English translation [LP]

I. The whole world is clothed and choked in falsehood, and every day this goes welling up so much from one end of the world to another that it is flooding over with it. This flood shows no sign of abating, for people live wickedly, one man having no trust in another, and greed stifles friendship, and envy leads a man to covet another’s possessions over which he has no rights.
II. I can find no springs from which loyalty, merit or worth flow – God keep my sanity! – yet I can find a great many springs from which flows disloyalty. These will never dry up in a drought, for the man who behaves loyally comes to grief before the one who constantly lives in wickedness. Despair almost separates me from God because the false are well-off and wealthy, yet I do not believe this is pleasing to God.
III. I consider those who do not live honestly and loyally to be fools and madmen. If the disloyal man were loved by us – dear Lord God! – we should have very little sense, for I firmly believe that those who have confessed their sins and are penitent will have bliss in Paradise as a result, but the false, the [ordained] torment. They will truly burn in the fire of Hell; if I am not telling the truth, then the Scripture lies.
IV. If loyalty were as plentiful as it is [now] lacking, this would certainly not please the devils; on the contrary, they would be furious about it, now that no soul would ever enter their assembly; but they need have no fear that deceit or wickedness will die because of great drought or cold or wind, for they take root and nourishment in everyone.
V. There are few, among those one can see, rooted in justice or in an honest condition, and many of them who are wicked greatly dissemble and are more false than they seem; such dissembling involves the deceit of souls who lose joy; and the clergy customarily make themselves out to be good, but God knows the state both of false clerics and of laymen.
VI (T). Leave me, sirventes, and go to my lord, in whom worth is honoured; I will name him for you, for you will remember it better: King Jaume, who is considered so valiant that he knows entirely how to nurture noble merit.
VI (M). I beseech all to pray sincerely to God, Jesus Christ, that he may grant joy to Lord Edward over there [in the Holy Land], as he is the best lance in the whole world, and grant to King Philip the heart and desire to assist him soon.

Italian translation [SV]

I. Tutto il mondo è pieno e ostruito di falsità, e continuamente va crescendo fino all’orlo tanto che ne è traboccato, e il traboccamento non ha diminuzione, perché la gente si comporta sconsideratamente e l’uno non ha fiducia nell’altro, e cupidigia spegne amicizia, e l’invidia porta l’uomo a desiderare ciò che è d’altri, ciò su cui non ha diritti.
II. Non trovo fonti da cui sgorghi lealtà, pregio e valore, Dio mi conservi il senno, ma trovo a sufficienza fonti da cui esce slealtà, per cui essa non avrà prosciugamento neppure per siccità, perché viene meno piuttosto chi vive lealmente che non chi tutto il giorno si comporta male; per poco la disillusione non mi allontana da Dio, dal momento che i falsi sono ben provvisti e ricchi, e tuttavia non credo che ciò piaccia a Dio.
III. Considero folli e dissennati quelli che non si comportano con onestà e lealmente; se amassimo chi è sleale, bel Signore Dio, avremmo ben poco senno, perché i confessi e i penitenti, quelli credo bene che ne riceveranno beatitudine in paradiso, e i falsi il tormento: nel fuoco infernale bruceranno per davvero; se non dico la verità allora è la Scrittura che mente.
IV. Se lealtà fosse sufficiente così come manca, non farebbe certo piacere ai diavoli, al contrario ne sarebbero adirati, altrimenti certamente nessun’anima entrerebbe mai nel loro convento; ma non hanno alcun bisogno di temere che inganno e malvagità muoiano mai né per siccità né per freddo né per vento, perché essa prende radice e nutrimento in tutti quanti.
V. Pochi, di quelli che si vedono, sono ben radicati nella giustizia e in una onesta condizione, e si fingono tali molti che sono malvagi, mentre sono più falsi di quanto non facciano mostra; quella finzione è di inganno per le anime che perdono così la gioia: e nei chierici è questa usanza, che si fingono buoni, ma Dio conosce la condizione dei falsi chierici e altrettanto dei laici.
VI (T). Sepàrati da me, sirventese, e va’ dal mio signore, dove valore riceve onore: te lo nominerò, perché tu possa ricordartene al meglio: il re Giacomo, che è considerato tanto valoroso che sa far crescere fine pregio interamente.
VI (M). Prego tutti che preghino di cuore Dio Gesù Cristo, che conceda gioia laggiù [in Terra Santa] al signor Edoardo, perché è la miglior lancia dei mondo intero, e doni coraggio e desiderio al re Filippo di soccorrerlo prontamente.

Text: Vatteroni 2013 (LXII). – Rialto 11.viii.2014.

Mss.: C 248r (.p. cardenal), M 225r (S(erventes) pere cardenal), R 67v (.p. cardenal), T 103r, Y 1r (vv. 1-4; the first line and the beginning of the second are also written again in another hand in the centre of a blank space on col. b of the same folio, = Y2).

Critical editions: Césaire Antoine Fabre, «Un sirventés de Peire Cardenal, encore inédit en partie (1271-1272)», in A Miscellany of Studies in Romance Languages and Literatures presented to Leon E. Kastner, ed. Mary Williams and James A. de Rotschild, Cambridge 1932, pp. 217-247, on p. 217 (text of M + tornada of T); René Lavaud, Poésies complètes du troubadour Peire Cardenal (1180-1278), Toulouse 1957, p. 514; Sergio Vatteroni, Il trovatore Peire Cardenal, 2 voll., Modena 2013, vol. II, p. 743.

Other editions: François-Juste-Marie Raynouard, Lexique roman ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours, comparée avec les autres langues de l’Europe latine, 6 voll., Paris 1836-1844, vol. I, p. 462; Carl August Friedrich Mahn, Die Werke der Troubadours in provenzalischer Sprache, 4 voll., Berlin 1846-1853, vol. II, p. 236 (= Raynouard).

Versification: a10 b10 a10 b10 b10 c10’ c10’ b10 b10 (Frank 326:7), -atz, -en, -ansa; five coblas unissonans and two five-line tornadas, one in M, the other in T. For the relationship between this piece and BdT 76.8 (BtAlam) and BdT 225.10 (GlMont) see Vatteroni 2013, vol. II, pp. 739-741; the latter is likely to be the ultimate model of PCard and BtAlam and has been dated to approximately 1252 (Peter T. Ricketts, Les poésies de Guilhem de Montanhagol, troubadour provençal du XIIIe siècle, Toronto 1964, p. 118), the sirventes of BtAlam to 1267-1268 (see Linda Paterson, «James the Conqueror, the Holy Land and the troubadours», Cultura neolatina, 71, 2011, pp. 211-286, on pp. 222-229).

Notes: The sirventes was originally almost certainly composed some time after c.1252 (see Versification). Otherwise the only indications of dating are found in the tornadas. That of T refers to King James I of Aragon (1213-1276), giving 1276 as the terminus ante quem for those lines. M contains another tornada which praises the Lord Edward of England (n’Audoard, v. 3) and refers to the Holy Land (lai, v. 2) and the hoped-for assistance of King Philip III of France. Philip became king on Louis IX’s death of typhus at Tunis on 25 August 1270, so the tornada in M must have been composed after that. Edward is addressed with the honorific N’ (n’Audoard) without the title of king, marking his status as the lord Edward before he became King Edward I of England after Henry III’s death on 16 November 1272 (Frederick M. Powicke, King Henry III and the Lord Edward, Oxford 1966, first published as 2 voll., 1947, p. 606), and this marks a terminus ante quem for the tornada. – Asperti suggests M’s lines may be apocryphal, added by a scribe or compiler from the Napolitan-Angevin milieu (Stefano Asperti, «I trovatori e la corona di Aragona. Riflessioni per una cronología di referimento», Mot so razo, 1, 1999, pp. 12-31 (p. 20), updated on www.rialc.unina.it/bolletino/base/corona.htm). Vatteroni is wholly convinced of this (Il trovatore, II, pp. 739-740, in particular p. 740 n. 4, «come da parte mia ritengo certo»). As he argues, the reference to the king of France is puzzling on the part of a troubadour «fieramente anticlericale e antifrancese» such as Peire Cardenal. Fabre had tried to explain this contradiction as a new attitude of realism on Peire’s part towards the new count of Toulouse: «Nous croyons plutôt que le poète eut la claire vision que le roi était devenu légitimement comte de Toulouse, comme héritier de son oncle Alphonse, et, par conséquent, des Raimon. Il lui fait donc hommage!» (Fabre 1932, p. 236; see Vatteroni’s note 1 on p. 740, and Lavaud, p. 521, who judged this to be a «conclusion plausible»). Vatteroni on the other hand explains M’s tornada as «una sottile operazione di politica culturale, volta a recuperare alla causa angioina o più genericamente francese un trovatore politicamente ‘eretico’ e tuttavia largamente ascoltato e amato come PCard. Si tratterà allora di una aggiunta redatta da un anomino finacheggiatore di Alfonso di Poitiers, da collocarsi cronologicamente all’indomani della sua morte» (p. 740). He observes that this tornada has been added to a text that does not seem to belong to the traditional branch of transmission, even if it derives from it, and suggests it was taken over with its «francophile» addition already in place by the Angevin milieu responsible for the confection and literary and ideological structuring of the M songbook. – According to Vatteroni, M’s tornada points to the period between May 1271, when Edward arrived in Acre, and September 1272, when he set out from there for home (Fabre 1932, p. 228 suggested spring 1272). This depends on Edward already being in the Holy Land. However, it seems much more likely that it was composed when he was on his way to the Holy Land from Africa, and given the Angevin milieu in which M was confected, when he was wintering in Sicily. Edward had reached North Africa just before the crusaders left, on 11 November, and sailed to Sicily with Charles of Anjou and Philip of France, where he spent the winter. He voyaged to the Holy Land at the end of April 1271, arriving in Acre on 9 May and eventually leaving for home on 22 September (Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades. A Short History, New Haven and London, 1987, pp. 175-176). Charles himself remained in Sicily until February 1271, then moved to southern Italy before being recorded as in Rome 4-17 April (see Paul Durrieu, Les archives angevines de Naples. Etudes sur les registres du Roi Charles Ier 1265-85, 2 voll., Paris 1887, vol. II, pp. 171-172). The tornada in M could have been composed in Sicily and performed in Edward’s presence, finding its way to southern Italy and the compiler of M, or else composed for another audience in the south of Italy itself. – In short, M’s tornada was probably composed between 11 November 1270 and the end of April 1271 or shortly thereafter, when the composer received information that Edward had set out from Sicily. – The hope for Philip’s support of Edward was futile. Except for Edward, all the crusade leaders, including Philip, had agreed to postpone further expeditions for three years. «It was not an army but a great funeral procession which returned to France. The young king carried with him the remains of his father, his wife, his stillborn son, his brother, and his brother-in-law. It is not surprising that the next appeal for an overseas expedition drew little response from the French» (Robert L. Wolff and Harry W. Hazard, The later crusades, 1189-1311, in A history of the crusades, ed. Kenneth M. Setton, 6 voll., Madison and London 1969-1989, vol. II, p. 517). – Line 31: for si as ‘now’ see SW, VII, 652, 2; si que can hardly introduce a final-consecutive clause here (contrast Frede Jensen, Syntaxe de l’ancien occitan, Tübingen 1994, § 760).

[LP, lb]

BdT    Peire Cardenal

Songs referring to the crusades