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Aïmer Le Chetif

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Raymond Weeks
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Extract

In the epic family of Aymeri de Narbonne, by far the strangest figure is that of Aïmer le Chétif. Without sharing in the grotesqueness of Hernaut le Roux, Aïmer has a mysteriousness and the shadow of an unknown misfortune, which draw powerfully the sympathetic imagination. Evidently we are dealing with one of the greatest of ancient heroes, yet the complete disappearance of the epics that sang his exploits has buried in oblivion his peculiar claim to glory. If he has subsisted at all, it has been as a fallen deity. Indeed, the casual reader of the poems still extant in which he is mentioned, might suppose him the least of all his brethren, one of the humblest and most recent additions to the epic roll. It is in fact likely, as we shall see, that the meaning of his epithet le chétif was already forgotten seven hundred years ago.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , 1902 , pp. 411 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1902

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References

Note 1 in page 413 The third, fourth, and last lines of this passage would not be properly understood, were it not for external evidence as to the habits of our hero. The passage, it may be added, is due to the remanieurs, at least in so far as Aimer's welcoming to Gloriette is concerned. His brother was besieged in the city, and cannot have hastened to meet him.

Note 1 in page 414 The Willehalm, 241, depicts the extreme poverty of our hero.

Note 2 in page 414 Several mss. give Aimer's battle cry as “Venice la gastée:” vid. Aliscans, edition Jonckbloet, 5401, and the variant given by Rolin under line 5130. There may be confusion here with the cry of Garin: see later argument.

Note 3 in page 414 Edited by Isola, Bologna, 1877–1887, two vols.

Note 1 in page 416 L. c., 112, 113.

Note 1 in page 417 In the remaining account of our hero's life, no mention is made of his continuing his former mode of life. Cf. following note.

Note 2 in page 417 An inadvertence has evidently been committed, in that Aïmer was told to begin his strange way of life after having been knighted. As we have seen, he begins it before. Cf., later, testimony of the Nerbonois on this point.

Note 1 in page 419 The punctuation of this passage is faulty. The speech of Aymeri beginning in line 417 is interrupted by the son in line 424. From this point to line 429, the words are said by the son. Ph. Aug. Becker thinks this scene imitated from one in Guibert d'Andrenas, see Zeit. f. Rom. Phil., xxii, p. 419, note 3.

Note 1 in page 420 There is a passage of doubtful authority in the Prise de Cordres, Appendice, lines 294–97, ascribing to our hero a fief. Louis has taken Saragoce, and confers it on Aïmer. The poet adds a line bearing witness to Aimer's reputation for poverty, or to his lack of landed possessions: Car onques mais n'ot terre tenant ne en baillie.

Note 2 in page 420 Cited by Densusianu, Prise de Cordres, p. xcii. Similarly in the Siège de Barbastre, cited by Becker, Quellenwert der Storie Nerbonesi, Halle, 1898, p. 11, note 2.

Note 1 in page 422 That a messenger really went to the brothers is indicated by a passage in the Nerbonois, 406–12. becker, Quellenwert, p. 13, note, complains that the arbitrary sending of Aïmer to Spain by the poet of the Nerbonois (cf. p. 11), prevents the messenger from finding him at Paris with the other brothers, hence his arrival at Narbonne appears unmotivated. In the passage just cited, however, it is stated that the messenger is to seek the brothers one by one: Tot un et un par estrange païs. This is precisely what happens in the Nerbonesi, not only for Aïmer, but for the others as well: see N., i, pp. 161–171. Dame Hermangart (vol. ii, Nerbonois, p. 43, lines 16–17), breathes a blessing on the one who went to tell Aïmer of the sore straits of Narbonne.

Note 1 in page 423 Vid. Densusianu, Prise de Cordres, p. xcii, note; Becker, Quellenwert, p. 11. The first of these critics says: “Peut-être arrivera-t-on un jour à identifier ce fils d'Aymeri de Narbonne avec quelque personnage historique qui s'était distingué contre les Sarrasins en Italie.” Probably the earliest critic to draw attention to the ascription to Aïmer of Venice was Demaison, Aymeri de Narbonne, p. ccxi, ss.

Note 1 in page 424 Origin of the Covenant Vivien, in The University of Missouri Studies, No. 2, published by the University, 1902. See especially section 15, pp. 45, 46, and cf. p. 8.

Note 2 in page 424 In line 827 of Aliscans, Guillaume says to the dying Vivien, explaining that he can hear his confession, and give absolution, as the nearest relative in the absence of a priest: “Je suis tes oncles, n'as ore plus prochain.” These words are to be taken literally: his father is dead.

Note 1 in page 425 Perhaps enough passages have been cited from this poem to show that Aïmer cannot have had Italy as his stage of action. One more may be added; in line 6625, Boniface is said to have seen our hero only once before the present meeting.

Note 2 in page 425 See line 4613, ms. of Boulogne. The ms. in prose, whose authority is slight, indicates Venice: line 1670.

Note 1 in page 426 Nerbonesi, i, p. 498.

Note 2 in page 426 See The Origin of the Cov. Viv., already cited.

Note 1 in page 428 Line 4931. Cf. Romania, xxviii, pp. 127, 128.

Note 1 in page 431 The fact that in the lines immediately preceding it is Renoart who is in danger, cuts no figure whatever. It is admitted by all good critics that Renoart is a late addition to the geste, and had originally nothing to do with Aliscans.

Note 2 in page 431 Aye d'Avignon states that our hero perished in battle, but does not say where: see p. 45 of this poem, in the Anciens Poètes de la France.

Note 1 in page 432 Negative testimony would indicate that Aimer did not die at Porpaillart, judging by Foucon. Tibaut in this poem admits having received great injury from the Christians at “Barzelone et Porpaillart.” He boasts that the Christians paid dear, however, for Tortelouse, in losing Vivien there. Had Aïmer perished at Porpaillart in the legend utilized by Foucon, it would be stated by him that, while he had lost heavily at Barzelone, the Christians had paid dearly for Porpaillart and Tortelouse, Aïmer having perished at Porpaillart, Vivien at Tortelouse. See Foucon, p. 83, edition Tarbé. Foucon, by the way, is vastly more worthy of credit than the Mort Aymeri.

Note 2 in page 432 P. 138, vol. 1. For his wealth, see Nerbonoιs, 3243.

Note 3 in page 432 P. 119, vol. 1.

Note 1 in page 433 Cf. G. Paris, Manuel, 38: “Aïmer le chétif .... qui tire son surnom de sa longue captivité chez les Sarrasins.”

Note 2 in page 432 That Aïmer was first sung in Provençal, is here taken for granted. Cf. G. Paris, Naimeri, in the Mélanges Léonce Couture, pp. 349 ss., Toulouse, 1902.