English translation [LP]

I. The other day I was in Paradise, which has made me merry and joyful, because God whom all things obey – land, sea, valley and mountain – was so friendly towards me. And he said to me, «Monk, why did you come? And how is Montaudon, where you have more company?»
II. «Lord, I have been subject to the cloister for a year or two, and so have lost the [favour of the] barons; just because I love and serve You they withdraw their love from me. Sir Randos, to whom Paris belongs, was never false or deceitful towards me; he, and I myself, I think, are sorry for it.»
III. «Monk, I do not welcome you staying hidden away in the cloister, or looking for fights and arguments and quarrels with your neighbours so that you can hold on to power; instead I love song and laughter, and the world is the better for it, and Montaudan gains from it.»
IV. «Lord, I fear I am committing a sin if I compose coblas and love-songs, for a man who deliberately violates his oath loses Your love and You; so I am abandoning the profession [of troubadour]: on account of the world, so that I do not hate myself (?), I have gone back to the religious life and given up going to Spain as a result.»
V. «Monk, it was very wrong of you not to rush off immediately to the king who rules Oléron, for he used to be such a friend to you; so I recommend him to break off his friendship with you. Ha! What a lot of fine sterling marks he will have lost by making you gifts, for he raised you from the mud!»
VI. «Lord, I would certainly have seen him had it not been Your fault for ever tolerating his imprisonment! But have You completely forgotten what the Saracen ship is like when it takes a bath? If it finds its way into Acre, there will be plenty of wicked Turks there: anyone who follows You into battle is a fool!»

Italian translation [DM]

I. L’altro ieri mi trovavo in Paradiso, ed è perciò che son gaio e gioioso, perché fu tanto amorevole verso di me Dio, cui tutto è soggetto: la terra, il mare, la valle, la montagna. E mi disse: «Monaco, perché sei venuto? E come va Montaudon, là dove hai maggiore compagnia?».
II. «Signore, sono stato sottomesso nel chiostro per un anno o due, giacché ho perduto il favore dei baroni; solo perché vi amo e vi servo, essi mi privano del loro amore. Messer Randos, che possiede Paris, non fu con me mai falso né ingannatore; egli, come del resto me, credo se ne dispiaccia».
III. «Monaco, io non gradisco affatto se tu rimani nascosto nel chiostro e trami guerre, dispute o contese con i tuoi vicini affinché ti rimanga il comando; piuttosto, io amo il canto e il riso: il mondo ne trae vantaggi, e ci guadagna pure Montaudon!».
IV. «Signore, io temo di sbagliare se compongo strofe o canzoni, poiché colui che mente consapevolmente perde il vostro amore e Voi; perciò mi tolgo dal commercio: per non odia re me stesso a causa del secolo, me ne tornai alla vita di preghiera, e abbandonai la strada di Spagna».
V. «Monaco, hai fatto davvero male a non recarti subito, sollecito, dal re che possiede Oléron, che era tanto tuo amico: perciò approvo che ti sminuisca la sua amicizia. Ah, che bella quantità di sterline avrà perduto nel farti regali, lui che ti levò dal fango!».
VI. «Signore, l’avrei ben visto, se non fosse per colpa vostra, che addirittura tolleraste la sua prigionia! Ma a voi non sovviene affatto come tiene il mare la flotta dei Saraceni: ché, se si raccogliesse dentro Acri, ancora ve ne sarebbe di Turchi felloni: è folle chi vi segue nella mischia!».

Testo: Mantovani 2008. – Rialto, 12.xii.2014.

Mss.: C 187r (mor.demonta); Da 165v (lo monge demont audon); E 157 (monge demontaudo); I 137r (lo monges de montaudon); K 122v (Lo monges de montaudon); N 284v-285r (no rubric); R 20r (monge de montaudo; blank staves above stanza I); d 300 (lo monges de monaudon).

Critical editions: Karl Bartsch, Chrestomathie provençale, Elberfeld 1880, p. 131; Emil Philippson, Der Mönch vom Montaudon, ein provenzalischer Troubadour, Halle 1873, XII, p. 37; Otto Klein, Die Dichtungen der Mönchs von Montaudon, Marburg, 1885, 2, p. 30 (mss. CDaEIR); Carl Appel, Provenzalische Chrestomathie, Leipzig 1895, 93, p. 132 (mss. CDaEIR); Karl Bartsch, Chrestomathie provençale (Xe-XVe siècles), 6th ed. revised by Eduard Koschwitz, Marburg 1904; reprint Geneva and Marseille 1973, c.143 (mss. CDaEIR); Vincenzo Crescini, Manuale per l’avviamento agli studi provenzali, 3rd ed., Milan 1926 (reprinted with ‘Postfazione’ by Alberto Vàrvaro, Rome 1988), 24, p. 218; Michael J. Routledge, Les poésies du moine de Montaudon, Montpellier 1977, XIII, p. 105 (base C, French translation); Dario Mantovani, «Monge de Montaudon: “L’autrier fui en Paradis” (BdT 305.12)», La parola del testo, 12, 2008, pp. 7-34 (p. 18).

Other editions: François-Juste-Marie Raynouard, Choix des poésies originales des troubadours, 6 voll., Paris 1816-1821, IV, p. 40; Henri P. de Rochegude, Le Parnasse occitanien, Toulouse 1819, p. 294; Carl August Friedrich Mahn, Die Werke der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, 4 voll., Berlin 1846-1886 vol. II, 64; Vincenzo Crescini, Manualetto provenzale per uso degli alunni delle Facoltà di lettere. Introduzione grammaticale, crestomazia, glossario, Verona and Padua 1892, 17, p. 54; Félix, duc de la Salle de Rochemaure - René Lavaud, Les troubadour cantaliens, 2 voll., Aurillac 1910, vol. II, p. 262 (text Klein, French translation and notes); Jean Audiau and René Lavaud, Nouvelle Anthologie des troubadours, Paris 1928, p. 187 (French translation); André Berry, Florilège des troubadours, Paris 1930, p. 348 (French translation); Giulio Bertoni, Antichi poesie provenzali, Modena 1937, p. 51 (text Appel, Italian translation); Alfredo Cavaliere, Cento liriche provenzali, Bologna 1938, p. 175 (text Appel, Italian translation); Raymond T. Hill and Thomas G. Bergin, Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours, New Haven 1941, p. 106 (2nd ed., 2 voll., New Haven and London 1973, vol. I, p. 138); Francesco Piccolo, Primavera e fiore della lirica provenzale, Florence 1948, p. 126; Frank Hamlin, Peter Ricketts and John Hathaway, Introduction à l’étude de l’ancien provençal, Geneva 1967, p. 173 (on C); Alfred Jeanroy, Anthologie des troubadours XIIe-XIIIe siècles, revised edition with texts, notes and French translations by Jürgen Boelcke, Paris 1974, p. 168 (French translation); Martín de Riquer, Los trovadores. Historia literaria y textos, 3 voll., Barcelona 1975, vol. II, 206, p. 1036 (text Appel, Spanish translation); Carlos Alvar, Textos trovadorescos sobre España y Portugal, Madrid 1978, p. 218 (st. 4: text Riquer); Giuseppe E. Sansone, La poesia dell’antica Provenza, Parma 1993, p. 436 (text Appel, Italian translation); Frede Jensen, Troubadour lyrics: a bilingual anthology, New York 1998, p. 344 (text based on C, English translation).

Versification: a7 b7 b7 a7 c7’ a7 b7 c7’ (Frank 541:3); -is, -os, -anha; six coblas unissonans. The versification is identical in all respects to that of three other pieces: a sirventes of Bertran de Born, Be·m platz car trega ni fis (BdT 80.8), a canso of Folquet de Marselha, Ja non volgra q’hom auzis (BdT 155.12), and a sirventes of Palais, Be·m plai lo chantars e·l ris (BdT 315.2, except that this has different rhymes in stanzas III-IV: see Frank 348:1). Dario Mantovani («Prove di dialogo fra i trovatori: Bertran de Born, Monge de Montaudon, Folquet de Marselha, Palais», in La lírica romanza del Medioevo. Storia, tradizioni, interpretazioni, Atti del VI convegno triennale della Società Italiana di Filologia Romanza, ed. Furio Brugnolo and Francesca Gambino, Padova 2009, pp. 197-216) suggests that the first three songs may have initially been performed together.

Notes: Pace Routledge (see note 43 below) the text clearly dates from after Richard’s release from prison in 1194. Paden et al (The poems of the troubadour Bertran de Born, ed. William D. Paden Jr., Tilde Sankovitch, and Patricia H. Stäblein, Berkeley - Los Angeles 1986, p. 436) date Bertran’s sirventes to before the death of Aimar the Younger of Limoges in 1195 (v. 38), and after 15 September 1194. This latter date arises from their interpretation of vv. 49-53, Papiol, ja·n Frederis / non feira aital bargaigna / cum fetz lo fills n’Aenrics qan pres romieus ab bordos / don pres Poilla e Romaigna, which they relate to the emperor Henry VI’s campaign against the Norman kingdom of southern Italy and Sicily, and in particular his quietening of unrest in Bologna (Romagna) before taking Salerno on 15 September (see p. 441). Mantovani («Prove di dialogo») argues that the songs of Bertran de Born, Monge de Montaudon and Folquet de Marselha (see Versification) were composed in that order. Understanding passes in Bertran’s song v. 26 (e qe passes sai mest nos) to imply a sea crossing, and taking that song together with Ar ven la coindeta sazos (BdT 80.5, vv. 2-3, que aribaran nostras naus, / e venra·l reis gaillartz e pros), he dates the song to just before Richard’s return by ship to France on 12 May 1194. However, he takes no account of Paden’s arguments, and passes does not necessarily imply a sea crossing: compare for example Pasan a Autariba, on vengon li Alaman (Chanson de la croisade contre les Albigeois, ed. Eugène Martin-Chabot, 3 voll., Paris 1931-1961, vol. I, 125.16); E·l coms de Montfort passa e camis e sendiers (ibid., 159.57); que·l marques vai ost e setje tener / sobre·l soudan e pass’en breu Romaingna (RVaq, BdT 293.3, 65-66, on Rialto), and many other examples on COM. It can refer more particularly to crossing over a bridge or a river, which may be relevant in the case of Bertran’s piece: Et acuelho per forsa lo gran pon per pasar, Fierabras, 2400 (also 2350, 2396-7, 4100, 4009, cited on COM as ed. C. Buridant and A. Kowalska, «publ imminente»); que no i es pons di planca, mans us petitz fossatz. / Cant lo coms de Foish passa e·l seus valens barnatz, / d’entrambas las partidas fero doas maitatz (Chanson de la croisade contre les Albigeois, 211.93-95). Whatever the actual order of composition, it is clear that Richard’s return generated a flurry of poetic activity: see also BdT 245.1, BdT 245.2 on Rialto, and BdT 119.8 (see Martín de Riquer, Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos, 3 voll., Barcelona 1975, vol. III, p. 1251). – Why does the Monk refer to Richard the Lionheart specifically as the ruler of Oléron? Is it simply a question of finding a suitable rhyme? Or is there any connection with Richard’s presence in Poitou on his return from imprisonment? Richard was campaigning in the region in July 1194, where his capture of the town of Angoulême «was the culmination of two months of remarkable military success» (John Gillingham, Richard I, Newhaven and London 1999, pp. 288-289). A troubadour named Arnaut (Arnaut de Mareuil?), about to cross the French river Boutonne, a tributary of the Charente, may have been heading north at this time in the hope of Richard’s patronage: see the general note to BdT 245.1. Is ‘God’ implying that the Monk should have done the same (but didn’t) as soon as he heard the news of Richard’s return? – Line 8: «Il n’y a pas beaucoup de moines de son abbaye en Paradis» (Lavaud, Les troubadours cantaliens, II, p. 262). – Line 14, En Randos cui es Paris: a troubadour patron from the Gévaudan in the Auvergne, from the same family as the troubadour Garin d’Apchier, probably the heir to the Guillem de Randon who died in 1186. Paris here may be a castle of that name in the Vivarais, near Prévenchères and Saint-Laurent-les Bains. See Mantovani’s note to his edition on pp. 28-30. – Line 25: Mantovani «io temo di sbagliare». The force of faillir here must be ‘to commit an offence’ and hence, since the offence is against God, ‘to sin’: compare SW, III, 400 falhimen «Vergehen» and III, 403, 14, falhir «Vergehen, Sünde» (PD falhir «s.m. péché»). – Line 28, mentis: Mantovani «mente», but the sense is that the Monk has broken his religious vows (PD «ne pas tenir une promesse, manquer à la foi jurée» and SW, V, 2 and 4). – Line 30: Mantovani’s translation of no·m n’ais, «per non odiare me stesso», is faithful to the mss. Yet even if the Monk is alleging he is afraid to commit a sin, the tone hardly suggests such anguished introspection, however feigned. Indeed, the tone and content of the context suggest he is more likely to be wanting to avoid God hating him, since he has just claimed to be worrying about losing His love. Is this another case of the occasional disappearance of the final ‘t’ of the 2nd per. sg., which Routledge himself points out in venguis (6), referring to Charles H. Grandgent, An outline of the phonology and morphology of Old Provençal, Boston, New York and Chicago 1905, p. 134, § 173, 2 («aniest anies, fesist fezis»)? But Grandgent refers only to the preterite. The -is ending of a verb in -ir would normally be either 1st or 3rd p. imperfect subjunctive: «so that it (the world) might not hate me» makes no sense, and yet the first person is also unsatisfactory. It is striking that there are no other attestations on COM or in the Occitan dictionaries of ahis apart from the mss. ABC variants of BdT 262.2, 47 (Jaufre Rudel), on which see Giorgio Chiarini, Il canzoniere di Jaufre Rudel, Rome 1985, p. 98 and SW, I, 38-39, nor have I found any of aïs. I suspect there may be an archetype error here for aizis, ‘...the world that does not welcome me’, referring back to v.11. Cf BdT 70.36, 32-33 si·lh bela lai on jai / no m’aizis pres de se; BdT 243.1, 19-20 sol que m’aizis / ab vos sotz cobertor; BdT 364.33, 38 e si·l plagues que pres de si m’aizis; LR, II, 42 and PD aizir «accueillir, accommoder». It is not difficult to see how eyeskip, or the disappearance of -iz or -zi at the end of a line in the common source, could have led to produced the majority readings; indeed the variants suggest that the scribes had some difficulty with the end of the line. – Line 31: Mantovani (pp. 32-33) points out that leisos here has the technical meaning of ‘reading the scriptures’ whose metonymic sense is ‘the religious, monastic life’. – Lines 41-48: the overall cohesion of this stanza links the Monk’s blame of God for allowing Richard’s imprisonment to the fact that while he was out of action, Acre was, and still is, left defenceless if there is another wave of Saracen attacks. Richard had recaptured Acre on 12 July 1191, entering the town jointly with Philip Augustus, but the French king left for home three weeks later and once back in France plotted with John Lackland against him. This induced Richard to set sail from Acre after agreeing a three-year truce with Saladin on 9 October 1192, which led to his being intercepted and imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria’s soldiers in December. The Monk is saying that God is a fool both for letting such a successful leader be taken prisoner at all, and for removing his availability for future involvement in the East. – Line 43: Routledge translates anc (43) as «une fois», arguing (p. 111) that «Rien dans la chanson ne nous permet de décider si Richard se trouvait encore en prison à l’époque où le Moine l’a écrite mais il nous semble que l’emploi de “anc” (une fois dans le passé, onques) pourrait suggérer que l’auteur parle d’une affaire terminée». But anc means an emphatic ‘ever’, there is no reason to think it might imply a situation that is over. Compare D’anta sospir e planc e plor, / quar anc fuy tant enamoratz (BdT 5.2, 25-26, Aimar de Rocaficha, ed. Carl Appel, Provenzalische Inedita aus Pariser Handschriften, Leipzig 1890, reproduction Wiesbaden 1967, p. 7; la genser c’anc nasques nuda (BdT, 9.5, 40, ed. Andrea Poli, Aimeric de Belenoi. Le poesie, Florence 1997); E si anc Guillems Malespina fon bos / en est segle, ben o mostra en Dieu (BdT 10.11, 41-42, AimPeg, ed. Caïti-Russo, on Rialto), countless other examples on COM, and LR, II, 80, > unquam, «onc, oncques, jamais». In the present case it would not make sense for ‘God’ to reproach the Monk for not going quickly to see the English king if he were still in captivity. – Although preizos is sometimes referred to as plural it is unclear why, here: perhaps a suggestion of the different prisons in which Richard was kept? Compare BdT 404.11, 53 aissi me met e las vostras preizos (Raimon Jordan, ed. Stefano Asperti, Il trovatore Raimon Jordan, Modena 1990, XI, see pp. 417-418, and BdT 461.5, 32 sieu muor en las vostras preizos (Carl A. F. Mahn, Gedichte der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, 4 voll., Berlin 1856-1873, vol. I, p. 173, no. 282 ); BRV 10031-2 Apress deu hom esser curos / que·l desliure de las preizos, and 22322 escapet d’aquelas prezos (Le «Breviari d’amor» de Matfre Ermengaud, ed. Peter T. Ricketts, voll. III, London 1998, and IV, Turnhout 2004). – Line 45, cossi·s banha: the expression is humorous. – Line 47, pro i agra enquer: correct scansion requires elision between pro and i, and between agra and enquer. The source of CER appears to have considered the line hypermetric and rewritten, but without making sense.

[LP, lb]

BdT    Monge de Montaudo

Songs referring to the crusades