XXVIII - Lanquan fuelhon li boscatge

Summary

1 MS: C (173^r-v) Marcabru

Analysis of the manuscript

The only surviving copy of this song has no obvious errors, though a number of idiosyncrasies, some of which may derive from the scribe, others from the poet (see the notes to lines 3, 7, 8, 32 and 33).

Versification

Frank, Repértoire, 376.16: a7’ b7’ a7’ b7’ c7’ c7’ d7’ Six coblas unissonans with one tornado of three lines. The same rhyme scheme is used in XLIL

Previous scholarship

Appel, ‘Zu Marcabru’, p. 434; Franz, Marcabru, p. 22; Gruber, Diakklik, pp. 133–35, 148-49; Harvey, Marcabru, pp. 154-58; Kay, Subjectivity, pp. 27-31; Köhler, Sociologia, pp. 265–66; Leube-Fey, Bild, pp. 74–79; Meneghetti, II pubblico, pp. 108-111; Mölk, Trobar clus, p. 26; Spanke, Marcabrusiudien, pp. 92-93.

Criticism has focused on this song firstly as a so-called chanson de change (a song in which a troubadour renounces his love for one lady in favour of another: see Appel, Harvey, Kay, Köhler and Leube-Fey); and secondly as a parody of Jaufre Rudel, particularly ‘Lanquan li jorn’ (IV). ‘Lanquan fuelhon’ seems, in its turn, to have elicited a reply from Bemart de Ventadom (‘Lancan fuelhon bosc e guarric’, poem 24, see Gruber, Diakktik, pp. 133–35), while other song? by contemporary or near-contemporary poets may also be intertextually related (see Kay, Subjectivity, pp. 28–31 and 233 note 19; Meneghetti, II pubblico, pp. 108–113; Beggiato ed. Bemart Marti, p. 155, notes to lines 44-49 of poem IX), There are close textual parallels between this song and Jaufre Js ‘Lanquan’ (Harvey, Marcabru, pp. 156–57 and Meneghetti, II pubblicof pp. 109–11) and the two songs share the same rhyme scheme. Marcabru’s poem is a riposte to jaufre: he demystifies Jaufre’s amor de tonh, showing it to be sexual and inconstant while masquerading as pure and true. Bernart de Ventadom *s poem would then seem to re-assert the value of Jin’ amor, vaunting Bemart’s constancy, though as Harvey notes (Marcabru, p. 242 note 23), the chronology is uncertain. The style of ‘Lanquan fuelhon’ is unusually limpid for Marcabru’s corpus. This may suggest that there are grounds for questioning Cs attribution, but if it is parody it shares an ideological agenda with the rest of the corpus. Although the poem is a unicum in C, it is not the only one (see I, II, III, XIV).

Previous edition

Dejeanne.