usurpation supposedly committed by the troubadour.31 However, one part of this interpretation runs counter to fact, and another lacks supporting evidence of any kind. We know that Golfier de Lastours, son of Constantine de Born, died in 1210 (G 1), whereas the troubadour held Autafort at least as early as 1183. Moreover, neither of the two documents mentioned in the Histoire généalogique concerning Golfier de Lastours contains reference to Autafort (D 12, E 1). We have no evidence that the casde belonged to the Lastours after the time of Guy the Black. On the other hand, we do have indications that it belonged to the family of the troubadour long before the Histoire généalogique says it did. The certainty that Bertran de Born himself held it is based on his poems, especially numbers 17 and 19, and on the chronicle of Geoffroy de Vigeois (F 7), and is confirmed by acts in the cartulary of Dalon which were executed by him at Autafort. This notation occurs in 1179 (D 29), 1182 (D 58), 1184 (D 49), 1189 (D 8), 1190 (D 67), 1192 (D 10), and 1193 (D 34). The earliest instance of it involving the troubadour goes back to the period 1159-69, when Bertran and Constantine agreed at Autafort to exchange certain lands with Dalon (D 3). Earlier still, some time during the administration of Abbot Roger (1120-59), the poet's grandfather, Itier de Born, accompanied by his brothers, confirmed a donation at the castle of Autafort in the presence of many witnesses (D 44). It seems reasonable to surmise that Itier was lord of the casde. The troubadour admits in several poems that he was supposed to share his possessions with Constantine (2.40-42, 3.4-7,19.41-52). If we accept this concession at face value, we are led to believe that the castle represented a family holding passed down, no doubt, from the poet's grandfather. Furthermore, faint evidence suggests that Itier de Born may have got Autafort not from the Lastours but from another local family of importance, the Rasas. The donation Itier confirmed at Autafort was made originally to Abbot Roger by Guido Rasa (D 44). Itier's confirmation may indicate that he succeeded Guido 31. Dictionnaire de la noblesse, 2d éd., 2 (Paris: Duchesne, 1771): 660-61, and 7 (Paris: Boudet, 1774): 690; François Marvaud, Histoire... du BasLimousin (Paris: Techner, 1842), 2:63; Bernard de

Soumagnat, Le Château de Hautefort (Hautefort: Jesco, 1970), p. 23; and James J. Wilhelm, Seven Troubadours: The Creators of Modem Verse, p. 149.

The Life ofBertrán de Born

17

Rasa as lord of the holding, if not that he was Guido Rasa's lord or partner. This confirmation from 1120-59 relates to an earlier event: in 1109 Wido Rasa and others gave to the priory of Aureil, near Limoges, the chapel of Autafort (C 1). We may guess that those who gave the chapel owned the castle, even though chapel and casde may have been separate holdings at the time of Guy de Lastours, the Black (F 1). Because Guy the Black was not lord of the churches in certain of his lands, the donation of the chapel does not prove that the Rasas held Autafort in 1109 and the Lastours did not—but neither do we have any evidence that the Lastours did hold it at this time. If the Born family got Autafort from the Rasas, their gratitude would explain the grants by which Bertran and Constantine endowed masses for the rest of Guido Rasa's soul in 1180, shortly after they inherited their father's lands (D 31, 32). Grandfather Our evidence concerning the poet's family permits firmer conclusions than we have been able to reach in the matters of Born and Autafort. His grandfather Itier witnessed an act at the abbey of Baignes in 1083-98 (A 1), as well as the grant of forests in 1098—1109 which we have mentioned (A 3); in 1096—1103 he served as witness at Vigeois (B 1). His presence at the founding of Dalon in 1114 is noted by the cartulary, which lists in hierarchical order the bishop of Périgord, two abbots, the viscount of Limoges, Gerald de Lastours and Golfier the crusader (who gave the land on which the construction was raised), Itier de Born, and others whose names are not given (D 1). At that time Itier witnessed a donation (D 2), and before 1120 he and his son Bertran gave their share in the wood of Puy {partem nostram nemoris de Podio, D 5); Guido Rasa cooperated by giving his share as well. This wood of Puy may have been situated at Puy Auriol, in the commune of La Douze, southeast of Périgueux; it was Puy Auriol which Guido Rasa, then Itier de Born, gave to Abbot Roger (D 44), and Puy Auriol was the site of a forest.32 Around 1130 Itier de Born was involved, it seems, in a conflict 32. Diet, topographique. This Puy Auriol seems to have left no trace; there is a place in Dordogne at La Chapelle-Gonaguet (canton de Saint-Astier)

called Puy Auriol today, and there are others called Puyloriol at Biras (canton de Brantôme) and Bassillac (canton de Saint-Pierre de Chignac).

i8

Introduction

over the castle of Pierre-Buffière near Lastours and Limoges. As a result the lordship was divided among the rivals for various months of the year: for three months it belonged to Gerald and Itier Bornar (sic), his son, and for three months to the Lastours; all the partners were obliged to acknowledge the overlordship of the viscount of Limoges (F 4). As late as 1141—49 Itier de Born witnessed an act in the church at Pons, and quarreled with the abbot and monks of Baignes (A 4,5). Active in records stretching over more than forty years, this man concerned himself in the affairs of three abbeys, and apparently held lands scattered over a distance of some eighty kilometers from Pierre-Buffière to Autafort and Puy Auriol—but none of these possessions can be regarded as altogether certain. Father Bertran, the son of Itier, is known to us only from the cartulary of Dalon; he cannot have been the poet, since he made a donation with his father before 1120 (D 5). We find him again in three acts of Abbot Roger which contain our first certain information concerning the family's possessions. He gives his share in the farm at les Rebières, in the parish of Teillots, just south of Dalon, and then his share in all the tithes of the same parish; in the parish of Saint-Bonnet-la-Rivière, ten kilometers east of the abbey, he gives his share in the tithes of the possessions of Dalon (D 13, 35, 83). On the occasion of this last donation he is accompanied by his wife Ermengardis and their sons Bertran—the troubadour—and Itier. The Poet The troubadour was, therefore, old enough to participate in a legal act before Abbot Roger died in 1159. It does not follow, however, that he had already reached majority (perhaps age fifteen), as Thomas supposed, setting the approximate date of his birth at 1140.33 It was perhaps at the age of one, or at the most of five, that the troubadour and nobleman Raimbaut d'Aurenga figured in a donation of 1145 made by his mother—anonymously, it is true, since Tiburga d'Aurenga acted with her sons without naming them, and it was between the ages of 3;. Thomas, Poésies complètes, p. xiv.

The Life of Bertrán de Born

19

three and eight that Savaric de Mauleon appeared by name in a charter of 1180.34 No other information is extant regarding the birth date of Bertran de Born, but we know the date of his death, which probably occurred in 1215. It seems reasonable to suppose he was born later than Thomas said, perhaps around 1150. He was no doubt the firstborn, not only because it was he who eventually held Autafort, but also because he is named before his brother Itier in the first charter in which he appears, and before his other brother Constantine in three other texts (D 3, 4, 39). Constantine was perhaps older than Itier, since they are named in this order in one donation (D 54). No document names the three brothers together, but the troubadour uses the plural to speak of his brothers in poem 2.44. In 1178 the poet must have succeeded his father as head of the family, since he endowed masses in his father's memory and made a general confirmation of whatever possessions of Dalon he had formerly held himself (D 27). The following year we learn that he has a wife named Raimonda and two sons, Bertran and Itier (D 29). It was probably in the summer of 1181 that he wrote a sirventes, or satire, at the request of Count Raymond V of Toulouse which is, if this year is correct, the earliest dateable one we have by him; but it must not be the first he wrote, since he boasts in it of his fame as a poet of war (1.1-6), and only such fame can explain Raymond's request. In autumn 1182 he attended the court held by Henry II Plantagenet at Argentan in Normandy (poems 8, 9). In the same year he quarreled with Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, and Viscount Aimar V of Limoges (poem 3), and he soon joined a number of other discontented barons in swearing an oath of rebellion against Richard at the abbey of Saint-Martial in Limoges (poem 17). It is in the aftermath of this uprising that we glimpse the troubadour in the chronicle of Geoffroy de Vigeois. On June n, 1183, the revolt collapsed with the premature death of the Young King—Henry, eldest surviving son of Henry II and unsteady leader of the Aquitainian barons. His father razed the walls of Limoges, and Richard set out to punish the rebels. The narration of Geoffroy de

34. Walter T. Pattison, ed., The Life and Works of (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939), the Troubadour Raimbaut d'Orange, pp. 10-12; H. J. pp. 5, 10. Chaytor, Savaric de Mauleon, Baron and Troubadour

20

Introduction

Vigeois moves toward Autafort and the Perigord. On June 30, a week after the fall of Limoges, Venit Dux Ricardus et Rex Arragonensis Adelphonsus, qui olim suppetias Regi seniori venit apud Authefort, obseditque fortiter castrum. . . . Vt multa breuiter claudam, castrum valde inexpugnabile 7. die hoc est in octaua SS. Petri & Pauli Apostolorum Dux iure praelij cepit, & eum Constantino de Born Olivarij de Turribus genero, quern frater eius Bertrannus de Born per proditionem expulerat, reddidit. Dehinc Rex Arragonensis rediit Barcinonem, Dux vero Ricardus deuastauit prouinciam Petragorici Comitis amicorumque ipsius. (F 7) Duke Richard and Alfonso, king of Aragon, who had come earlier to the aid of the old king, came to Autafort, and besieged the casde with vigor. . . . To make a long story short, the duke took this impregnable casde by right of conquest on the seventh day, that is, on the octave of the holy apostles Peter and Paul [July 6], and returned it to Constantine de Born, son-in-law of Olivier de Lastours, whom his brother Bertran de Born had driven out by treachery. From there the king of Aragon returned to Barcelona, but Duke Richard laid waste the territory of the count of Perigord and his allies. Bertran lamented the loss of Autafort in two songs composed at once (17 and 18); then he rejoiced that Henry II gave it back to him and that Richard confirmed the grant (19). The logic of these events is not obvious at first glance. The testimony of the poet is not only prejudiced, but also inconclusive. We have seen that Bertran spoke of his casde in early poems as a property shared with his brothers—but only to complain of Constantine's machinations. He congratulates himself for driving Constantine out in July 1182 (3.6-7); after Henry II returned the casde to him, he declares his satisfaction with the king's favorable decision and his indifference, henceforth, to right and wrong (19.49-52). To read this triumphant

The Life ofBertrán de Born

21

swagger as an admission of injustice would be to restrict arbitrarily the range of Bertran's irony. The interpretation of Geoffroy de Vigeois, who expresses in the word proditionem his condemnation of the troubadour, may reflect only a partisan sympathy for Bertran's two chief adversaries in this episode. Constantine married a Lastours (F 3, 7), and Geoffroy was allied to the Lastours on his mother's side, albeit distantly (F 6); moreover, the crusading Golfier de Lastours apparently retired to Vigeois, the chronicler's abbey (B 2). Geoffrey's admiration for Richard becomes explicit elsewhere in the chronicle (F 5). As for the principals in these events, it seems doubtful that Richard and Henry II cared greatly, if at all, about the dispute between Bertran and Constantine over rightful ownership of Autafort. Richard must have besieged the castle in order to punish Bertran for his defiance during the revolt. Henry II may have returned it out of regard for the Young King's dying wish that he make peace with the barons (F 8), but more likely he did it to reassert his authority over Richard.35 In doing so he ignored a sirventes which Bertran had recently composed at his own request, in which the poet passionately opposes the interests of the king (poem 14). The cartulary of Dalon says nothing of the motives which guided duke or king but does confirm implicitly the quarrel between Bertran and Constantine. The brothers appear together during the period 1159—69 at Autafort, and again in 1180 with no indication of place (D 3,31). In another act of 1180, Constantine cooperates in a grant of certain lands by the poet, and he does so again in 1x82—but in 1182 Bertran alone attests at Autafort, while Constantine acts at Jailliex, thirteen kilometers to the south (D 31—32, 58-59). Constantine never appears again at Autafort, nor with Bertran; he makes no further grants or confirmations; he only witnesses two donations in 1188 and 1189, identified in the text of the latter, it is true, as a knight (D 30,11). We have four acts of Constantine without date, two of them with Bertran and one a grant of tithes, which were presumably executed before the quarrel (D 4, 39, 53, 54). In October 1183, according to Geoffroy de Vigeois, Constantine de Born was among the mercenary soldiers who had fallen to Bertran out of gratitude for the troubadour's grief at the death of the Young King (Boutiere-Schutz, Le Gouvemement d'Henri II Plantagenet, pp. 543-45. items H, p. 92, and L, pp. 107-8). The fictionalized razos say Henry gave Autafort back

35. On Henry's effort to regain personal control over his empire at this time, see Jacques Boussard,

on hard times after Duke Richard restored peace, and who took to living by pillaging helpless monks and peasants (F 9). In contrast, the troubadour, solidly established from this time on as lord of Autafort—we would call him a castellan, but the term may be anachronistic in this instance36—led for a decade the life of the feudal baron. He recognized only the king of England, first Henry II and later Richard, as his lord.37 We know that Autafort included a church (D 67) and a poorhouse (D 58); among its inhabitants, who numbered no doubt fewer than the thousand men mentioned in one of the vidas, or lives of the poets,38 some used the toponym to identify themselves, like Raimondus d'Autafort and Petrus Guidonis d'Autafort (D 9, 28). We have scattered details on the administration of the poet's lands: provosts were in charge of certain possessions of the family (D 19, 58,59), and there was a tithefarmer of Autafort, William, who was a man of sufficient substance to witness several acts at Dalon and to donate land himself in 1188, surrounded by his daughters and his son-in-law, according to the terms of a charter executed in his home (decimarius, decimator, D 32, 50, 52, 59). Bertran de Born served as surety for donations made at Autafort in 1184 and 1190 (fidejussor, D 49, 67). Three brothers, knights of Teillots, named him as their lord in 1189 (D 8).39 He was acknowledged as lord again in 1190 by Amblardus d'Ans, who may have been a 36. The earliest mention of the castellany of Autafort occurs in 1315. See Abbot Louis Grillon, "Le Domaine et la vie économique de l'abbaye cistercienne de Notre-Dame de Dalon en Bas Limousin" (diss., Doctorat du Troisième Cycle, Université de Bordeaux, 1964), p. 172. 37. Earlier Bertran had used senhor of King Henry (9.27?, 14.19), Duke Richard (13.57-58), and the Young King (13.57-58,15.16, etc.). From July 1183 to 1188 he recognizes Henry II as his lord (16.43, 19.52, 36.1); in 1194 and 1197 he calls Richard nostre rets (43.13, 46.1). He addressed Geoffrey as "lord" in honorific usage, never as "my lord" (14.73,16.1, 31.6). 38. Bertram de Born sifo de Lemozi, vescoms d'Autafort, qe-i avia prop de mil homes (Boutière-Schutz, Vida B, p. 68). Hautefort and Born are in the arrondissement of Périgueux, department of Dordogne, but Dalon belonged to the diocese of Limoges. The bishop of Limoges officiated at the founding of

Dalon, with the bishop of Perigord in attendance (D 1); observe, however, that in 1223 the bishop of Perigord swore to excommunicate any man who violated the second act of reparations by the poet's sons, while the bishop of Limoges merely added his seal (D 24). The vida is probably wrong in saying Bertran was from the Limousin, and certainly wrong in calling him viscount. The population of Hautefort counted 230 hearths in 1764, according to Abbot Jean-Joseph Expilly, Dictionnaire geograpbique . . . de la France (Paris: Desaint et Saillant, 1762-1770), 3:734. The census of 1962 recorded 318 residences in the commune of Hautefort and a total population of 1,002, of whom 359 lived in the town (Dictionnaire des communes, 31st ed. [Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1968], s.v. "Hautefort"). 39. Two of the brothers, Helias and Fulcho, were identified as knights and provosts of family holdings in 1200 (D 19); Helias was a knight in 1192 (D 14).

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23

castellan himself,40 and whom the troubadour mentions in a song of 1183 as his enemy (19.11). Amblardus requested that this grant, one of several he made of lands in the abbey's grange of Taillepetit,41 be sealed with the seals of the abbot of Tourtoirac and Bertran de Born (D 67). Throughout this period the troubadour distinguished himself by his numerous and frequent donations to Dalon; it was he more than anyone else who established his family among the outstanding benefactors of the abbey.42 While his father yet lived, after participating as a child in the donation to Abbot Roger mentioned above (D 83), Bertran accepted with Constantine an exchange of lands near Teillots, proposed by Abbot Amelius (1159—69); in 1170 it was perhaps the troubadour (if not his father) who gave his share in Chantres, forty kilometers to the northwest, and in Fougerolas, seven kilometers in the same direction.43 From 1178 to 1182, as head of the family the poet made five donations, including a bordar's holding and a farm in the abbey grange, another farm in a nearby grange, and pasturelands lying to the southwest, around Taillepetit, Chourgnac, Tourtoirac, and Saint-Hilaire.44 After an interval of seven years, in 1189 the poet and his son Bertran gave their share in two farms near the abbey,45 and the troubadour humbly requested that alms be distributed to the poor every day at the door of the abbey, a request which was honored at once. The following year he added shares in two farms and a bordar's holding in the abbey grange, and his sons Bertran and Itier joined him.46 In undated charters he and Con40. An act of 1248 mentions the castellany of Ans (D 69). 41. D 61 (no date), 65 (1180-92), 66 (1186), 67 (1190). 42. "Citons les vicomtes de Limoges, les de Lastours, de Felez, de Born, de Bruzac, de Teillots, de Burg, de Jau" (Grillon, "Domaine," p. 41). The knights of Teillots were vassals of Bertran de Born. 43. The land of Mainih must have lain near Teillots, since grain was measured there by the measure of Teillots according to the terms of the act (D 3); in the abbey grange according to Grillon. Chantres (D 17) is identified by Grillon, "Domaine," p. 95; Fougerolas was the site of a grange. 44. In identifying various places in relation to the granges of Dalon, we draw upon the very useful

research of Abbot Louis Grillon ("Domaine"). Specifically, the poet's donations were: in 1178, bordaria

de las Ruas (D 27); in 1179, mansus Domeni (D 28); in 1179, a general confirmation, which does not name

individual lands (D 29) ; in 1180, mansus de Btmac in

the grange of Lavaysse (D 31); and in 1182, Eschaurnac, identified by Thomas as Echourgnac, seventy kilometers from Dalon, but rather Chourgnac-d'Ans, only seven kilometers distant, called Eychourgnac d'Ans on the Cassini map (D 58).

45. Mansus Urtic, not identified by Grillon but

included in the section of the cartulary concerning the abbey grange; and condaminae de Podio de Conchts, Conchat, one kilometer northwest of Dalon (D 8).

46. Two mansi de Vernoil, bordaria Rainai (D 9).

24

Introduction

stantine gave certain lands involved in their exchange with Abbot Amelius, and their shares in two other bordars' holdings.47 The lands given by the poet to Dalon are mostly in the granges grouped around the abbey, but some are further to the southwest, the northwest, and the northeast. These lands are scattered over a region measuring some forty-three kilometers west to east, and thirty-two kilometers north to south. In an act of 1192 we learn that the poet has a new wife named Philippa, and that his sons by his first marriage, Bertran and Itier, have recently been knighted at Le Puy in Velay, some 220 kilometers eastward (D 10). The ceremony may have occurred in conjunction with a pilgrimage to the shrine of Notre Dame du Puy, which had been adored through the centuries by such men as Charlemagne, Pope Urban II (in 1095), and King Louis VII of France. In the summer of 1190 Philip II had sought the protection of the Virgin of Le Puy as he departed on crusade.48 In 1192 the sons of Bertran de Born returned from being knighted at Le Puy to the abbey of Dalon, where they confirmed before the abbot all their father's donations; they then repeated this confirmation at the court of Autafort before the poet and their stepmother, with two monks and four knights serving as witnesses. A few years later the poet retired to Dalon, where in acts dated 1196 to 1202 we find him wearing the white robe of a Cistercian monk.49 His conversion may be viewed as the culmination of the long career of charity which we have retraced, and as a fulfillment of the faith which he expressed in poem 45 (if the attribution is correct). His family's association with Dalon for four generations must have made his retreat there seem natural. The abbey had benefited from the family's charity for longer than it had been affiliated with the Cistercian order, which it 47. Terra deu Mainils (D 4); bordaria des Peres, grange of Puyredon, and bordaria des Codercs, le Couderc, four kilometers east, grange of Lavaysse (D 39). In another undated charter a Bertran de Born impossible to identify (the poet, his father, or his son), gave his share in the tithes of Pisall, grange ofFougerolas (D 87). 48. Francisque Mandet, Histoire du Velay, vol. 2, Notre-Dame du Puy: Légende, archéologie, histoire (Le

Puy: Marchessou, i860), pp. 147-66. 49. 1196, January 8 (D 81); 1197 (D 41,42); 1198 (D 36, 82); »99 (D 93); 1200 (D 19); 1202 (D 95). The notation 1196 may refer to 1197 New Style, but we lack clear evidence; see the discussion by Louis Grillon in "Le Cartulaire de Dalon (1114-1247)" (diss., Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures, Université de Bordeaux, 1962), pp. xix-xx.

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joined in 1162. Bertran may have felt, too, that the ascetic rigor observed by Cistercian monks—who were called milites Christi, "knights of Christ," in one of the order's fundamental documents50—answered the call for authentic heroism which informed his secular poetry. Despite all this the lord of Autafort cannot have seemed a likely monk—not this reveler in combat, this scorner of the Truce of God (19.25—27 n., 20.87— 88 n.), this dedicated man of the world who had referred in passing to the Cistercian archbishop Peter of Tarentaise as a figure of cowardice only shortly before Peter's canonization in 1191 (32.51 n.). Bertran's entry into the Cistercian order must be understood in light of a statute passed in 1188 by its governing body, the General Chapter, which declared that noble laymen (nobiles laici) coming to a monastery should be made monks and not lay brothers as had been the custom.51 In the codification of Cistercian law drawn up in 1202, this principle was restated with reference to personas ¿¡enemas, an expression in which it is difficult not to hear an ambiguous meaning including people of good birth and people generous in alms.52 The expression is suggestive of the uncritical reception of novices for which the order was faulted at this time and symptomatic, perhaps, of the loss of fervor which afflicted the Cistercian order, monasticism in general, and the abbey of Dalon in particular toward the end of the twelfth century.53 It is this spiritual relaxation which allows us to accept the MS attribution to Bertran de Born of two poems from 1197 and 1198, numbers 46 and 47. Both are political satires typical of his style. In the latter he declares that pensamenz, "discussion"—presumably, reproof for the earlier poem—will not prevent him from 50. The Exordium Cistercii, ed. Jean de la Croix Bouton and Jean-Baptiste Van Damme, in Les Plus Anciens Textes de Cîteaux (Achel: Abbaye Cistercienne, 1974), pp. 107-25; see p. m. The phrase is translated "soldiers of Christ" by Bede K. Lackner in Louis J. Lekai, The Cistercians: Ideals and Reality (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1977), P- 44351. Josephus-Maria Canivez, ed., Statuta Capitulorum Generalium Ordinis Cisterciènsis, I (Louvain: Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, 1933), 1188:8, p. 108; hereafter Statuta. 52. Bernard Lucet, éd., La Codification cistercienne

de 1202 et son évolution ultérieure (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1964), X : 4 , p. 117; hereafter Codification. 53. See David Knowles, Christian Monasticism (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), p. 108; Grégoire Muller, Esquisse historique de l'ordre de Citeaux, rev. Eugène Willems, part 1,1097-1493 (Dison-Verviers: Grégoire, 1957), pp. 126,130. Of Dalon Grillon writes that "La période de décadence commençait dès la fin du Xlle siècle. A la vérité il semble qu'elle ait été amorcée auparavant. La baisse de recrutement des moines est due à la diminution de la ferveur" ("Domaine," p. 194).

26

Introduction

making a new sirventes (w. 6-8), and he ends on a note of light eroticism (see pp. 88-89). The fact that Cistercian monks composed irreligious songs in this period is confirmed by another statute of the General Chapter, which determined in 1199 that monks who made poems ( r y t h m o s ) should be punished by transfer to a new house, the penalty to be remitted only by decision of the General Chapter itself.54 This statute was repeated, essentially unchanged, in the codification of 1202.55 The few details we can glean from the cartulary of Dalon concerning the life of Bertran de Born the monk show him still vigorous, perhaps even combative. His movements, which are better noted than before he entered the order, took him east to Treignac in 1196 (D 81: see Map III), west to Excideuil in 1199 and 1202 (D 93, 95), perhaps south to Ayen and Badefol-d'Ans in 1197 (D 41, 42), all places situated near granges of the abbey to which he may have traveled to carry out some monastic duty. (Only a purpose such as this was an acceptable reason for a monk to leave his abbey, according to legislation of the order, and excessive travel was an abuse frequently corrected.)56 The two acts of 1197 record the resolution of a quarrel between Bertran the monk and a layman, a resolution which was formalized by donations on the part of the latter. In 1200, the troubadour witnessed reparations made to Dalon by his sons, which we shall discuss later (D 19). After 1198 the troubadour fell silent; after 1202 his name does not appear in the cartulary. Nevertheless he lived on, in a poetic and documentary silence which lasted more than a decade. In 1215 the librarian of Saint-Martial in Limoges, Bernard Itier, made the following notation: Octava candela in sepulcro ponitur pro Bertrando de Born: cera tres solidos empta est. (G 3) The eighth candle is placed on the tomb for Bertran de Born; the wax was bought for three sous. 54. Statuta, 1,1199: i, p. 232. For discussion of this statute see William D. Paden, Jr., "De Monachis rtthmos facientibus: Helinant de Froidmont, Bertran de Born, and the Cistercian General Chapter of 1199," Speculum 55 (1980): 669-85.

55. Codification, X : 26, p. 126. 56. Statuta, 1,1134: V I , p. 14. Excessive travel was corrected in 1191:79, p- 145; 1192: 59, p- 157; 1193:10, p. 159; 1194:60, p. 181; 1195:16, p. 184; 1197:28, p. 215. Codification, IX: 12, p. 109.

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Elsewhere Bernard Itier says that three sous was the annual allowance for each monk's shoe leather at Saint-Martial (G 2), suggesting that this candle, while perhaps less than sumptuous, cost considerably more than the votive tapers offered to the faithful at one franc apiece in French churches today. But the librarian's jotting is less than explicit concerning the purpose and function of this eighth candle. To understand these matters we must turn to a notice describing the offices of Saint-Martial, written later in the thirteenth century. Among them is that of the capicerius sepulcri, or keeper of the tomb, who was charged with the care of the crypt containing the sepulcher of Saint Martial. It was his duty to keep eight candles burning continually: Sed hoc non est ignorandum quod B. de Born miles in ultima voluntate sua legavit unam candelam jugiter ardentem beato Marciali in hereditate propria, videlicet in leida mercadi de Chasluz aus Chabrols. Postea illi qui tenent earn hereditatem composuerunt cum capicerio Sepulcri super candelam . . . que una est de predictis octo cereis. (I 1) But it is not to be forgotten that B. de Born, knight, in his last will bequeathed a candle burning forever for Saint Martial out of his patrimony, that is the income from the market of ChalusChabrol. Later on those who hold this inheritance settled with the keeper of the tomb regarding the candle . . . which is one of the aforesaid eight candles. The eighth candle noted by Bernard Itier was then a legacy of the poet, who must have died shortly before it was recorded—perhaps at around the age of sixty-five. The legacy was characteristic of the patron of Dalon who had endowed masses for his father, and for himself after his own death, in 1178, and who in 1189 gave alms for the poor to redeem his sins and those of his ancestors (D 27, 8); it was characteristic, too, of his interest in the abbey of Saint-Martial, where he had sworn his oath of rebellion in the spring of 1183 (17.35-38). This posthumous document is the only medieval source, other than his poetry, to identify Bertran de Born as a knight, although others show that he was a lord of knights. In life his identity as lord of Autafort seems to have placed him

among the class of great lords, which was only in the process of fusing—and had not yet fused completely—with that of the warriors who served them. (As we shall see in discussing the troubadour's art, he refers to himself as a knight in amatory verse as part of a deliberate effort to disguise his historical social position, an effort motivated by his aesthetic posture as a satirist.) The fact that Bertran de Born is identified here as a knight, not as a monk, indicates that even after his retirement he was regarded as the secular figure he had been, and supports indirectly the likelihood that he continued to compose secular songs such as poems 46 and 47. Finally, the notice from Saint-Martial adds to the known holdings of the troubadour the income from the market of Chalus-Chabrol, near Lastours and in the latitude of Pierre-Buffiere. Since he held it by inheritance (in hereditatepropria), we may suppose the holding originated with his grandfather Itier, who disputed possession of Pierre-Buffiere with the Lastours family. It is possible, but far from certain, that during the poet's lifetime his youngest brother Itier held an interest in the town of Lastours.57 In any case the family had substantial interests in this area, some forty-five kilometers north of Autafort. It was at Chalus in 1199, after Bertran de Born had ceased to compose songs, that Richard Lionheart received the crossbow wound which would prove fatal to him.58

57. In 1191, eleven men, including Guy and Itier de Born, granted privileges to the town of Lastours (E 3). Of the troubadour's brother Itier we know only that he appeared once with Bertran before the death of Abbot Roger in 1159 and once with Constantine in a charter without date (D 54, 83). We know nothing else of a Guy de Born in the troubadour's family. The cartulary of Dalon mentions a number of men called Born who were unrelated to the poet as far as we know: Constantine and Geraldus, sons of Petrus Gascus, in D 5; Geraldus and his son Willelmus Bertrandi in D 49; Geraldus alone in D 17 and 78; Guischardus with his son Petrus in D 78 and with his wife Willelma Malmirona in D 97; Ugo in D 29; and, in acts not included in our schedule of sources, Bernardus, Boso, Helias, and Stephanus.

58. This episode is garbled in the vida of Bertran from MSS E and R, where it is said that the Young King died of a crossbow wound in a castle of Bertran de Born (Boutière-Schutz, p. 68). On the circumstances of Richard's death, which occurred, apparently, during a punitive expedition against the viscount of Limoges, holder of the castle at Châlus—not during an attempt to seize a rediscovered treasure, which seems to be legendary— see Antoine Perrier, "De Nouvelles Précisions sur la mort de Richard Coeur de Lion," Bulletin Philologique et Historique, 1959, pp. 159-69; Gillingham, Richard the Lionheart, pp. 9—23, and idem, "The Unromantic Death of Richard I," Speculum 54 (1979): 18-41. The older view of these events is presented by Brundage, Richard Lion Heart, pp. 237-41.

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Eldest Son Of the five known children of the troubadour, it is the eldest son who succeeded him as lord of Autafort and whose career sheds most light on the situation of the family.59 Active in documents dated n79 to 1224, this man followed his father's example in writing a number of songs, one of which must have been composed about 1230 (see the discussion of poems excluded from this edition, pp. 92-93). We shall call him Bertran de Born lo fils, as do the scribes of the chansonniers. Apart from his songs, Bertran lofilsdistinguished himself by the niggardliness of his charity toward the abbey of Dalon, and by the air of grandeur he adopted in declaring his grants—a grandeur which was justified by certain acts of Philip II of France. To be just, his parsimony toward his father's retreat may in large part reflect the decline of the monastic ideal in this period. After having appeared beside his father from 1179 to 1193 in seven acts of donation or confirmation, and twice as a witness, Bertran lofils gave a single bordar's holding in 1204, and served as a witness in 1224.60 Both these minor appearances occurred when the memory of more dramatic ones was fresh: in 1200 and 1223, Bertran lo fils was obliged to make reparations to the abbey for damages he had caused. The first time he acted together with his brother Itier. In order to satisfy "God, Blessed Mary, and the brothers of Dalon for losses and injury they had done them, because of pressing matters of warfare and other business which had fallen their way," the two men confirm all the donations of their father—who witnesses the act, a monk of Dalon—and add their share in the tithes of the abbey's holdings in the parish of Teillots (D 19). They do not remark that their grandfather had long before given the same income for his lifetime and forever (D 35). They also give their permission for the abbey to buy certain sources of income from their partners, their tithe-farmers, and their provosts, and they swear, "while touching the divine and most holy law, to protect the goods of

59. The name of Bertran lofils precedes that of his brother Itier in all the acts where they appear together (D 9,10,19, 24, 29, 31, 45), if we may assume that the Bertran whose name follows that of Itier in 1214 is his younger half brother (D 64). To distinguish him from his father, the firstborn son is called

minor in 1190 (D 67), but in contrast to his homonymous half brother he is called major in 1223 (D 24) and senior in 1224 (D 73). 60. In 1204, bordaria de Podio juxta grangiam de Podio Rotunde (D 45), Puyredon, three kilometers south of Dalon; for 1224 see D 73.

30

Introduction

Dalon in all places, insofar as they are able, from themselves, from their men, and even from all men." Twenty-three years later they did it again, accompanied this time by a third brother, also called Bertran, no doubt a scion of the troubadour's second marriage (D 24). Before the entire convent they confirm not only the donations of their father, but also of their other predecessors and partners, listing these donations and including several not mentioned in 1200, among them the one concerning the parish of Teillots. Of themselves, they give nothing. Nevertheless, to solemnize the occasion they pray the bishops of Perigueux and Limoges and the abbots of Tourtoirac, Chatres, and Dalon to fix their seals to the charter, as they too fix their own. The abbot and the monks of Dalon receive the three brothers once more into all their spiritual offices, and cease their complaints "concerning stolen relics, the thrashing of monks, hay and other such trivia, and bodily injuries." Between these two dates Philip II confiscated the Continental fiefs of the Angevin empire, and John Lackland showed an astonishing weakness in his response. In 1206 Bertran de Born lo fits castigated the English king in a stinging sirventes, recalling with regret the warlike vigor of his brother Richard.61 Shortly afterward the Capetian conquest became definitive. In November 1212, at Nemours south of Paris, the king of France received the homage of Archambaud, count of Perigord, and of Bertran de Born, lord of Hautefort, for the county of Perigord, and promised to protect them, the county, and the fortress (H 1). In another poem Bertran lofils alludes to this event.62 Philip seems to treat the lord of Hautefort nearly as the equal of the count of Perigord—but the authority of the count had been nominal for some time.63 Bertran lo fits figures also in another document of Philip II, a feudal register which names in hierarchic order the archbishops of the kingdom of France, the bishops and the abbots, then the dukes, counts, barons, castellans, vavasours, and knights (H 2). Among the counts we find at the end of the list those of Perigord and Angouleme. The list of barons

61. P-C 81,1 Qucm vei lo temps. See "Poems Excluded," p. 93.

62. P-C 81,ia Un sirventes. See "Poems Excluded," p- 92.

63. Boussard, Le Gouvernement d'Henrill, p. 228.

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includes without systematic distinction the names of viscounts, lords, and men without title. Here are found the four viscounts of the Limousin, and, last of the fifty-nine barons of France, the lord of Hautefort. Other Children The troubadour's second son, Itier, is attested from 1179 on; a knight, he made peace (pacificami) with the abbey of Dalon in unknown circumstances in 1237 (D 29, 37,57). The same year his wife Maria became a widow (D 24, E 4). Itier made various grants along with his father or his elder brother, but never one in his own name. The troubadour's two other sons, Constantine and Bertran the younger, were presumably offspring of his marriage to Philippa, stepmother of the elder two (D 10). Constantine became a monk at Dalon, where he witnessed the first reparation by his brothers in 1200; in 1202 he was with his father again at Excideuil (D 19, 20, 95). Bertran the younger made reparations in 1223; it was probably he whose name followed that of Itier in 1214; it was perhaps he once more, identified as a knight, who in 1252, after a dispute, acknowledged selling the abbey the wood of Ilias in the grange of Lavaysse (D 24, 38, 64). This is the first sale to the abbey, in contrast to a gift, that we know of in the history of the family. A daughter of the troubadour, Aimelina, was the wife of Seguinus, member of a collateral branch of the Lastours family (F 2,10). Social Position In the course of the four generations that we have followed, the Born family left their traces in documents which, with the exception of the cartulary of Dalon, vary from period to period. Despite our shifting sources of information, the general view of the family's position which we have been able to recover seems to be one of stability. The lands of Itier are about the same as those of the troubadour: the family possessions extend from Chantres, Chàlus and perhaps Pierre-Buffière in the north to Saint-Bonnet-la-Rivière, Chourgnac, and perhaps Puy Auriol in the south. The Born family competed on a par with the Lastours, former possessors of Autafort, from the foundation of Dalon and the struggle for PierreBuffière down to the marriage of the troubadour's daughter. In the business of Pierre-Buffière, Itier obeyed the viscount of Limoges; Bertran lo fils is named

32

Introduction

after the viscount of Limoges in the register of Philip II. According to the terms of the same register, as a baron Bertran lo fils was superior to a castellan, a vavasour, or a knight, and his father had been acknowledged by knights, perhaps by a castellan, as their lord. Father and son administered their lands with the aid of provosts and tithe-farmers. Finally, the troubadour held Autafort from the king of England, his son from the king of France.64 During the administration of Henry II the political structure of Angevin France comprised a hierarchy of three levels: that of the king, that of the great lords who were his vassals, and that of the lesser lords who were theirs.65 In this schema Bertran finds his place among the great lords. The area of his possessions, measuring some seventy kilometers north-south by forty-five east-west, is fully comparable to those dominated by the Lastours, the viscounts of Ventadour, or other great lords of the time and the region.66 As vassal of Henry II after July 1183, he was on a par with the viscounts of the Limousin and the counts of Angoulême and Périgord, all of whom he had incited to revolt shortly before (poem 10). He showed in other ways, too, the independence of spirit befitting his place in life. Although he opposed the political interests of Richard in his earliest poems, he nevertheless began to admire the vigor of the duke of Aquitaine before the siege of Autafort (poems 11,13,14). After this event he became his duke's devoted ally, and even says they joked together at the expense of Philip (35.13— 14); nevertheless, he criticized Richard harshly for delaying his departure for the Crusade (poems 29,37, 40, 41). His criticism of Young Henry and Geoffrey was 6+. The absence of the troubadour's name from certain documents where it might have appeared means only that he was a baron, not a count or a duke, and that the annals of the time have been preserved imperfecdy. Bertran de Born is not mentioned in the Histoire de Guillaume le maréchal—see Meyer's note in his edition, 3:xxiv, n. i; in L. Delisle and E. Berger, eds., Recueil des actes de Henri II, roi d'Angleterre et duc de Normandie, concernant les provinces françaises et les affaires de France, 4 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1909-27); in Robert William Eyton, Court, Household, and Itinerary of King Henry II (London: Taylor, 1878); or in Lionel Landon, Itinerary of King Richard I (London: Pipe Roll Society, 1935).

65. Boussard, Le Gouvernement d'Henri II, pp. 226—27. 66. "Si l'on cherche quelle est, au début du Xlle siècle, la superficie des grandes seigneuries, on s'aperçoit que, pour toutes celles sur lesquelles nous avons quelques renseignements, le pouvoir du seigneur semble s'exercer sur un territoire compris entre 1.100 et 2.700 kilomètres carrés. Il s'agit là évidemment, de ses droits au sens le plus large: possession directe, suzeraineté, droits divers, et ces chiffres ne sauraient bien entendu figurer qu'un ordre de grandeur" (Boussard, Le Gouvernement d'Henri II, p. 229). The area of Bertran's known possessions totaled some 3,150 square kilometers.

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33

harsh, too, during their lives, but at their deaths he composed generous and moving planhs (poems 15, 31). We may anticipate our survey o f his relations with other poets in a later section by pointing out here that he counted among his friends such great lords as Conon de Bethune in France and Guillem de Bergueda in Spain. In his true voice as a baron, Bertran de Born addressed the Young K i n g (poem 2), Richard (poems 20, 22, 24, 30, 37), Geoffrey (poems 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23), Viscount Aimar V of Limoges (poem 16), perhaps Viscount Raymond Gaufridi Barral of Marseille (poem 18), K i n g Alfonso II o f Aragon (poem 23), K i n g Alfonso V I I I of Castile (poem 21), and Conrad o f Montferrat, king of Jerusalem (poems 41, 42). T h e broad horizons and high vantage o f the poet are those of the lord of Autafort.

His Art T h e art o f Bertran de Born springs from an obsession with conflict and a drive to master conflict by an act of will. 67 Seeking to integrate manifold oppositions within his fiction, the troubadour goes beyond the mediation of apparendy irreconcilable contrasts (which is the object of myth according to Lévi-Strauss) 68 to impose his own perspective as an artist—an act which is the essence of literary expression. Bertran is a poet rather than a mythmaker because he arrogates to himself the power to create meaningful form out of conflict, to force opposed meanings into coincidence. The condensed dynamic which results, and which is characteristic of his work, impressed even an otherwise hostile Jeanroy: "Zur Skala der ritterlichen Tugenden in der altpro67. This discussion draws heavily on Patricia H. venzalischen und altfranzösischen höfischen DichStàblein, "War and the Missing Hero," as well as her tung," Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 78 (1962) : more recent studies "The Convergence of Lyric 292-325, esp. pp. 317-19; James J. Wilhelm, Seven and Epic Forms" and "Love Poems with Political Troubadours, pp. 145-72; Rolf Ehnert, Möglichkeiten Hearts." For another view, see Karen Wilk Klein, politischer Lyrik im Hochmittelalter; and Dietmar "The Political Message of Bertran de Born," and Rieger, Gattungen und Gattungsbezeichnungen der idem, The Partisan Voice (reviewed by William D. Paden, Jr., in Romance Philology 32 [1978]: 193-97). Trobadorlyrik, pp. 174-76,180-83. Other discussions of Bertran's art include Carl Ap68. See Claude Lévi-Strauss, "La Structure des pel, Bertran von Born; Alfred Jeanroy, La Poésie lyri-mythes," in Anthropologie structurale (Paris: Plön, que des troubadours, 2:194-99; Martín de Riquer, La1958), pp. 248, 254; and idem, L'Homme nu (Paris: lírica de los trovadores, pp. 398-401; Rupprecht Rohr,Pion, 1971), pp. 538-40.

34

Introduction

Peu de poètes de son temps l'ont égalé, non seulement par l'intensité de la passion, mais par les qualités purement formelles, si rares alors, l'éclat et l'originalité des images, le vigoureux raccourci de l'expression, la netteté efficace du style.69 This vigorous intensity of style and thought find their most celebrated expression in his poems on war. Heroism in War, in Love, and at Court For Bertran war functions as a source and emblem of moral value. In its absence men are isolated and selfish, society lacks direction, experiences are scattered and meaningless. The idle life has no sense, no form.70 War welds the world into opposed camps which then unite in battle, as individuals become dedicated participants in a society of purpose and accomplishment, galvanized by the absolutes of life and death. For Bertran it is the ideal of war which upholds the secular virtues of the age, demanding that a knight be courageous, generous, courtly, and slighdy mad; 71 a prince must display the same qualities in order to direct society toward its proper goal. Temporally and spatially discrete from daily existence, war confers upon society an intensely prescriptive sense of form in the pageantry of its traditional actions, sights, and sounds, which are typically described in aphorisms expressing stylistically the precision of its moral content.72 The precise violence of war produces a well-formed death, a monument to the moral achievement of victor and vanquished alike.73

69. Poesie lyriqtte, 2:199. 70. Poems 3, st. 3 (nuailla); 32, st. 5 {gras); and 46, st. 4 (dormilhs). 71. " L o sen venserem ab foudat, nos Lemozin" (14.43-44). On the virtue of folly in Guilhem IX, Raimbaut d'Aurenga, Giraut de Bornelh, and Bernart de Ventadorn, see L. T. Topsfield, Troubadours and Love (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 2 4 - 2 6 et passim. 72. Such aphorisms include 30.29—30 and 40; 38.16, 24, and 2 7 - 2 8 ; and 4 7 1 3 and 44.

73. Despite the undisciplined confusion of many medieval battles, historical sources show that certain fundamental tactics were considered indispensable, or at least highly desirable; see Contamine, La Guerre au Moyen Age, pp. 379—89. On the motifs of combat, siege, and battle in other troubadours— who often described them with noteworthy precision—see Suzanne Thiolier-Méjean, Les Poésies satiriques et morales des troubadours du XLIe siècle à la fin du XlIIe siècle, pp. 388-91, 4 7 2 - 7 8 . Compare the theologically oriented discussion of batde in Duby, Le Dimanche de Bouvines, pp. 145—59.

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35

This vision remains an ideal, however, latent in the normative structure of Bertran's thought but far from typical of his expressed observations of the society around him. It reaches its greatest emotional impact in imagery of violent destruction depicting a sword stroke to the brain, or ravaging troops burning down a wood, or the instant when weapons splinter in combat, but such imagery occurs in only a few of Bertran's songs, and even there it is characteristically removed from full realization by being expressed as a possibility, in the conditional tense, or as a hope, in the future tense.74 The martial panorama in poem 30 springs from the poet's imagination—Be-mplai logais temps de pascor, "The gay time of spring pleases me well"; whether he describes factual events which please him, or the pleasure which he takes in the thought of events he has imagined, one cannot say. In poem 34, which is the song Dante cites in De vulgari eloquentia as the paragon of martial poetry in the vernacular, Bertran exults at the prospect of war, not its actuality. The medieval secular imagination generally projected its ideal world into a distant past, Arthurian, Carolingian, or other; it is a measure of Bertran's idealistic realism that he casts his vision in a future time which just might become the present. On the other hand, in nearly every poem Bertran appraises the behavior of men in society and scrutinizes the incessant political maneuvering of the times, with an eye to estimating the imminence or remoteness of armed conflict. In the world of his poetry, war is most often lamentably absent; sometimes it is an alluring potentiality, but it is rarely present. The artist agonizes in his isolation from the moral energy of war; occasionally, even within the unleashed forces of combat, he alone draws from them moral stature.75 The ancillary theme of love serves to vary the tone of Bertran's verse and to broaden its interest without altering its essential values. He perceives love in an active way, requiring capability and performance just as war does; excellence in either demands proof of virtue. The proven warrior will make a perfect lover.76 The passive sufferer of love's torment, on the other hand, and the man who can

74. Poems 1, st. 1 , 5 , 6; 3, st. 2, 6; 11, st. 4 ; 23, st. 4 ; 30, st. 2 - 5 ; 34, st. 1 - 3 ; 38, st. 2; 43, st. 1; and 47, st. 5 - 6 .

75. In poem 19 the artist is elated to be at war, alone against all his neighbors. A typical expression of Bertran's isolation in peace is poem 20. 76. Poems 30, st. 6 and 8; and 4 7 , st. 2, 6, 7.

36

Introduction

do nothing but love seem to Bertran objects of ridicule, like cowardly knights.77 Only dullards care for neither love nor arms.78 The themes of prowess in war and love intertwine more or less prominently throughout the corpus, expressing in a major or a minor key the same drive to master resistance through conflict. In a third register of less intensity than those of either war or love, Bertran sings courtly poems stressing the charm of social relations among men and women gifted with a sense of style. In such works as the Mathilda poems, the planhs, and the poems on youth and age,79 he invokes the forms of courtly behavior to preserve a purposeful society against the ever-threatening formlessness outside the life-and-death arena of war. Daily life can achieve shape and purpose only if the generosity required for war is maintained. This generosity corresponds to the youthful spirit which other troubadours call joven, but in the dynamics of Bertran's world its courtly and amorous functions remain subordinate to its function in political and military conflict. By focusing on highly civilized social rapports he does not escape from war, but rather extends its moral principles into a social matrix. Bertran de Born the warmonger at times plays the lover in a bower, at other times the witty conversationalist. More than simply a poet of arms, he is a poet of life. Bertran blends the disparate elements of war, love, and the court in order to define his conception of heroism, of the heroic role which must be acted appropriately in all these situations so that it can be copied by society. In nearly every poem he assesses the degree of presence or absence of the hero, just as he does that of war; he usually describes heroism, like war, in the future or conditional tense. Throughout the poems of the revolt of 1183 he gauges the failings of the Young King and Geoffrey, as later he does those of Richard and Philip in the conflicts of 1184-88, and, through tactical and moral analysis, he charts the paths they must follow to fulfill their potential heroism. Only in death do Young Henry and Geoffrey become heroes, in the planhs. Bertran admires Richard's 77. In poem 16 Bertran criticizes Geoffrey of Brittany as a passive lover; he adopts the persona of the passive lover and makes it ridiculous in poems 2, st.

1 - 2 ; 23, st. 1; 55, st. 1; and 41, st. 2 and 9. 78. 13.43-44, and 42, st. 4-5. 79. Poems 8 and 9,15 and 31, 24 and 25.

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high mettle, but characteristically associates him with mere acts of violence; rarely does Richard show even his potential to achieve the full heroic function of leadership in Bertran's eyes.80 The ideal hero would be more magnanimous than any man Bertran can find. In the imperfect world around him this hero is missing or has just vanished, as in the planhs. The absence of a real hero—the emptiness of the heroic role—prevents the realization of war, since no leader serves as a focal point for society's energy and a model for imitation. As Bertran shifts and turns men and events in his search for moral form, the concept of the missing hero makes itself constantly felt. Epic and Lyric The role of the artist in Bertran's world becomes part of his implicit subject as he conducts his search for a hero in war, love, and courtly life on the literary terrains of heroic narrative and amorous lyric. The themes of war and valor attracted Bertran naturally to contemporary French epic; in the chansons de geste he found a formulation of the heroic myth which underlies his own more personal lyric expression. He also drew at times upon the courtly vision of French romance, without sharply differentiating it from epic.81 He alludes to specific episodes in the plots of the epics Raoul de Cambrai and the Prise d'Orange, and seems to echo the wording of a passage from the romance of Ille et Galeron,82 More generally, his allusions take the form of reference to characters from epic and romance, or of diction adapted from formulaic epic language. Fittingly, Bertran invokes his French heroes in contrast, mainly, to Frenchmen whose imperfections strike him as only too real. He measures the failings of Philip II against the epic paradigm in poems 2,10, 33, 34, 36, 37, and 42. He urges the Young King to epic achievements in ix and 14, and Geoffrey to the same in 13; 80. Bertran likens Richard to a raging boar in 14.16 and his violence to that of a band of oudaws in 32.53; further violence is in poem 11, St. 4. In poem 36 Richard seeks to win the respect of pagans and Christians alike; in 43 he seems to verge upon the heroic leadership befitting a king. 81. Into a list of epic heroes he inserts Alexander,

hero of a romance which is extant in both French and Provençal versions (31.17-24). The only narrative text in Provençal to which he refers unambiguously is the fragmentary epic Aigar et Maurin (13.51). 82. Raoul de Cambrai, 33.29-32; Prise d'Orange, 11.13; Ille et Galeron, 9.21-24.

38

Introduction

in his laments for the death of these princes he represents Heaven itself as a community of epic heroes (poems 15 and 31). He naturally associates Geoffrey and Brittany with figures from Arthurian romance and with the forest of Brocéliande (poems 11, 31,46). His senhal, or secret name, for the trouvère Conon de Bethune, "Isembart," recalls the renegade of Gormont et Isembart (33.44). Turning to romance, he compliments Mathilda, daughter of Henry II, with reference to the Roman de Troie and to Ille et Galeron in 8 and 9. In exceptions to his general pattern he occasionally relates French romance to women of the south, as when he declares that a lady of Rochechouart has prettier hair than Isolde (poem 7) or exchanges with another lady the senhal "Tristan" (poem 29). He may have thought Richard an ambiguous figure, Angevin scion and duke of Aquitaine: he treats him as a Frenchman when he wishes that Richard's army, including himself, may become the subject of epic song {la gesta 34.8), and when he complains elsewhere that Richard is deceived by Merlin the magician (29.48), but only in these two among his frequent mentions of Richard does he speak of him in terms of French heroic narrative. Bertran never applies these terms to such sovereigns as Alfonso of Aragon or Conrad of Monferrat, king of Jerusalem. By adapting traditional epic diction Bertran achieves visual and auditory effects of vivid immediacy in the sensual evocation of war. He sometimes uses such language together with explicit allusion, as in poem 34, but typically prefers it alone, as a means of creating a diffuse atmosphere charged with epic exaltation. The result is most powerful in descriptions of the destruction and carnage of b.atde, with its shattered weapons and mutilated bodies; these descriptions often conclude with a concise statement bordering on aphorism. Such passages occur in poems 30.31-50, 32.22-28, 34.1-16, 38 passim, 43.22-24, and 47.33-44. Compare, for example, the following scene from Raoul de Cambrai: Dont veïssiésfier estor esbaudir, Tante anstefraindre et tant escu croissir, Tant bon hauberc desrompre et dessartir, Tant bon destrier qui n'a soign de henir; Tantpié, tantpoig, tante teste tolir; Plus de .xl. en ifissentmorir.

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39

G. ne pot plus le chaple tenir; A .vij. .xx. homes s'en puet huimais partir. II se demente com ja por[r]es oir: "Tranche maisnie, qeporfrjes devenir? "Qantje vos lais, si m'en convientpartir."*3 Then you could have seen a proud fight getting started— so many a lance broken and so many a shield smashed, so many a good hauberk torn and unsewn, so many a good war-horse who got no good from neighing; so many a foot, so many a fist, so many a head taken off; more than forty men they have slain. Guerri can't take any more battle, with a hundred and forty men he now departs. He grieves as you shall hear: "My noble followers, what will become of you? "If I leave you now, I do so only because I must." In fitting this language to his own lyric form, Bertran modifies the formulaic expression veissies, "you could have seen," substituting the first person singular vet, "I see," or plural veirem, "we shall see"; in the same way he transforms the variant oissies, "you could have heard," into auch, "I hear," notably in poem 30. The series of phrases introduced by tant finds an echo in poem 23.25—32, as does the variant mant, "many a . . . ," in 47.33-40. Among the prominent details from Bertran's battle spectacles, we may point

83. P. Meyer and A. Longnon, eds., Raoul de Cambrai, w. 3471-Si; hereafter Raoul de Cambrai. For the formulaic character of this scene, cf. Mario Eusebi, ed., La Chevalerie d'Obier de Danemarcbe (Milan: Cisalpino, 1962), w . 11677-81 (hereafter Ogier); Louis Brandin, ed., La Chanson d'Aspremont, 2d ed., Classiques Français du Moyen Age (Paris: Champion, 1933), w- 5100-6 (hereafter Aspremont); F. Menzel and E. Stengel, eds., Jean Bodels Saxenlèd, Ausgaben und Abhandlungen 99-100 (Marburg:

Elwert, 1906-9), w . 6173-81 (hereafter Saxenlied); W. Mary Hackett, ed., Girart de Roussillon, Société des Anciens Textes Français (Paris: Picard, 1953-55), w. 2648-57 (hereafter Girart de Roussillon); Alfred Brossmer, ed., "Aigar et Maurin," Romanische Forschungen 14 (1903): i—102, w . 1295—311 (hereafter Aigar et Maurin). The same diction also occurs in the Spanish Poema de mio Cid, ed. Colin Smith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), w . 726-32.

40

Introduction

out the epic ring of his war cries (14.41-42, 30.43), his riderless horses running wild (30.35-36,38.13),84 and his corpses transfixed by pennoned lances (30.49—50, 34.10, 38.14).85 So too the aphorism that he prefers war to eating, drinking, or sleeping (30.41-43). 86 His threats to attack burghers and merchants reflect the epic mentality (38.20-24).87 Further verbal details from epic battle diction include the simile of Richard fighting like a boar (14.16)88 and the images of Bertran ready to fight with his shield at his neck (escut a col 6.31, 34.16),89 of splinters flying up from a joust (volon tronco 1.32),90 and of the field of battle strewn with corpses as though with reeds (joncatz 38.10).91 Bertran's anticipation of battle in a poem such as number 1 resembles the. gap, or boast, of a character in the Provençal epic Aigar et Maurin92 Another epic topos is the joyful scene of the military camp in springtime with its banners and pennons flapping in the wind, the neighing of horses, the tunes of minstrels strolling among the tents and pavilions, the racket of trumpets and drums, and the fine spectacle of warriors on parade (most fully in 22.1-6; also 1.13-18, 30.6—10, 34.5-8, 38.17-19, 43.17—21).93 Bertran's pervasive allusions to the chansons de geste not only enrich the diction and heroic sense of his work, but also, as an index of literary self-consciousness, situate his art within the mythic space of epic. It has been observed that the early epics, notably the Song of Roland, impart a vision of experience constituted of stark antinomies, unresolved but accepted.94 Epic formulates in the heroic regis84. Raoul de Cambrai 2678-79, Aspremont 3217, Saxenlied 2553, Ogier 1234-35, and Girart de Roussillon 2474-7785. Raoul de Cambrai 2509, 2961; Saxenlied 1591a, 4757, 6240; and Girart de Roussillon 5300-1. 86. Raoul de Cambrai 4529: "Mieus aim cest colp qe boivre ne mengier." Ogier 1130-31. 87. Saxenlied 238; and Ogkr 3878. 88. Nancy V. Iseley, éd., La Chançun de Willame, University of North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961), v. 860; G. de Poerck et al., eds., Le Charroi de Nîmes (SaintAquilin-de-Pacy: Mallier, 1970), v. 357; Ogier 541; and Aigar et Maurin 798. 89. Joseph Bédier, éd., La Chanson de Roland (Paris: Piazza, 1964), v. 713: "Healmes lacez e ceintes

lurs espees, Escuz as cols e lances adubees." Also Raoul de Cambrai 4442—43; O/jier 6193; and Girart de Roussillon 5000, 6577. 90. Raoul de Cambrai 4453: "li espieu sont en tronson volé." Also Saxenlied 1853; Ogier 7102, 7415, 9736-37; and Aijjar et Maurin 1423. 91. Raoul de Cambrai 2984; Saxenlied 5325, 6232; Qgier 464, 676, etc.; and Girart de Roussillon 5835 (strewn with troncuns). 92. 1013-41. 93. Saxenlied 793—815; Aspremont 3734—42; Ogier 11879-88; and Girart de Roussillon 9097-101. 94. See Eugène Vinaver, A la recherche d'une poétique médiévale (Paris: Nizet, 1970), esp. chap. 4, "La Mort de Roland," and p. 175: "les écrivains imbus des grands modèles de la dialectique médiévale arrivent non seulement à juxtaposer deux points de vue

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41

ter the sense of irreducible oppositions which is characteristic of the whole artistic expression of the age, and which we encounter in the works of such earlier troubadours as William IX, Marcabru, and Jaufre Rudel; of Latin poets of the court of Henry II; and of Geoffrey Chaucer some two centuries later.95 In this aspect of its imaginative structure, medieval poetry corresponds to the myths of preliterate societies studied by Lévi-Strauss. As we have suggested, however, Bertran de Born distinguishes himself through the exertion of his will as the speaker in his poems; unlike the epic and the other medieval forms to which we have compared it, his art is energized by the poet's forceful presence, mediating between his perception of reality and his heroic ideal. Unlike the epic poet who sings blindly of the glorious past, Bertran speaks as a satirist who engages in continuous self-conscious scrutiny of the present. Because of the structuring role of the speaker's voice, which distinguishes his discourse from that of the epic, it was inevitable that Bertran de Born should employ lyric form. In contrast to the assonating or monorhymed epic laisse, or strophe, with its variable length, troubadour lyric expresses an intense poetic self-awareness in the articulate structure of its stanza, distinctive and constant for each song, comprising the three elements of rhyme scheme, syllable count, and the rhyme sounds themselves. In the next section of this Introduction we shall examine in detail the pioneering role played by Bertran in the practice of metrical and musical imitation among the troubadours; suffice it to say here that nearly a third of his poems imitate the form of preexisting songs and presumably were sung to their melodies. To an audience familiar with the contemporary repertoire, such borrowing must have had the effect of allusion. Showing his self-consciousness as a lyric poet rather than any fine discrimination among particular genres, Bertran refers explicidy to more than a third of his own texts as sirventes, and to several more as songs. We have observed already that by satirizing the conventional figure of the

divergents sans jamais demander au lecteur d'opter entre eux, mais à doter leurs oeuvres d'une complexité et d'une souplesse idéologique qui dépassent de loin nos naïves mesures." 95. On Marcabru, see William D . Paden, Jr.,

"Aesthetic Distance in Petrarch's Response to the Pastourelle: Rime L U , " Romance Notes 16 (1975): 7 0 2 - 7 . Peter Dronke, "Peter of Blois and Poetry at the Court of Henry II," Mediaeval Studies 38 (1976): 185-235. Peter Elbow, Oppositions in Chaucer (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1975).

42

Introduction

long-suffering lover he adapts the dominant amorous theme of troubadour lyric to express the same self-assertive values as in his sirventes. He uses the spring setting typical of the love song as his point of departure for satire (poems 20, 21) or in contrast to an epic theme (poems 30, 32). His frequent use of senhals further heightens the listener's awareness of lyric tradition. He parodies the courtly language of his sources by exaggerating it (poem 23, st. 1) or by reverting to coarse insults instead (poem 39). No doubt this self-consciousness of the lyric poet reaches its highest level, however, when he calls attention in his own text to the song which provides its melody (son de n'Alamanda 11.25), or protests at the difficulty of finding the rhymes he has adopted from his source (poem 34, st. 7). Bertran had to express his epic ideal in subjective lyric form because he felt isolated by his constant awareness of the imperfections of society. The abrasive mode of this awareness produced the discontent which makes him a satirist and which sharpens the lively wit of his love songs. The destructive extremes which his criticisms sometimes reach guarantee the independence of his judgment; yet he also has joyful moments of hope when reality seems briefly to approach his ideal. This vision of his ideal never becomes fantastic, but seems almost practical in its simple demands for courage, generosity, and style. Real and ideal are mutually penetrable, so much so that the poet, by assaying elements of his real experience, can differentiate those showing greatest potential for crystallizing the ideal. Bertran's vision of a society of moral dynamism continually glimmers, always impinges, but can never develop fully. Therefore it could not have been expressed in epic form. Far from being a failed epic poet, Bertran achieved an aesthetic victory in lyric form by integrating the disparate registers of epic and lyric, real and ideal. The Role of the Satirist

This poetry of frustration with an unheroic world is dominated throughout by the presence of the artist who sings it.96 By his aesthetic act Bertran identifies himself as a character in his own ideal vision, closely related but not identical to

96. The statistically minded reader may be intrigued to know that first-person pronouns in the singular, including personal and possessive forms,

occur well over seven hundred times in our fortyseven texts. The corresponding plural forms are found less than fifty times.

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43

the historical lord of Autafort. (Conversely, none of the historical documents concerning Bertran gives the slightest indication that he was a poet.) He represents himself as an artist, in sharp contrast to the joglars, or minstrels, who are his servants and who gain their livelihood by singing, despite the fact that they sing badly.97 He sings well, according to his own testimony, but only to please himself, as an amusement among such other sports and pastimes as war, the tourney, largesse, and love.98 Taking his art seriously as a noble game, he wields his songs as weapons to chop shields and helmets (1.3), to frighten the cowardly (13.60), to reassure the cautious (10.5), or to stir up the bold (33.3). He speaks not only as a critic but also as a participant in the turmoil of the times.99 Yet his identity as an artist isolates him from other men, and his aesthetic heroism never penetrates from the poetic world into social reality. He boasts that his songs have made him many enemies (40.29-35), but admits that they often go ignored, and never claims any success in disseminating his ideal.100 In scattered songs he identifies himself as a vavasor and a cavalier, effective synonyms designating the most modest level of the aristocracy.101 He distinguishes himself from the great lords, the rics omes or the baros—he whose son was to be listed, as lord of Autafort, among the barones of Philip Augustus and ahead of his castellans, vavasours, and knights.102 Because of the intractable stubbornness of the imperfect society around him, Ber-

97. Mailolin sings badly, poem 27; so does Fuilhetas, 40.8. Joglars are associated with mercenaries in 26.15, 31-54, and 42.39. 98. Bertran sings well, 42.2, and to please himself, 10.5,17.3, 43.39, 47.4. His other diversions, 19.37—40, include song, 47.12. Composition is effortless for him, 3.1-2,19.2; otherwise he has no patience for it, 34.43. He depicts himself at war in the future tense in poem 1 passim, 3.36-42, 29.65-67, 35.36-42, 38.26, 41.41-50, and in the conditional in 34.9-10, 40.23-28 = 41.9-14. 99. 3.1-14, 17.1-5, 19.1-8, and 42.1-8. 100. 12.3-4, 40.2-4, and 46.40. 101. Un pro vavasor 13.20 and cavallier 5.32, 6.37. These occurrences are tinged with the humility of amatory rhetoric (cf. "Amors vol drut cavalgador" 30.51); cavallier had a special sense "'amant" (LR, 2:367). Valvasor and cavalierfigureas interchange-

able textual variants in a passage by Raimon Vidal enumerating the ranks in the social hierarchy from emperors, kings, dukes, counts, viscounts, contar, and vezcondor, to vavasors or knights, to clerks, burghers, and peasants; see J. H. Marshall, ed., The "Razos de Trobar" ofRnimon Vidal and Associated Texts, pp. 3-4. Robert Boutruche stresses the flexibility of the term vavasseur, which usually was applied to modest dependents but could indicate "un arrière-vassal séparé par un seul échelon du roi" (Seigneurie et féodalité, 2 [Paris: Aubier, 1970]: 271). 102. "Q'ieu non voill ges esser bar," 16.33. Bertran contrasts himself with the plus pros chastellans 0 rics baros, 8.55-56. He criticizes the rics, 2.22-28,16.28, 20.71-73, and 43.30-40. On the other hand, after the failure of the revolt of 1183 he uses rie and baro bitterly, to magnify the crushed hopes of the rebels—including himself (17.28-37).

44

Introduction

tran's satirical idealism imposed upon his poetry the point of view of an outsider ineligible for a role of moral leadership, and less well established in society than the benefactor of Dalon really was. Far from subservient to the general economic or sociological conditions of its historical era, the art of Bertran de Born dissembles the poet's social position as it incorporates the values of his age into an intensely individual aesthetic and moral vision.103 Bertran de Born accomplished through his poetry a mythification of himself which is impossible for the mythmaker in preliterate society. For this reason he among all the troubadours attracted greatest attention in the mythologizing vidas and razos, or reasons why poets composed individual songs, and went on in the thirteenth century to be treated as a mythic figure. By defining and redefining the relationships of a limited group of oppositions, he so intensified their meaning that it transcended the created work, and, attracted by the sense of personal presence which infuses the songs, became fixed on the poet himself. By mastering the conflict within his art Bertran de Born became its hero.

Bertran de Born and Literary Tradition The intrinsic dynamism of Bertran's art extends outwards not only into the political arena but also onto the literary rialto, where he played a pioneering role as the developer of a new and powerful form of continuity in verse. In view of the great number of other troubadours who provided models for Bertran's songs or, conversely, who imitated them, and in view of his spreading influence beyond Provençal lyric into other forms and languages, it seems not unreasonable to claim that he was more fruitfully engaged in the literary action of his time than any other troubadour before or since.

cetto, storia, miti e immagini del Medio Evo, ed.

ues were those of the nobility in general, including great lords such as he really was; hence we disagree with the interpretation of him as a representative of the lesser nobility—said to include not only poor knights, but mercenaries and joglars!—proposed by Erich Kôhler in "Die Sirventes-Kanzone," in

Vittore Branca. Despite the fact that Bertran sometimes adopts the persona of a simple knight, his val-

pp. 172-73-

103. While acknowledging the intellectual freedom of Cerveri de Girona, Martin de Riquer has emphasized the political determination of sirventes by various other troubadours in his study of "II significato politico del sirventese provenzale," in Con-

Mélanges offerts à Rita Lejeune, 1:159-83, esp.

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

45

The Technique ofStructural Imitation It was apparently Bertran, in the absence of earlier known cases, who first practiced the kind of structural imitation which was to become one of the notable characteristics of troubadour lyric as an art-form.104 Such imitation crystallized toward the end of the troubadour period into a rule employed by prescriptive critics as an essential element in their concept of the sirventes. By a false etymology, the genre was said to "serve" the canso, or love song, in the sense that the poet writing a sirventes—or a song in one of the lesser genres such as the tenso (that is, the debate) or the crusade song—should adopt the metrical structure of a canso. No link in theme or content between the two songs was called for. Exceptions to the rule were allowed in which a sirventes might have a new form, but these were clearly felt to be exceptions to normal practice.105 The verbal elements of such structural imitation were three: the abstract rhyme scheme, the number of syllables in each line, and the particular rhyme sounds. These three imply a fourth dimension of the song, the melody; by adopting the three verbal elements of his model's structure the poet assured that his words would fit the model's music. However, while we can easily compare any surviving poems with respect to rhyme scheme, syllable count, and rhymes, melodic transcriptions have survived for only about 10 percent of the extant troubadour compositions, so that it is rarely possible for us to verify in detail that structural imitation extended to the melody. Before Bertran's time, early troubadours employed the rhyme scheme, the syllable count, and perhaps the melody of a model in order to shape a song in answer to it.106 Bertran's key innovations were two: it was he who first used the 104. Frank M. Chambers, "Imitation of Form in the Old Provençal Lyric," esp. pp. m - 1 2 . See also Thiolier-Méjean, Les Poésies satiriques, "Métrique des pièces étudiées," pp. 41-62; J. H. Marshall, "Pour l'étude des contrafacta dans la poésie des troubadours." 105. For medieval statements of this principle in relation to the sirventes, see the Doctrina de compondre dictais, probably written in the last decade of the thirteenth century by Jofre de Foixà, in Marshall, The "Razos de Trobar," pp. 96, lines 35-39, and 97, lines 104-5; the Leys d'Amors in prose, in AdolpheFélix Gatien-Arnoult, éd., Monumens de la littérature

romane (Toulouse: Paya, 1841—43), i : 340; the same work in prose and verse, Las Leys d'amors: manuscrit de l'Académie des jeux floraux, ed. Joseph Anglade (Toulouse: Privat, 1919-20), 2:181. The term sirventes must have originally referred to a song composed or performed by a poet who was the servant of his public, according to Dietmar Rieger, Gattungen und Gattungsbe&ichnungen, pp. 68-119. According to the vida of Guilhem Rainol d'At, he "made new melodies for all his sirventes" (BoutièreSchutz, 495.2). 106. Chambers, "Imitation," pp. 108-11.

46

Introduction

same rhyme sounds as he found in his model, thus developing the principle of imitation to the full; and it was he who freed imitation from thematic constraint by restricting it to the purely formal dimension. The latter innovation was a crucial preliminary step toward the development of such fixed forms as the sonnet. Investigation of Bertran's role in the evolution of structural imitation is hampered by difficulties of chronology which render ambiguous many instances of the practice. A further cautionary observation is that Bertran does not make use of the generic distinction between sirventes and canso, on which the rule of imitation came to be based. He uses the term sirventes of his own songs just as Istvàn Frank does in his Répertoire métrique: poet and critic agree in applying it to eighteen texts.107 But canso in Bertran's language functions as a synonym of chan or the substantivized infinitive chantar, denoting song in contrast to speech, not a love song in contrast to a sirventes. The latter contrast could be expressed exceptionally by d'amor chan, as in 23.17, where chan itself retains its more general sense. Indeed Bertran calls two of his songs, numbers 27 and 33, both sirventes and cansos, without the slightest contradiction; and he further applies the term canso to two more poems (1 and 2) which Frank classifies as sirventes. As for his love songs (poems 4-9), Bertran gives them no generic name. The absence of this component of the later rule from Bertran's vocabulary confirms the innovative character of his influence on the rule's formulation, and directs our attention to his poems themselves, in which we find the rule anticipated clearly. In the following pages we shall survey his contacts with other poets in order to demonstrate that it was he who set the precedent which later became general in practice and precept. Bertran's Imitations In three certain cases Bertran modeled sirventes on preexisting cansos, one by Guillem de Saint-Didier and two by Raimbaut d'Aurenga (poems 23, 32, 37). In a fourth case (poem 44) Bertran probably used a canso as model, but could have 107. Bertran was the first troubadour to use the term sirventes regularly for any moral or satirical poem, instead of vers (which he does not use at all),

according to Thiolier-Méjean, Les Poésies satiriques, p. 22.

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

47

used an intervening tenso in the same form. Five more sirventes seem to have followed cansos, but their presumptive models are difficult or impossible to date (poems 29, 30, 34,43, and 33, imitated from Bertran's own poem 4). In two other cases, Bertran's compositions show formal features which set them in genres other than the sirventes, yet have the satirical tone characteristic of it: a cobla, or isolated stanza, as Frank calls it, probably imitates an undatable canso (poem 2$), and the sestina responds to Arnaut Daniel's love poem in the same form (poem 39). Finally, three more of Bertran's sirventes are modeled on a tenso (poem 11) and on other sirventes (poems 16, 26). Of these fourteen poems it is true to say that Bertran's satirical songs adopted preexisting structures, especially from love songs.108 For the remaining thirty-three poems in this edition, clear evidence of structural imitation is lacking. Among these are the six poems that Frank calls cansos (poems 4—9), two that he calls sirventes-cansos (poems 13, 20), and twenty that he calls sirventes. The available evidence suggests, then, that Bertran created new structures for his love poems and many of his satires, but adopted preexisting forms for about a third of his sirventes in the strict sense of the term. In contrast, about two-thirds of all the sirventes preserved appear to be imitations.109 The situation is complicated by three cansos which match poems by Conon de Bethune (see the discussion of Conon under Bertran's contemporaries, below). In only one case, poem 8, is the relative chronology certain, and there Bertran's canso served as a model. On the other hand, the generic classification of Conon's three poems is not beyond dispute; all three concern love, but in all three Conon adopts a scolding tone not unrelated to satire. If all three of Conon's poems are judged to be satires and if they were written after Bertran's relevant cansos, then the rule applies. But if any one of Conon's songs was in fact written before the corresponding one by Bertran, then Bertran's canso imitated Conon, contrary to 108. This total differs from Chambers's, of eleven . (ibid., pp. in—12), because we know of no model for poem 46 but add poems 16 and 26, for which the chronology has now been satisfactorily established (for Raimbaut d'Aurenga by Pattison in 1952, for Guillem de Bergueda by Riquer in 1971), and further add poems 25 and 39, which have not formerly been

attributed to Bertran. 109. Chambers, "Imitation," p. 105. ThiolierMéjean confirms that the use of original metrical forms in vers and sirventes became less frequent from the time of Bertran onward (Les Poésies satiriques, pp. 47-48).

48

Introduction

the rule. If any one of Conon's songs be considered a chanson, then inescapably one love song has imitated another, whichever poet did the imitation: if it was Bertrán, the rule was broken; if Conon, it was broken, too, unless we consider the rule to apply strictly only to imitation in Provençal, and not to imitation in French. No clear conclusion seems possible. Bertran's impact on other troubadours through structural imitation exceeded his debt to them. Although it is difficult to discern with confidence the original model of repeated imitations, it appears that as many as eighteen of Bertran's songs may have inspired imitation, including eleven of his sirventes, four cansos, a sirventes-canso (poem 13), a planh (poem 15), and the sestina (poem 39). (Seven of these had been imitated by Bertrán from earlier models.) They were imitated by some thirty-six poets in about forty-three poems. Bertran's sirventes were the models of sixteen other sirventes, ten coblas, two tensos, a crusade song, and a partimen; in other languages, poem 38 seems to have inspired a Picard chanson, a French religious song, and a German love song. Bertran's cansos led to two sirventes; a sirventes-canso; a love song by Bertolome Zorzi which Frank called a canso, but which is identified as a sirventes in the text itself for no other reason than the imitation and the rule (from poem 8); and a song in which the German poet Bernger von Horheim takes leave of his lady (from poem 4). Poem 13, called a sirventes-canso by Frank, inspired a sirventes and an enueg, or enumeration of annoyances; the planh, number 15, led to a sirventes and (it seems) a canso; Bertran's sestina, number 39, may have been imitated by Bertolome Zorzi, along with the original exemplar of the genre by Arnaut Daniel. It will be seen that the late rule encounters several likely exceptions among Bertran's imitators, although no single case is entirely beyond dispute. Bertrán and Earlier Troubadours The troubadours with whom Bertrán interacted as a poet were chiefly his contemporaries. He shows no interest in the art of G U I L H E M , count of Poitiers and duke of Aquitaine, great-grandfather of Richard Lionheart, nor in that of 110 J A U F R E R U D E L , prince of Blaye near Bordeaux, nor in the biting satire of no. Jaufre's amor de lonh provides an interesting contrast to Bertran's domna soiseubuda, poem 7.

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

49

although like him Bertran complains of cowardly and effeminate knights who shamefully avoid conflict.111 Contrary to what one might expect in view of the rule that a sirventes should imitate a canso, Bertran never imitated the work of B E R N A R T D E V E N T A D O R N , active from about 1150 to 1180, perhaps the greatest love poet among the troubadours and, according to his vida, Bertran's predecessor in retirement at Dalon. 112 Indeed, Bertran drew upon only one earlier troubadour, R A I M B A U T D ' A U R E N G A , who inherited shares in a number of castles and towns around Montpellier and in the region of Orange (Provence), and who died in 1173. Bertran took from Raimbaut the metrical form, the rhymes, and from a third to a half of the rhyme words of three of his sirventes; the rhymes in question include a number of the rare type characteristic of Raimbaut's trobar clus, or hermetic style. The models for Bertran's poems 32 and 37 are a matched pair of love songs, and that of his satire upon a joglar, number 26, is a sirventes castigating the lauzengiers, or 113 flatterers. But Bertran's use of Raimbaut was not limited to structural imitation. In poem 6, the escondich, or poem of excuses, he expands upon a stanza from Raimbaut in which the earlier poet vows never again to hunt with a hawk if he has deceived his lady; Bertran signals his point of departure by repeating Raimbaut's rhyme word esparvier at the head of his own first oath of fidelity (6.7). 114 In poem 24, his song of youth and age, Bertran again develops a suggestion from Raimbaut. In the first stanza of a canso Raimbaut plays on the word nou, and in the second on novel, both meaning "new"; the natural contrast to velh, "old," occurs in both. The first stanza ends with a thought much like that of Bertran's tornada, or short final stanza, and its last line closely resembles Bertran's line in the same position: MARCABRU,

départir del brau tempier," in Cultura Neolatina 13 HI. Joachim Storost claimed he found in the poetry of Bertran de Born echoes of Marcabru's vocab(1953): 5—33ulary, style, thought, and world view, but failed to 112. But consider the doubt cast on this statement document them; see his Ursprung und Entwicklung from Bernart's vida by Paden in "De l'identité histodes altprovenzalischen Sirventes bis auf Bertran de Born,rique de Bertran de Born," p. 219. pp. 119—20. For proof that certain words, expres113. P-C 389,27 Entre ¿¡el, ed. Pattison no. 15; sions, and allusions shared by Marcabru and Bertran 389,12 Ara non siscla, no. 14; 389,5 A Is durs, crus, were among the common goods of troubadour culno. 37. ture, see the individual editions of Marcabru's poems 114. P-C 389,6 Amies, en gran cossirier 50—56, ed. by Aurelio Roncaglia, especially "Marcabruno: Al Pattison no. 25.

jo

Introduction

E qui mos bons nous motz enten Ben er plus nous a son viven Qu'us vieills en deu renovellar.us Whoever understands my good new words will surely be newer as long as he lives, for an old man must be renewed by them. Other rhyme words from Raimbaut's poem are scattered through Bertran's. In his diatribe against the nouveaux riches, number 28, Bertran echoes sentiments expressed frequently by Raimbaut.116 These two lords and poets shared their social perspectives as well as their artistic vocations. Contemporaries Among contemporary troubadours with whom Bertran made literary contact, we may distinguish those, including several major poets, with whom he exchanged poetic forms and ideas, from others, mosdy lesser figures, who merely felt his influence. This distinction is far from airtight, however, since the available evidence is frequently difficult to interpret; indeed, rarely can we date both of two poems using a given structure with sufficient confidence and precision to reveal with certainty the direction of influence. Nevertheless, the contrast between Bertran's brothers in the art of song and his epigones emerges with sufficient clarity to be useful. The earliest reliable instance of structural imitation among troubadours is poem 11, a political sirventes written early in 1183, in which Bertran announces that he has adopted the melody from the son de n'Alamanda (v. 25), or "tune of Lady Alamanda," a tenso by G I R A U T D E BORNEILL. 1 1 7 In the model Giraut complains to his lady's chambermaid that her mistress has taken no pity on him; in the imitation Bertran makes a scathing assessment of the machinations of the

115. 389,1 Ab nou cor 7 - 9 , ed. Pattison no. 35. 116. Pattison, Raimbaut d'Oranjje, p. 17 and n. 49. On the basis of their rhyme schemes alone, Appel considered poems 3 and 14 further instances of imitation from Raimbaut ("Beiträge zur Textkritik der

Lieder Bertrans von Born," I, 2 4 6 - 4 7 ) , but the rhyme sounds are unrelated. 117. P-C 242,69 Si-us quer conselb, ed. Adolf Kolsen, Sämtliche Lieder des Trobadors Giraut de Bornelh, no. 57.

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

51

Young King. Giraut was a native of Excideuil in the Limousin, twelve kilometers northwest of Autafort (see Map IV). A professional entertainer of humble origin, he engaged Raimbaut d'Aurenga in a famous tenso discussing trobar clusns and addressed Raimbaut in several other poems; the period of his activity extends from about 1162 to 1199. Bertran's celebration of war and love, poem 30, which cannot be dated, matches the form and rhymes of another canso by Giraut which has been speculatively dated 1191-92. 119 Although either poet may have originated the form, one may incline to believe that Giraut did, in view of the later generic rule and of Bertran's imitation in poem 11. In poem 16, written after the death of the Young King on June 11,1183, Bertran again practiced imitation—albeit without calling attention to the fact. The form, the rhymes (except that Bertran substitutes -ona for -onha), and scattered expressions of Bertran's poem match those of one by G U I L L E M DE B E R G U E D À written between 1170 and 1175.120 Guillem's poem is a biting personal satire; in his imitation, Bertran pleads with Geoffrey of Brittany to take leadership in the barons' revolt. Guillem, the son and heir of the viscount of Berguedà in Catalunya, was active from 1138 to 1192; he became lord of five castles, but for reasons we cannot determine was never styled viscount himself. Perhaps later in the summer of 1183 or during the following fall, after Alfonso II of Aragon had aided Richard in the siege of Autafort, Bertran avenged himself with techniques of slander which he may have learned in part from Guillem (21.46—54 n.), as well as a calumnious anecdote from one of Guillem's sirventes (22.38—40 n.); Bertran says he learned another such tale from a vassal of Alfonso's, perhaps again Guillem (22.18 n.). In the same period he sent poem 23 to a number of Catalan lords, among them Guillem, whom he calls his brother and thanks for the happiness Guillem gave him on an occasion, which we cannot identify, when the two men parted at the head of a bridge (23.53-54^). Bertran's planh for Geoffrey of Brittany (who died in August 1186) may show the influence of a planh by Guillem (31.17—24 n.).

118. P-C 242,14 Emm platz, ed. Kolsen no. 58. 119. P-C 242,51 No pose sofrtr, ed. Kolsen no. 40.

120. P-C 210,11 Eu non cuidava, ed. Riquer, Guillem de Berguedà, no. 1.

5z

Introduction

On the other hand, Guillem's Be-m volria, a cry for battle probably written in 1192, seems to echo Bertran's manner in several early poems. 121 In the summer or fall of 1183, Bertran parodied verses addressed to him by GUILLEM DE SAINT-DIDIER, lord of Saint-Didier-en-Velay and vassal first of the viscount of Polignac, then of the cathedral of Notre-Dame du Puy (poem 2 3 . 1 8). Guillem's song ends with two tornadas: Amies Bertran, vers tal ai cor volon Qu'ilh chant3 e ri quant ieu languisc efon. Bertran, la fill* al pro comte Raimon Dejjram vezer, qu'ilh genssa tot lo mon.122 Friend Bertran, I have a yearning heart for a lady who sings and laughs while I languish and melt. Bertran, we should see the daughter of worthy Count Raymond, for she pleases everyone. Answering Guillem with his own rhyme scheme and rhyme sounds, Bertran ridiculed the first of these tornadas in his opening stanza (see the headnote to poem 23). Guillem's second tornada suggests that the acquaintance between the two lords was social as well as literary. It is tempting to speculate that Bertran's acquaintance with CONON DE B i -

121. P-C 210,4a Be-m volria, ed. Riquer no. 22. Guillem stirs up revolt against Alfonso as Bertran had done in poem 10 against Richard; his use of war cries in stanzas 4 and 5 recalls Bertran's more concise passage, 14.41-42; he hopes Pons Hug will not go to sleep (v. 36), rather as Bertran complained of Talairan's yawns (3.21); in his last verse he expresses disdain for any man who lets himself be disinherited without a fight to the death (qui vius s'i lais deseretar, v. 45), as Bertran jeered at those who let themselves be disinherited without protest (anz se laissen ses clam deseretar, 12.5). We are not persuaded by the interpretation of Fraire in 45.15 as a senhal for Guillem (see 4515 n.) or by that of bel Fratre in a poem of

Guillem's as a senhal for Bertran (Riquer, Guillem, 1:166). On the basis of Bertran's use of Tristan as a reciprocal senhal for his lady (29.60 n.), Riquer speculates that Tristan in two poems of Guillem refers to Bertran (Guillem, 1:161-62), but the assumption that the name must refer to the same person in these two exchanges seems uncertain, especially since Bernart de Ventadorn and Raimbaut d'Aurenga used it too. In any case, both passages in Guillem are beset with difficulties of interpretation. 122. P-C 234,3 Aissi cum es bella 49-52, ed. Aimo Sakari, Poésies du Troubadour Guillem de Saint-Didier, no. 2. Sakari is unable to identify the "daughter of Count Raymond" (p. 67).

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

53

the French lord and trouvère, might have begun earlier than any we have mentioned yet; however, as the evidence mostly involves love poems lacking clear chronological allusions, little can be said with confidence. Bertran might have met Conon at the court held by Henry II at Argentan, in Normandy, in 1182, the sole occasion known to us when he traveled to France.123 About this time the two men wrote songs of identical rhyme scheme and syllable count with some corresponding rhymes (Provençal -esa, -eis; French -oise, -ois) : Bertran celebrated a noble lady of the Limousin in poem 4, perhaps around 1182-85, and Conon complained that his Artesian dialect had been ridiculed at the royal court in a song variously dated around 1180-81,1182, or 1188.124 Whichever song was written first, the second must have exploited the contrast between Bertran's fanfare and Conon's scolding. It is certain that Bertran knew Conon by 1187—88, when he addressed him as Mon Isembart in poem 33—once more using the form of poem 4, but changing -eis to -ei—and in poem 40. When Conon returned from the Third Crusade (1189-93), he upbraided his lady for infidelity during his absence, adopting the form of Bertran's first song from Argentan (poem 8) and mimicking its rhymes -ia and -os as -ie and -ous in French.125 Bertran's second Argentan song, poem 9, matches another chanson by Conon, perhaps also written after the Crusade, in which the Provençal rhymes -is, -au, -ana echo as -is, -aus, -aine.126 THUNE,

123. On Bertran and Conon see E. Hoepffner, " U n Ami de Bertran de Born," in Etudes romanes dédiées à Mario Rxiques. For more on Conon, see Jean Frappier, La Poésie lyrique française aux Xlle etXIIIe siècles (Paris: Centre de Documentation Universitaire, [1954]), pp. 1 2 3 - 4 0 ; Alfred Adler, "Conon de Béthune: U n Guerri le Sor lyrique," in Studi in onore diltalo Sicilia.no, ed. Alfredo Cavalière (Florence: Olschki, 1956), pp. 9 - 1 4 ; Philipp August Becker, "Conon de Béthune," in his Zur Romtmischen Literaturgeschichte (Munich: Francke, 1967), pp. 174—82. For evidence that another of Conon's poems existed in a Provençal version see Jean-Marie d'Heur, "Traces d'une version occitanisée d'une chanson de croisade du trouvère Conon de Béthune (R. 1125)," Cultura Neolatina 23 (1963): 7 3 - 8 9 . On Conon de Béthune and Raimbaut de Vaqueiras see below, n. 160. 124. Spanke 1837 Mout me semontAmors que je

m'envoise, dated ca. 1180-81 in Axel Wallenskôld, éd., Les Chansons de Conon de Béthune, p. iv; ca. 1182 in Frappier, Poésie lyrique, p. 126; and 1188 in Becker, "Conon," pp. 176-78. A song by Gace Brûlé (fl. end of the 12th C.-1212) uses the same rhyme scheme and syllable count, but the rhyme sounds are unrelated: Spanke 1724 Bien ait l'amour dont l'en cuide avoir joie. An acquaintance between Gace Brûlé and Bertran was hypothesized by Holger Petersen Dyggve in Gace Brûlé, trouvère champenois (Helsinki: Soc. Néophilologique, 1951), pp. 30—31, and accepted by Silvia Ranawake, Hojische Strophenkunst (Munich: Beck, 1976), p. H; but see the well-grounded scepticism of Roger Dragonetti, La Technique poétique des trouvères dans la chanson courtoise (Bruges: De Tempel, i960), pp. 326-27. 12$. Spanke 1131 Ne lairai queje ne die. 126. Spanke 1420 Tant ai amé c'or me convient haïr.

54

Introduction

Conon also imitated the language, but not the form, of Bertran's sirventes against Alfonso of Aragón (poem 23) in a chanson and a crusade song.127 Bertrán appears also to have exchanged imitations early in his career with PEIRE VIDAL, said to have been the son of a furrier of Toulouse, who was active from the early 1180s until after 1200. Peire adopted the form and the rhymes (substituting -au for -ar) of Bertran's escondich, poem 6, for a gap in which he transforms the figure of the ridiculous knight from poem 6, stanza 6, into a miles gloriosus; he also echoes the braggadocio of poem 3, especially in his last three stanzas.128 Peire's poem has been variously dated 1181-82 and 1185, while Bertran's cannot be dated at all; nevertheless, the direction of influence from boast to burlesque seems inherent.129 On the other hand, Bertran's sirventes of 1184, poem 29, may have derived its form and rhymes from an undatable canso by Peire,130 in view of the later rule. The form of Bertran's poem 38 was employed in coblas by one Peire Pelissier, perhaps identical to Peire Vidal (Pelissier = "furrier"), and Blacatz; the coblas were probably written after 1196, the date of an intervening partimen (in the same form) which the coblas parody.131 ARNAUT DANIEL was a joglar, according to his vida, and a native of Ribérac (Dordogne), some sixty kilometers west of Autafort (Map III); his activity can be dated with certainty only in 1180, when he witnessed the coronation of Philip Augustus, but it is generally believed to have extended to about the end of the century. Several scholars have shown an unwarranted skepticism about an ac-

127. Spanke 303 Si voiremant con cele don je chant, 1314 Bien me deiisse targier. 128. P-C 364,18 Drogoman senher, ed. D'Arco Silvio Avalle, Peire Vidal: Poesie, no. 29. With Bertran's expression sabra de mon bran cum tailla 3.40, compare Peire Vidal's per ver sabra quai son li colp qu'ieu fier, v. 40. 129. Thus Istvân Frank, "Pons de la Guardia, troubadour catalan du X l l e siècle," Boletin de la Real Academia de Buenos Letras de Barcelona 22 (1949): 275. Avalle dates the poem between July 1181 and December 1182, but Riquer defends the date of 1185 proposed earlier by Hoepffner (Riquer, Los trovadores, p. 874).

130. P - C 364,25 La lauzet', ed. Avalle no. 23. 131. P-C 97,3 En Peltzer, ed. Avalle, Peire Vidal, n. 49; for the suggestion of parody see Joseph Linskill, ed., The Poems of the Troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, no. 9. We do not agree with Stanislaw Stroñski, ed., Le Troubadour Folquet de Marseille, p. 14*, that Bertran's poem 21 imitates Peire Vidal 364,11 Be-m pac, ed. Avalle no. 36 (see also Avalle, p. 308); there is no formal resemblance between the poems, which share only similar references to Sancho of Provence and Eudoxia. Cf. 21.20 n., 21.55-62 n.

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

55

quaintance between Arnaut and Bertran de Born,132 an acquaintance which left its traces in three songs by the joglar and four by the lord written ca. 1183—88. Bertran directs Arnaut juglar to carry his song, poem 24, to Richard, and in poem 25, the thematic pendant to the preceding, he uses the form and rhymes of one of Arnaut's cansos;133 he uses them again in poem 34, written in spring 1188. In turn Arnaut Daniel addressed another canso to a person named Bertran, and sent his prototypical sestina to someone he called by the senhal Desirat, identified by the scribe of MS H as Bertran de Born.134 If our attribution is correct, in poem 39 Bertran answered the sestina in its own form. This web of associations is too extensive to ignore. An acquaintance between the two contemporary poets of the same region seems highly probable. R A I M O N D E M I R A V A L was a poor knight of the region around Carcassonne who shared a casde with three other men, probably his brothers; his earliest datable activity occurred in 1x91. Raimon used the form and rhymes common to Guillem de Saint-Didier and Bertran's poem 23 to make a cobla,135 and perhaps borrowed epic language from Bertran's planh for Geoffrey, poem 31, in a canso.136 Bertran's poem 43, written in 1194, matches another canso by Raimon in its form and some of its rhymes, and may show a debt to Raimon's imagery (43.33—35 n.) —if Raimon's song is an early one, as his editor believes.137 To celebrate the return of Richard Lionheart from crusade and captivity in 1194, Bertran employed in poem 44 a form which had been used twice before to chronicle Richard's adventures. A canso attributed uncertainly to F O L Q U E T D E

132. Toja reviews the evidence and concludes that an acquaintance cannot be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt (Gianluigi Toja, ed., Arnaut Daniel, pp. 9-10, 382-84), as does Linda M. Paterson, Troubadours and Eloquence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), p. 198, n. 2. To the contrary, Riquer finds such a relation very possible (Trovadores, pp. 605-6). 133. P-C 29,17 Si-mfasamors, ed. Toja no. 17. In this poem, v. 33, and in P-C 29,2 Anc ieu 67, ed. Toja no. 7, Arnaut Daniel uses the senhal Mieills-de-ben, perhaps as Bertran uses the same senhal for Guiscarda de Beaujeu (5.12, 7-47), but Toja believes not

(Arnaut Daniel, p. 383). 134. P-C 29,11 Lancan son passat 49, ed. Toja no. 4; 29,14 Loferm voler 39, ed. Toja no. 18. 135. P-C 406,43 Tostemps enseing, ed. L. T. Topsfield, Les Poesies du troubadour Raimon de Miraval, no. 43. 136. P-C 406,15 Ben aia-l messagiers, ed. Topsfield no. 33. Topsfield suggests a date of composition near the time of the Albigensian crusade, 1209—29. 137. P-C 406,21 Chansoneta farai, ed. Topsfield no. 8. Topsfield tentatively orders the poem among those written around 1191-96 (p. 48).

56

Introduction

MARSEILLA, the merchant of Marseille who later became bishop of Toulouse, alludes to Richard's presence in the Orient;138 his capture in Austria is mentioned in a tenso by the M O N K O F M O N T A U D O N . 1 3 9 Bertran apparently addressed Folquet as mon Aziman in poem 7, presumably written during the 1180s; by the convention of the reciprocal senhal, Folquet addressed Bertran the same way in fourteen poems written from 1180 onward.140 This long friendship reached its culmination in the exchange of Folquet's song urging BelhsAzimans to take up the godly life 141 and Bertran's answering song of repentance and conversion, poem 45, written about the time he became a monk of Dalon. Epigones

It is a mark of Bertran's prominence as a poet that he attracted epigones who began to replicate his forms and disseminate his style while he was still at the height of his powers, and who continued to do so long after his death. Among those active during his life we find lords, knights, and humble joglars. Their only common trait, with the notable exception of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, is their mediocrity as poets. All those who were capable of greater things and who shared Bertran's interests engaged him in active dialogue. P E I R E D E B O U S S I G N A C , an inhabitant of Autafort who appeared with Bertran in a legal document of 1182 and the author of two sirventes against women, is said in his vida to have criticized Bertran's sirventes; however, no such texts have come down to us.142 Perhaps the earliest poetic trace of Bertran's epigones was left by the shadowy ROSTAN, whom Bertran mentions in poem 23.37, among the lords of Aquitaine double-crossed by Geoffrey of Brittany when he surrendered to his father after the revolt of 1183. The name occurs again, spelled Rostan0, as that of a poet (otherwise unknown) who imitated Bertran's miez sirventes, or halfsatire, of 1190, poem 38.143 In the imitation Rostan transforms Bertran's eagerness

138. P-C 155,12 Ja non volgm. Stronski denies the MS attribution to Folquet (Folquet, p. 127*). On the date of this and the related poems cf. Appel, "Beiträge," I, 248-49139. P-C 305,12 L'autrier fui. 140. Stronski, Folquet, pp. 3 9 * - 4 i * .

141. P-C 155,15 Hueimais no-y conosc, ed. Stronski no. 19. 142. See Paden, "De l'identité historique de Bertran de Born," pp. 216-19; Boutière-Schutz, p. 145; P-C 332; charter D 58. 143. P-C 461,43 Belbs senher Dieus.

Bertrán de Born and Literary Tradition

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for conflict into a passion for violent brigandage, which he advocates in a Active tenso with God Himself. As the dispute reaches its peak, God condemns Rostan to despair, and Rostan in turn threatens to quarter God's body if he gets the chance. It is not impossible that the two homonymous allies of Bertran in poetry and war were one and the same. Bertran's first poem on Conrad of Montferrat, poem 40, shares key expressions in two passages with the best-known song by P E I R O L , a poor knight and joglar of Auvergne, in which Peirol, like Bertran, urges Philip and Richard to bring help to the valiant marquis who fought the Saracens unaided in 1187—91.144 In metrical structure the two poems are unlike, and they share only the single rhyme involved in these lines. Poem 41 repeats one of the two passages from poem 40, along with much of its substance. In the absence of any external chronological differentiation between poem 40 and Peirol's song, it is possible either that Bertran made a verbal borrowing and repeated it in part or that Peirol borrowed from Bertran, and then Bertran partially repeated himself. We incline toward the latter view, considering that Bertran contracts no other verbal or formal debts to poets as modest as Peirol. Perhaps around the beginning of the thirteenth century, Peirol and Blacatz exchanged coblas in the form of poem 43.145 About 1221 Peirol lamented the loss of Conrad of Montferrat and many another ruler in a style reminiscent of Bertran's poem 42.146 Like Giraut de Borneill, G A U C E L M F A I D I T was acquainted with both Raimbaut d'Aurenga and Bertran. Gaucelm hailed from Uzerche in the Limousin, and was active from about 1172 to 1203. He may have celebrated Guiscarda de Beaujeu under the senhal Meilz-de-be, created by Bertran, if the expression was not applicable to any lady in need of a flattering sobriquet.147 In any case Bertran's second poem for Guiscarda, poem 5—which contains the senhal at v. 12—was the

144. P-C 366,29 Quant Amors trobet, éd. S. C. Aston, Peirol, Troubadour of Auvergne, no. 31; cf. Aston, pp. 8-9. For the passages see 40.20 n., 40.38 n., and 41.6. 145. P-C 97,8 Peirol, pois vengutz, ed. Aston no. 27; cf. Aston, p. 15.

146. P-C 366,28 Pusflum Jordan, ed. Aston no. 32; cf. Aston, pp. 16-17. Compare Peirol's stanzas 3-4 and Bertran's stanzas 3-5. Metrically unrelated. 147. P-C 167,61 Tot so qe is pert 55, ed. Jean Mouzat, Les Poèmes de Gaucelm Faidit, no. 32; cf. his discussion, pp. 266—68.

58

Introduction

object of structural imitation by Gaucelm in a sirventes-canso alluding to the Third Crusade, probably written in 1188-89. 148 Bertran's influence on poetic form may have reached as far as Germany. BERNGER VON HORHEIM participated in expeditions of Henry V I into Italy in 1190 and 1196; in his six extant poems he seems to show acquaintance with the work of Chretien de Troyes, Gace Brule, and Conon de Bethune, as well as Bertran. Poems 4 and 38 match the rhyme schemes and correspond to the stress-based metrical forms of two songs written by Bernger, the former datable in 1190. 149 The lack of correspondence in actual rhyme sounds does not weaken the likelihood of imitation, since the Minnesinger never intended to match their rhyme sounds to those of troubadour songs.150 Bertran's planh for the death of the Young King (poem 15, composed in 1183) is identical in form and rhymes to a lively canso by PEIRE RAIMON DE TOLOSA.151 For no other reason the canso has sometimes been dated before 1183.152 However, we have no other evidence that Peire Raimon was active much earlier than the death in 1196 of Alfonso II of Aragon, of whom he speaks in this song and in two more, and other poems of his must have been written as late as 1221. 153 His editors 148. P-C 167,58 Tant suiferms, ed. Mouzat no. 52. vençal poem may well be later than the German one 149- MF 114,21 Wie solt ich armer der swaerege- in his study of'"Aissi m'ave cum al enfan petit' eine trüwen, and 113,1 Mir ist alle zît ah ich vliegende mr; provenzalische Vorlage des Morungen-Liedes 'Mirst gesehen als eime kindelîne' (MF 145,1)?" in Mélanges Istvän Frank, ed., Trouvères et Minnesänger, items . . . Charles Rostaing (Liège: Assoc. des Romanistes 15a, 14a. de l'Université de Liège, 1974), i : 447—67. Silvia 150. Among the texts assembled by Frank in Trouvères et Minnesänger, no case may be found in Ranawake assumes that the Provençal text is the original in Höfische Strophenkunst, pp. 186-88. which a German poet has imitated the rhymes of a 151. P-C 355,9 No-m pose sofrir. French or Provençal model. A near exception is no. 152. Pio Rajna, "I due pianti per la morte del Re 17, Heinrich von Morungen's Mirstgesehen als eime Giovane," pp. 254—55. kindeline (MF 145,1), which matches the rhyme 153. See Anglade, "Poésies du troubadour Peire scheme and the syllable count of an anonymous and undatable troubadour song (P-C 461,9a Aissi m'ave), Raimon de Toulouse," Annales du Midi 31—32 (1919-20): 165, and Alfredo Cavalière, ed., Le poesie imitating the vowels in the rhymes of the first two di Peire Raimon de Tolosa (Florence: Olschki, 1935), stanzas. Even at best this highly unusual case represents an imitation of the original vowels, not the en- pp. v-ix. Kurt Lewent inconsistendy assumes that Bertran imitated Peire Raimon in his poem of 1183, tire rhymes. Moreover, the relative chronology of the two texts cannot be determined, and at worst the but admits it would be difficult to see Peire Raimon in the Petrus Raimundus of a document dated 1182; Provençal text, which can be found today in no manuscript at all, may be an apocryphal composition see his review of Cavalière in Romania 66 (1940): 12-31, esp. pp. 14-15. Dietmar Rieger inclines tofrom the hand of its first editor, Karl Bartsch (cf. ward the view here adopted; see his Gattungen und Frank's circumspect remarks, Trouvères et MinneGattungsbezeichnungen, p. 299. J. H. Marshall besänger., p. 183). Peter Hölzle argues that the Pro-

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seem reasonable in dating his activity around 1190-1221, which implies that he adopted the form of the canso in question from Bertran. If so, this case resembles several other exceptional cases from the beginning of the thirteenth century onward in which a canso imitated another canso.154 A triple partimen of 1196, formally modeled on Bertran's poem 38, engaged the energies of A D £ M A R OF P O I T I E R S , count of Valentinois, P E R D I G O N , and R A I M BAUT D E Y A Q U E I R A S . 1 5 5 Ademar argues the merit of a man who is courtly but moderate in generosity, while Perdigon defends the ideal of ostentatious largesse, and Raimbaut is left with no choice but to support the ideal of hospitality. Ademar of Poitiers was probably the target of poem 39, in which Bertran criticizes him severely for avarice (39.2n.). He has left us no other poems, and Perdigon's modest corpus shows no other influences of Bertran, but for Raimbaut the songs of Bertran seem to have constituted a fundamental experience in his own development as a major poet.156 Like Bertran, Raimbaut considers love and war to be genuine alternative values and turns from disappointment in love, in his cansos, to renewed dedication to war in his sirventes. He satirizes peace-loving lords and criticizes those who break their oaths, condemns misers and praises the generous. Bertran's two poems for Conrad of Montferrat, poems 40 and 41, seem to have inspired the "Epic Letter" which Raimbaut addressed in 1205 to Conrad's younger brother Boniface. 157 Bertran's planh for the Young King, poem 15, may have suggested certain elements in Raimbaut's planh for an unknown lady—if these common elements were not determined by the genre.158 On the stylistic level, Raimbaut imitates the enumerations in which Bertran characteristically lists such normative

Iieves it highly probable that Peire Raimon was the inventor; see his "Imitation of Metrical Form in Peire Cardenal," pp. 2 3 - 2 4 , and "Pour l'étude des contrajacta dans la poésie des troubadours," pp. 295-97154. Chambers, "Imitation," pp. 113—14. 155. P-C 392,15 Senher n'Aymar, ed. Linskill,

156. Valeria Bertolucci, "Posizione e significato del canzoniere de Raimbaut de Vaqueiras nella storia della poesia provenzale," Studi Mediolatini e Volgari 11 (1963): 9 - 6 8 .

no. 12.

no. 31.

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, no. 9, and Chaytor, Perdigon,

157. Ed. Linskill, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras,

pp. 2 9 9 - 3 4 4 ; Bertolucci, "Posizione e significato," pp. 19-25.

158. P-C 392,4a Arpreti camgat, ed. Linskill

6o

Introduction

symbols as courts and war, giving and flirting.159 In many songs his tone combines urgency, energy, and irreverence, much as does Bertran's. In 1204 Raimbaut offered advice to Bertran's friend Conon de Bethune, and engaged him in a partimen.160 BLACATZ, lord of Aups (Draguignan) in Provence from 1194 to the 1230s, engaged in coblas using forms from Bertran on two occasions. After Ademar of Poitiers, Perdigon, and Raimbaut de Vaqueiras had made their triple partimen of 1196 in the form of poem 38, Blacatz and Peire Pelissier (perhaps Peire Vidal) made a parody of the partimen.161 Around the beginning of the thirteenth century, Blacatz and Peirol imitated poem 43.162 Although Bertran and D A L F I N D ' A L V E R N H E are linked by neither structural imitation nor verbal echoes, the similarity in tone between the lord of Autafort and the count of Clermont seems too great to be attributed to coincidence. The literary activities of Dalfin as poet and Maecenas extend from the late twelfth century until his death in 1235.163 His scathing personal satires may show Bertran's influence,164 and perhaps he learned from our poet his manner of criticizing a lord for surrendering the active, generous life in favor of miserly indolence.165 Later Troubadours After Bertran's death, his influence lingered in the work of contemporaries who oudived him; furthermore, it spread to troubadours of the thirteenth century. His eldest son and successor as lord of Autafort, B E R T R A N D E B O R N LO F I L S , appears in documents from 1179 to 1224 and has left us four poems in his father's style, written between 1206 and 1230. 166 G U I L L E M D E D U R F O R T from near Car159. E.g., Bertran's 2.8-11, Raimbaut P-C 392,10 D'amor no-m lau 25—27, ed. Linskill no. 5; see Bertolucci, "Posizione e significato," pp. 1 4 - 1 6 . 160. P-C 392,9a Constili don 14, ed. Linskill no. 20; 392,29 Seigner Coinè, ed. Linskill no. 21. Cf. Bertolucci, "Posizione e significato," pp. 3 0 - 3 2 . 161. P-C 97,3 En Pelizer, ed. Soltau no. 3 and Avalle, Peire Vidal, no. 49; for the suggestion of parody see Linskill, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, no. 9. 162. P-C 97,8 Peirol, pois vengutz, ed. Soltau no. 2 and Aston, Peirol, no. 27; on the date, Aston, Peirol, p. 15.

163. See S. C. Aston in Dictionnaire des Lettres Françaises: Moyen Age, s. v. "Dalfin d'Alvernhe." 164. E.g. P-C 119,3 Joglaretz, a sirventes joglaresc; 119,8 Reis, pus vos, to Richard Lionheart. 165. P-C 119,5 Mauret, ed. Boutière-Schutz, p . 289.1.

166. On his life see the discussion of eldest son under "The Life of Bertran de Born," pp. 2 9 - 3 1 ; on the attribution of his poems, see "Poems Excluded," pp. 92-93-

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cassonne is attested in 1204; he used the form and rhymes of poem 34 in a sirventes.167 A I M E R I C D E P £ G U I L H A N was active from about the end of Bertran's secular career until about 1230, providing entertainment for great lords in the Midi and later in Italy. In 1 2 1 5 - 2 0 Aimeric adopted the form, the rhymes, and a number of phrases from Bertran's poem 29 for a sirventes on Italian affairs.168 About 1220 he wrote a canso using the rhyme scheme and some of the rhyme sounds, but not the syllable count, of poem 7 , the dompna soiseubuda, or "imaginary lady"; in the last stanza he listed his lady's virtues in a series of puns reminiscent of Bertran's enumeration of the qualities of his ideal mistress.169 Aimeric makes scattered use of conspicuous phrases from Bertran's planh for the Young King in his own planhs, and from Bertran's first song for Conrad of Montferrat in his own crusade song (poems 15, 40). 170 Perhaps among the acquaintances of Aimeric de Peguilhan was FORTUNIER, who wrote coblas using the form and rhymes of poem 46. 1 7 1 The Italian joglar P A L A I S imitated the structure of Bertran's poem 44 and his general satirical manner in a sirventes of the early thirteenth century.172 It was the particular achievement of P E I R E C A R D E N A L to demonstrate the range of technical accomplishments made possible by the increasingly strict conventions of structural imitation.173 He did so in an extensive corpus of sirventes, nearly all of them imitative in form, written during a career spanning most of the thirteenth century. His models were primarily cansos, according to the pattern initiated by Bertran and codified by the late critics, but for this reason it is all the more striking that he seems to have imitated more songs by Bertran than by any other troubadour. Peire turned to Bertran for models from the beginning to the end of his career. In three songs written around 1 2 0 4 - 9 , he regularized the pattern of poem 10 to criticize shameless women and wealthy thieves; adopted the 167. P-C 214,1 Car sai. 168. P-C 10,32 Lifolh, ed. Shepard-Chambers no. 32; cf. Chambers, "Imitation," pp. 114-15. 169. P-C 10,40 Per razo natural, ed. ShepardChambers no. 40. 170. "Mon chan fenis ab dol et ab maltraire," 15.1; cf. "Lo plang fenisc ab dol ez ab rancura" = P-C 10,48 S'ieu banc 55. "'Ben sias vengut!"'i5.3o; cf.

"l'aculhirs de 'Ben siatz vengutz'" = 10,22 De tot en tot 18. "Ara parra de prez qals l'a plus gran," 40.15; cf. "Ara parra qual serán enveyos" = 10,11 Ara parra 1. 171. P-C 158,1 S'en Almenes, ed. Kolsen, "Fünf provenzalische Dichtungen . . . ," pp. 157-58. 172. P-C 315,2 Be rn plat. 173. See J. H. Marshall, "Imitation of Metrical Form in Peire Cardenal."

form of Bertran's planh for the Young King, poem 15, for a satirical planh about the living; and imitated poem 23 (or its model by Guillem de Saint-Didier) in a satire on the immorality of society in general.174 In 1212-13, Peire took the form but not all the rhymes of poem 13, Bertran's address to Rassa, for a satirical address to Esteve de Belmon, canon of the cathedral of Le Puy, and he imitated poem 19, in which Bertran gloats over the return of his castle by Henry II—but he criticizes Bertran's implicit absolutism and refuses to praise any king who does not keep the law.175 In this poem Peire faults the heroes of the chanson de geste, whom Bertran so admired, for mindlessly slaughtering their enemies. Finally, in 1271 or 1272 Peire applied the form and language of Bertran's muz sirventes, poem 38, to the description of a contemporary conflict.176 For Peire Cardenal Bertran was a great predecessor among vernacular moralists and an important source of forms, themes, and style; but Peire rejected Bertran's moral outlook. More abstract and contemplative than Bertran, he observed the wicked world in a somber mood, whereas the lord of Autafort attempted with energetic pragmatism to change that world—unsuccessfully, as he admitted. U c DE S A I N T - C I R C , active from 1217 to 1253, was a joglar from a village in Aquitaine who traveled from court to court in Languedoc, then in Italy from 1220 until at least 1240. He used the form and rhymes of Bertran's poem 34 in a cobla, but may have direcdy imitated Bertran's model in Arnaut Daniel. 177 In two other poems he used the rhyme scheme and the syllable count, but not the rhyme sounds, of Bertran's poem 8; in one of them he echoes Bertran's language in poem 3.178 In the late 1230s in Provence, S O R D E L L O adopted the structure of poem 30, as well as Bertran's general manner.179 In 1240—41 he again drew upon Bertran, this 174. P-C 335,30 Las amairitz, ed. René Lavaud, Poésies completes du trobaäour Peire Cardinal (IISO 127S), no. 56; 335,2 Aissi com bom, no. 42; 335,57 Tostemps azir, no. 75. For more on the relation of poem 15 and Peire's Aissi com hom, see Dietmar Rieger, Gattungen und Gattungsbezeichnungen, pp. 299-301. 175. P-C 335,19 D'Esteve de Belmon, ed. Lavaud no. 16; 335,40 Per fols tenc, no. 20. 176. P-C 335,56 Tendas e traps, ed. Lavaud no. 23. Maus considered P-C 335,45 Qui ve gran, no. 67, an

imitation of poem n; but the two poems have only their rhyme scheme in common. See Lavaud, Peire, p. 444, and Marshall, "Imitation," p. 39. 177- P-C 457,10 De vos; cf. Arnaut Daniel 29,17 Si mfos amors, ed. Toja no. 17. 178. P-C 457,28 QuiNa Cuniça 11-12, "De mon bran / Sabra si s tailla ni-s pleia"; cf. sabra de mon bran cum tailla, 3.40. 457,38 Tant es de. 179. P-C 437,25 Pois no m tenc.

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time on poem 10, for the rhyme scheme and syllable count of a stinging invective against Peire Bremon Ricas Novas.180 But Sordello got worse than he gave: at about the same time he was the butt of a grossly vulgar sirventes by J O A N D ' A U 181 B U S S O N and a jeering anonymous cobla, both fashioned after Bertran's poem 23. Special consideration must be reserved for Bertran's poems 10, 23, 27, 30, and 38, which echoed through the verses of lesser poets. Number 30, the ode to war and love, provided the form and rhymes for a mieich-sirventes (with a nod to poem 38) by D A L F I N E T , probably a vassal of Dalfin d'Alvernhe, who performs variations on Bertran's rhyme words and his thought.182 Around 1227 F O L Q U E T D E R O M A N S imitated poem 30 in urging Frederick II to go on crusade, just as Bertrán had urged Richard to make war.183 The theme of the plazer de guerra spread to Provence, where it was sung by B L A C A S S E T around 1233—42, then by B O N I F A C E D E C A S T E L L A N E , who commemorated the inroads made by Charles of Anjou into Piedmont in 1260.184 In Italy the language of poems 30 and 38 resounded in political songs of the 1250s and 1260s.185 In 1259 the Genoese poet P E R C I V A L L E D O R I A , who wrote in both Provençal and Italian, used Bertran's language to rejoice at the prospect of war between Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile; in 1261 an anonymous Ghibelline poet mocked kings and praised the emperor in Bertran's manner; about 1264 another Genoese, LuC H E T T O G A T T I L U S I , reminded Charles of Anjou that his ancestor Charlemagne had conquered Apulia (a legendary event which Bertrán also mentions); and R A I M O N D E T O R S warned Charles to beware of perfidious priests, in a style so close to Bertran's that it deceived two sixteenth-century Italian scribes into attributing the poem to the lord of Autafort and monk of Dalon.186 One A I C A R T D E L F O S S A T , otherwise unknown, used the meter and rhymes of the anonymous 180. P-C 437,20 Lo reproviers. 181. P-C 265,3 Vostra iomna-, and 461,80 De tot quan, ed. Riquer, Trovadores, p. 1455. 182. P-C 120,1 De mieich-sirventes. 183. P-C 156,11 Quan cuit, ed. Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis, Poesie provenzali storiche, 2:86. 184. Blacasset P-C 96,6 Guerra mi piai, ed. Riquer, Trovadores, no. 259; and Boniface de Castellane 102,2 Guerr'e trebaills, ed. Bartholomaeis, 2:202. 185. Most of these imitations were pointed out

by Vincenzo de Bartholomaeis, "I Trovadori e la storia d'Italia," in his Poesie provenzali storiche relative all'Italia (Rome: Senato, 1931), 1: vii-bcxx. 186. Percivalle Doria P-C 371,1 Felon cor, ed. Bartholomaeis, 2:189; anonymous Ghibelline 46i,i64a Ma voluntatz, ed. Bartholomaeis, 2:205; Luchetto Gattilusi 290,1 Cora qu'ieu, ed. Boni no. 3 (cf. Bertran 34 24); and Raimon de Tors 410,2 Ar es ben, ed. Bartholomaeis, 2:212.

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sirventes of 1261 along with language from several of Bertran's poems to greet the ill-starred challenge to Charles of Anjou mounted by Conradin in 1266.187 Bertran's sirventes joglaresc, or sirventes addressed to a joglar, to his minstrel Mailolin (poem 27) was also influential in Italy in this period. In one structural imitation the joglar L A N T E L M E T DE L ' A G U I L H O N reversed Bertran's terms by using them to insult a baron.188 In another, two joglars named G U I L L E M R A I M O N (who was active at the Este court in the early 1260s) and MOLA exchanged scurrilities wittily couched in reminiscences of Bertran's words.189 In this poem and a related one Guillem Raimon speaks of Bertrán de Born, whom he calls by his first name, as though he were still alive—treating him as a living legend.190 The form of Bertran's poem 38 and related rhymes are found in an anonymous chanson from Picardy and in a thirteenth-century French song in praise of the Virgin. 191 Several troubadours of the late thirteenth century used the structure of poem 23, or perhaps of Bertran's model in Guillem de Saint-Didier. They included R A I M O N G A U C E L M OF BÉZIERS, who flourished from 1262 to 1275; B E R T R Á N OF P A R I S in Rouergue, active from 1270 to 1290, who imitated this structure and several others in a poetico-musical medley; B E R T R Á N C A R B O N E L , a merchant of Marseille active from 1285 to 1300, who composed a cobla in proverbial style to the effect that a small but brave man may overpower a tall coward; and the anonymous author of a cobla against avarice.192 Raimon Gaucelm of

187. P-C 7,1 Entre dos reis, ed. Bartholomaeis, 2:247188. P-C 284,1 Er ai ieu, ed. Paden, "Bertran de Born in Italy," in Italian Literature: Roots and Branches, pp. 49-50, 57-60. The translation offiacs in v. 9 should read "limp" rather than "imp." 189. P-C 229,4 On son and 302,1 Reis feritz, ed. Paden, "Bertran de Born in Italy," pp. 54-55, 61-64. 190. P-C 229,3 N'Obs de Biguli 11, ed. Paden, pp. 50—54, 60—61; and 229,4 On son 7. 191. Spanke 1457 Puis que li mal qu'Amours me jbntsentir, ed. Frank, Trouveres et Minnesanger, item 14b; and Spanke 1601 Douce dame, roiine de bautpris. An influence of poem 38 on a poem by the fifteenthcentury Catalan writer Guillem de Masdovelles, beginning "En breu veyrem torney mortal bastir," has

been suggested by Riquer (Ltrica, p. 426), but aside from the slight verbal echo in the first line, there are only vague or general resemblances in form and tone. See R. Aramon i Serra, éd., Cançoner dels Masdovelles (Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, 1938), pp. 189-90. 192. Raimon Gaucelm P-C 401,3 A penas; Bertran de Paris 85,1 Guordo, ed. François Pirot, Recherches . . . , pp. 596-614; Bertran Carbonel 82,87 Tab vai; and Anon. 461,33 Auzit ai. For the date of Bertran de Paris, see Pirot, Recherches, p. 318. In view of the several other extant poems in the same form, we do not share Pirot's feeling that the models of Bertran de Paris's poem must have been lost (Recherches, pp. 273-80).

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Beziers and G U I L H E M D E M U R imitated the form of poem 10 in a tenso and a crusade song, respectively, while regularizing it rather as Peire Cardenal had done.193 B E R T O L O M E Z O R Z I was a Venetian merchant who was captured by the Genoese and held prisoner from 1263 until 1270; he died about 1300. He imitated Bertran's first canso from Argentan, poem 8, in a moralizing love song written during his captivity; by its subject matter the work is a canso, a notable late exception to the rule of imitation which we studied above, but Bertolome Zorzi calls it a sirventes in the text, evidendy because of its imitative form. 194 He also wrote a sestina with the rhyme words found in both the prototype by Arnaut Daniel and Bertran's response, poem 39.195 C E R V E R F D E G I R O N A was active from about 1259 until 1285 as a court poet in the service of the viscount of Cardona (in Catalunya) and of the king of Aragon. Inspired by Bertran's poem 38, the miez sirventes, he wrote a manifest imitation in 1259 and called it by the same name; he used the term again for another poem decrying civil war, that is, all forms of war except conflict between kings.196 He also continued the tradition of Bertran's dompna soiseubuda, poem 7.197 Cerveri echoed Bertran's opinions in satires against knights who prefer the easy life to war and against the nouveaux riches.198 In variations on the miez sirventes he experimented with mig vers, or half-verses, and called one poem mig vers e miga cango, "half-verse and half-canso"; in another tradition originating with Bertran, he tried his hand at two enueg.199 Late in the thirteenth century another Catalan, 200 J O F R E D E FoixA, wrote a cobla using the form and rhymes of poem 29.

193. Raimon Gaucelm P-C 401,6 Joan Miralhas; Guilhem de Mur 226,2 D'un sirventes; and Peire Cardenal 335,30 Las amairitz (see the discussion of Peire under "Later Troubadors," pp. 61-62). Marshall, "Imitation," p. 36. 194. P-C 74,14 Si tot m'estauc 73. Canso according to István Frank, Répertoire métrique de la poésie des troubadours. 195. P-C 74,4 En tal dezir. 196. P-C 434a,12 Can aug, ed. Riquer, Obras, no. 37; and 434a,36 No m pusch, no. 38.

197. P-C 434a,17 De Pala, ed. Riquer, Obras, no. 10. 198. P-C 434,14a Tant ay, ed. Riquer, Obras, no. 7; and 4343,48 Princep enic, no. 82. 199. P-C 434a,56 Segons que, ed. Riquer, Obras, no. 99; 434a,32 Mieg vers, no. 100; and 434,11 Qui bon, no. 101. The two enueg are: 4343,74 Trop m'enug, no. 30; and 434a,18 De vigras, no. 55. 200. P-C 304,4 Sobrefitsa, ed. Riquer, Trovadores, p. 1648.

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Minor Lyric Genres Bertran was instrumental in the creation of several minor but hardy genres. The enueg, or enumeration of annoyances, with its complement the plazer, or enumeration of pleasures, was invented by the Monk of Montaudon, but the Monk was probably inspired by Bertran's antitheses of annoyance and delight, developed in such poems as 6,13, 24 through 28, 30, and 40. The melody of poem 13 provided that of one of the Monk's enueg, according to the scribe of MS R, even though the Monk's stanza is shorter than Bertran's.201 Bertran's plazer deguerm, poem 30, must have contributed particularly to the creation of the Monk's more general plazer.202 In turn the Monk was imitated in Italian poems called noie, written by Girardo Patecchio, who flourished at Cremona around 1228, and in two matched responses to Girardo by Ugo de Perso.203 Their example was to be followed in sonnets and canzoni expressing annoyance or pleasure by Guittone d'Arezzo, Chiaro Davanzati, Bindo Bonichi of Siena, and Cino da Pistoia, and in a long poem in terza rima by Antonio Pucci, the fourteenth-century Florentine poet. Petrarch listed pleasures which could no longer touch his lovesick heart and called his life a noia in Rime 312. French parallels may be found in the works of Eustache Deschamps. There are scattered instances of the genre in Portuguese and in Catalan, where it was practiced by Jordi de Sant Jordi during the fifteenth century.204 It occurs in English in Shakespeare's Sonnet 66 ("Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry") and in an anonymous sonnet of the sixteenth century.205 The fourteenth-century Leys d'amors define a genre called the escondich, or poem of excuses, of which Bertran's poem 6 is the only example known in Pro-

201. P-C 305,10 Fort m'enoja. Cf. Appel, "Beiträge," I, 253; and Chambers, "Imitation," p. 117. 202. P - C 305,15 Mout mi platz. 203. In Gianfranco Contini, ed., Poeti del duecento (Milan and Naples: Ricciardi, [i960]), 1:585-95. 204. See Raymond Thompson Hill, 'The Enueg" PMLA 27 (1912): 265-96; and idem, "The Enueg and Plazer in Mediaeval French and Italian," PMLA 30 (1915): 4 2 - 6 3 . On the Portuguese continuation by António Ribeiro Chiado, see Giulia Lanciani, "Dagli enuegs alle parvoices," Cultura Neolatina 30 (1970): 250-99. O. Gsell regards the enueg

and the plazer as stylistic procedures rather than as genres in a strict sense, and denies that imitations of them occurred in Portugal or France; see "Les Genres médiévaux de l'enueg et du plazer," in Actes du se Congrès International de Langue & Littérature d'Oc et d'Etudes Franco-Provençales, ed. Gérard Moignet and Roger Lassalle ([Nice]: U.E.R. Civilisations, 1974), pp. 4 2 0 - 2 8 . 205. Ernest Wilkins, "The Enueg in Petrarch and Shakespeare," Modem Philology 13 (1915): 4 9 5 - 9 6 ; Richard Levin, " A Second English Enueg" Philological Quarterly 53 (1974): 4 2 8 - 3 0 .

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vengal.206 Perhaps the authors of the Leys invented the genre on the sole basis of this poem out of their characteristic zeal for classification, but it is also possible, of course, that other examples of the genre were written and have been lost.207 In any case there are three such poems from the thirteenth century in GalicianPortuguese, two by Fernan Garcia Esgaravunha, a poet well versed in troubadour forms, and one by either Joan Soares Coelho or Vasco Gil.208 In the canzone beginning SVl dissi mat, with an air of amorous servility which contrasts with Bertran's aristocratic wit, Petrarch calls down a series of calamities on himself if he has said he loves another woman, as his lady suspects.209 There are echoes of Petrarch's language and of details from Bertran's poem in two Catalan escondits written perhaps in the fourteenth century, one by Lloreng Mallol, the other by an anonymous poet. In the fifteenth century more Italian poems were written in the genre by Simone Serdini, Serafino Aquilano, and others, and the Catalan tradition was continued by Jordi de Sant Jordi and Romeu Llull. In the sixteenth century, Michelangelo Buonarroti left a fragmentary example of the form, and it flourished in Spanish and Portuguese.210 Bertran's dompna soiseubuda, or "imaginary lady" (poem 7), participates in a long tradition reaching back to Hesiod and Xenophon, forward to Ronsard ("Quand en naissant la Dame que j'adore," Amours, 1.32) and Shakespeare (As

206. Gatien-Arnoult, Monumens, 1:348; Anglade, Leys d'Amors, 2:184. The motif had been anticipated by Raimbaut d'Aurenga in P-C 389,6 Amies, engran cossirier 50—56, ed. Pattison no. 25, and by Giraut de Borneill in P-C 242,63 Razon e he 46-51, ed. Kolsen no. 17, which Kolsen dates in perhaps 1167. 207. The former interpretation is that of Alfred Jeanroy in "Les Leys d'amors," Histoire Littéraire de France, 38 (1941): 139-233, at p. 184; the latter was advanced by Martin de Riquer in "El 'escondit' provenzal y su pervivencia en la lirica românica," Boletin de la RealAeademia de Buenos Letras de Barcelona 24 (1951-52): 201-24. Riquer makes ingenious but rather forced arguments that other Provençal escondichs must have existed, and that Bertran's poem exerted direct influence only on Llorenç Mallol and the anonymous Catalan poet.

208. Giuseppe Tavani, Repertorio métrico délia lirica galego-portoghese, 43.2 A que vus fui, 4314 Quen vus foy dizer, 79.15 Dizen que digo. 209. Rime 206. 210. Riquer, "El 'escondit,'" gives the texts of the poems by Llorenç Mallol (Moites de vetz), the anonymous Catalan (.ne dix laltrir), and Romeu Llull (Si-us he mal dit); he edited the one by Jordi de Sant Jordi separately, in Jordi de Sant Jordi (Granada: Universidad de Granada, 1955), pp. 111-13 (Tant es li mais). For Spanish and Portuguese, see Valerie Masson de Gómez, "Spanish and Portuguese Renaissance Imitations of a Twelfth-Century Provençal Genre, the 'Escondit,'" Philological Quarterly 52 (1973): 20-29; Italian examples are noted on pp. 22, 25, 28. Masson de Gómez points out the Castilian term salva, equivalent to escondit, in the Libro de Buen Amor (v. 104a) and elsewhere (p. 22, n. 8).

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Tou Like It, 3.2.153).211 Within this tradition, Bertran's poem inspired several troubadour poems which may be considered to constitute a minor genre. In the early 1190s Elias de Barjols conceived an ideal knight in Bertran's fashion, and called upon the lord of Autafort to contribute his wit to the project.212 As we have seen, Aimeric de Péguilhan probably imitated Bertran's poem in a canso written about 1220.213 In his Recepta de xarob, or "Prescription for a Potion," Cerveri de Girona recommended that the goddess of Love, stricken with illness, take a draught compounded of the charms of four viscountesses of Catalunya.214 Nonlyric Genres: The Vidas andRazos In the early thirteenth century the Catalan writer Raimon Vidal quoted passages from poem 20 as maxims in his romances So fo e-l temps and Abril issia.215 In his Razos de Trobar, the earliest Provençal grammar, he quoted poem 23 to illustrate a linguistic point.216 But Bertran's prominence grew beyond the lyric medium in the prose of the Provençal vidas and razos, where he attracted greater attention than any other of the 101 troubadours represented. This attention of course reflects the intrinsic interest of his poetry, but it may be understood more specifically as a consequence of the prominent role he assumed in his own songs as poet and hero.217 The dates and authorship of the vidas and razos are problematic. Favati believes that all the razos were written by Uc de Saint-Circ (who imitated Bertran in verse, see above) in Italy during the 1220s, and the vidas by various authors in 211. A. H. Schutz, "Ronsard's 'Amours' XXXII and the Tradition of the Synthetic Lady," Romance Philology i (1947—48): 125-35. For more on the Elizabethan versions and their classical models, see K. K. Ruthven, "The Composite Mistress," Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association, no. 26 (1966), pp. 198-214. 212. P-C 132,5 Belhs-Guazanhs, ed. Stanislaw Stronski, Le Troubadour Elias de Barjols, no. 1. On the date see Stronski; S. C. Aston, "Observation sur la datation de quelques troubadours," in IVe Congrès de Langue et Littératures d'Oc et d'Etudes FrancoProvençales, Avignon (7-13 septembre 1964) (n.p.: Edi-

tions de la Revue de Langue et Littérature d'Oc, 1970), pp. 91-105; and Riquer, Trovadores, p. 1196. 213. P - C 10,40 Per razo natural. 214. P-C 434a,17 De Pala, ed. Riquer, Obras, no. 10. 215. Max Cornicelius, éd., So fo e-l temps (Berlin: Feicht, 1888), w . 1372-75 = 20.19-22; W. H. W. Field, éd., Abril issia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971), w . 4 6 8 - 7 1 = 20.85-88. 216. Marshall, The "Razos de Trobar": B 205 (p. 12) = CL 186 (p. 151) = 23.41. 217. See the section on Bertran's art, above.

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the following decades. In their more recent edition Boutiere and Schutz maintain that the two prose genres were invented simultaneously, partly in the south of France and partly in Italy, where they concede the significant role played by Uc de Saint-Circ.218 None of the texts on Bertran contains any indication of authorship or date. Discussion of the prose genres has been devoted almost entirely to determining the degree and nature of their historicity. In 1879 Cledat scrutinized the political razos on Bertran with care and concluded that they offer not objective history but commentary directed specifically to the poems which includes errors of fact and figments of the imagination as well as elements of historical truth.219 In 1914 Stronski analyzed the razos on Bertran's love poems and proved to universal satisfaction that the commentators invented a mistress for Bertran out of thin air, called her the sister of two real women and the daughter of a real man, and married her to a husband as fictional as she.220 In view of the weight of the prose texts on Bertran within the genre as a whole, it is not surprising that these conclusions have contributed significantly to the consensus regarding the vidas and razos in general. Most critics agree that they were composed more for the sake of entertainment than for information and that although they of course contain factual statements, particularly concerning such objective data as the poet's place of birth, his social status, or his death, their more imaginative elements, above all their tales of romance, are unreliable.221

218. Guido Favati, ed. Le biografie trovadoriche (Bologna: Palmaverde, 1961); Boutière-Schutz, pp. viii- x. The argument that verb forms in -a expressing past events indicate the influence of the Venetian dialect, advanced by Boutière and Schutz (pp. xxxix-xliv), has been disputed by William D. Paden, Jr., "L'Emploi vicaire du présent verbal dans les plus anciens textes narratifs romans," in XIV Congresso Internazionale di Linguistica e Filologia Romanza: Atti, voi. 4, ed. Alberto Varvara (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1977), pp- 545-57219. Léon Clédat, Du Rôle historique de Bertrand de Born (117s-1200). 220. Stanislaw Stronski, La Légende amoureuse de

Bertran de Born. 221. Another pioneering work in the analysis of the prose genres was Stronski, Folquet. For the consensus see Jeanroy, Poésie lyrique, i : 101-32; Stronski, La Poésie et la réalité aux temps des troubadours (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1943); Boutière-Schutz, pp. vii-xv; and Riquer, Tromdores, par. 19. For a strikingly similar view of the biographies of ancient authors, see Mary R. Lefkowitz, "The Mythical and the Memorable," Times Literary Supplement, 8 August 1980, p. 893. Bruno Panvini advanced weak arguments for greater historical reliability in Le biografie provenzali: valore e attendibilità (Florence: Olschki, 1952).

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Less interest has been shown in the question which follows logically from these historical investigations, namely that of the aesthetic structure which produced the skewed relation to history in the vidas and razos. The texts on Bertran may serve as a point of departure for such a study. We have razos for nineteen of his poems, including two versions for two of them, and two contradictory versions of his vida.222 The commentators have made a selection from Bertran's total work centering around the revolt of 1183, in which he came into personal contact with the turbulent and fascinating Plantagenets; of the fourteen poems he wrote concerning the events of this period (our poems 10-23), ten are the subjects of razos, and there is another razo on the closely related poem 3. A smaller group of four razos concerns poems of 1187-94, and there are four more on the love poems. The three manuscripts containing the bulk of these razos (F, I, K) present them in an order which differs from the order in which the poems discussed were composed, but which reveals an attempt to draw out of the poems a highly coherent pattern of themes.223 Not only does the revolt of 1183 dominate other matters in the number of razos dedicated to it, in the manuscript sequence the revolt provides the central cluster of texts, preceded and followed by shorter sections on political affairs of 1187-94 and on love, respectively; these sections in turn are introduced and concluded with razos on the revolt. The two outstanding motifs of the revolt, as presented by the commentators, are Bertran's association with Richard—who as seen in retrospect from the thirteenth century had been the hero of his age—and the constantly renewed struggle for possession of Autafort. The role of Richard in Bertran's life and poetry is consistently heightened throughout the razos, and the single historically attested siege of Autafort by Richard in July 1183 is tripled (or told three times in differing versions), allowing one siege by Richard, one by Henry II, and one by both together, not to men-

222. In comparison, Giraut de Borneill has razos for six poems; both Gaucelm Faidit and Raimon de Miraval have five; and Folquet de Marseilla has four. Each of these troubadours has a vida as well. 223. Favati, Bwgrafie, presents the razos on Bertran in their manuscript order with only slight

and intrinsically justified modification (no. 13, A-B and I-XVIII, pp. 147-73). Boutière and Schutz, claiming without discussion that this order "n'a rien de méthodique" (p. 70), construct an order of their own loosely following the order of composition of the poems (no. XI.A-T, pp. 65-139).

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tion numerous exchanges of the castle by stealth between Bertran and Constantine. The series of razos ends with one on Bertran's planh for the Young King, poem 15, which associates him not only with the dead prince but with Henry II and Richard as well. The planh begins with Bertran's grief-stricken declaration that he will sing no more. He did, of course, but the final position accorded this razo by the commentators reveals their intention to make poetic statements seem literally true. Similarly, the razo on poem 7 says that Bertran really did ride about the countryside asking various ladies to give him their best qualities to make up an imaginary lady. In the razos poetry becomes history for the same reason that history becomes poetry: in order to normalize both, to reconcile them, to satisfy a mild sense of versimilitude which demands neither historical rigor nor aesthetic fidelity, but only easy accommodation of puzzling information. Be it never so idle, the commentators will provide a razo, a reason true or false, for everything. They indulge in their errors and fantasies out of no perverse desire to alarm the historical positivist, but simply to make sense of the poetry in their easygoing way. The psychology of the characters in the vidas and razos is marked by simplicity. Bertran loves war, Richard is a proud suzerain, Maeut is a haughty mistress. Their emotions are registered as either happy or sad, usually very much so. Their relations take the form of love or hate, the latter usually realized in the form of war. Their actions take extreme forms, as when Henry II weeps and faints at Bertran's grief for the Young King, or when Bertran falls in love with Maeut sight unseen. The style achieves an effect of smooth familiarity by its constant resort to a few characteristic expressions. The language of the commentators tends toward allinclusiveness (tot, totz temps, odes) or exclusiveness (ja no, no mas, nul), intensification (gran, molt, fort, trop), or superlatives (plus, meiller). The reports of direct discourse between Bertran and Henry II or a lady demonstrate an effortless fabrication of historical detail. The commentators repeat themselves frequendy and willingly call attention to their own repetitions or occasional anticipations, observing that the listener has heard something before or will hear it again. The echoic effect within the razos compounds the repetitious commentary on Bertran's text, which runs the gamut from identifying characters to explaining

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allusions, reporting or inventing relevant anecdotes, and occasionally paraphrasing Bertran at length. The reader comes to feel he has heard it all before, which is precisely the lulling effect intended. The authors of the vidas and razos denigrate the autonomy of fiction by assuming that the art of Bertran, or of any other troubadour, can be satisfactorily appreciated by tracing some subordination—real or imagined—to the circumstances of its composition. By omitting the prose texts from this edition, we hope to accomplish the effect once predicted for the troubadours in general by Rita Lejeune: to restore to the text of the poet himself a humanity, a body, a life which has long gone unsuspected.224 Not only do the prose texts confuse historical matters—worse, they mask Bertran's vigor, clarity, and wit, and make it difficult to perceive the lively modulations in his tone. The modest but genuine merits of the vidas and razos lie in their pleasant fantasy, their casual imaginative ease. These qualities do disservice to any troubadour who takes his craft more seriously,225 and gravely distort the strenuous intransigence of Bertran, whose true reason to sing is an aesthetic and moral imperative demanding expression in order to judge, to criticize, even to change—or attempt to change—the world around him. Miniature Paintings The troubadour chansonniers contain six miniature paintings illustrating Bertran's poems; all were executed in Italy, five during the thirteenth century and one during the fourteenth.226 Poem i is decorated in MS I with a picture of two knights jousting in the tourney which Bertran describes (f. 174-v), and in MS K with a mounted knight raising his lance (f. i6or). The threat which Bertran makes in poem 3, stanza 6, to brain any soldier of Richard's that he can find at the siege of Perigueux, finds admirable illustration in a miniature in the fourteenth-

224. Rita Lejeune, "Ce qu'il faut croire des 'biographies' provençales: La Louve de Pennautier," Moyen Age 49 (i939): 233-49. 225. For commentary on the vida of Arnaut Daniel, see William D. Paden, Jr., et al., "The Troubadour's Lady: Her Marital Status and Social Rank,"

Studies in Philology 72 (1975): 28-50, esp. pp. 4 5 - 4 6 . 226. See J. Anglade, "Les Miniatures des chansonniers provençaux," Romania 50 (1924): 593-604; and Pio Rajna, "Bertran de Born nelle bricciche di un canzoniere provenzale."

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century MS M, unfortunately smeared, which shows a knight in the saddle, charging forward and raising his sword for a blow (f. mjx). Poem 17 is accompanied in MS A by a marginal instruction, in Italian, from the scribe to the miniaturist: ".j. bel caualler ben armado a cauall cu. .j. scudo a collo & la langa soto bra^o" ("a handsome knight well armed on horseback with a shield at his neck and his lance under his arm"; f. i89r). The instruction calls for a stereotyped image rather than any specific illustration of poem 17, which describes no knight-at-arms. Indeed, at the end of the poem Bertran declares he will no more make war for love of Sir Ademar—with heavy irony, it is true, since he despised the viscount of Limoges. Yet the instruction may have picked up a detail from Bertran's other poems, where he describes his shield at his neck with a formulaic expression from the chansons de geste (6.31-32, 34.16). In turn the miniaturist ignored his instruction to put the shield a collo and the lance soto brago: instead the knight carries his shield on his arm and his lance in his hand. Other details from the painting show no effort to be faithful to Bertran's poems—the pennant is blue, not white (34.10), and the horse is dappled, not a bay (3.38). Yet the knight's headgear has the shape assumed by the capel, a protective hat of iron or leather, in the late thirteenth century when the manuscript was produced, and Bertran mentions wearing a capel in 34.16.227 If this correspondence of painting and poem is not merely coincidental, which seems likely enough, the miniaturist's effort to illustrate the poetry was still a slight one. The painting says nothing more of Bertran's poetry than that he loved war. The Frammento Romegialli bears miniatures for both poem 19 and its razo. In the poem Bertran proclaims with pride and defiance that he has regained possession of Autafort; the painting shows a knight, clearly intended to represent the poet, armed and mounted before a walled gate representing his castle.228 In the initial of the razo there is a miniature showing two men, one crowned and seated, raising his right arm and extending his index finger in a gesture of command, and

227. See E. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné du mobilierfrançais(Paris: Griind et Maguet, n.d.), 5:266-67. 228. The walled gate is a conventional design ele-

ment also used in M S K for Raimon de Miraval (f. 52v) and Gui d'Uissel (f. 7jr), though in K Bertran does not have it (Rajna, "Bertran," 245).

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the other kneeling before him. These figures must represent Henry II and Bertran. Through the mediation of the commentator, the miniaturist has created a scene which the poet nowhere describes. Italian Prose Collections In Italian prose tales of the thirteenth century, Bertran de Born became a fullblown figure of legend. The vidas and razos provided material for the Novellino, compiled by an anonymous Florentine in the last two decades of the century.229 In it Bertran again boasts of his wit, and once more moves Henry II to tears of forgiveness by his grief for his son. The Young King makes war on his father because Bertran tells him to, and he dies in a castle belonging to the troubadour, as the second version of the vida erroneously claims. The Novellino nowhere mentions that Bertran was a poet, and neither do the contemporary Conti di antichi cavalieri.230 In the Conti Bertran replaces the historical William Marshal as the master of the Young King, maestro del Re giovene. After hearing wonderful tales of Saladin, he determines to visit the infidel chieftain, whom he instructs in the refinements of courtly love to devastating effect. The tale resembles others in which various Christian knights or poets persuade Saladin to adopt the norms of chivalry. Here Bertran has quite divested himself of his historical identity as troubadour and lord of Autafort. Dante Bertran figures three times by name in the works of Dante Alighieri, twice to be praised and once to be damned. In De vulgari eloquentia Dante cites him as the most illustrious vernacular poet of arms, quoting the first line of poem 34 (2.2.9). In the Convivio he names him as a paragon of liberality, along with Alexander the Great, Alfonso VIII of Castile, Saladin, Boniface II of Montferrat, Raymond V of Toulouse, and the Ghibelline leader Galasso di Montefeltro (4.11.14). In In-

229. Cesare Segre, ed., "Il 'Novellino,'" in La prosa del duecento, ed. Cesare Segre and Mario Marti (Milan and Naples: Ricciardi, [1959]); references to Bertran are in chapters 19 and 20, pp. 814-17.

230. The relevant conto is in Segre and Marti, Prosa del duecento, pp. 548-50, and in A. Del Monte, ed., Conti di antichi cavalieri (Milan: Cisalpino, 1972), no. XII, pp. 125-29.

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ferno 28, Dante and Virgil encounter the soul of Bertran in the eighth circle of Hell, in the ninth and last boljjia, which is reserved for sowers of discord. Decapitated, the shade swings his head by the hair like a lantern: Di sefacea a, se stesso lucerna, ed emn due in uno e uno in due; com'esser pud, quei sa che si governa. (w. 124—26) Of himself he was making for himself a lamp, and they were two in one and one in two; how this can be, He knows who so governs. Seeing Dante, the shade raises his head higher and it speaks, saying that he gave evil counsel to the Young King and created conflict between father and son, and that his head is severed from his body in just retribution. In each of these three instances Dante has made Bertran an example of some quality important for his own purposes, and in each case a degree of historical inaccuracy results. A great war poet Bertran certainly was, but not for the Virgilian motive of security, salutem, that Dante sets forth with care in De vulgari eloquentia, 2.2.8. Bertran celebrated liberality along with many other troubadours —he praises mesios, "expenditures," just as Dante speaks of the messioni of his heroes (see Glossary)—but aside from his pious donations to Dalon, which are not the courtly largesse that Dante surely has in mind, we have no record that he gained fame for practicing this virtue. (His associate in Dante's list, Galasso di Montefeltro, was more renowned for cruelty than for any liberality he may have permitted himself.)231 The counsels Bertran gave Young Henry, to whom he sends a direct message only once, in 2.57-59, saying that too much sleep doesn't please him, and whom he goads to action in poems 10, 11, 13, and 14, were not very wicked by the political standards of his time, Dante's, or ours. Nor does Bertran seem to have been considered wicked by Henry II, despite his partisan

231. G. Busnelli and G. Vandelli, eds., II Convivio (Florence: Felice Le Monnier, 1964), 4. 11. 14 n.

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opposition in song, since Henry gave him back his castle after Richard had taken it (poem 19). As for sowing discord between father and son, those whom Bertran strove to part had scarcely been joined together beforehand. In crediting Bertran's songs with responsibility for the conflicts among the Plantagenets, Dante bears witness to the aesthetic power of Bertran's martial songs and to his own belief in the power of poetry, rather than to any close consideration of events of the late twelfth century. Dante certainly knew the texts of several of Bertran's poems. Aside from poem 34, which he quotes in De vulgari eloquentia, he echoes poem 30.21-23 in an image of a knight who for love of honor charges to get the first blow in Purgatorio 232 24.94-96, and he adapts the word acesmatz, from the same stanza (30.27), as accisma—both forms at the rhyme—in Mohammed's description of the punishments of the sowers of discord in Inferno 28.37. The opening sentence of this canto (w. 7-21) imitates the periodic structure of the first stanza in the planh for the Young King which we attribute to some other troubadour, but which Dante may have attributed to Bertran. Throughout the canto he develops the theme of cleavage from many of Bertran's poems,233 and he employs martial metaphors which keep the theme of war ever present.234 Yet the soul of the troubadour is not allowed to echo the verse he left in this world. Unlike Arnaut Daniel, who in Purgatorio 26 explains in Provençal that he is there to expiate his lustful folly, Bertran in Hell sounds not at all like the living poet. Dante's imitations become part of the fabric of the Comedy, and he maintains a strict contrast between his admiration for Bertran's poetry and his condemnation of the troubadour's character. The dismembered soul of Bertran vividly illustrates the principle of just retribution governing all the sinners in Inferno, and it is he alone who names the principle, using the term contmpasso, which Dante coins following the commentary on Aristode's Ethics by Thomas Aquinas (who was

232. As pointed out by Marianne Shapiro, "The Fictionalization of Bertran de Born (Inf. XXVIII)," Dante Studies 92 (1974): 107-16, p. no. 233. Hayden Boyers, "Cleavage in Bertran de Born and Dante," Modern Philology 24 (1926-27): i - 3 -

234. M'attacco, v. 28, lit. "I attack," means "I concentrate"; s'armi, v. 55, lit. "let him arm himself," means "let him prepare"; I'asbergo del sentirsi pum, v. 117, lit. "the hauberk of feeling that one is pure," means "good conscience."

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born a decade after Bertran's death). Bertran likens himself to Achitophel, who turned Absalom against David (2 Kings 15-18), and calls attention to his sorrows in the manner of the Old Testament (verse 132 recalls Lamentations 1:12). The image of Bertran de Born in the works of Dante represents the Florentine poet's judgment of the troubadour, based on what he knew of Bertran as a legendary figure in Italian culture of his time and as the author of songs which he had read.235 The paragon of liberality in the Convivio springs from both the real poet as advocate of this virtue and the fictional tutor of Saladin in the Conti di antichi cavalieri. The shade in Inferno 28 figures forth Dante's opinion of the fate Bertran deserved. The arresting figure in the tercet we have cited represents an act of imaginative and insightful perception. Dante saw that Bertran's art combines a sense of radical fragmentation with a drive for synthesis ever unrealized, that his acute moral intelligence continually seeks a pathway through present confusion toward his ideal. After Dante, the lasting renown of Bertran de Born among readers of the Comedy was assured. Some commentators on Dante's poem identified him as the troubadour of Autafort, others as a Gascon knight, others as an Englishman. Eventually Bornio was misunderstood as borgno, and he lost an eye.236 Such are the defigurations to which myth is heir. Petrarch

Soon Bertran's influence on poetry was to suffer near total eclipse. As we have seen, Petrarch imitated the escondich in his canzone beginning SVl dissi mai {Rime 206), and was influenced by the cnueg {Rime 312). In the fourth Trionfo d'amore

235. Bertran's presence in Italian culture of the thirteenth century has been reviewed by Paden, "Bertran de Born in Italy." Teodolinda Barolini writes that "Dante was not interested in finding for each character in his poem a niche to correspond exactly to the merits of that person as a historical figure; he is interested in creating ideal characters that will illuminate the structure of reality as he sees it. Into these categories he fits his characters." See "Bertran de Born and Sordello: The Poetry of Poli-

tics in Dante's Comedy," PMLA 94 (1979): 395-+05, at p. 403. Michelangelo Picone explains the paradox of Dante's praise for Bertran in the early philosophical works and his condemnation in Inferno by an evolution in Dante's thought from secular to religious; see "I trovatori di Dante: Bertran de Born," Studi e Problemi di Critica Testuale 19 (1979): 71-94236. These materials were collected by Olin H. Moore, The Young King, pp. 65-73 (summary) and 90-95 (texts).

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he traced his poetic genealogy from the Greek and Roman lyricists through the troubadours, then on to Italian poets. An early redaction of the text reads in part as follows: Bertrando con Bernardo, Ugo e Ganselmo, Ed altri mille a cui sola la lingua Lancia e spadafitsempre scudo e elmo.li? Bertran with Bernart, Uc and Ganselmo, and a thousand others for whom their tongues alone were always lance and sword and shield and helm. Better than Bernart de Ventadorn, Uc de Saint-Circ or the mysterious Ganselmo, Bertran justifies the martial characterization of troubadour verse in these lines. Yet Petrarch deleted Bertran's name from the final version of the poem, substituting that of Aimeric de Peguilhan and changing Ganselmo to Gauselmo, that is, Gaucelm Faidit. The finished line reads as follows: Amerigo, Bernardo, Ugo e Gauselmo. Presumably Petrarch felt that the war poet seemed out of place among singers of love, and so he allowed Bernart de Ventadorn and three imitators of Bertran's formal structures to eclipse the lord of Autafort. After Petrarch, generations of poets ignored the troubadours, preferring to imitate him and the ancients. German Romantic Poets Since the romantic revival of interest in the Middle Ages, several poets of stature have rediscovered Bertran de Born. In Germany, first Johann Uhland and later Heinrich Heine employed the anecdote from the razos according to which Bertran moved Henry II to tears of forgiveness by his grief for Young Henry.238 In his ballad "Bertran de Born," published in 1829, Uhland used the story to sym-

237. Carl Appel, ed., Die Triumphe Francesco Petrarcas in kritischem Texte (Halle: Niemeyer, 1901), pp. 212-13.

238. Razo to poem 21, in Boutiere-Schutz, pp. 107-8.8-22; cf. the vida in manuscripts E and R, p. 68.7-11.

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bolize the persuasive powers of a great soul, prefiguring the Nietzschean Übermensch.239 In a brief romance of the same title which appeared in 1839, Heine eliminated all narrative, and with it any mention of the troubadour's capture. In Heine's version Bertran dominates not one but two sons of Henry, and his daughter Mathilda as well, called die Löwin des Plantagenets, "the lionness of the Plantagenets," because she was the wife of Henry the Lion of Saxony (see poems 8 and 9). Whereas in Uhland Henry II forgives Bertran out of manly and welldeserved respect, in Heine Bertran bewitches a helpless king. A figure of indomitable nobility for Uhland, Bertran becomes, for Heine, a poet-magician. French and Occitan Writers Poets who wrote in France paid Bertran no attention of such quality. Barely mentioned in two early poems by the filibre Frédéric Mistral,240 he was exalted as a medieval patriot by Victor-Pierre Laurens in a novel called Le Tyrtée du moyen äße, ou Histoire de Bertran de Born, vicomte d'Hautefort, which likened the poet to the Spartan patriot and lyric poet Tyrtaeus and followed the errors of the vidas even in its tide.241 When the Occitan poet Paul-Louis Grenier produced the romance "Baudor" (Rejoicing), adapting poem 30, stanza 1, as the setting for a joyful marriage celebration set in 1180, he glimpsed the sole avenue by which more meaningful contact with Bertran might be made—by reading his text.242 Anglo-Saxon Francophiles: Ezra Pound The last phases of the French experience have been repeated in English, but more meaningfully. As illegible as Le Tyrtée du moyen â^e but at least free of its chauvin-

239. See Hartmut Froeschle, Ludwig Uhland und Nizet, 1974), pp. 67-69, 90-96. 241. Paris: Gedalge jeune, 1863; 2d éd., 1875. Cf. dieRomantik (Cologne: Bôhlau, 1973), pp. 94-96; Clédat's strictures on Laurens's apparent historicity, and, for the comparison with Nietzsche, Walter in Du Rôle historique, pp. 5-7. Kaufmann, ed., Twenty German Poets: A Bilingual Collection (New York: Random House, 1962), p. 79. 242. In La Chanson de Combraille (Toulouse: Kaufmann gives the texts of Uhland and Heine with Editions "Occitania," 1927), pp. 70-73. Cf. Robert English verse translations on pp. 80-85 and 108-9. Lafont and Christian Anatole, Nouvelle Histoire de la littérature occitane (Paris: Presses Universitaires de 240. "I Troubaire" (1853), and "Roumanin" France, 1970), 2:762-66, where the tide of the ro(i860). See Jacques de Caluwé, Le Moyen Age littéraire occitan dans l'oeuvre de Frédéric Mistral (Paris: mance is given incorrectly as "Baudoi."

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ism, Maurice Hewlett's Life of Richard Tea and Nay depicts Bertran as a "great poet. . . , great thief, and a silly fool" who twitches, trembles, grimaces, grins, jerks, bites his lip and twists his hangnails in fear and jealousy of his lord.243 After Hewlett, his friend Ezra Pound became the first modern writer to take a sustained and intelligent interest in Bertran's poetry itself. Pound's interest in the troubadours was fomented by study as an undergraduate at Hamilton College with William P. Shepard, and later at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed the M.A. in Romanics and worked toward the doctorate.244 For his purposes as a poet writing in English, he found Arnaut Daniel valuable for his exquisite verbal technique; his work with Bertran's poetry shows an effort to equal the troubadour's strength without losing his control. From 1908 to 1915 Pound published five poems based on those of Bertran: in their order of appearance they are two impersonations, two translations, and a meditation.245 In "Na Audiart" (1908) Pound addresses the lady of Bertran's poem 7, stanza 5, whose graceful beauty both he and Bertran praise despite her disdain. For Bertran, however, she is one lady among many from whom he begs to borrow attractive qualities to make up an ideal woman, while Pound concentrates on this lady just because she simultaneously attracts him and puts him off. Pound expresses insolent admiration for her breast, her torso, and the flawless place "where thy torse and limbs are met," an arch circumlocution lewder than any of Bertran's sensual moments; then he asserts that his verse will last for eter243. London: Macmillan, 1900; rpt. 1919,1945. Bertran appears in chapters 5 and 15. 244. On Pound and the troubadours see Stuart Y. McDougal, Ezra Pound and the Troubadour Tradition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972); Alexander H. Schutz, "Pound as Provençalist," Romance Notes 3, no. 2 (1962): 58-63; Noel Stock, Poet in Exile: Ezra Pound (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1964), pp. 84-88; Hugh Kenner, The Pound Era (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971), pp. 76-93; James J. Wilhelm, "Arnaut Daniel's Legacy to Dante and to Pound," in Italian Literature: Roots and Branches, Essays in Honor of Thomas Goddard Bergin, ed. Giose Rimanelli and Kenneth John Atchity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976), pp. 67—83; idem, The Later Cantos of

Ezra Pound (New York: Walker, 1977), pp. 35—45; R. Murray Schäfer, Ezra Pound and Music: The Complete Criticism (New York: New Directions, 1977), pp. 6-12; Peter Makin, Provence and Pound (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978), especially on Bertran de Born, pp. 9-70; and William D. Paden, Jr., "Pound's Use of Troubadour Manuscripts," Comparative Literature, 32 (1980): 402—12. 245. Published in Personae (New York: New Directions, 1971), they are "Na Audiart," pp. 8 - 9 ; "Sestina: Altaforte," pp. 28-29; "Planh for the Young English King," pp. 36-37; "Dompna Pois De Me No'us Cal," pp. 105-7; and "Near Perigord," pp. 151-57-

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nity and concludes that her beauty will fade with time, and she will regret her pride. Pound knew this last commonplace from Ronsard's "Quand vous serez bien vieille" and elsewhere, and cannot have known that Bertran uses it himself in poem 25 (which was not edited critically until 1916). By sharpening the sensuality of Bertran's poem and by introducing the claim for poetic immortality, which Bertran never makes, Pound increases the tension between the poet's defiant praise and his lady's haughtiness. In contrast to the underlying note of stubborn antagonism in Pound's version, Bertran's original seems a fluent and easy peregrination of wit. Pound has adopted Bertran's taste for conflict without his debonaire self-mastery in poem 7; instead of a cocksure tease, his speaker is a grimly determined adversary. The same effect occurs again more strongly in "Sestina: Altaforte" (June 1909), in which Pound impersonates Bertran the warrior. His principal source was poem 30, but he overlooked the sequence of events from real battle which Bertran used to structure his stanzas on war, as well as the formulaic diction from the chansons de geste.246 Pound also uses the opening image from poem 22.1—2, which he renders "When I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing"— "gold" echoing Bertran's ¿¡rocs, literally "yellow"—and he denigrates peace lovers in stanza 5 after the fashion of Bertran's poem 3, stanza 3. To structure this material Pound takes the form of the sestina, which he described elsewhere as "a thin sheet of flame folding and infolding upon itself."247 It is a tighter, more demanding form than any that Pound can have suspected Bertran ever used, since poem 39, the sestina, is here attributed to him for the first time. Into this form Pound poured greater violence of feeling than any in Bertran. Correctly perceiving the source of Bertran's vitality in the control of conflict, Pound strove for an unbearable degree of tension in "Sestina: Altaforte," and as a result merely ranted in permuted rhymes. A formal flaw is symptomatic: the correct order of rhymes is reversed in lines 21 and 22. Symptomatic, too, is Pound's adaptation of Bertran's greeting to spring as the season of war; for Pound it is "hot summer," and he rejoices in summer lightning storms as no troubadour ever 246. See the discussion of epic and lyric under "His Art," pp. 37-42.

247. The Spirit of Romance (New York: New Directions, 1968), p. 27.

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did. Dawn becomes strangely symbolic of bloody conflict. The rhyme word crimson introduces the image of blood, implicitly or explicitly, in six of the poem's seven stanzas, and the seventh time describes lightning as though even that could be bloody. In poem 30.41-43 Bertran declares that he prefers battle to eating, drinking, or sleeping; in the version "there's no wine like the blood's crimson," Pound conjures visions of a troubadour Dracula. When Pound read his poem to friends at dinner, "the table shook and the decanters and cutlery vibrated"; deservedly it was known as the "Bloody Sestina."248 After the impersonations, Pound came to grips with the language of poems attributed to Bertran in close verse translations called the "Planh for the Young English King" (October 1909), from an original now credited to some other troubadour, and in '"Dompna Pois De Me No'us Cal'" (1914), from Bertran's poem 7. Finally he combined the amorous and political facets of Bertran's art in his long reflective poem "Near Perigord" (191s). Returning once again to Bertran's song of the imaginary lady, Pound asks whether its apparent talk of love might contain veiled political allusions, whether the composite lady herself might represent an alliance of political and military forces from the casdes overtly associated with various individual ladies. "Is it a love poem? Did he sing of war?" To solve the riddle Pound progresses from a point of departure in objective fact to an intermediate stage of historicalfiction;finallyhe annihilates history in a direct impersonation of Bertran de Born. In the first, factual section of "Near Perigord" he opposes Bertran's text and the razo commenting on it, which takes the poem at its face value as one of love, to thefirsthandexperience which he had gained of the region around modern Hautefort in several walking tours. It is this personal experience which suggests to Pound that the poem might conceal a political scheme in its geographical allusions.249 In the second section he imagines the circumstances surrounding the creation of poem 7: first its composition by a Bertran de Born who bears a striking resemblance to Ezra Pound with his red 248. K. K. Ruthven, A Guide to Ezra Pound's Personae (1926) (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969), pp. 218-19. 249. " I have . . . / Walked over En Bertran's old layout," "Provincia Deserta" (1915), in Personne,

p. 122. See Pound, "On 'Near Perigord,'" Poetry 7 (1915): 1 4 3 - 4 6 ; and Donald Davie, "The Cantos: Towards a Pedestrian Reading," Paideuma 1 (1972): 55-62.

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beard, his "green cat's-eye," his lean frame, and his bilious character; then its performance, which, if an enemy agent caught its hypothetical meaning, might have led to Richard's siege and capture of Autafort; later, its lingering echo in a conversation of 1199 between Richard and Arnaut Daniel, who agree that even if the love story were true, politics might still underlie the poem; and lasdy, the imaginative judgment by Dante in Inferno 28. As Pound uses it, the passage from Dante perhaps implies that political motives guided Bertran's every act, including the writing of poem 7, or perhaps it implies more deeply that his every motive was divided. In the third section Pound writes words for Bertran, including touches of postromantic cosmic grandeur recalling "Sestina: Altaforte," and another version of the eternizing conceit, familiar from Renaissance verse, which he used in "Na Audiart." Bertran recalls dallying with Maent on the green banks of the Auvezere (Map IV), and expresses the disappointment he felt when she rejected him, she who could live eternally only in his poetry, And all the rest of her a shifting change, A broken bundle of mirrors . . . ! Thus the imaginary lady symbolizes Maent, for whom poem 7 was written. Only art can make sense of the chaos of personality—and if it is implied that Bertran's personality too was a "broken bundle of mirrors," then we are driven to the inevitable conclusion that poem 7 concerns both love and war. Thus Pound arrives at an intuition of poetic truth by blending impersonal tradition with his knowledge of the geography of the Perigord, his power of vicarious experience, and his gift for poetic speech. "Near Perigord" represents an act of impersonation, not simply presented as in "Na Audiart" and "Sestina: Altaforte," but as a culmination painstakingly prepared. The preparation included wide perusal of Bertran's poems. As his epigraph Pound cites poem 3.36-37. In the first section he translates 30.77 as "Pawn your casries, lords!" In the second he introduces "Arrimon Luc D'Esparo," a messenger from Raymond V of Toulouse in poem x.i—2, here a spy for Richard. Bertran's woods are cut down as in 18.11; his catde are driven out as are herds of livestock in the neighborhood of an impending battle in 30.11. Pound has Arnaut Daniel ask Richard if Bertran loved his sister, which was suggested to him by poems 8 and 9. When Arnaut "sings out

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his friend's song"—that is, poem 7—we wonder whether Pound has noticed that Bertran sent his poem 24 to Richard by a joglar named Arnaut who may well have been Arnaut Daniel (24.41-42). Such conscientious erudition effects a control over Pound's imaginative freedom in "Near Perigord"; to it he added another form of control, a style which he described himself as "plain, bald, pellucid."250 High tension between clarity of form and complexity of thought was Pound's express purpose in this poem; moreover, he attributes just such a tension to Bertran's poem 7 by suggesting that the meaning of that poem is dark and devious. One must answer Pound's question in all candor by observing that Bertran's poem 7 does not concern war by any overt indication. It does not teem with geographical allusions; Bertran's text does not name "for every lady a castle, / Each place strong," and Pound enhanced this effect in his translation by naming castles for two ladies who have none in the original. To do so Pound drew on statements in the razos, which thus underlie the very posing of his riddle; but the razos are today considered thoroughly unreliable in their assertions about the ladies of the troubadours. Nor is poem 7 about a lady named Maent, for two reasons: first, because this form of the name originated in a textual error committed by Stimming in his edition of 1879, which was corrected to Maeut ("Maud") in a review by Bartsch and changed in all subsequent editions; second, because in 1914 Stronski demonstrated that Bertran's lady Maeut was a legendary figure created by the authors of the razos and vidas, a figure without historical substance.251 Neither Maeut nor the theme of war appears in poem 7, which is a witty love poem addressed to a lady known only as Belz Seigner, "Fair Lord." In his search for a poetic truth underlying poem 7, Pound mistook the statements in the vidas and razos for historical fact (as did most scholars of his time); since he formulated his problem in terms of misinformation, his solution cannot be considered seriously today as criticism of Bertran's poem. Nevertheless, in a larger sense "Near Perigord" yields perceptive criticism of Bertran's art, since the themes of love and war, intertwining continually throughout the corpus of his 250. Ruthven, Guide, p. 177.

251. Stronski, La Légende amoureuse; on the form of the name, see p. 9, n. 1.

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songs, blend in such poems as 13 and 16, in which the language of love does express political observations. The two themes modulate in constantly varying proportions, and if poem 7 gives no explicit indication of a political subject, we must at least grant Pound that political overtones hover near the surface of all Bertran's songs, and that it is impossible to prove the total absence of political meaning in any of them. Pound's intuition that love and war in Bertran's poetry express the same essential values is profoundly right, and the manner of Bertran's mimesis— if not the immanent form of his songs—may be insightfully described by applying to his art the metaphor of "a broken bundle of mirrors." Pound joins Dante in seeing fragmentation and unity in the structure of Bertran's art and in perceiving that art as a source, or at least a reflector, of light. But the metaphor describes Pound's own art in "Near Perigord" more tellingly, and describes it a fortiori in the Cantos. The poem expresses Pound's impulse to complete himself in the troubadour. As he depicts Arnaut Daniel singing Bertran's song, Arnaut "Envies its vigour . . . and deplores the technique." Pound prized the migliorfabbro for lively words distinguished and invigorated by demanding verbal craft.252 Whereas Arnaut broke the mold of conventional poetic diction against arduous form, Bertran broke it against wit; in the song of the imaginary lady he flouts the conventions of courtly love in order to express his creative independence. Both troubadours served Pound as guides in his effort to cast off the traditional diction of Victorian poetry. Instead of weak words Pound sought to grasp things, objects such as the weapons which clash in Bertran's poem 30; instead of abstractions he sought places, finding them in the topography of poem 7, in the implicit scene of a casde besieged in poem 30, or perhaps in the geographical sweep of a poem such as number 10. Pound called his Cantos an epic, but unlike Dante, whose cantos cohere as a single Comedy, he could not reconcile his theme of flux with the form of a sustained epic action; instead, he juxtaposed fragments of experience. Like Pound, Bertran achieved only precarious instants in the epic mode. Bertran's qualities of vigor, wit, and imagina252. McDougal, Pound and the Troubadour Tradition, pp. 102-20; Kenner, Pound Era, pp. 76-90; and Wilhelm, "Arnaut Daniel's Legacy."

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tive freedom, his struggle to impart a vision which he thought noble to a society which he found ignoble, invited the attention of Pound in his effort to . . . have men's hearts up from the dust And tell their secrets. In his poetic communion with Bertran, Pound pursued his own needs by impersonating a kindred spirit dead seven hundred years. This Edition A new edition of the poems of Bertran de Born is justified for several reasons. Of the five earlier complete editions—Stimming 1879, Thomas, Stimming 1892, Stimming 1913, and Appel, Lieder—only the first was based on direct consultation of the MSS; indeed, Stimming explained in his edition of 1879 that he had personally consulted only the MSS in Paris and that he owed his readings from the others to fellow scholars living near the libraries which held them, who had sent him their transcriptions. Subsequent editors reprinted Stimming's original text with alterations based on conjecture; none cited an attempt to consult the MSS afresh. The discovery of MS a1 in 1899 added two formerly unknown songs to those attributed to the poet and provided new attributions and readings for a number of songs already known, but this new information was not fully integrated into the more recent editions. No full translation of the poems has appeared before this one in any language. The historical commentary necessary for an understanding of the political songs was given most satisfactorily by Thomas, whereas Stimming put it in a lengthy and rather inconvenient introduction (in all his editions), and Appel removed it from his edition altogether and made it the main subject of a separate book (Bertran von Born). The explanations provided by all these editors were improved upon significantly by Kastner in a series of eight articles scattered among three journals between 1931 and 1937, a series that has too often eluded readers of the poetry. The purpose of this edition is to make Bertran's poems accessible to readers of literary, historical, or philological interests in a soundly based text and a faithful

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but not slavish translation, with pertinent historical background and an introductory study of his life, his art, and his place in literary tradition, while keeping the necessary supporting apparatus to a tidy minimum. We have attempted to provide one authentic reading of his poetry among the many which the extant MSS make possible—to reconstitute one idealized performance, as it were, of his extant songs. We do not offer an encyclopedic repertory of the songs in all their extant versions.253 Much less do we hazard a hypothetical original text underlying the versions. We do not include poems sometimes attributed to Bertran, but which deliberation has persuaded us he probably did not write. Nor do we add various other textual materials which form part of the larger tradition surrounding his name, accretions such as the vidas and razos, or representations of him by other writers such as Dante or Pound. We have examined the literary tradition springing from Bertran's work in the preceding section of this introduction. Our aim in the edition itself has been to rediscover as best we can the poet from whom the tradition arose.

Canon This edition includes forty-seven poems certainly or probably written by Bertran de Born. We present them in chronological order insofar as it may be determined, and group the undatable poems according to their dominant themes. Of the forty-seven texts, thirty-two enjoy unanimous attributions by the MSS and previous editors. Four more are attributed to Bertran in all the MSS but have been excluded from various earlier editions for insufficient reasons (poems 25, 27, 31, 46). Finally, eleven poems must be regarded as uncertain attributions because the MSS do not credit them unanimously to Bertran (poems 3, 6, 9, ix, 15, 28, 29, 30, 39, 45, 47)Poems 25 and 31 are contained only in MS a 1 . This MS was unknown until its discovery in 1899 by Bertoni, who published diplomatic versions of the two

253. Such as Rupert T. Pickens, ed., The Songs of Jaufre Rudel (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medi-

aeval Studies, 1978), which presents seven songs in all their versions, and runs to 281 pages.

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songs in the same year.254 Not until after he had published his third edition in 1913 did Stimming become aware of MS a 1 . In his separate edition of the two poems which appeared three years later, he accepted poem 31, the planh for Geoffrey of Brittany, as authentic, but rejected poem 25.255 His argument that the latter poem differs from the rest of the canon on metrical, stylistic, and substantive grounds is without basis, and scarcely conceals its nature as special pleading. Poem 27 is attributed to Bertran in its sole MS, M, which also happens to contain several folios away another poem of identical metrical form which it credits to Lantelmet de l'Aguilhon. Observing the close resemblance of the latter poem to Bertran's canon, Chabaneau speculated daringly that the two attributions had been reversed.256 Appel was willing to appropriate Lantelmet's poem for Bertran, but not to give up number 27; nevertheless, he included it among the poems of doubtful authorship.257 We have argued elsewhere that Lantelmet was a joglar associated with the court of the Este in the mid-thirteenth century, and that he imitated Bertran's manner, as did numerous poets in Italy during his period.258 We feel no hesitation in accepting the MS attribution of poem 27. We also accept two sirventes (numbers 46 and 47) which refer to events of 1197 and 1198 and which have been considered of doubtful attribution or have been rejected altogether since Cledat discovered that the poet had become a monk of Dalon by 1196. We have shown in our discussion of the life of the poet, however, that his entrance into the monastery does not necessarily imply a conversion of such fervor as to preclude his continuing to compose songs in his accustomed vein—to the contrary, disciplinary action taken by the Cistercian General Chapter in 1199 proves that monks of the order had recently written poems judged improper. Poem 46 is attributed to Bertran unanimously by MSS I, K , M, and d; for poem 47 the attribution is divided, with MSS I, K, T, and d giving the poem

254. Giulio Bertoni, "Rime provenzali inedite," Studj di Filologia Romanza 8 (1899) : 428-29. 255. " Z u Bertran de Born." Appel, Lieder, silendy accepted Stimming's conclusion.

256. "Poésies inédites des troubadours du Périgord," Revue des Langues Romanes 25 (1884): 231-33. 257. "Beiträge," II, 55-57; Lieder, no. 41. 258. "Bertran de Born in Italy"; Lantelmet's poem, P - C 284,1 Er ai ieu, is edited on pp. 57-60.

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to Bertrán, M to Duran sartor de Paemas (author of two other poems; P-C 126), and a 1 to Guigo de Cabanes (author of five other poems; P-C 197). The solution sometimes proposed, that the two sirventes of 1197-98 were written by Bertrán de Born lofits,is gratuitous, as the MSS make no such suggestion and the canon of the son's poetry may be distinguished clearly from the father's on the basis of MS attributions—correcdy understood—in combination with dating from internal evidence. We consider the attribution of poem 46 to Bertrán de Born to be certain, and that of number 47 to be uncertain only in view of the divided attributions of the MSS. Substantive uncertainty attends four more attributions. The splendid celebration of love and war, poem 30, is attributed to Bertrán by five MSS (I, K, T, a 1 , d); to Guillem de Saint Gregori and Blacasset by three MSS apiece (A, B, D; P, U, V); to Lanfranc Cigala by two (C, e); and to Guillem Augier de Grassa and Pons de Capdoill by one apiece (M; Sg). In the absence of decisive internal evidence, any of these six claimants may be the author, yet we feel as Kastner did that the odds favor Bertrán. The final tornada seems to assure his authorship, since in it the poet speaks to Papiol about Oc e No. Although no troubadour except Bertrán de Born elsewhere addresses this joglar or uses this senhal for Richard, the tornada itself is subject to divided attributions, being credited to Bertrán, Blacasset, and Pons de Capdoill by one MS apiece. Lewent's objection, that Bertrán typically speaks of particular political circumstances, not of generalities, was satisfactorily answered by Appel with the observation that poem 30 generalizes in the manner of Bertran's poems of delight and annoyance, which gave rise to the genres of the plazer and the enueg (see the headnote to poem 13) .259 In including this poem we follow the examples of all earlier editors. Recent editors have deprived Bertrán of poem 28, which MS C attributes to him in the text, but to Guillem Magret in the table of contents; MS R also gives it to Guillem. The redoubtable Stanislas Stroñski was seconded by the editor of

259. Lewent, "Zur provenzalischen Bibliographie," Archiv 130 (1913): 325-34; Appel, "Pe-

trarka und Arnaut Daniel," Archiv 147 (1924) : 220-21.

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Guillem in his declaration that the poem is foreign to Bertran's manner,260 but we do not agree (see the headnote to the poem). To the contrary, the song expresses exacriy the perspective of a lord threatened by the economic dynamism of the age which one would expect of Bertran de Born, and not at all of a joglar such as Guillem Magret. It seems more reasonable to believe that Bertran wrote the poem than that Guillem did. Poems 39 and 45 answer songs arguably addressed to Bertran de Born; for this reason and others it seems likely that Bertran was their author, despite inferior MS support in the first case and the absence of all MS confirmation in the second. Poem 39, the sestina, is attributed to Bertran by MS a1 (copied in 1589), but to Guillem de Saint Gregori by MS Da (copied in 1254) and by the sixteenthcentury scholar Giovanni Maria Barbieri, who had at his disposal four manuscripts since lost.261 (In MS H the poem is anonymous.) It is a parody matching the form and rhyme words of the prototypical sestina by Arnaut Daniel, which Arnaut addressed to Bertran de Born, according to a marginal gloss in the late fourteenth-century Italian MS H (see the headnote to poem 39). In poem 39 the speaker perhaps alludes to the Chanson des Saisnes of Jean Bodel—or to an earlier version of the same material—as Bertran does also in poems 34.24 and 42.27-28. Further evidence for contact between Bertran and Arnaut concerns Bertran's poems 24, 25, and 34, and two other cansos by Arnaut (see the discussion of Arnaut, above). Appel found no positive internal evidence to support the attribution to Guillem de Saint Gregori.262 The omission of this poem from the editions by Stimming and Thomas reflects merely their ignorance of MS a 1 ; its unex-

260. Stronski, Folquet, p. xiii; Fritz Naudieth, ed., Der Trobador Guillem Magret, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fiir Romanische Philologie, no. 52 (Halle: Niemeyer, 1914), pp. 9 1 - 9 4 and 103. Stronski claimed that the poem was falsely attributed to Bertran because the word Rassa in v. 33 was mistaken for Bertran's senhal for Geoffrey, but it is modified by feminine adjectives identifying it clearly as the feminine common noun, not the masculine senhal {mm Rassa 31.4). Before these publications by

Stronski and Naudieth, the poem had been included in Stimming 1879 and 1892, as well as Thomas; afterwards it was regarded as dubious by Stimming 1913 and omitted by Appel, Lieder. 261. Girolamo Tiraboschi, ed., Dell'origine della poesia rimata, opera di Giammaria Barbieri (Modena: Società Tipografica, 1790), p. 118. 262. "So wird denn auch dieses Gedicht dem Guilhem de Saint Gregori abzusprechen sein," Appel, "Petrarka und Arnaut Daniel," pp. 221-22.

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plained omission from Appel's edition is more difficult to understand.263 In including poem 39 for the first time among the songs probably written by Bertran, we feel we do not contradict our predecessors, but merely correct their oversight. The poem of repentance, poem 45, is attributed to Aimeric de Belenoi by MS E and, bafflingly, to Willems and Sir Aimerics by MS D. Stronski demonstrated, however, that it answers a poem written by Folquet de Marseilla shortly after July 1195, and so cannot have been written by Aimeric de Belenoi, whose other poems date from 1217 to 1242.264 Folquet addressed his poem to a friend he called Azimans, and the same senhal occurs in a dozen of his poems. It is also used once by Bertran (7.71), three times by Bernart de Ventadour, and once by Perdigon.265 Poem 45 must be a response to Folquet by one of these poets, following the convention of the reciprocal senhal.266 Chronology favors Bertran, since Bernart de Ventadour was active from about 1150 to 1180 and Perdigon from about 1190 to 1212; the period of Bertran's retirement clinches the likelihood that he wrote the poem. In his edition of 1913, Stimming included it among the uncertain attributions, as did Appel in 1932. Finally, six remaining poems involve minimal uncertainty. Poem 29 is attributed to Bertran by nine MSS, but in MS a it is combined with two stanzas by Peire Vidal, and the whole attributed to Peire. All editors of Bertran have accepted Bertran's authorship. Poem 11 is attributed to Raimon de Miraval by MS M against eight others which name Bertran as the author; poem 6 to Peire Cardenal by MS T and to Peire Vidal by the table of MS C, as against C itself and eight more MSS for Bertran. Uncertainty reaches the vanishing point in poems 3, 9, and 15, since it springs merely from anonymous entries in one MS of each song against seven attributions to Bertran in the first case, five in the second, and eight in the third. 263. Appel included all the poems in Stimming 1913 with the exception of three which Stimming had considered dubious (our poems 28, 46, 47), and added only poem 31, which Stimming had accepted as authentic upon learning of MS a 1 , while rejecting poem 25 as Stimming had done. His determination of the canon seems to have been dependent on Stimming's.

264. Stronski, Folquet, pp. 55*—58*. The poem is P-C 155,15 Hueimais no-y conosc, ed. Stronski no. 19. 265. Bernart de Ventadour P-C 70,21 Ges de chantar 51; 70,26 Lancatt vei 47; 70,36 Pois preyatz 60; and Perdigon 370,9 Los mais 51. 266. See Stronski, "Les Pseudonymes réciproques."

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To be consistent with our general policy of including all the poems that Bertran probably wrote, we have also included all stanzas and lines which may reasonably be attributed to him; that is, all those which are included by the M S S in poems we credit to him, and which cannot be shown to be the work of someone else.267 We give a number of stanzas which earlier editors have sometimes relegated to the status of variants or omitted altogether—never with a statement of adequate reasons to doubt their authenticity.268 The esthetic effect of the text is notably altered in poem 30 (see the headnote to the poem). Poems Excluded

:

We exclude four poems which we attribute to Bertran de Born lofils, presumably the poet's eldest son and successor as lord of Autafort, who appears in documents from 1179 to 1224, although the same name could have designated his son Bertran by his second wife (attested certainly in 1223, possibly in 1214 and 1252). Three of these poems offer no difficulty. P-C 81,ia occurs only in M S a 1 , which credits it to lofils d'en Bertran del Born; the poem alludes through amorous symbolism to the homage sworn by Bertran de Born lo fils to Philip Augustus in 1212.269 In P - C 80,6, which is of divided attribution, the poet celebrates a momentary victory won by the count of Toulouse in 1216 against Simon de Montfort

267. Two stanzas which are combined with poem 29 in MS a were written by Peire Vidal, according to two other MSS, while stanza 6 of the same poem, though it occurs only in a, may confidently be assigned to Bertran on the basis of subject matter and tone; see 29.41-48 n. An intrusive stanza of poem 30 in MS Sg was written by Folquet de Romans (P-C 461,49 Ben volgm, from 156,11 Quan cug). 268. Three stanzas preserved only in MS a 1 escaped the attention of Stimming; Appel incorporated two of them into his text (poems 14 st. 14, 29 st. 6), but failed to print the third (30 st. 6). In his edition of 1879, Stimming included five stanzas among the variants. Three of these were promoted into the text by Appel (17 st. 8, 20 St. 10, 30 st. 10);

two were deleted (17 st. 6,30 st. 8). In 1879 Stimming mentioned the existence of stanzas 8 and 9 of poem 18 but failed to produce them; Appel gave the texts. 269. P-C 81,ia Un sirpentes, ed. Kolsen, "Fiinf provenzalische Dichtungen," pp. 284-89. The poet says he swore homage to his lady seven years ago (homenatge, w . 17-21, cf. 34-36), calling her by the senhal Vlor de Lis; he declares that as a result of her fair welcome he is cheerful and well situated (assis w . 41-44). The fleur de lis became the emblem of the king of France as early as 1180 in a counter-seal of Philip Augustus. The figure of seven years may well be symbolic, as in the tale of Jacob's love for Rachel.

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and his French army.270 In P - C 80,42 he regrets the loss of Millau and Marseille by James I of Aragon—whom he calls "our king"—to Raymond V I I of Toulouse; James lost these cities in 1229 and 1230 respectively.271 It is natural that the attributions of P - C 80,6 and 42 should refer as they do to Bertran de Born without specifying lo fits, since their author had become lord of Autafort and head of his family after the death of his father. The same logic creates ambiguity in the attribution of P - C 81,1, 272 credited to Bertran de Born by ten M S S (A, B, D , Da, F, G , I, K , N , Sg), but to le filh Bertran del Bort by M and to Bertram de Born lo joves, lo fills d'en Bertran de Born d'aquels autres sirventes by the razo. Since this poem refers to events of 1206, when Bertran de Born the monk had been silent for eight years, we interpret the attribution of the majority of the M S S as referring to his son. 273 We also exclude three poems attributed by some M S S to Bertran, but by others to other poets. The most famous is the planh for the Young King, Si tuit li dol e-lplor e-l marrimen, which M S T grants to Bertran, while a 1 gives it to Rigaut de Berbezill and c to Peire Vidal. Ignoring the existence of a 1 , Stimming and Thomas considered the poem surely one of Bertran's; Appel relegated it to the category of uncertain cases despite the heavy influence exerted on him by Stim-

270. P-C 80,6 = 231,1a A tornar m'er, ed. Stimming 1879, no. 6. Attributed to Bertran de Born by MSS I, K, and d, but to Guillem Rainol d'At by Dc (where the text is fragmentary); the latter attribution has generally been accepted. Dated and translated by Alfred Jeanroy, Anthologie des troubadours (Paris: Renaissance du Livre, 1927), pp. 99-101. 271. P-C 80,42 XJn sirventes farai, ed. Stimming 1879, no. 42. Attributed to Bertran de Born unanimously by MSS C, E, and R. On the date see Stimming 1913, p. 48; and Salverda de Grave, ed., Bertran d'Alamanon, pp. 103-7. 272. P-C 81,1 Quan vei lo temps, ed. Stimming 1879, no. I; Stimming 1892, no. Ill; Stimming 1913, no. V; Riquer, Tropadores, no. 187. On the date cf. L. E. Kastner, "La Date et les allusions histori-

ques de certains sirventes de Bertran de Born," pp. 497-99. The razo is in Boutiére-Schutz, XII, pp. 140-44. We do not agree with Riquer, Trovadores, par. XLVI, that lofilscannot refer to the Bertran born of the troubadour's second marriage; the year 1192 is simply our earliest evidence for this marriage, not necessarily the date when it occurred. Riquer dates the activity of the elder son Bertran in 1179—1233, following Thomas's erroneous transcription of 1233 for 1223 in the cartulary of Dalon (D 24); in fact his career extended to 1224 (D 72). 273. P-C 119,7 Pos sai etz is attributed to lofilsd'en Bertran de Born by MSS O and a 1 , but to Dalfi d'Alvergne by A and D; the latter attribution is assured by the references in the tornada.

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ming.274 Of the several scholars who have treated the question in detail since the discovery of a 1 , not one has concluded that Bertran wrote the poem. 275 The most circumstantial argument has been that Bertran certainly wrote another planh for the same man (poem 15, attributed to him by eight M S S , anonymous in one), and that no other troubadour is known to have written two planhs for one person.276 The author of the razo to poem is was unaware of any second planh for the Young King by Bertran. Finally, an erroneous attribution of this poem to Bertran can easily be understood in light of the other poems in which Bertran speaks of Young Henry during the prince's lifetime. Faced with these two excellent poems, we are content to accept the certain attribution of the one which seems to us more personal, vivid, and moving, while we leave the more stately Si tuti li dol for another poet, probably Rigaut de Berbezill. P - C 410,2 is attributed to Raimon de Tors by M S M , but to Bertran de Born by b and by Barbieri. Its composition may be dated 1264-65, which accords well with the other poems of Raimon.277 P - C 332,1 is attributed to Bertran de Born by M S a 1 , but to five other poets by the fifteen other sources. The only claimant with notable support is Peire de Boussignac, with seven M S S and the Breviari d'amor, and he is generally recognized as the author.278 274. P-C 80,41 Si tuit li dol, ed. Stimming 1879, no. 41; 1892, no. 9; 1913, no. 9; Thomas, p. 28; Appel, Lieder, no. 43. 275. The attribution to Rigaut de Berbezill, uncertain as it must remain, seems to have emerged as the least unlikely. It was put forward by Giulio Bertoni, the discoverer of MS a 1 , in "Bertran de Born ou Rigaut de Barbezieux?" Annates du Midi 23 (1911): 204-8. The poem has been included by Alberto Varvaro among the doubtful cases in his edition of Rigaut's works, with a thorough history of the discussion of its authorship; see Rigaut de Berbezilh: Liriche (Bari: Adriatica, i960), pp. 252-59. On the other hand, Mauro Braccini summarily classified the attribution as uncertain and excluded the poem from his edition (Rigaut de Barbezieux: Le canzoni [Florence: Olschki, i960], pp. 5-8). Other suggested authors have included Peire Vidal (Stronski, Folquet, pp. xii-xiii; but cf. Stimming 1913, pp. 22-23 and

Anglade, ed., Peire Vidal, 1923, p. viii), Raimon Vidal (Kolsen, "Altprovenzalisches. 9. Attributionsfragen," Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 41 [1921]: 538-41), and Arnaut Daniel (Rajna, "I due pianti," pp. 258-65). 276. Aimeric de Péguilhan wrote two planhs, both lamenting the deaths of two men, Azzo VI of Este and the count of San Bonifazio (P-C 10,30 Ja no cujey and 10,48 S'ieu banc). See Shepard-Chambers, ed., pp. 11-12. 277. P-C 410,2 Ar es ben, ed. Amos Parducci, "Raimon de Tors, trovatore marsigliese del sec. XIII," StudjRomanzi 7 (1911): 33—36; for the date, pp. 13-14. Also in de Bartholomaeis, Poesie provenzali storiche, 2:212—15. 278. P-C 332,1 Quan lo dous, ed. Jean Audiau and René Lavaud, Nouvelle Anthologie des troubadours (Paris: Delagrave, 1928), pp. 173-76.

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Bases We have selected the base MS for each poem according to two criteria. First, the quality of the text: we have preferred the MS which requires the least emendation. This criterion does not always indicate a clear choice, however, since it is often difficult, given the corrections required by each of two MSS, to say which set represents the more significant alteration. Hence our second criterion, that of homogeneity throughout the edition: where the choice of MS is indifferent with regard to textual quality, we have preferred the MS chosen as base for the greater number of other poems. Our aim has been to produce a text of the poems of Bertran de Born using as few sources as possible, and remaining as faithful as possible to those sources. MS A, generally acknowledged as the best troubadour codex, provides the base for twenty-five of our poems; in only one case do we reject A as base, where its text is notably corrupt (poem 15).279 For poem 15 and eight others, we draw on MS I, preferring it in various cases to F, K, d, and other MSS. 280 M S M contains four poems available nowhere else, and we use it for one more as well.281 MS a 1 has two unica and provides us with two additional texts.282 From MS C we take three poems, and one from D.283 In all we have used six MSS as bases, taking over half our poems from MS A alone and nearly three-quarters of them from A and I together. In thirteen poems it has been necessary to add lines or stanzas from MSS other than the primary base.284 These secondary bases have been drawn from the same group of six MSS which provides the primary bases, except that MS F becomes necessary for three poems and V for one.285 Three poems require two secondary bases, and one requires three.286

279. For identification and description of the MSS in general, see P-C, pp. x-xxxv. A recent study of MS A is François Zufferey, "Autour du chansonnier provençal A," Cultura Neolatina 33 (1973): 147-60. 280. Base I: poems 4, 5, 12, 15, 36, 37, 41, 42, 46. 281. Base M: poems 26, 27, 38, 40 (all unica); 47. 282. Base a1: poems 25, 26 (both unica); 35, 39.

283. Base C: poems 14, 24, 28. Base D: poem 45. 284. Secondary bases are necessary for poems 2, 6, 8,13,14,17,18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 29, and 30. 285. MS F serves as secondary base for poems 6, 20, and 22; MS V, for poem 30. 286. There are two secondary bases for poems 2, 17, and 29; three for poem 30.

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Whereas earlier editors of Bertran have combined the various MS versions of each text, we have preferred to remain as faithful as possible to the base MS. 287 When scattered stanzas or lines are found only in other MSS we insert them, remaining as faithful as possible to the MS selected as secondary base. When emendation is necessary we provide a full listing of variants from the other MSS. However, when our base gives a tenable reading we do not provide variants, because any such variants pertain by definition to a different version.288 Nor do we give variant readings from earlier editions, although we have compared our text with earlier ones in scrupulous detail; since these editions represent eclectic derivations from the MSS, their authority suffices only to question, never to disprove, the correctness of the base. We emend the reading of the base if it violates meter, rhyme, the lexicon, syntax, sense, or history. The variants comprise an exhaustive list of our corrections. Two remarks are necessary. First, we attribute all the imperfect rhymes in our base MSS to faulty transmission, and so correct them, except three cases in which r before s is treated as inaudible: the rhyme of florsljos (35.36—37) permits no emendation, and so justifies retention of poderoslamors (35.1—2), and of Golfiersl enpres (23.37-38) as well.289 However, we respect orthographic variation at the rhyme as we do elsewhere, including the notation or omission of »-mobile (-onl -0, etc.), unless such variation threatens to obscure the rhyme. 287. On the application o f the selective and combinatory methods to troubadour lyrics, see Istvân Frank, " D e l'art d'éditer les textes lyriques," in Recueil de travaux offert à M. Clovis Brunei (Paris: Société de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1955), 1:463-75, esp. pp. 472-75; translated as "The Art of Editing Lyric Texts," in Medieval Manuscripts and Textual Criticism, ed. Christopher Kleinhenz (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1976), pp. 123-38. Stimming's execution o f the combinatory (Lachmannian) method has been criticized for a lack of systematic rigor by D e Poerck in his individual editions of poems 10, 29, and 34 (see Bibliography). De Poerck's own execution, unfortunately, fails to inspire confidence in the method, since he confesses that his stemma is based on personal judgment and is hypo-

thetical, and then applies it, as he says, with all the rigor of an iron rule (see especially his ed. of poem 10, pp. 4 4 0 - 4 1 ) . 288. For selected variants in passages where our base has an acceptable reading, the reader may consult Stimming 1879; if he wishes to know the entire manuscript tradition, in this age of sophisticated photographic techniques he should avail himself, as we have, of the services of the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes. 289. For parallel cases and discussion see Paul Lienig, Die Grammatik der provenzalischen Leys d'amors, verglichen mit der Sprache der Troubadours, I: Phonetik (Breslau: Koebner, 1890), p. 101, and Nicolö Pasero, ed., Guglielmo IX d'Aquitania, pp. 353-54.

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Second, we assume that declension functioned in Bertran's language as it did in contemporary vernacular charters.290 Accordingly, we correct common nouns for case, permitting only limited, phonetically conditioned variations (see notes for 24.17 and 24.21). However, we do not correct proper nouns, since they did not obey the case system in the charters and since scattered instances of wrong case at the rhyme indicate that they did not in Bertran's language either.291 We treat other elements in the noun phrase as we do common nouns, except that we allow a proper noun in the wrong case to determine the case of its noun phrase by contamination (11.5,14.46, 34.28, 41.36); conversely, where rhyme proves the case of a phrase we alter an aberrant proper noun within it (2.62).292 Melodies Only one of Bertran's poems, poem 13, has been preserved with its melody, but four more poems (11, 30, 39,43) are identical in metrical form to poems by other troubadours which have melodies, and four others (4, 8, 9, 33 [identical to 4]) match poems by the trouvere Conon de Bethune which have melodies. Following medieval critical statements, it is conventionally assumed that poems, such as these, which are perfect metrical pairs—having the same rhyme scheme, syllable count, and rhyme sounds—were sung to the same melody. Bertran confirms the assumption with textual reference to the source of one of his melodies (el son de n'Alamanda, 11.25), and circumstantial associations lend support to it in most other cases.293 At the very least, the melodies given here from songs by other writers fit Bertran's text exactly and originated in the circles for which he composed. 290. The unreliability of the troubadour M S S in regard to declension has been explained as a result of the strong Italian influence in their transmission by Theodor Loos, Die NomineUflexion im Provenzalischen, Ausgaben und Abhandlungen, no. 16 (Marburg: Elwert, 1884), p. 6. On declension in the charters see Clovis Brunei, éd., Les Plus Anciennes Chartes en langue provençale, pp. xiii-xix; Âke Grafstrôm, Étude sur la graphie . . . , par. 78.5 (pp. 257-41); and idem, Etude sur la morphologie des plus anciennes chartes languedociennes, par. 7 - 1 2

(pp. 30-40). 291. D'Argentos 8.31 and de Cambrais 32.14. 292. On contamination in the charters see Grafstrom, Graphic, par. 78.5c (p. 240). 293. See the discussion of Bertran's relations with his contemporaries, above. For poem 30 we have no evidence of contrafacture beyond identity of rhyme scheme, syllable count, and rhyme sound. For poem 43 we have only the first two of these, since the rhyme sounds match only in part.

98

Introduction

Since all preserved versions of these melodies will be published elsewhere,294 it is unnecessary to include all the versions here. Instead, for each song one version of the melody has been selected on the basis of practical and aesthetic criteria which need not be discussed in detail. For the sake of those unfamiliar with medieval musical script, the melodies are given in a somewhat modernized form of the original nonmensural notation. (The rhythm in which these songs were probably performed in the twelfth century cannot be adequately expressed in either medieval or modern mensural notation.)295 Flat signs are given according to modern practice, and the notaplicata is in all cases transcribed as two notes.296 Translation In our translation we have attempted to express Bertran's intention with clarity and force. In order to represent in English idiom the effects of context and rhetoric in Bertran's poetry, we have departed from a literal, word-for-word rendering whenever such a version would necessarily have expressed only the letter and not the spirit of the original. We have felt free to do so because we have translated Bertran's lexicon fully in the Glossary. Historical Background We provide necessary historical background in the headnote to each poem. Unless otherwise indicated, this material has been drawn from the conclusions reached by Kastner or earlier editors. Technical Notes To the headnote for each poem we append the following information: a description of the meter; the source of the melody, if it is preserved; reference to the razo, if there is one; a bibliography of earlier editions and commentary; a list of MSS containing the poem, with indication of the MS or MSS used as base; a table indicating the order of the stanzas in the MSS, if there is permutation; and 294. Hendrik van der Werf, Trouvères Mebdien; Hendrik van der Werf and Gerald A. Bond, The Complete Songs of the Troubadours, forthcoming.

295. Hendrik van der Werf, The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouvères, pp. 35-45296. Ibid., pp. 5 4 - 57, 84.

This Edition

99

a full statement of variants for every emendation, giving first the rejected base reading, then variants which support the emendation, and finally variants which are immaterial to our text. Back Matter To make the materials of this edition more accessible, we add a schedule of historical sources for the life of Bertran de Born; a list of rhymes; an index of first lines with a concordance to the principal earlier editions; musical scores for nine of the poems; a glossary that includes all the forms found in the text; a selected bibliography; and an index listing the proper nouns in the poems, as well as persons, places, and matters of particular interest mentioned in the poems, our commentary, and this introduction.

I Firebrand: 1181—82

1

Lo corns m'a mandat emogut

Bertran wrote this sirventes for Count Raymond V of Toulouse in order to rally the barons of Aquitaine in Raymond's support against Alfonso II, king of Aragon and count of Barcelona. Bertran could expect the barons, discontented with their liege lord Henry II, to be predisposed against Henry's ally Alfonso. The conflict between Alfonso and Raymond is considered by some historians to be the culmination of a century-long rivalry between the houses of Barcelona and Toulouse, a rivalry in which Alfonso's actions reveal the intention to create a trans-Pyrenean state embracing the territories from the Ebro River in Spain to Gascony and Provence, and so to dominate the western shores of the Mediterranean.1 Others, however, discredit this view and regard Alfonso's intervention in the affairs of the Midi from 1179 onward as secondary to the struggle between Toulouse and Carcassonne, in which Roger Trencavel of Carcassonne appealed for help to Alfonso as his nominal overlord.2 Whatever the remoter causes of the conflict, it took a turn for the worse in April 1181, when a partisan of Raymond killed Ramon Berengar, Alfonso's brother. Alfonso avenged himself on the murderer, Ademar de Murviel, by destroying his castle of Murviel near Montpellier.

1. Charles Higounet, "Un Grand Chapitre de l'histoire du Xlle siècle: La rivalité des maisons de Toulouse et de Barcelone pour la prépondérance méridionale," in Mélanges d'histoire du Moyen Age dédiés à la mémorie de Louis Halphen (Paris: Presses Univer-

sitaires de France, 1951), pp. 313-22. 2. Ramon d'Abadal i de Vinyals, "A Propos de la 'domination' de la maison comtale de Barcelone sur le Midi français," Annales du Midi 76 (196+): 315-45.

i. Lo corns m'a mcmdat e mogut 105 Historians long believed that he also invaded the county of Toulouse at this time, but the evidence for such an invasion has been challenged by Riquer.3 In any event an attack must have seemed imminent—and it is the imminence of conflict, not its realization, of which Bertran sings. Although this is the earliest datable poem by Bertran, he seems already to have acquired a reputation as a poet of arms (st. 1). His antagonism for Alfonso was to become hatred after the king of Aragon helped Richard besiege and take Autafort (poems 21 and 22). Meter 7 coblas unissonans of 6 lines with 2 tornadas of 2 lines. Rhymes: ut, Qn. Frank 522:1.

a

b

b

a b a

8

8

8

8

8

8

Bibliography P-C 80,23. Editions: Stimming 1879, no. 23; Thomas, p. 3; Stimming 1892, no. 1; Stimming 1913, no. 1; Appel, Lieder, no. 9; Riquer, La Urica de los trovadores, no. 1; Riquer, Trovadores, no. 128. Commentary: Levy, 'Textkritische Bemerkungen," I, 265-66; Appel, Bertran, 19-20; Kastner, "Notes," II, 37-42. 8MSS A 192, C 138, D 119, F 98,1174, K 160, M 227, R 96. Base A. Stanza Order ADFIKM: R:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 — 9

C:

1 2 3 5 6 4 7 8 9

3. See Riquer, Trovadores, II, 690 and 874, and "En torno a Arondeta de ton chantar m'azir," Boletín de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, 22 (1949): 218—22. Riquer does not propose an alternate

date for the conflict which is the subject of this poem, but shows instead that Alfonso allied himself with Richard against Toulouse in April 1185 and that Richard attacked the city in 1186.

106

The Poems ofBertran de Barn Variants 4 sion siont A, sion CDFIK, sian MR. 5 alcorto A, alcoto CDFIKR, alqeto M. 7 sia atendut A, si atendut DFIKMR, sia tengut C. 11 blastimariant A, blasmarian RCM, blastimaron DI(o illeg.)^, blastemaran F. 12 p A, per CDFIKMR. 24 qui AF, qe DIKR, eC,oM. 30 lor] los ADIK, i FCMR.

1 The count has asked and urged me through Sir Araimon Luc d'Esparo to make him a song that will chop a thousand shields, helmets, and hauberks and coats of mail, and pierce doublets and tear them.

2 And I must see to it, for he wants me to tell his story; and besides, I can't say no, since he promises that if I say no the Gascons will curse me—and them I have got to oblige.

3

At Toulouse, beyond Montaigu, the count will plant his gonfalon in Count's Field near the Place du Peyrou; and after he has set up his tent and we gather round, for as many as three nights we'll sleep in the open.

i. Lo corns m'a mandat e mogut

107

1

5

Lo corns m'a mandat e mogut per n'Araimon Luc d'Esparo q'ieu fassa per lui tal chansso on sion trencat mil escut, elm et ausberc et alcoto, e perpoing falsat e romput.

Lo corns: Raymond V of Toulouse. Araimon: Gascon form of the name Raymond, indicating that the emissary sent by Raymond of Toulouse was native to a region that supported him strongly (v. 11). Esparo: Esparron near Aurignac (Haute-Garonne).

2 Et er Pops que si'atendut, pois comtar mi fai sa razo; e que ges non diga de no, 10 dapois que m'o a covengut que blasmariant m'en Gasco, car de lor mi temper tengut. 3

A Tolosa part Montagut fermara-l corns songomfano 15 el Prat Comtal costa-l Peiro; e qand aura son trap tendut e nos lur venrem de viro, tant que tres nuoitz ijairem nut.

Montagut-. Montaigu-de-Quercy (Tarn-et-Garonne), just before Toulouse as seen from Autafort.

ijairem nut: "We'll sleep in the open" (lit. "we shall lie naked"), that is, it will take three days to pitch enough tents for us all.

io8

The Poems of Bertrán de Bom

4

And they will come to us there, the powerful men and the barons, the most honored companions in the world and the most celebrated; some will come there to make money, some to obey, some merely to please.

5

And as soon as we arrive, the tourney will start all over the field, and the Catalans and the Aragonese will fall fast and thick, for their saddlebows can't hold them up—we'll hit 'em damned hard, me and my mates!

6

And nothing will keep splinters fromflyingto the sky, or taffeta and brocade and samite from ripping, and ropes and tents and stakes and shelters and highpitched pavilions.

7

Let the king who has lost Tarascon and Roger, lord of Mon Albeo, and the son of Bernard Ato, and Count Pedro help the other side, and the count of Foix with Bernard, and Lord Sancho, brother of the beaten king.

1. Lo corns m'a mandat e mogut

109

4 E serau i ab nos vengut 20 las poestatz e li baro e li plus honrat compaigno del mon, e li plus mentaugut; qe per aver, que per somo, que per precs s,i serant mogut. 5 25 E desse que serem vengut mesclar fa-l tornéis pel cambo, e-ll Catalan e-ll d'Arago tombaran soven e menut, qe no-ls sostenran lor arso, 30 tantgrans colps lorferrem, nos drut! 6 E non pot esser remasut contra-I cel non volon tronco, e que cendat e cisclato e samit non sion romput, 35 cordas e tendas e paisso e trap epavaillon tendut. 7

Lo reis q'a Tarascón perdut e-l seigner de Mon Albeo Rotgiers, e-lfilisBernart Otho, 40 e lo corns Peire lor n'aiut e-l corns de Fois ab Bernardo, e-n Sans,frairedel rei vencut.

37 Tarascon (Bouches-du-Rhône) here represents all of Provence. Bertran speaks as though Alfonso (lo reis) had already lost the chief prize at stake in his dispute with Raymond. 38 Mon Albeo has defied efforts to interpret it with certainty, so one may arbitrarily identify its lord by apposition as the Roger of v. 39, as we have done, or leave it in indecipherable isolation. 39 Rotgiers: Roger II, viscount of Béziers and Carcassonne, whose appeal to Alfonso may have caused his intervention in the Midi. • IfillsBernart Otho: Bernard Ato VI, viscount of Nîmes and Agde, first cousin of Roger II. 40 lo corns Peire-. Pedro de Lara, grandee of Castile. 41 7 corns de Fois: Roger Bernard I, count of Foix, brother-in-law of Roger II of Béziers and cousin of Alfonso. Bernardo: Bernard IV, who became count of Comminge in Gascony (Haute-Garonne) in 1181. 42 -tt Sans: Sancho, brother of Alfonso, whom he appointed as his regent in Provence in 1181.

no

The Poems ofBertrán de Born 8

Over there they'd better look after their armor, because over here we'll be ready for 'em! 9

I always want the high barons to be fighting mad!

i. Lo corns m'a mandat e mqgut 8

De lai pensson de garnizo, que de sai lor er atendut. 9

Totz temps vuoili que li aut sim entre lor irascut!

m

2 Tortz e germs ejoi d'amor

Bertran begins this poem with a declaration that he has become a singer of love alone, but almost at once his thoughts return from sexual to political power. From the events alluded to, it appears the poem was written in spring or summer 1182 (see notes to w . 15 and 29). Meter 8 coblas unissonans of 7 lines with 2 tornadas of 3 lines. Rhymes: pr, ir, atz, Frank 405:7. a b a b c d c 8 8 8 8 8 4 8 Bibliography P-C 80,11. Editions: Stimming 1879, no. 11; Thomas, p. 53; Stimming 1892, no. 4; Stimming 1913, no. 4; Bartholomaeis, Poesie provenzali storiche, 1:13-16; Appel, Lieder, no. 10. Commentary: Levy, "Textkritische Bemerkungen," 1,268—70; Appel, Bertran, 25—26, 73; Kastner, "Notes," II, 42—46. jf MSS A 191,1177, K 162, a1 444, d 282. Bases A, I (w. 13, 20, 27, 41, 57-62), a 1 (v. 6).

z. Tortz e gerras ejoi d'amor

113

Stanza Order A: IKd: a1:

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 — i 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 — 6 78 9 — 7 8 —

— 10 —

Variants 6 om. A, e tot en lei a', et en la lei I, et on la lei d, et dis la lei K. 12 mos rasa A, m'onranza IKa'd. 13 om. Aa\ son cors adrei IKd. 20 om. A, ar es estei IKd, a prez s'estei a'. 23 s'ieu non vuoili A, non om. IKa'd. 23 l'autr'azir A, autre a', autres IKd. 27 om. A, fe qu'eu vos dei IKd, qe a1. 35 s'es afiatz A, novellamen a1, stanza om. IKd. 41 om. A, stanza om. a1, e far autre autrei IKd. 57—62 in IKd. Base I. 57 vai om. IKd. 58 jonne I, jovne Kd. 60 eu IKd. 62 fruir IKd. 62 ioait IK, ioiait d.

H4

The Poems ofBertran de Born

I Injustice and wars and the joys of love used to exhilarate me and keep me gay and tuneful, until singing was forbidden me by the lady I must obey. But now look, my song has turned entirely to fidelity.

2

Now I have turned to love, and you'll see love songs come and go, since it pleases the most beautiful one to allow my song. To my honor she has rightly entrusted herself, and not to any of the counts.

3

As for the little king of Lesser-Land, I'm pleased that he wants to get ahead. From now on the men who hold fiefs from him will acknowledge him as their lord. Since he has gotten into their foolish business, now let him stay there, and regain his rights all around.

2. Tortz egerras ejoi d'amor

ii5

1 Tortz e^erras ejoi d'amor mi solionfaresbaudir e tener ¿¡ai e cantador, tro per lieis cui dei obezir mifo mos chantars devedatz. E tot en lei ve-us cum mos chans s'es torneiatz. 2

Era sui tornatz en amor, e veiretz anar e venir chanssos, pois a la bellazor plaz que deia mon chant sofrir. E m'onranza s'es acordatz sos cors a drei, e non a negun dels comtatz.

14 comtatz, lit. "counties," by synecdoche "counts": cf. io, passim, and 13.14-15, where the names of territories represent the men w h o own them.

3

Del pauc rei de Terra Menor miplatz, carsi voi enantir. C'oimais lo tenran per seignor cill que deuran sonfieu servir. Pois vene a lor affars auratz, aras estei e cobre sos dreitz daus totz latz.

15 ret de Terra Menor : Philip o f France, w h o compelled Count Philip of Flanders to acknowledge his overlordship in a war in spring 1182. Terra Menor is an ironic pun on Terra Maior, used of France in the Chanson de Roland and other texts.

lió

The Poems ofBertrán de Born 4

Don't take me for a troublemaker if I want one great man to hate another; then vavasors and castellans will be able to get more sport out of them. I swear it by the faith that I owe you—a great man is more free, generous and friendly in war than in peace.

5

The Lombards wanted to attack that fox of an emperor, and fear never stops them from building upstream from Cremona; Count Raymond is honored here, since he has newly allied himself with the king.

6

I know that because I want to tell the truth about their war, the bad-mouthers will say I've been a dupe to let myself be drafted into it and used. My brother even wants to keep my half of the fiefs he promised to share.

2. Tortz egerras ejoi d'amor

117

4 No-m tengatz per envazidor s'ieu vuoili fus rics l'autre azir; qe mieills s'eri poiran vavassor 25 e chastellan de lorgauzir. Cor plus es francs, larcs e privatz, fe qu'eu vos dei, rics bom ab ¿¡erra qe ab patz. 5

E-l volpili de Vemperador 30 volian Lombari envazir; e ja non laisson per paor sobre de Cremona bastir, que-l coms Raimons es sai honratz car ab lo rei 35 s'es novellamen afiatz. 6 Ben sai que li malparlador, car vuoili de lorgerra ver dir, m'en appellarant sofridor car m'i laisforssar e baillir. 40 Q'els dons que mosfrair m'ajuratz efag autrei voi retener l'autra meitatz.

29 7 volpill de I'emperttdor, "that fox of an emperor": Frederick Barbarossa (with a possible allusion to his red beard). In November 1181 Frederick stripped Henry the Lion of his title of duke of Saxony and confiscated his feudal holdings. Henry and his wife Mathilda, daughter of Henry II, attended the court held at Argentan in fall 1182, where Bertran addressed poems 8 and 9 to her. 30-32 Lombart. . . Cremona-. The Lombard League, a confederation of rebellious Italian cities, had constructed above Cremona the fortress of Alessandria, which was instrumental in the defeat of Frederick Barbarossa at Legnano (1176). 33-35 7 coms Raimons . . . lo ret: An alliance in 1182 between Raymond of Toulouse and the Young King (to whom the first tornada is directed) is not mentioned elsewhere; it must have been a strand in the web of intrigue by which Young Henry sought to undermine Richard's control of Aquitaine. During the revolt of 1183 Raymond participated actively in Young Henry's cause (Geoffroy de Vigeois, in Recueil, 18:217b). 40 mosfraiv. Constantine de Born. In poem 3 Bertran exults that he has expelled Constantine from Autafort; in poem 19 he again exults that he has once more gotten the castle back from Constantine, to whom Richard had given it.

II8

The Poems of Bertrán de Born 7

Since my brothers won't tolerate my rights, my love, or my pleas, if I do manage to regain possession of my half, I don't want to be scolded by any jeering shopkeepers. They talk peace many a time when no one has asked them to.

8

But I have so many teachers that I don't know, by Christ, how to choose the best course; when I grab and snatch the wealth of those who don't let me keep to myself, they say I've been too rash. Now since I'm not making war, they say I'm no good.

9 Papiol, go quickly to the Young King; tell him too much snoozing doesn't please me.

io Sir Yes-and-No likes peace with Philip, I believe, more than his disinherited brother John does.

2. Tortz e gerras ejoi d'amor 7

Pois non volon dreich ni amor mieifmire ni mos plaitz sofrir, 4j ges per lezidors d'obmdor, s'ieu m'en podia revestir, non dei esser malrazonatz. Qu'il fant plaidei maintas vetz c'om no-ls n'a preiatz.

44 miei fruire'. Constantine and Itier. 45 lezidors: unattested elsewhere, but acceptable as a compound of rare lezir "to wrong, injure, hurt" (PD; SiT, 4:392; FEW, 5:129 laesus) and agentive -idor (Adams, Word-Formation, p. 51).

8

50 Mas eu hai tant enseignador non sai, per Crist, lo mieils chausir; qan eu prend e tuoill sa ricor d'aquels qe no-m laisson garir, dizon que trop me sui cochatz. 55 Car non gerrei, ditz horn aras q'ieu sui malvatz. 9 Papiol, e tu vai viatz al joven rei; diras que trop dormir no-mplatz. 10

6o En Oc e No ama mais patz ab Felip, crei, que-l frair Joans deseretatz.

57 Papiol-. joglar of Bertran de Born, whose name figures as a noun of address in the tornadas of twelve poems written between 1182 and 1194; perhaps a native of the Catalan village of Papiol, sixteen kilometers west of Barcelona (Riquer, Guillem de Bergueda, 1:151). No other troubadour mentions him. 60 En Oe e No: The meaning of this senhal has been explained by Lewent as "one who says 'yes' and 'no' when either of them is in its place, one who does the right thing at the right moment and does it without hesitation": see "The Pseudonym Oc-e-No," pp. 113-1460-62 En Oc e No . . . : "What Bertran probably means to imply, mockingly, is that Richard was no more inclined to war than his young brother" John, aged fourteen in summer 1182, and dubbed deseretatz or "Lackland" because he had not been included in Henry's early division of his empire among his older sons (Kastner, "Notes," II, 46). At this point Richard's interest in peace with Philip sprang from his attempt to secure the inheritance of Angouleme against the claim of Guilhem Taillafer, who offered to pay homage to Philip for the county in exchange for his support (see headnote to poem 10). On the form of Joans, see the discussion of emendation in the Introduction.

119

3 Un sirventes on motz nonfattl

The suspicions Bertran expressed in poem 2 regarding the intentions of his brother Constantine led to his rejoicing in this poem that he has driven him out of Autafort. (The razo says Constantine had wrongfully dispossessed Bertran first, but Geoffroy de Vigeois says Bertran acted through treachery.)1 This event led in turn to the siege of July 1183 (poem 17), by which Richard drove Bertran out and returned the casde to Constantine for a brief period (cf. poem 19). We may date the first expulsion of Constantine before July 1182 from the allusion in stanza 3 to Richard's siege of Perigueux. Meter 7 coblas unissonans of 7 lines with 1 tornada of 4 lines. Rhymes: alh, art, alha. Frank 160:2. a a b b c b c 8 8 8 8 7' 8 7' Probably imitated by Peire Vidal; influenced Uc de Saint-Circ: see the discussions of these poets under contemporaries and epigones in the Introduction.

1. See the section on the poet in the Introduction, pp. 19-22.

121 3. Un sirventes on motz non faill Razo Boutière-Schutz G, 88-90. Bibliography P-C 80,44. Editions: Stimming 1879, no. 44; Thomas, p. 7; Stimming 1892, no. 2; Stimming 1913, no. 2; Bartholomaeis, Poesie provenzali storiche, 1:12—13; Appel, Lieder, no. 13; Bergin, no. 1. Commentary: Levy, "Textkritische Bemerkungen," I, 266-67; Pio Rajna, "Bertrán de Born e una favola esópica," Romania 50 (1924): 246-53; Appel, Bertrán, 27-28; Kastner, "Notes," III, 144-49. 8MSS

A 190, C 141, D 123, F 77,1181, K 166, M 227; anon. N 246. Base A.

Stanza Order A C M DFIK N

i i i i —

2 5 5 5 4

3 7 7 4 2

4 —

2 2 •7

5 2 6 7 —

6 3 4 3 3

7 6 3 6 6

8 8 8 8 8

Variants 3 apresa A, apres CDFIKM, st. om. N. 7 la AC, Ten DFIKM, st. om. N. 16 arandaill A, arrenailh DIKM, arrezalh C, areiaigl N, araill R 22 baraill A, bataill DIK, badaill F, baitall N, m'atailh M, st. om. C. 27 li dui vescomte et A, li vescomte et DFIKN, li dui comte ez M, st. om. C. 45 metre en AD, metre a C, metra FIKN, metre cor M. 50-51 Baron, Dieus vos sal e-us vailla^l; e vos gart e vos aiut e vos insertedfromCDFIKMN.

122

The Poems ofBertrán de Born

I I've made a sirventes where not a word misses the mark, and it never cost me a garlic clove. I have learned a good trick: if I have a brother, cousin, or kinsman, I share with him my egg and my small change; then if he wants my share, I throw him out of the partnership.

2

All day I struggle and fight! I fence and parry and bitch, for they ravage and burn my land and cut my timber and mix the wheat with the chaff. And there isn't a scheming or cowardly enemy who doesn't attack me.

3 Talairan neither trots nor rears nor does he budge from his fortress; he doesn't react to lance or spear. He lives like a coward, and he's so full of flab it pains me when he stretches and yawns while the others ride out.

j. Un sirventes on motz non faill

m

1 Un sirventes on motz non faill aifaich, d'ano no-m costei un aiti. Et ai apres'un'aital art, qe s'aifraire, cosin ni qart, eu-lpart l'ou e la meailla. E puois s'il voi la mia part, eu l'en ¿jet de comunailla. 2 Totjorn contendi e-m baratti! Escrim e-m defen e-m coraill, c"om mefond ma terra e m'art, e-m fai de mos arbres issart, e mesclo-lgran am la pailla. E no-i a volpili ni coart enemic que no m'asailla. 3

Talairans non trota ni-n sattl, ni non hieis de son Arenaill, ni non dopta lanssa ni dart. Anz viu a guisa de coart, et es tantples de nuailla greu m'es qan l'autragens separi, et el s'esten e badailla.

Talairans: Elias VI Talairan, count of Perigord, whom Richard besieged at Perigueux in July 1182 as part of a campaign to establish dominance over Perigord and the Limousin. Arettaill: a fortress near Perigueux, built around 1150 and so called because it was located in a sandy place {arena).

124

The Poems ofBertrán de Born

4

Guillem de Gordon, you've put a dead clapper in your bell, so I love you, God keep me. Eut the two viscounts take you for a fool and a dolt because of your treaty, and they think it's high time for you to be in their army.

5

All my feelings I keep in my lock box, although Sir Aimar and Sir Richard have got me in big trouble; they've kept me in fear for a long time. But now I'm starting such a brawl for them that if the king doesn't stop it, the boys will get theirs in the guts.

6

At Perigueux, near the wall, I'll ride out on my Bayard as far as I can throw a club. And if I find there a potbellied Poitevin, he'll know how my blade cuts—on top of his head I'll make him a slop of brains mixed with mail.

3. Un sirventes on motz non faill 125 4 Guillem de Gordon, fol bataill avetz mes dinz vostre sonaill— et eu am vos, si Dieus mi ¿sart. 25 Pero per fol e per musart vos tenon d'est a fermailla li dui vescomfet es lor tort que siatz en lor batailla.

22 Guillem de Gordon (Gourdon [Lot]) has won Bertran's love by ignoring a treaty with the two viscounts, Aimar V of Limoges and his son Gui, with whom he shared the government. Guillem de Gordon, Aimar, and Gui would all be Bertran's allies in the revolt of 1183 (poem 10).

5

Tôt mon sen teing dinz mon seraill, 30 si tôt m'ant mes en gran trebaill entre n'Azemar e-n Richart; lonc temps m'ont tengut en regart. Mas ar lor mou tal barailla qe li enfan, si-l reis no-Is part, 1$ auran part en lur corailla. 6 A Peiregos près del muraill tant cant poirai gitar ab maill, voirai anar sobre Baiart. E se-i trob Peitavin pifart, +0 sabra de mon bran cum tailla— que sus el cap li forai bart de cervel mesclat ab mailla.

38 Baiart: The name refers to the color bay, or reddish brown, and may allude to the marvelous steed of Renaut de Montauban in the chanson de geste bearing his name. 39 Peitavin: a follower of the count of Poitiers, Richard.

126

The Poems ofBertran de Born

7

All day I resole and recut the barons and melt them down and heat them up. I was thinking of clearing them out, so I must be a fool to let them upset me. They're worse to work with than iron for Saint Leonard—so he's a fool that cares about them.

8

Barons, God save you and keep you and help you and aid you, provided you say to Sir Richard what the peacock said to the crow.

3. Un sirventes on motz non faitt

127

7 Totjorn resoli e retaill los barons e-lz refon e-lz caill. 45 Q'ie-ls cujam metr'en eissart, per q'ieu suifols car m'i regart. Qu'ill son peior per obrailla que non es lo fers Sain Leonart, per qu'es fols qui s'en trebailla. 8

50 Baron, Dieus vos sal e vos gart e vos aiut e vos vailla, ab sol que digatz a-n Richart so qe-lpaus dis a la grailla.

48 Sain Leonart-. the patron saint of prisoners, salvator captivorum et confractor carcerum ("savior of captives and breaker of prisons"), in the words of the antiphon of his office. His shrine was located at Noblat, later Saint-Léonard de Noblat, near Limoges. See Rita Lejeune, "L'Extraordinaire Insolence du troubadour Guillaume IX d'Aquitaine," in Mélanges de langue et de littérature médiévales offerts à Pierre Le Gentil (Paris: SEDES and CDU, 1973), pp. 485-503, esp. pp. 496-9953 so qe-lpaus dis . . . : an allusion to the fable of the peacock and the crow who disguised himself in peacock feathers, only to be stripped and humiliated. Afterwards the peacock said to him, in the version of a French Isopef. Qui plus haut monte qu'il ne doit, De plus haut chiet qu'il ne voudroit. He who climbs higher than he should falls from higher than he would like. (Julia Bastin, ed. Isopet I, in Recueil général des Isopets, Société des Anciens Textes Français [Paris: Champion, 1929-30] 2:259.) Giraut de Borneill also alluded to this fable (P-C 242,67 S'es chantars 35).

II Lady's Mem

4

Ai Lemozis, jrancha terra cortesa

In this song Bertran celebrates the arrival of Guiscarda de Beaujeu in the Limousin. The date of her arrival and marriage to Archambaut V I de Comborn is unknown. He became viscount sometime between 1184 and 1187, and by 1190—95 Guiscarda had borne two sons.1 Stroriski put the composition of this poem around 1185, while Kastner, through an elaborate argument using several uncertain assumptions, pushed it back to 1182. We group the poem thematically with others concerning women, not chronologically. Bertran ceremoniously presents the Limousin in the first line and Guiscarda in the last, urging the knights of the region to prove their worth and so deserve her love. It is a stately greeting in a balanced form, belying the repeated assertion that the poem is a fragment. As the razo says, Bertran fetz aquestas coblas—he made these stanzas, and for all we know, he made no more. Meter 2 coblas unissonans of 7 lines each. Rhymes: eza, pis. (The same form and nearly identical rhymes recur in poem 33.) Frank 308:1. a b a b b b a 10' 10 10' 10 10 10 10' Cf. Conon de Bethune; perhaps imitated by Bernger von Horheim: see the discussions of them in the Introduction. 1. Stroñski, Légentle, p. 68.

4. Ai Lemozis, frantha terra cortesa

131

Melody From the possible imitation by Conon de Béthune, Spanke 1837 Mout me semont Amors que je m'envoise, ed. Wallensköld, no. 3, MS W 45c. For a complete edition of the melody preserved with Conon's poem, see Hendrik van der Werf, Trouvères Melodien I, 312—14. Razo Boutière-Schutz D, 78-80. Bibliography P-C 80,1. Editions: Stimming 1879, no. 1; Thomas, p. 107; Stimming 1892, no. 29; Stimming 1913, no. 29; Appel, Lieder, no. 2; Frank, Trouvères et Minnesänger, no. 15c. Commentary: Appel, "Beiträge," II, 38-39; Appel, Bertran, n; Kastner, "Notes," I, 402-3. 4MSS F 85,1182, K 168, K 136. Base I. Stanza Order Uniform, except that K reduces the text to a single stanza comprising w . 1, 2,10, 4, 12, 13, 14Variants 3 gaiessa IK, gaiesa F, larguesa K. 5 esteian auceis IK, estei anc eis F, om. K. 7 conquissa IK, qesa F, om. K. 10 proessa I, proesa FK, om. K. 14 a en zai trames IK, es sai tramesa FK.

132

The Poems ofBertrán de Born

I O Limousin, free courtly land, it delights me that such honor accrues to you. For joy and honor and mirth and gaiety, courtesy and pleasure and gallantry come to us; and may this spirit remain forever! Whoever has called himself a lover must consider carefully by what deeds a lady should be courted.

2

Gifts and service and splendor and largess nourish love as water does fish, and as politeness and valor and prowess do arms and courts, and wars and tourneys. It will be unseemly for anyone who is brave and has prided himself on his prowess if he doesn't show it, now that Lady Guiscarda has been sent to us here.

4. Ai Lemozis, francha térra cortesa

1 Ai Lemozis, francha terra cortesa, mout me sap bon car tals honors vos creis. Que jois epretz e deportz e gaiesa, cortesía e solatz e domneis fen ven a nos; e-l cor estei anc eis! Be-is deugardar qui a drutz se depeis per cats obras deu domna esser quesa. 2

Dons e servirs eg amirs e larguesa noiris amors com fai Paiga lopeis, enseingnamenz e valors eproesa armas e cortz, e guerras e tornéis. E qui pros es ni de proessa-s}eis, mal estara faoras non paréis, pois na Guiscarda nos es sai tramesa.

estei anc eis: Cf. Kastner, "Notes," I, 4-02-3 SW 1:7$ (aquí eis).

5 Sei qui camja bon per meiUor

Presumably the lady Bertran here calls Meilz-de-be, and whose arrival in the Limousin he rejoices over (w. n—12), is identical to the Guiscarda of poem 4. The same senhal occurs again in poem 7, v. 47. Meter 5 coblas singulars of 10 lines with 1 tornada of 4 lines. Coblas capcaudadas. Rhymes: a: or, ?r,