XX - [A]d un estran

Summary

9 MSS: A (28^v) Marcabruns, C (177^v) Marcabru (C Reg. marc e bru), D (208^r-v) no heading but in the right margin beside the first line of the conjoined PC 293.20 and PC 293,43 is the number ‘ii’ indicating this is the second of three songs attributed to Ugo Catola (register also gives this as second of three songs attributed to Ugo Catola), I (117^r) Marcabrus, K (1031) Marcabrus, R (8^v) marc e bru, a¹ (571) the conjoined PC 293.20 and PC 293.43 are headed la tenzon de marcabrus e de segner nenrics’, d (3031) Marcabrus, z (2 col. F) rubric missing due to damage.

There are no stanza divisions in a¹, but the ordering of the lines of the text of stanzas I, V, IV and VI follows that of ACDIKRz. Da¹z treat XX and XLIII as one poem and Dz, while respecting the stanza division ofACIKR for XX, divide XLIII into four nine-line stanzas rather than six six-line stanzas. See also ‘Versification’ below.

* a¹ contains two tercets not found in any other MSS after what corresponds to stanzas VI and VII in the other MSS.

** In a¹ the two tercets of stanza VII are interverted (that is lines 37–39 and 40–42 in ACDIKRz).

Attribution

Are both XX and XLIII by Marcabru? D’s attribution to Ugo Catola is implausible: the conjoined XX/XLIU is the second of three songs attributed to Ugo in this MS, the first being poem VI and the third being PC 451.2, However, it is striking, given the relationship between D and z, that z places XX/XLIII with the Marcabru corpus: although the rubric in z is missing through damage, the placing of the text suggests that the attribution was in all likelihood to Marcabru (see also the variant to XLIII, 1 in z). Only a¹ suggests joint attribution. If the songs are understood as court entertainment, intended originally for an audience that knew both participants in the exchange and who would realise that the staged animosity between them was a joke rather than a representation of a real event (pace Chambers, ‘D’aisso lau Dieu’ and Spaggiari, Nome, pp. 48–50), then to assume Marcabru scripted Audric’s part poses no problems. It is not, however, possible to tell whether Marcabru was indeed the only author of the two poems.