4 MSS: A (31v-32r) Marcabruns, I (119r-v) Marcabrus, K (105r-v) Marcabrus, a1 (302–303) marchabrus

Analysis of the manuscripts

There are few substantially different readings between the MSS, and the clear common errors in 17 and in 19 (‘f’ for ‘s’) indicate that all four MSS go back to a common and defective archetype. Line 27 demonstrates a defective common source for AIK. The most interesting divergences occur in stanza IV (see notes to 19–24), where A appears to have reworked 19 (facilior), regularised the rhyme to -ort and intervened in 24 (wrong), while IK seem to preserve indications of an earlier, if not the original, version. If this is accepted, 19 is possibly also evidence of diffraction. While ^4 is isolated and looks suspect in lines 43 and 52–53 (see the notes), it is isolated and superior in 10, 14 (difficilior), 31, 32, 42 and 57 (see the note), and probably also in 33. It requires correction in 6, 27 and 43 (but IK are also wrong in these lines), a1 is the only MS to preserve the correct reading in 6 (rhyme-word), 27 (rhyme-word) and 43; but it has a large number of individual errors (minor in 2, 5, 8, 12, and so on) and is garbled in 6, 14, 40, 50 and 53 (also hypometric). IK” are united in error in 6, 13, 14, 16, 27 (hypometric), 30 and 42, K is more satisfactory than A in 19, 20, 24 and 53 (see the notes to these lines), but would require additional minor corrections in 10, 32, 33, and 57. I contains nearly all K’s errors and also has mistakes in 26, 30, 45. While A requires more substantive intervention in stanza IV, it needs fewer corrections overall than K.

Versification

Frank, Repértoire, 91.9: a8 a8 b8 a8 a8 b8, nine coblas singulars, with two tornadas of three and two lines respectively. The V rhyme -ir is constant. Frank gives the ‘a’ rhyme of stanza IV” as -ort, our edition gives -ortz, with approximate rhymes at 22 and 23. Compare XV ‘Versification’.