XIII - Bel m’es cant son li frug madur

Summary

6 MSS: A (34^r) Marcabruns, I (121^r) Marcabrus, K (106^v-107^r) Marcabrus, N (267^v–268^r) no heading, W (203) stanza I only, with melody, no heading, a¹ (297-298) marchabras

Analysis of the manuscripts

The tradition is largely uniform. W, marked by French forms, preserves the first stanza only; it is presented separately on account of its linguistic interest. Its variants do not suggest any particular link with any one of the other MSS. For the melody, see the transcription by Pollina, Les mélodies’, p. 304 and Switten’s edition in Rosenberg, Songs, p. 45 (and see below).

The other manuscripts divide into two families, AIK and Na¹: see 17, 30, 38, and 45. AIK are joined in error in 45 where they lack a requisite nom. sg. sb. -trai, and probably in 38 (fruitz). Na¹ are never clearly joined in error, their reading in 17 seems preferable, and in 45 correct. Isolated readings of A are wrong (31) or suspect (39); errors also occur in isolated readings of IK (33 and 39, hypometric, and probably 23 and 34: see the notes below). The two Aa¹ readings (29 la, 42 del) probably represent independent ‘improvements’ to an inherited text, the first a trivialisation, the second an appropriate correction. Given AIK’s common error(s) it seems preferable to take N or a¹ as base, despite their individual errors. Although N probably has the better reading in the important 29, it has considerably more careless mistakes than a¹ and would require more patching. We therefore adopt a¹, but reject its isolated readings where these are problematic.

Versification and melody

Frank, Repértoire, 407.16: a8 b8 a8 b8 c8 d7’ c8 d7’ Six cohlas unissonans. Chambers (Introduction, p. 46), notes that this poem and DI each contain eight stanzas of mixed masculine octosyllables and feminine heptasyllables, a combination of lines not (otherwise?) repeated in Marcabru. Pollina (‘Les mélodies’, p. 290 and p. 294) sees this ‘pièce de chancre’ as one of les pièces les plus gracieuses du Repértoire occitan médiéval’. He (‘Si cum Marcabrus’ p. 16) and Switten (Rosenberg, Songs, p. 42) note its broad tonal range, its number of skips and its elegant ornamentation, and its tight construction formed by a series of repetitions of small musical segments.