293.18(Gaunt-Harvey-Paterson)

Dire vos vuoill ses doptanssa
d’aqest vers la comenssanssa;
li mot fant de ver semblanssa.
– Escoutatz! –
Qui ves proessa balanssa,
semblanssa fai de malvatz.

II.

Jovens faill e fraing e brisa
et amors es d’aital guisa,
que pois al saut es aprisa
– Escoutatz! –
que chascus n’a sa devisa,
ja pois no·n sera cuitatz.

III.

Amors fai cum la belluja
que si mescla ab la suja,
c’art lo fust e la festuja.
– Escoutaz! –
Cel non sap vas cal part fuja
pois que del fuoc es gastatz.

IV.

Dirai vos d’amor cum migna:
a vos chanta, a cellui gigna;
ab vos parla, ab autre cigna.
– Escoutatz! –
Plus sera dreicha que ligna
qand ieu serai sos privatz.

Amors solia esser dreicha
mas er es torta e brecha,
et a coillida tal deicha:
– Escoutatz! –
lai on non pot mordre leicha
plus arreament que chatz.

VI.

Anc puois amors non fo vera
pos triet del mel la cera;
anz sap si pelar la pera
– Escoutatz! –
doussa·us er cum chans de lera –
si sol la coa·n troncatz!
Cel qui ab amor barata,
ab diables se combata!
No·il cal c’autra verga·l bata
– Escoutatz! –
ni sap mas, cum cel qe·is grata
tro que vius s’es escorgatz.

VII.

Amors es mout de mal avi;
mil homes a mortz de glavi;
Dieus non fetz tant fort gramavi
– Escoutatz! –
fol no·n fassa lo plus savi
si tant fai qe·l tenga al latz.

VIII.

S’anc amors fon car comprada,
er es en viltat tornada;
virginitat a passada
– Escoutatz! –
puois al prendre es alargada:
des era vos en gardatz!

IX.

Amors a usatge d’ega:
que totz jorns vol c’om l’asega
e freta de lega en lega,
– Escoutatz! –
ni no·n demandara trega,
si·us etz dejuns o disnatz.

Cuiatz vos q’ieu non conosca
d’amor s’es orba o losca?
Sos digz aplana et endoscha;
– Escoutatz! –
plus suavet poing que mosca,
mas plus greu n’es hom sanatz.

XI.

Qui ab geing de femna reigna,
dreitz es que mals l’en aveigna,
si cum la letra esseingna.
– Escoutatz! –
Malaventura·us en veigna
si tuich no vos en gardatz.

XII.

Marcabrus, lo fills na Bruna,
fo engenratz en tal luna
q’el sap d’amor cum degruna,
– Escoutatz! –
qez anc non amet neguna,
ni d’autra non fo amatz.

Notes

73-78. Scholars have frequently referred to stanza XIII, cited in the vida in K, as illustrations and explanations of Marcabru’s misogyny, hostility towards love and his supposedly lowly, illegitimate origins.

Text

Edition: Simon Gaunt, Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson 2000; notes: Rith Harvey. – Rialto 3.i.2003.

Mss.

A (29r), C (174v-175v), D (189r), I (117v), K (103v), M (142r-v), R (5v) with melody, a1 (309-310), z (2 cols B-C).

Critical Editions / Other Editions

Previous editions: Jean-Marie-Lucien Dejeanne, Poésies complètes du troubadour Marcabru, Toulouse 1909, p. 77 (XVIII); Frank R. Hamlin, John Hathaway and Peter T. Ricketts, Introduction à l’étude de l’ancien provençal, second edition, Geneva 1985, p. 71; Costanzo Di Girolamo and Charmaine Lee, Avviamento alla filologia provenzale, Rome 1996, p. 115; Simon Gaunt, Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson, Marcabru: A Critical Edition, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 2000, p. 237.

Philological note

This song is a piece whose structure and nature lent themselves readily to adaptation, reordering and addition, whether by Marcabru or by others. As regards the amount and order of material transmitted, there clearly was an ADIKRz version in circulation, as well as versions in M and a1 which are linked with that of C. C, however, is isolated in much of its material and, although there is every likelihood that not all of this is ‘by Marcabru’, our edition reflects these two main strands of the tradition: this edition is based on A and we also supply a secondary version of C which also takes account of material transmitted by M and a1. – Additional lines transmitted by a1 only as its eleventh stanza:

		Amars pren sa penedenza
		e cuja far estenenza;
		adonc reviu e comenza.
		– Es[coutatz]! –
		Veiaire·us sera qe genza
		se·us es ab leis airatz.

Metrics and music

Versification: a7’ a7’ a7’ b3 a7’ b7 (Frank 55:9); coblas singulars; the fourth line of each stanza, Escoutatz, acts as a refrain.

General info

For an analysis of the music, see Switten (Samuel N. Rosenberg, Margaret Switten, and Gérard Le Vot, Songs of the Troubadours and Trouvères: An Anthology of Poems and Melodies, New York and London 1998, pp. 42-43), who observes: «Melody and text here converge angrily around a small number of sounds within a tightly circumscribed musical space». See also Vincent Pollina («Les mélodies du troubadour Marcabru», in Atti del secondo congresso internazionale della Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes, Turin 1993, I, pp. 290-292) who comments that Marcabru’s satiric bite arises partly from extreme simplicity of the musical means employed (p. 290). Both musicologists note that the refrain Escoutatz is strongly marked from a musical point of view.

[RH]