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The ‘Pistola’ of Cerveri de Girona
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
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Cerveri was decidedly no poetical genius, and often enough he follows the trodden paths of troubadour poetry. However, there is no denying that again and again he tries to escape that poetical routine. In many cases these attempts result in odd and eccentric compositions, where the unusual is reached at the cost of good taste and poetical values. On the other hand, it must be admitted that Cerveri's efforts in this respect were not always futile. His is, e.g. an amusing satire upon bad women. One of his love songs, characteristically called libel by the MS (S g), assumes the form of a complaint submitted to the king as the supreme earthly judge, in which the defendant is the lady whose charms torture the lover and have made him a prisoner. This poem combines the traditional praise of the beloved and a flattery addressed to the king. Its slightly humoristic tone is also found in a song entitled lo vers del vassayll leyal. Here Cerveri, basing himself on a certain legend connected with St. Mark, gives the king advice in his love affair. Again the poet kills two birds with one stone, flattering the sovereign and pointing, for obvious purposes, to his own poverty. The latter is the only topic of a remarkably personal poem in which the author complains bitterly that, while many of his playmates have become rich in later years, the only wealth he himself did amass were the chans gays and sonetz agradans which he composed for other people to enjoy. Cerveri even tries to renew the traditional genre of the chanson de la mal mariée by adding motifs of—presumably—his own invention. This tendency towards a more independent way of thinking and greater originality in its poetical presentation could not be better illustrated than by the two poems which the MS calls Lo vers de la terra de Preste Johan and Pistola The one puts the poet's moral argumentation against the background of the medieval legend of Prester John, the other, which forms the subject of the present study, sets its teachings in a still more solemn framework, the liturgy of the Mass.
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1 Abbreviations: Appel, , Chr. = Provenzalische Chrestomathie (6th ed. Leipzig 1930). Appel, , Lautl. = Provenzalische Lautlehre (Leipzig 1918). Kolsen, , Beiträge = Beiträge zur Altprovenzalischen Lyrik (Biblioteca dell'Archivum Romanicum, Series I, vol. 27, Florence 1939). Kolsen, , N.M. = ‘Sechs Gedichte des Trobadors Serveri de Girona,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 39 (1938) 314–38. Levy, , S.W.B. = Provenzalisches Supplement-Wörterbuch (8 vols. Leipzig 1894–1924). Levy, , P.D. = Petit Dictionnaire Provençal-Français (Heidelberg 1909). Mahn, , Werke = Die Werke der Troubadours (4 vols. Berlin 1846–53). Mahn, , Gedichte = Gedichte der Troubadours (4 vols. Berlin 1856–73). Torrents, Massó, Repertori = Repertori de l'antiga literatura catalana; La Poesia I (Barcelona 1932). P.-C. = Pillet, Alfred and Carstens, Henry, Bibliographie der Troubadours (Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft, Sonderreihe Band 3, Halle 1933). Raynouard, L.R. = Lexique Roman (6 vols. Paris 1836–45). Schultz-Gora, P.S. = Provenzalische Studien I (Strasbourg 1919). Tobler, V.B. = Vermischte Beiträge zur französischen Grammatik (5 vols. Leipzig 1886–1912). Tobler-Lommatzsch = Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch (2 vols. 1925–36). Ugolini = ‘Il canzoniere inedito di Cerverì di Girona,’ Memorie della R. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Classe di Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche, Serie VI, 5 (Rome 1936) 513–683. While the present article was in the press, the following publication came to the notice of the writer: de Riquer, M., Obras completas del trovador Cerverí de Gerona; Texto, traducción y comentarios (Instituto español de estudios mediterráneos 1947). Cf. the reviews by Jeanroy, , Romania 69 (1946–7, publ. 1948) 500; Chaytor, , Modern Language Review 43 (1948) 277f. It was, however, impossible for this writer to obtain a copy of the book either from Spain or in the U. S. A. Google Scholar
2 P.-C. 434, 1, repeatedly published, last in Audiau-Lavaud's, Nouvelle Anthologie des Troubadours (Paris 1928) No. xliii.Google Scholar
3 P.-C. 434a, 25; Ugolini No. 33.Google Scholar
4 P.-C. 434a, 72; Ugolini No. 65; edited, rather unsatisfactorily, by Kolsen, N.M. 330–34, and reedited by the present writer, Annales du Midi 51 (1939) 285–94: ‘Une chanson humoristique de Cerveri de Girone.’ Google Scholar
5 P.-C. 434a, 11; Ugolini No. 77; edited by Kolsen, N.M. 319–23. Cf. Jeanroy's corrections, Romania 65 (1939) 242–43. genre of the chanson de la mal mariée by adding motifs of-presumably-his own invention.6 This tendency towards a more independent way of thinking and greater originality in its poetical presentation could not be better illustrated than by the two poems which the MS calls Lo vers de la terra de Preste Johan 7 and Pistola 8 The one puts the poet's moral argumentation against the background of the medieval legend of Prester John, the other, which forms the subject of the present study, sets its teachings in a still more solemn framework, the liturgy of the Mass.Google Scholar
6 P.-C. 434a, la; Ugolini No. 102; edited by the present writer, Romanic Review 37 (1946) 3–19.Google Scholar
7 P.-C. 434a, 82; Ugolini No. 20; edited by the present writer, Romance Philology 2(1948–9) 1–32.Google Scholar
8 P.-C. 434a, 2; Ugolini No. 22.Google Scholar
9 Massó Torrents, J., Repertori 209–10.Google Scholar
10 Bartsch, , Grundriss zur Geschichte der Provenzalischen Literatur (Elberfeld 1872) § 291 and Stimming, , ‘Provenzalische Literatur,’ in Gröber’s Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie II,2,28. See also the quotations in Raynouard, L.R. IV, 55.Google Scholar
11 MS R. Edited by Pfaff, in Mahn, , Werke IV, 100 and 143.Google Scholar
12 L.R. III, 133. The ‘Pistola’ of Cerveri De Girona Google Scholar
13 Cfr. also (e)pistolari and (e)pistolier ‘book containing the epistles read in church’ (Levy, S.W.B. III, 113–114).Google Scholar
14 When it first occurred to me that Cerveri, composing the introduction of his poem, might have had the Mass in mind, I contacted Professor Helmut Hatzfeld, asking him whether the three Provençal expressions could really be interpreted the way I thought they should be. His answer was very encouraging. He not only seemed to approve my hypothesis, but made two interesting statements: (1) that the Introit could indeed by called ‘verse’ and, as a matter of fact, sometimes is really given that name; (2) that common usage calls ‘epistle’ also lections which do not contain an apostolic epistle. Professor Hatzfeld moreover referred me to Father Strittmatter O.S.B., who took the pains to provide me with quite a number of quotations apt to explain the word comte in the sense of my hypothesis. The reader will find most of them reproduced hereafter. As to the character of the word comte, Father Strittmatter holds that, like vers for the Introit, it must have been a popular and non-technical term. My sincerest thanks go to both scholars for their most valuable contributions.Google Scholar
15 S.W.B VIII, 685–6.Google Scholar
16 L.R. V, 512.Google Scholar
17 Cf. Parsch, Pius, The Liturgy of the Mass (St. Louis-London, 1939) 85ff., especially pp. 90 and 91, from which the above sentences are taken almost verbatim.Google Scholar
18 See note 14.Google Scholar
19 PL 80, 701.Google Scholar
20 MS Parisin. lat. 9427, ed. Salmon, Dom Pierre (Rome 1944) 181ff.Google Scholar
21 Museum Italicum I, 2, 97.Google Scholar
22 See Acta Sanctorum 13, 367.Google Scholar
23 Férotin, M., Le Liber Mozarabicus Sacramentorum (Paris 1912) 743–44. This publication was not available to me.Google Scholar
24 pp. 743–44.Google Scholar
25 ed. Morin, Germain (Maredsoli 1893) vol. I.Google Scholar
26 See Parsch, , op. cit. 126.Google Scholar
27 We already mentioned the fact that the Epistle is not always taken from one of the apostolic letters (see note 14 and Parsch 340) and is nevertheless popularly called the Epistle.Google Scholar
28 P.-C. 434a, 15; Ugolini No. 52.Google Scholar
29 P.-C. 434a, 77; Ugolini No. 19.Google Scholar
30 P.-C. 434a, 43; Ugolini No. 42.Google Scholar
31 P.-C. 434a, 54; Ugolini No. 11.Google Scholar
32 Cf. the poem mentioned in note 3.Google Scholar
33 P.-C. 434a, 8; Ugolini No. 31; ed. Kolsen, , Beiträge No. 8. Cf. the corrections by Jeanroy, , Arch. Rom. 23, 16–17 and de Grave, Salverda, Neophilologus 25, 61. There still remains much to be said about the text. THE ‘PISTOLA’ OF CERVERI DE GIRONA Google Scholar
34 P.-C. 434a, 29 and 57, both edited in my article, ‘Old Provençal saig “Hangman” and Two Poems on Jongleurs by Cerveri de Girona,’ Mod. Lang. Quarterly 7 (1946) 411–44. For an attempt at reconciling the contradictory opinions see ibid. 416–17.Google Scholar
35 Edited by Pfaff, in Mahn, , Werke IV, 163ff.Google Scholar
36 For other judgments, in troubadour literature, on the social position of jongleurs see the article cited in note 34, pp. 418–19.Google Scholar
37 Edited by Bernhardt, Wilhelm, Die Werke des Troubadours N’At de Mons (W. Foerster’s Altfranzösische Bibliothek 11, Heilbronn 1877) 55ff.Google Scholar
38 Bernhardt, , op. cit. xii.Google Scholar
39 See Stimming, , in Gröber’s Grundriss der romanischen Philologie II, 2, 44, and Jeanroy, , Romania 48, 150.Google Scholar
40 It is worth mentioning that Cerveri names the four elements in the same order that is used by medieval treatises on natural science, i.e. according to their ‘weight,’ from earth as the ‘heaviest’ to fire, the ‘lightest.’ Google Scholar
41 P.-C. 434a, 58; Ugolini No. 13; ed. Kolsen, , Beiträge No. 2.Google Scholar
42 Changing traich to trai·l and totz to tot, Kolsen translates: ‘Wie das Wasser (alles) schlimmer fortzieht als irgend etwas, so zieht das Liebesleid die Liebenden mehr als alles mit sich.’ The alterations are superfluous; the translation destroys the sense of the passage, which should be rendered thus: ‘As the water suffers more than any other thing, so do I suffer from Love more evil than (literally: above) all lovers.’ Cf. Jeanroy, , Arch. Rom. 23, 13, and for traire mal and traire piegz Levy, , S.W.B. 8, 363, where the last named term is rendered by ‘Übleres erdulden.’ Google Scholar
43 Loc. cit. note 3.Google Scholar
44 P.-C. 273, 1; III, 1–5, quoted after MS a (ed. Stengel, No. 202).Google Scholar
45 The MS offers nul, which Stengel changes to nuls. But there can be no doubt that mil is the right reading.Google Scholar
46 viz. that of the water which ‘suffers’ like himself, and that of the ship which ‘suffers’ through a missing nail, just as the poet suffers through the missing mercy of his lady.Google Scholar
47 De Arte poetica 333: ‘Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare poetae;/aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere vitae.’ Google Scholar
48 This idea goes back to Disticha Catonis (I, 30): ‘Quae culpare soles ea ne tu feceris ipse: Turpe est doctori, cum culpa redarguit ipsum. ’ The fragmentary Provençal version of this work published by Meyer, Paul in Romania 25, 98–110, and reproduced by Tobler, Rudolf, Die altprovenzalische Version der Disticha Catonis (Berlin 1897) 36–39, renders the above Latin lines as follows: ’Ja parcerers non sias d’aizo c’altrui castias; que molt fa malamen qui fa zo que repren.’ The oldest Provençal example known to me is in a poem of Marcabru (first half of the 12th century) P.-C. 293, 40 (ed. Dejeanne, No. xl) VII, 3–6: ‘Que qui autrui vol encolpar dregs es que si sapcha guardar que no sia dels crims techitz de que lieys (read: de qu’el ieys) encolpa e ditz.’ The dictum had become nearly a commonplace, especially with later troubadours, as it seems. Cerveri uses it in at least three more of his poems (see the quotations below in the Explanatory Note to lines 58–60).Google Scholar
49 See Torrents, Massó, Repertori 182. Cf. Explanatory Note to lines 6–7.Google Scholar
50 No name being given by the poet, one would like to know the reason why Massó Torrents identifies the king with James I in the lines quoted above (see footnote 9). Concerning a possibility of dating our poem see Explanatory Note to lines 6–7.Google Scholar
51 Only in stanza V it is less strongly marked.Google Scholar
52 There is a slight possibility that the first section, too, was meant to be composed of two parts, the break lying between the fourth and fifth lines. The fact that the two parts are not completely equal—the rhymes are a'ba'c in the first, a'ca'b in the second part—would not be of much importance because the alternation of male and female rhymes remains the same. But a real pause constituting the pedes would be found only in stanza VI. In stanzas I and II the pauses are weak, in stanzas IV and V there is no pause at all after the fourth line.Google Scholar
53 Cf. Jeanroy, , Poésie lyrique des troubadours (Toulouse 1934) II, 69ff.Google Scholar
54 Mahn, , Werke IV.Google Scholar
55 P.-C. 309 Nos. i, iv, v.Google Scholar
56 See Levy, P.D. and Tobler-Lommatzsch, II, 1936 lines 30, 31, 32, 37, 41, 50 etc.Google Scholar
57 P.-C. 74, 16 stanza VII (ed. Levy, , Der Troubadour Bartolome Zorzi, Halle 1883, No. 18; Bertoni, , Trovatori d’Italia, Modena 1915, No. lxviii; Schultz-Gora, P.S. I, 83: ‘Als avinenz recort que·l planhs faigz es ab gai sonet, coindet e d’agradage, qu’estiers m’albir qu’om chantar no⋅l pogues ni neus auzir, tan mou de gran dampnage.' Bertoni (p. 456) gives this well-done translation: ‘Ai gentili ricordo che il mio pianto è fatto con gai, graziosi e piacevoli suoni, che altrimenti penso che non lo si potrebbe cantare e neppure udire, tanto è inspirato da dannoso lutto. ’ Google Scholar
58 MS Sg. P.-C. 434a, 2; Ugolini No. 22.Google Scholar
59 V.B. I2, No. 36.Google Scholar
60 P.-C. 434a, la; Ugolini No. 102; edited by me in Rom. Review 37 (1946) 3–19. In a note to line 10, the reader will find the second passage from Cerveri as well as other Provençal examples of this syntactical phenomenon.Google Scholar
61 For those who find fault with the fact that the important relative clause is separated from its noun by another relative clause, the following two of Tobler’s Old French examples may be reproduced here: (1) ‘La riens que plus ai desirée, Mon jovene enfant, biaus dous amis, Que vostre levrier m’a ocis;’ (2) ‘Et li dyables ki le tangonne Ki ceste volenté li donne.’ Google Scholar
62 Levy, P.D. 206.Google Scholar
63 Levy, P.D. 375 ‘doux, plein de bonté;’ see explanatory note to ses tensa line 5.Google Scholar
64 Levy, P.D. 66.Google Scholar
65 S.W.B. VIII, 171, No. 3.Google Scholar
66 S.W.B. VIII, 171, No. 1.Google Scholar
67 This interpretation would very well go with what has been said about umil in the explanatory note to line 4.Google Scholar
68 L.R. III, 61.Google Scholar
69 Poesie der Troubadours (2nd ed. by Bartsch, , Leipzig 1883) 62.Google Scholar
70 P.-C. 242, 16 (ed. Kolsen, No. 25) stanza I. Since these lines deal with a man who composes a poem, it is hard to understand why the editor renders doctor (in his translation vol. I as well as the glossary vol. II) by ‘doctor’.Google Scholar
71 P.-C. 154, 4, stanza II; ed. Eichelkraut, , Der Troubadour Folquet de Lunel 17.Google Scholar
72 Zschr. f. rom. Phil. 10 (1885) 593.Google Scholar
73 P.-C. 10, 32; II, 6. ed. Witthoeft, , Sirventes joglaresc (Marburg 1891) 69.Google Scholar
74 P.-C. 8, 1; text quoted after Mahn, , Gedichte No. 1015.Google Scholar
75 Mahn, , Werke I, 176.Google Scholar
76 In Old French even artists were called doctors; see Tobler-Lommatzsch, II, 1979–80.Google Scholar
77 Repertori I, 182.Google Scholar
78 See Appel, , Lautl. 75 and Schultz-Gora, P.S. I, 6–7.Google Scholar
79 See the ten examples referred to by Appel, , Chr. 316, glossary.Google Scholar
80 Cf. Modern French guise and déguiser. Google Scholar
81 S.W.B. II, 53–54, Nos. 5–7.Google Scholar
82 The third of these definitions is provided with a question mark by Levy, .Google Scholar
83 See Raynouard, L.R. V, 1 and Levy, S.W.B. I, 185.Google Scholar
84 P.-C. 434a, 23; Ugolini No. 34; ed. Kolsen, , Beiträge No. 10.Google Scholar
85 See also Jeanroy, , Archiv. Roman. 23 (1939) 18.—In a poem by Gaucelm Faidit (P.-C. 167, 1 ed. Kolsen, , Arch. Roman. 17, 361) the only MS (C) reads line 18: ‘Que si eu an (instead of: anc) fis falhimen.’ Google Scholar
86 Ed. Bartsch, , Denkmäler der provenzalischen Literatur (Stuttgarter Literarischer Verein 39, 1856) 205, lines 8–9.Google Scholar
86a See Levy, , S.W.B. VIII, 365–66, Nos. 40 and 41.Google Scholar
87 P.-C. 392, 5a; edited several times, last by Cavaliere, A., Cento Liriche Provenzali (Bologna 1938) 493. Its attribution, by the MS Sg , to Raïmbaut de Vaqueiras, still seems very questionable to me. Cf. the literature given by P.-C. and Cavaliere 580–81.Google Scholar
88 P.-C. 434a, 63; Ugolini No. 12; ed. Kolsen, , N.M. 327; III, 3–5.Google Scholar
89 Kolsen had unnecessarily changed e fers to enfers. See Jeanroy, Romania 65, 244. He also calls attention to a stylistic negligence of Cerveri’s: ‘L’opposition entre l’aspect des choses hier et aujourd’hui est exprimée seulement pour le dernier objet envisagé, mais elle se sousentend aisément pour les deux premiers.’ Google Scholar
90 This way of expressing a very short space of time reminds one of English ‘before you would say Jack Robinson.’ Google Scholar
91 ed. Breuer, (Göttingen 1925). He follows MS B. The recent edition by Brunel, Paris 1943, preferring MS A, has: ‘E prec que de nun nun digatz.’ Google Scholar
92 P.-C. 196, 1 (ed. Kolsen, , Studi medievali N.S. 12, 3) I, 5.Google Scholar
93 S.W.B. VII, 750 Nos. 5 and 6.Google Scholar
94 P.-C. 194, 7 (ed. Audiau, , Les poésies des quatre troubadours d’Ussel, Paris 1922, p. 37) V, 9. The same troubadour uses the correct form sufrir in a tenso with his cousin Elias, P.-C. 194, 18 (ed. Audiau, 83) VIII, 3.Google Scholar
95 S.W.B. VII, 620.Google Scholar
96 P.-C. 401, 8; ed. Appel, , Chr. No. 74.Google Scholar
97 P.-C. 266, 9 (ed. Audiau, , Nouvelle anthologie des troubadours, Paris 1928, p. 311) IV, 9–14.Google Scholar
98 See demnar in Diccionario enciclopèdic de la lengua catalana (Barcelona 1930–35) II, 31, where it is listed as belonging at least to the dialect of the island of Eivissa. The Diccionari Aguiló III (1918) 7 s.v. ‘damnar’ has no evidence of demnar, but one of dempnat for dampnat from a Saragossa MS, while the second example quoted under this head is from Majorca and shows damnat. It seems that the e of Catalan condemnar occasionally penetrated into the forms of the simple verb damnar. Google Scholar
99 With the double meaning of ‘amusement, pleasure, joy’ and ‘company.’ Google Scholar
100 S.W.B. VII, 775.Google Scholar
101 ed. Meyer, 2 (Paris 1901) lines 4592–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
102 Büchner, , Geflügelte Worte (28th ed. Berlin 1937) 227. Here are some modern echoes of this idea: Milton, , Par. Lost VIII, 249, as quoted by the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (2nd ed. London 1942) 276a: ‘For solitude sometimes is best society’; Byron, as quoted by Edwards, Tyron, The New Dictionary of Thoughts (New York 1944) 606: ‘In solitude where we are least alone’; and Goethe, who has the old harper in Wilhelm Meister sing: ‘Und kann ich nur einmal Recht einsam sein, Dann bin ich nicht allein.’ As a consequence of linguistic conditions, the Latin, English, and German passages lack the effect brought about by the Provençal derivatives of Latin solacium. Google Scholar
103 Levy, , S.W.B. VIII, 129 Nos. 21 and 24.Google Scholar
104 Cf. those provided by me, Neuphil. Mitteil. 39 (1938) 246; see also Schultz-Gora, , P.S. I, 62.Google Scholar
105 For this question see Schultz-Gora, , P.S. I, 35.Google Scholar
106 ed. Bartsch, K., Denkmäler der provenzalischen Literatur 192ff.; our quotation is from p. 204, lines 31–32.Google Scholar
107 P.-C. 434a, 9; Ugolini No. 54.Google Scholar
108 P.-C. 82, 53 (ed. Jeanroy, , Ann. du Midi 25, 177) 1. 7.Google Scholar
109 S.W.B. VI, pp. 510, 511 and 512.Google Scholar
110 Kolsen reads s’es gençars, which he puts between commas. Jeanroy, Arch. Roman. 23, 15, pointed out that the MS offers sos, not ses, which Kolsen forgot to mention in the varia lectio. Jeanroy translates correctly: ‘Sa grâce surpasse toutes les grâces.’ In this passage the verb passar takes the function of part or sobre, and the two words of the same stem are nouns. Basically, however, the figure remains the same.Google Scholar
111 P.-C. 52, 3 (ed. David Jones, J., La tenson provençale, Paris 1934, p. 94) III, 5.Google Scholar
112 Provenzalische Inedita aus Pariser Handschriften (Leipzig 1890) xxviii.Google Scholar
113 P.-C. 434a, 58 (ed. Kolsen, , Beiträge No. 2) VII, 4.Google Scholar
114 P.-C. 434a, 10 (ed. Kolsen, , N.M. 314) stanza III. The text is unsatisfactory in several respects. We should cancel the comma after gart (line 2); read d’enuy (3) instead of de vuy (which Jeanroy, , Romania 65, 242, wrongly suggested to consider an equivalent of French fi, German pfui—an expression of contempt); and restore the reading of the MS in the last line: c’altre ne mi chasti. Translation: ‘He who wants to speak ill of, or deride others should first see to it that one cannot do the same thing to him, and he who is worth more (than others) should be less annoying in what he says, and he who will offer (only) words without acting accordingly (literally: without deeds on his part) is not in high esteem with good people, and the one commits a fault who blames me for the wrong he does himself. For the sage says that before correcting me or anybody else every considerate man should correct himself.’ Google Scholar
115 P.-C. 434a, 73 (ed. Kolsen, , N.M. 334) st. V. This text, too, needs adjustments. We should eliminate the additions made by the editor in lines 1, 3 and 4; restore the reading of the MS in line 4: fay gen chastiar; supply the missing syllable in line 1 by ben (or should one read diregir?); break up el regne si; regn'e si (3); correct que·l (5) to qu’el; and, adopting Jeanroy's interpretation of lines 3–4 (Romania 65, 245), translate as follows: ‘A king should govern his life and rule his kingdom as well as himself; for otherwise he would not live up to his title. For the one who goes astray cannot guide others nor rightfully blame me for what he does himself. If I violate the law which I exhort you to observe, I do harm to myself and give offence to God.’ Google Scholar
116 Cf. Tobler, , V.B. I2, 128–129.Google Scholar
117 Cf. Appel, , Lautl. § 54c (p. 76).Google Scholar
118 Neither Raynouard in his L.R. nor Levy in his S.W.B. mention this fact. The latter's P.D., however, lists the meaning ‘maltraiter.’ Google Scholar