Rialto

194.16 = 129.4

 

   

Gui d’Uisel  ·  Eble d’Uisel

 

 

 

 

 
   

N’Eble, pus endeptatz

[Gui]
    etz, doncx si teniatz  
    ahora vostr’amia  
    nuda entre vostres bratz  
5   per far que que·us vulhatz,  
    chauzetz qual vos plairia,  
    qui vos aportaria  
    mil marcx e vos dizia:  
    ‘N’Eble, si·us levavatz  
10   ni d’aqui·us moviatz  
    yeu los vos donaria,  
    mas aital vuelh que sia  
    que ja mais nueg ni dia  
    ab lieys noqua siatz  
15   soletz ni ab solatz  
    per nom de drudaria.’  
    E cauzetz qual que sia;  
    no·y gardetz cortezia,  
    que la qual que prendatz  
20   ben say qual volriatz  
    ni qual mais vos valria.  
       
    En Gui, be·m cossellatz [Eble]
    cum hom desesperatz  
    e cum selh que faria  
25   per aver malvestatz.  
    Mas de me vuelh sapchatz  
    que, qui m’aportaria  
    tot l’aver qu’ieu metria  
    s’om trobar lo podia,  
30   de lieys on es beutatz  
    e guayeza e solatz  
    mos fis cors no·s partria  
    ni far non o poiria  
    per nulha ren que sia:  
35   mais am guays endeptatz  
    esser que rics malvatz,  
    e ricx suy, sol guays sia,  
    e guays quan vey m’amia,  
    quar ses lieys no viuria  
40   nueg ni jorn, be sapchaz.  
    E doncx que·m demandatz  
    mas per quan m’auciria?  

 

 

 

Text: Paterson, Rialto 3.xii.2011.


Mss.: C 395r, E 216-17, G 100r, I 162r, K 148r, L 4r-v, N 279r, S 237-38, a1 567, d 314.

Critical editions: Giovanni Galvani, Fiore di storia latteraria e cavalleresca della Occitania, Milan 1845, p. 9 (based on d, with arbitrary alterations); Hermann Suchier, Denkmäler der provenzalischen Literatur und Sprache, Halle 1883, p. 328 (based on N alone); Salvatore Santangelo, Poesie di Gui d’Uisel, Catania 1909, p. 56 (provisional edition, without K, based on E); Henry Carstens, Die Tenzonen dem Kreise der Trobadors Gui, Eble, Elias und Peire d’Uisel, Königsberg 1914, p. 69 (based on C); Linda Paterson, Rialto 3.xii.2011.

Other editions: Carl August Friedrich Mahn, Gedichte der Troubadours in provenzalischer Sprache, 4 vols., Berlin 1856-1873, n. 179 (on Galvani); Jean Audiau, Les Poésies des quatre troubadours d’Ussel, Paris 1922, p. 79 (on Carstens); Léon Billet, Généalogie de la famille d’Ussel. Les quatre troubadours d’Ussel, leur biographie et celle de la maison d’Ussel, Egletons 1982, p. 225 (on Audiau).

Versification: a6 a6 b6 a6 a6 b6 b6 b6 a6 a6 b6 b6 b6 a6 a6 b6 b6 b6 a6 a6 b6 (Frank, 101:2); two coblas unissonans. The versification is identical in all respects with that of BdT 159.1. Marshall sees these as two of a number of modified contrafacta of the Franco-Occitan pastourelle BdT 461.148 (= RS 935): for more details see John H. Marshall, «Imitation of Metrical Form in Peire Cardenal», Romance Philology, 32, 1978-79, pp. 18-48, pp. 36-38, and Id., «Pour l’étude des contrafacta dans la poésie des troubadours», Romania, 101, 1980, pp. 289-335, pp. 304-9; see also Stefano Asperti, Bibliografia Elettronica dei Trovatori, n. 194.16, who is inclined to see their more immediate model as the Latin conductus ‘Homo considera’.

Note: Galvani’s identification of the two interlocutors with Eble de Ventadorn and Guillem de Peitieus was accepted by Karl Bartsch, Grundriß zur Geschichte der provenzalischen Literatur, Elberfeld 1872, n. 183.9 = 130.1, but corrected by Hermann Suchier, «Der Troubadour Marcabru», Jahrbuch für romanischen und englischen Sprache und Literatur, 14, 1875, pp. 119-60 and 273-310, pp. 120-21. The rubrics of C and S offer support to the now universal acceptance of the hypothesis that Gui and Eble d’Uisel were the interlocutors: this piece is one of a number of references to Eble’s impecunious state. One cannot help wondering, however, about the provenance of the IKa1 reading Segnor or Segner in line 22: if it were some unknown lord who had twitted Eble about his indebtedness, would not En Gui be an obvious correction? But why should anyone make the opposite change? The argument in favour of IKa1’s reading would be difficult to refute, were it not for the unambiguous testimony of S. If the authors are indeed Eble and Gui d’Uisel, the piece is likely to have been composed c. 1200: see the General note to BdT 129.3, in Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, The Troubadour Tensos and Partimens: A Critical Edition, Cambridge 2010.

[LP]


Foreword

BdT    Gui d’Uisel    Eble d’Uisel