English translation [LP]

I. It is hard for me to endure hearing such misbelief spoken and spread abroad, and this displeases and vexes me, for one ought not to love anyone who abandons the source and origin and birthplace of all good things, of salvation and faith: I shall therefore make clear and apparent what is disturbing me.
II. None of you should be surprised if I wage war on an ignorant fraud who tries his utmost to bury all good courtly actions, and persecutes and imprisons them. He presumes great audacity in speaking ill of Rome, which is the leader and guide of all those who on earth have virtuous souls.
III. In Rome all good things are brought to perfection, and anyone who takes these away from her has lost his senses, because he is deceiving himself; he will be buried for it and lose his presumptuousness. God hear my prayer: may those sharp-beaked slanderers against the Roman faith, young and old, fall from the weighing scales [into Hell].
IV. Rome, I regard the people who load their flesh and bones with base vices as stupid, uncouth, blind and sightless; because of this they fall into the pit where stinking evil fire is prepared for them, so they are never released from the burden of their sins.
V. Rome, it greatly displeases me that a base man should fight against you. You are at peace with the good, for each feels flattered to be near you. As for the fools, it was their folly that caused Damietta to be lost; but your wisdom uncontestably makes anyone wretched and miserable who oversteps the bounds or behaves disgracefully by opposing you.
VI. Rome, I truly know and believe without question that you will lead the whole of France to true salvation – yes, and the other people who wish to support you. But what Merlin prophesied of good King Louis, that he would die at Panse (Monpensier), is now becoming clear.
VII. Worse than a Saracen and more false-hearted are wretched heretics. Anyone who wants to be like them is heading for the fiery abyss and, instead of salvation, for damnation. Rome, you reduced the men of Avignon’s wicked toll, which pleases me, and which was a great mercy.
VIII. Rome, you have freely redressed many wrongs and opened the gate to salvation, whose key was twisted, so that with good leadership you subdue foolish mockery; if a man follows your example, the angel Michael bears him away and preserves him from hell.
IX. Summer and winter, Rome, a man should obediently and attentively read the cazern, and when he sees the mockery when Jesus was martyred, let him ponder this circumstance. If he does not quietly reflect, he is not a Christian; if he does not then feel troubled, he is utterly foolish and vain.
X. Rome, it appears that the traitor and his suspect faith with its foolish, base words is from Toulouse, which shows that it is certainly not ashamed of deceptions. But within two years that arrogant count will have to give up his tricks and his dubious faith and set all the damage to rights.
XI. Rome, may the great King who is Lord of righteousness bring great misfortune upon the false people of Toulouse, for all outrageously flout His commands, and each of them conceals this, and they destabilise this world; and I shall not consider Count Raimon good if he seeks their support any more.
XII. Rome, anyone who murmurs against you or builds a castle or fortifications confounds himself for sure, and his strength little avails him; for however high the mountain on which he sets or establishes himself to avoid God remembering his pride and the injustice ... and so he loses his whole hide and suffers a double death.
XIII. Rome, I take great comfort in the fact that the count and the emperor, now that they have turned aside from you, are achieving little, for their foolish conduct and wicked way of thinking makes them both (?) fail according to your pleasure; for neither of them can stand fast, despite his war-mongering; their army is no use to them.
XIV. Rome, I truly hope that your rule, and France, which abhors an evil path, will crush pride and heresy: false silent heretics who fear no prohibitions and believe in secret teachings, so full are they of treachery and wicked thoughts.
XV. Rome, you are well aware that anyone who listens to their decrees is very unlikely to elude them: they set their trap with false lures so that each is caught in it. They (those caught in the traps) are all deaf and dumb, for this is robbing them of their salvation, so each is lost, for they have hat and cloak (protection) from her (Rome) but they remain naked.
XVI. Whether secretly or openly heretical they are unquestionably born burned and lost through their wicked life, for none ever performed a virtuous act, or at least we have never heard of it. But if their mortal life were in accordance with God’s law, I believe God would have exalted it, but good it is not.
XVII. Anyone who wishes to be saved should at once take the cross in order to crush and wreck the false heretics, for the Heavenly One came here to open his arms entirely to his friends; and since He took on such sufferings, anyone who is unwilling to hear Him or believe His teachings is assuredly wicked.
XVIII. Rome, if you allow those who treat the Holy Spirit shamefully on your account to continue to exist – when someone explains this to them they are such foolish wretches that not one faces the truth – you will have no honour in this. Rome, the traitors are so full of error that each one increases his folly as much as he can every day.
XIX. Rome, anyone who argues with you acts foolishly; of the emperor I say that if he does not reconcile himself with you his crown will come to great dishonour, and rightly so; but anyone who confesses his wrongs with a good grace and is tormented by them easily finds pardon from you.
XX. Rome, may the Glorious One who pardoned the Magdalene, and from Whom we hope for a good gift, make the rabid madman who broadcasts so many false words, and his treasure, and his wicked heart, die under the same law and with the same punishment by which a heretic dies.

Italian translation [lb]

I. Mi è difficile sopportare di sentir proclamare e diffondere una tale eresia, e mi dispiace e mi irrita, perché non si deve amare chi abbandona la fonte e l’origine e la culla di ogni buona cosa, della salvezza e della fede: esprimerò quindi in modo chiaro ed evidente ciò che mi dà fastidio.
II. Nessuno di voi dovrebbe essere sorpreso se muovo guerra al falso ignorante che fa del suo meglio per seppellire tutte le buone azioni cortesi, e le perseguita e le imprigiona. Crede di essere ardito parlando male di Roma, che è capo e guida di tutti coloro che (sulla terra) hanno l’anima virtuosa.
III. A Roma tutte le cose buone sono condotte alla perfezione, e chi gliele sottrae ha perduto il senno, perché inganna se stesso; egli ne sarà seppellito e perderà così la sua alterigia. Dio, ascolta la mia preghiera: fa’ che questi calunniatori dal becco affilato contro la fede romana, giovani e vecchi, possano cadere dalle bilance [nell’inferno].
IV. Roma, considero stupidi, rozzi, orbi e ciechi coloro che caricano la loro carne e le loro ossa di bassi vizi; per questo cadono nella fossa dove un fetido fuoco malvagio è preparato per loro, così che non siano mai liberati dal peso dei loro peccati.
V. Roma, mi dispiace molto che un uomo spregevole combatta contro di voi. Dai buoni avete pace, perché ognuno si sente lusingato di essere vicino a voi. Per quanto riguarda gli stolti, la loro follia ha fatto perdere Damietta; ma la vostra saggezza rende incontestabilmente triste e meschino chi travalica i limiti o si comporta in modo vergognoso contrastandovi.
VI. Roma, davvero so e credo senza dubbio che guiderai tutta la Francia alla vera salvezza, sì, e gli altri popoli che vogliono sostenerti. Ma ciò che Merlino ha profetizzato del buon re Luigi, che sarebbe morto a Panse (Monpensier), sta diventando chiaro.
VII. I miserabili eretici sono peggio dei saraceni e più falsi di cuore. Chi vuole essere come loro si sta dirigendo verso l’abisso di fuoco e, invece della salvezza, verso la dannazione. Roma, tu hai ridotto il perfido tributo a quelli di Avignone, cosa che apprezzo, e fu una grande grazia.
VIII. Roma, hai liberamente raddrizzato molti torti e hai aperto la porta per la salvezza, la cui chiave era contorta, in modo che con un buon governo soffochi il folle scherno; chi segue il tuo esempio, l’angelo Michele lo porta con sé e lo preserva dall’inferno.
IX. D’estate e d’inverno, Roma, uno deve leggere senza contestarlo il “quaderno” [il Vangelo?], per non sviarsi, e vedendo la derisione quando Gesù fu martirizzato, meditare su questo punto. Se non medita in silenzio, non è un cristiano; se allora non si sente turbato, è del tutto sciocco e vano.
X. Roma, sembra che il traditore e la sua fede sospetta con le sue folli e stolte parole sia di Tolosa, ed è per questo che non ha certo vergogna degli inganni. Ma entro due anni quel conte arrogante dovrà rinunciare ai suoi inganni e alla sua fede dubbia e riparare i danni.
XI. Roma, il grande Re che è Signore della giustizia dia grande sventura alla falsa gente di Tolosa, perché tutti scandalosamente si fanno beffe dei suoi comandamenti, e ognuno di loro lo cela, e destabilizzano il mondo; e io non considererò buono il conte Raimondo se continua a cercare il loro sostegno.
XII. Roma, chi mormora o costruisce un castello o fortificazioni contro di te si perde di certo, e la sua forza poco gli giova; per quanto alta sia la montagna su cui si attesta e si stabilisce per evitare che Dio gli ricordi il suo orgoglio e la sua iniquità ... e così ci lascia le cuoia e subisce una doppia morte.
XIII. Roma, ben mi conforta che il conte e l’imperatore, ora che si sono allontanati da te, abbiano scarso successo, perché il loro comportamento folle e i loro pensieri malvagi li fanno fallire entrambi (?) secondo il vostro piacere; perché nessuno di loro può resistere, nonostante amino la guerra; la loro forza è inutile.
XIV. Roma, spero davvero che la tua autorità, e la Francia, che aborre la strada malvagia, schiacceranno l’orgoglio e l’eresia: gli eretici tranquilli e falsi che non temono i divieti e credono a dottrine occulte, pieni come sono d’inganno e di pensieri malvagi.
XV. Roma, sai bene che chi ascolta i loro decreti difficilmente può sfuggire a loro: hanno preparato le loro trappole con false esche in modo che ognuno vi cade. Essi (quelli catturati nelle trappole) sono tutti sordi e muti, e questo toglie loro la salvezza, e così sono tutti perduti, perché pur avendo cappello e mantello (da Roma), restano nudi.
XVI. Segretamente o apertamente gli eretici sono senza dubbio nati bruciati e dannati a causa della loro vita malvagia, perché nessuno (di loro) ha mai compiuto un atto virtuoso, o almeno noi non ne abbiamo mai sentito parlare. Ma se la loro vita mortale fosse stata in conformità con la legge di Dio, credo che Dio l’avrebbe glorificata, invece non è lodevole.
XVII. Chi vuole essere salvato dovrebbe immediatamente prendere la croce per schiacciare e distruggere i falsi eretici, perché il Celeste è venuto qui per aprire completamente le braccia ai suoi amici; e poiché si è addossato tali sofferenze, chi non è disposto ad ascoltarLo o a credere nei suoi insegnamenti è sicuramente malvagio.
XVIII. Roma, se quindi permetti a coloro che trattano vergognosamente lo Spirito Santo a tuo nome di continuare ad esistere – quando qualcuno spiega loro questo, sono tali miserabili stolti che nessuno guarda la verità – non ne avrai onore. Roma, i traditori sono così pieni di errore che ognuno accresce la sua follia più che può ogni giorno.
XIX. Roma, chi ti combatte si comporta in modo stupido; dell’imperatore dico che se non si riconcilia con te la sua corona cadrà in grande disonore, e sarà giusto così; ma chi confessa sinceramente i suoi errori e ne è pentito trova facilmente il tuo perdono.
XX. Roma, il Glorioso che ha perdonato la Maddalena, e dal quale speriamo un bel dono, faccia morire il pazzo furioso che diffonde tante false parole, lui, il suo tesoro e il suo cuore malvagio, per la stessa legge e con la stessa pena con cui muore un eretico.

Text: Linda Paterson, Rialto 8.xii.2014.

Mss.: C 374r (Na gormunda; fragment), R 100r (101r in old numbering; Na gormonda de monpeslier; blank staves above stanza I; fragment).

Critical editions: Emil Levy, Guillem Figueira, ein provenzalischer Troubadour, Berlin 1880, p. 74; Angelica Rieger, Trobairitz. Der Beitrag der Frau in der altokzitanischen höfischen Lyrik. Edition des Gesamtkorpus, Tübingen 1991, p. 714 (German translation).

Other editions: François-Juste-Marie Raynouard, Choix des poésies originales des troubadours, 6 voll., Paris, 1816-1821, vol. IV, p. 319; Carl August Friedrich Mahn, Die Werke der Troubadours, in provenzalischer Sprache, 4 voll., Berlin 1846-1886, vol. III, p. 118; Vincenzo De Bartholomaeis, Poesie provenzali storiche relative all’Italia, 2 voll., Roma 1931, vol. II, 116, p. 106 (text Levy); Jules Véran, Les Poétesses provençales du Moyen Age et de nos jours, Paris 1946, p. 182 (French translation); Deborah Perkal-Balinsky, The Minor Trobairitz. An edition with Translation and Commentary, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University 1986, pp. 185-207 (which LP has been unable to check); Angelica Rieger, «Un “sirventes” féminin - La trobairitz Gormonda de Monpeslier», Actes du premier congrès international de l’AIEO, ed. Peter T. Ricketts, London 1987, pp. 423-455, on p. 429 (German translation); Katharina Städtler, Altprovenzalischen Frauendichtung (1150-1250): Historische-soziologische Untersuchungen und Interpretationen, Heidelberg 1990, p. 275 (on Levy and De Bartholomaeis; German translation).

Versification: a5 b6’ a5 b6’ a5 b6’ c5 c5 c5 b6’ c5 (Frank 273:2), 20 coblas singulars capcaudadas. Levy, followed by Rieger, presents the text as a11’ a11’ a11’ b5 b5 a11’ b5 and regards the hendecasyllables as having internal rhymes. Levy’s argument for this derives from Bartsch’s comment (Karl Bartsch, «Ein keltisches Versmass im Provenzalischen und Französischen», Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 2, 1878, pp. 195-219, on pp. 201-202) that this corresponds to a hendecasyllabic form signalled by the Leys d’Amors (Las Flors del Gay Saber, estiers dichas ‘Las Leys d’Amors’, ed. Adolphe-Félix Gatien-Arnoult, Toulouse 1841-1843, I, 116), of which there is no other known example: «Da aber gerade bei Guillem hiervon ein Beispiel sich findet (No. 7) und ausserdem der elfsilbige Vers (wenngleich mit der Caesur nach der sibenten Silbe) noch einmal bei ihm vorkommt (No. 10), sich also augenscheinlich bei ihm einer grossen beliebtheit erfreute, so habe ich nicht angestanden auch bei diesem Gedichte den Elfsilbner einzufahren» (p. 23). These tenuous arguments seem to me (as they evidently did to Frank) to be outweighed by the testimony of the mss., both of which insert a punctus indicating a 5/6’ split in the first three lines of each stanza. In the case of Gormonda’s model, Guillem Figueira’s D’un sirventes far (BdT 217.2), mss. BCD punctuate in a similar way, with a1 and R inconsistent (so for example R does not show such punctuation in in stanzas I-III but does so in IV-V).

Notes: Gormonda of Montpellier’s text is generally assumed to have been composed in the city of that name, which was a centre of Catholic preaching against heresy during the Albigensian crusade (Rieger 1987, p. 427). It dates from after King Louis VIII’s death in 1226, and after Guillem Figueira’s sirventes against Rome (BdT 217.2), composed between 29 September 1227, when Gregory IX excommunicated the emperor Frederick II, and before April 1229, when Louis IX of France and Raimon VII of Toulouse made peace (Levy, pp. 8-9). For the fragmentary nature of the text preserved in CR see Rieger 1987, p. 428, and see the same article for an analysis of Gormonda’s specific responses to Guillem’s sirventes. – Line 33: at the Last Judgment the souls of the dead were thought to be weighed on scales along with their sins, and if these outweighed their good deeds they were tipped into Hell. – Line 48, s’aflata: Rieger «se flatte [d’être] avec vous», then «kann sich Eurer rühmen», Städtler «sich bei euch angenehm macht». SW, I, 27 (‘auflegen, anschmiegen’) with the example Li leon venian & afflatavan lur cara a sos pens (= pes). – Line 49: Rieger «Quant aux fous, c’est leur folie» and «die Torheit der Toren» (also Städtler). For the preposition de meaning «as to, as regards, concerning, with respect to» and serving to emphasize a sentence element, see Jensen, Syntaxe, §§ 704 and 852-855; Rieger’s first translation was the best. – Lines 62-64: Rieger explains these lines as Gormonda’s attempt to rebut Guillem Figueira’s accusation that Rome led King Louis to take part in the crusade and hence to his death at Montpensier in 1226. «Gormonda va jusqu’à évoquer, faute d’arguments, une prophétie de Merlin» (1987, p. 443, cf. Rieger 1991, p. 722, Levy, pp. 106-107, note to 41 and Städtler, p. 274). This may be so, but why there should be a pun on pansa, ‘belly’, as Städtler suggested, I cannot see. – Line 72: Rieger translates «au lieu du salut, ira en damnation» and «statt ins Heil», Städtler «an feindlichen Ort». Rieger defends her translation on the basis of Mistral, II, p. 839 (Salv’, salvage) and p. 859 (‘sauvage, ..., salvage – action de sauver’). For a medieval example see BdT 401.7, 18-20 (Raimon Gaucelm de Béziers, Poesie, ed. Anna Radaelli, Florence 1997, V, p. 166), Sus en lonrat heretatge / on so li sanhtor, /– la Dieu m[e] don[e] salvatge! –. – Line 74: Rieger (1987, p. 455 n. 52) observes that Avignon, an imperial city since 1157, had allied itself to Raimon VII of Toulouse in 1215 and in 1226 refused to let the crusading army under Louis VIII cross the bridge into the city, proposing an alternative route over a wooden bridge. – Line 76: pezatge is likely to refer to the toll for use of the bridge at Avignon. In the 12th c. the bishop of Avignon was entitled to a third of the revenue from this, but the city had suppressed his rights, which he recovered in 1226 (see Rieger 1987, p. 455 n. 53). Gormonda would be referring to the toll exacted by the city; the implication of baysses might seem to be that the bishop’s toll was lower than the city’s, unless it simply means that the city had no right to levy it and was humbled by its restitution to the Church. – Line 91: Städtler translates cazern as ‘das Evangelium’; in her article Rieger translates ‘cahier’, glossing in a note «die vierspältige Tafel(inschrift) in der Kirche»; in her Trobairitz she translates ‘die Schriften’. Gormonda is replying to Guillem’s words Mas en cal quadern trobatz c’om deia aucire / Roma·ls Crestians? (BdT 217.2, 59-60). Raynouard (LR, V, 8) cites the passage Comandet qu’om lh’escreyches los .VII. psalmes penitencials, e fetz los metre per cazerns en la paret (Cat. dels apost. de Roma, fol. 56) and translates ‘tableau à quatre colonnes’, and simply ‘livre’ for the word in Guillem’s text. Whatever its exact sense here, Gormonda is no doubt referring to the mocking of Christ before his passion as described in the Gospels, and perhaps implying that if the heretics read them carefully they will realise that they are the ones that are now mocking Him. – Lines 95-97: each ms. has one line missing: C albir se lo cas. sis bos crestias., R si nos pes en pas. non es cres|tias. Rieger plausibly reconstructs by putting them together. However, her interpretation of si no·s pess’en pas, «si l’on ne pense pas à la paix» /«Wer nicht an Frieden denkt») seems doubtful: it is unclear why people should be urged to think of peace, and although COM cites two examples of pensar en = to think of/on (PRO 2432 per pensar en tot be; SAM1 079 Can cug pensar en autra res), this is not common; a more likely interpretation is to take en patz as ‘doucement’ (PD). – Line 104: literally ‘from which (referring to the content of vv. 64-65) it is therefore certainly not ashamed of deceptions’. – Line 106: for prezans as ‘arrogant’ see SW, VI, 533. Rieger ‘valeureux’ and ‘edle’, Städtler ‘werte’. – Line 117: although grammatical lo could refer to the count, I do not know of a situation where this would apply (was Raimon VII ever concealed from his opponents?); probably, Gormonda is accusing the Toulousains of concealing their subversion of Rome’s teachings and authority. – Line 139: De Bartholomaeis and Rieger take totz to be equivalent to ‘both’, though I have not found this attested elsewhere. Perhaps it should be understood as an adverb, or even an error for tost. – Lines 161-165: De Bartholomaeis, II, p. 110: «Questi versi sono riusciti incomprensibili al Levy. C legge Quel R e. Siccome il senso non può essere se non quello che può apprendersi nella mia tradizione, così mi sembra imporsi l’emendamento Quil, riferendo il pronome il a trapa. Circa salutz, bisognerà considerarlo un plur. obliquo; cf. l’espressione faire salutz», as in SW, VII, 445, 8 (but this refers to salutations). He translates (pp. 113-114) «tutti sono sordi e muti [quando si dice loro] come [quegli adescamenti] tolgono loro la salvazione, onde ciascuno è perduto; com’essi [rimanendo cattolici, possano dire] di avere cappello e cappa e comme [passando tra gli eritici] romangano ignudi ». Rieger sees no difficulty in accepting C’s reading and translates «wenn er ihnen das Heil nimmt»; but who or what is el? With some hesitation I take it to be an early example of the impersonal subject form, which Jensen (Syntaxe, § 215) states is found occasionally in troubadour biographies (and frequently in 15th-c. Mystères); the only other explanation I can think of is that it refers to something in a stanza which is out of order or missing. – Line 170: Städtler translates vertutz as ‘Glauben’, Rieger as ‘miracles’ (‘Wunder’), neither of which seems to make sense in the context. For vertut as ‘virtuous act’ compare BdT 335.18, 19-22 (ed. Sergio Vatteroni, Il trovatore Peire Cardenal, Modena 2013, XVIII): E qan vida·ill vol failhir / cuia far vera vertut / qan ditz qe siei aver tut / sion dat al sebelir (E quando la vita sta per mancargli, crede di fare azione virtuosa dicendo che tutti i suoi averi siano dati per la sepoltura). – Line 173: De Bartholomaeis translates leyals as ‘retta’, Rieger ‘loyale’ and then ‘redlich’. For my translation compare SW, IV, 357, 1 lei ‘Gesetz’, leis ‘weltliches Gerecht’, 358, 1 leial ‘Recht u. Billigkeit entsprechend’, 2 ‘der gestezlichen Vorschrift entsprechend, gesetzmässig, rechtmässig’; Leslie Topsfield, Chrétien de Troyes. A study of the Arthurian romances, Cambridge 1981, p. 170, who defines leiautatz «in its wider meaning of obedience to the law of a natural or ethical code», and his article «Malvestatz versus Proeza and Leautatz» in L’Esprit Créateur, 19, 1979, pp. 37-53; and my edition of BdT 82.12 on Rialto, note to 26-27. The law here is clearly God’s law. – Line 189: I take ·us to be an ethic dative (see Jensen, Syntaxe, §§ 244-247). Rieger «si tu tolères plus longtemps que règnent ceux qui (vous) font honte au Saint Esprit» and «wenn Ihr die Herrschaft jener weiter duldet, die Euch vor dem Heiligen Geist Schande machen». – Line 216: for for as ‘for, juridiction; loi, coutume’ see PD. Rieger «de la même manière», and «den gleichen Tod [...] und die gleiche Strafe». I take Gormonda to be referring specifically to the laws governing the punishment of heresy.

[LP, lb]

BdT    Gormonda de Monpeslier

Songs referring to the crusades