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Jaufre Rudel and the Lady of Dreams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Olin H. Moore
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Extract

The Provençal biographer's account of Jaufre Rudel's dying visit to the “faraway lady” was first seriously called in dispute by E. Stengel. Afterward, Gaston Paris disposed of the whole legend, as well as of the general reliability of the Provengal biographers, whose testimony had been accepted without question half a century before by Fauriel and others. Monaci, while granting the legendary character of “Melissenda,” attempted to identify Jaufre Rudel's beloved with Eleanor of Aquitaine. Appel, arguing from the number of religious phrases occurring in Jaufre's poems, concluded that the lady of his devotions was the Virgin. Appel's theory, supported as it is by a vast erudition, is confuted in my opinion by P. Savj-Lopez. Giulio Bertoni would adopt a middle ground between those who, like Appel, maintain the idealism of Jaufre's love, or like Monaci, believe that his passion was fixed upon a woman of earth, more or less identified by allusions in his verse. Ramiro Ortiz would accept the conclusions of Monaci, etc., admitting the reality of the lady, but feels that either Jaufre Rudel was directly influenced by certain passages of William of Poitiers, or else some of the minstrels who sang Jaufre's poetry made interpolations borrowed from William.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , 1914 , pp. 517 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1914

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References

1 Revue Historique, liii (1893), pp. 225 ff.

2 Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Serie IV, Scienze Morali, etc., vol. ii (1893), pp. 927 ff.

3 Arehiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen, cvii (1901), pp. 338 ff.

4 Rendiconti, Serie V, vol. XI (1902), pp. 212-225.

5 Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, xxxv (1911), pp. 533-542. Bertoni's position, which might suffer from being too rapidly generalized, is quoted here from p. 533: “É un fatto che l'imagine terrena, che si profila dietro i versi del soave sire di Blaia, appare così trasparente e idealizzata, da perdere quasi del tutto i caratteri della realtà, astraendosi nelle regioni della fantasia e dei sogni.”

6 Zeitschrift, op. cit., pp. 543-554.

7 Schultz-Gora, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen, xcii (1894), p. 225, says that the razos and vidas “mussen fortwährend durch die Lieder selbst … kontrolliert werden …” Can the blind lead the blind?

8 Bertran de Born, ed. Stimming (1892), no. 32, vv. 21 ff.

9 Raynouard, Choix de Poesies des Troubadours, iii, p. 351.

10 Stimming, ed. 1892, no. 8.

11 Op. cit., no. 9.

12 Raynouard, op. cit., iv, pp. 54-56.

13 Gaston Paris says: “Ses poesies ont déjà … un earactère conventionnel: il n'y faut pas chercher l'expression naïve et spontanée de sentiments vrais; d'ailleurs, la forme rythmique en est très artistique, le style en est très étudié, et les formules convenues y abondent: toutes, sauf une, commencent par cette évocation du printemps et de ses manifestations typiques qui était le style dans la poésie courtoise. Ce sont des exercices de l'esprit et non des effusions du cœur …” Op. cit., p. 229.

Nevertheless, for the poem numbered I in the collection of Stimming, Paris is far more indulgent. He thinks that Jaufre Rudel here “trouve même des accents d'une sincérité rare dans la poésie courtoise. …” (Op. cit., p. 239). Savj-Lopez declares that the poet “freme di sincera passione….” (Op. cit., p. 218). The following comparisons may serve to show that even this poem of Jaufre's, which has won praise for its freshness and sincerity, is quite as commonplace as the others.

D'un' amistat soi envejos,
car no sai joja plus valen.
(Jaufre Rudel, ed. Stimming, i, vv. 8, 9.)
Per una joja m'esbaudis
D'una qu'anc re non amiey tan.
(Cercamon, ed. Dejeanne, Annates du Midi, xvii, 1905, ii, vv. 13, 14.)
…. que bonam fos
Sim fazia damor prezen.
(Jaufre Rudel, i, vv. 10, 11.)
Toz mos talenz m'ademplira
Ma donna, sol d'un bais m'aizis.
(Cercamon, i, vv. 43, 44.)
D'aquest' amor soi cossiros
velhan e pueis sompnhan durmen.
(Jaufre Rudel, i, vv. 15, 16.)
Totz trassalh e brant e fremis
Per s'amor, dormen o velhan.
(Cercamon, ii, vv. 31, 32.)
mas sa beutatz nom val nien,
car nulhs amicx nom essenha
cum ieu ja n'aja bon saber.
(Jaufre Rudel, i, 19-21. For the conventional character of the confidant here alluded to, cf. Savj-Lopez, op. cit., p. 214, and note 1.)
E domna nom pot ren valer
Per riquessa ni per poder
Se jois d'amor no l'espira. (Cercamon, i, vv. 19-21.)
Jaufre Rudel dares avow his love to his lady. Cercamon does so also, but apologizes for this violation of the rules of the courts of love:
Ges tan leu no l'enquesira
S'eu sabes cant leu s'afranquis. (i, vv. 15-16.)
Bernard de Ventadour restrains himself with difficulty from the rashness of the others:
Meravilh me cum puesc durar
Que no'lh demostre mon talan. (Mahn, Werke, i, p. 12.)
Jaufre Rudel speaks of actually going to his lady:
que quand ieu vauc ves lieis corren,
vejaire m'es, qu'a reversos
m'en torn, e qu'ella m'an fugen. (i, vv. 23-25.)
Bernard de Ventadour just falls short of the same experience:
Per pauc me teno qu'ieu enves lieys no cor.
(l. c.)
Jaufre Rudel declares:
De tal dompna sui cobeitos,
a cui non aus dir mon talen,
anz quan remire sas faissos,
totz lo cors m'en vai esperden. (i, vv. 29-32.)
Cercamon says:
Quan suy ab lieys si m'esbahis
Qu'ieu no sai dire mon talan (ii, vv. 15, 16.)
Again:
Tal paor ai que no'm falhis
No sai pensar cum la deman. (ii, vv. 33, 34.)
The conventionality of the description of the lady by Jaufre Rudel will be discussed later.

14 Jaufre Rudel, ed. Stimming (1873), v, v. 33, and vi, v. 34. Tristan resorts to this disguise to see Isolde. Cf. G. Paris, op. cit., p. 246, and n. 3.

15 G. Bertoni, op. cit., p. 540. As Savj-Lopez has remarked, the figure of the thief is imitated by Pier della Vigna:

Or potess 'eo venire a voi, amorosa,
Come lo larone ascoso e non paresse!

16 Malm, Werke, i, p. 12.

17 Bertoni, l. c.

18 Edition Dejeanne, Annales du Midi, xvii (1905), i, vv. 24-25.

19 Raynouard, op. cit., iii, p. 105.

20 Ed. G. Steffens, (1905), no. 3, p. 197.

21 El Cancionero de Juan Alfonso de Baena (1851), no. 301.

22 Raynouard, Choix, iii, p. 55.

23 Bertran de Born, op. cit., no. 8.

24 Eaynouard, op. cit., iv, p. 66.

25 Eaynouard, op. cit., iii, pp. 260 ff. The foregoing citations are only one step removed from the use of geographical names illustrated below:

Qu'ien no vuolh aver Ravena,
Ni Roais,
Ses cujar qu'ela 'm retena. (Bertran de Born, op. cit., no. 34, vv. 22-24.)
Que ses la vostr' atendensa
No volgr' aver Proensa
Ab tota Lombardia…. (Augier, in Eaynouard, op. cit., iii, p. 105.)

26 Jaufre Rudel, op. cit., no. 2, vv. 33-35.

27 Appel, op. cit., p. 339.

28 Savj-Lopez, op. cit., p. 221.

29 R. Renier, Il Tipo Estetico della Donna nel Medioevo. Ancona, 1881.

30 Bertran de Born, op. cit., no. 35, v. 35.

31 Mahn, Werke, i, p. 17.

32 Op. cit., p. 45.

33 Op. cit., p. 12.

34 Op. cit., p. 42.

35 Op. cit., i, iv, 36-39.

36 Raynouard, op. cit., iii, p. 202.

37 It is here assumed that I. in the Stimming collection refers to the same person as II, III, V, and VI. Gaston Paris inclined to admit this as a possibility (op. cit., p. 252, n. 1).

38 Histoire Littéraire de la France, xxx (1888), p. 152.

39 John Dunlop's Geschichte der Prosadichtungen (Felix Liebrecht's translation), Berlin, 1851, Anm. 180. Cf. Schultz-Gora in Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen, xcii (1894), p. 220.

40 Hermotimus, § 73.

41 Ed. Heinrich Adelbert Keller, Tübingen, 1836 (vv. 4216 ff.).

42 Fabliaux ou Contes du XIIe et du XIIIe Siècle, by Pierre Jean Baptiste Legrand d'Aussy (Paris, 1779), ii, p. 293.

43 Fairie Queen, Book I, Canto ix, stanza xiii (J. C. Smith ed., 1909).

44 Adam de la Hale, ed. E. de Coussemaker, 1872, pp. 299 ff.

45 Œuvres Poétiques de Guillaume Alexis, Prieur de Bucy (ed. Arthur Piaget & Emile Picot), Paris, 1896, i, p. 355.

46 Crescini in Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, xiv, p. 130.

47 Il Canzoniere Provenzale II—cod. Vaticano 3207—(edited by Louis Gauchat and Heinrich Kehrli, in the Studi di Filologia Romania, v. p. 494, no. 141). Of. Schultz-Gora, l. c.

48 Aymeri de Narbonne (ed. Louis Demaison, Paris, 1887), vv. 1353-80.

49 Le Roman de Marques de Rome (ed. Johann Alton, 1889), p. 123 [xii].

50 Kamiro Ortiz may have derived his suggestion from Gaston Paris, op. cit., p. 247. On this page, note 2, Paris also notes some imitations of Jaufre Rudel's “amor lonhdana.” In the case of Guillem de Béziers, at least (Raynouard, Choix, iii, p. 133), I see no necessity for assuming such a direct imitation. May the source of his “anc nous vi” not be William of Poitiers' “anc no la vi” ? Or, in view of the fact that both poets are evidently using a highly artificial and conventional form, extremely “éloignée de la rélité as Paris would admit, may they not have had a common source?

51 A. Jeanroy, Poésies de Guillaume ix, Conte de Poitiers, in Annates du Midi, xvii (1905), no. 4, vv. 25-30.

52 Jeanroy, op. cit., no. 5, vv. 31 ff.

53 Gaston Paris, op. cit., pp. 259-260 [No sap chantar quil so no di].

54 Cf. Mahn, Werke, i, p. 19: E s'il gilos vos bat defor (Bernart de Ventadour).

55 Op. cit., pp. 235, 236.

56 Canticum Canticorum Salamonis, v, v. 2.

57 Zeitschrift fur Deutsches Altertum und Deutsche Litteratur (1908), l, pp. 289-296: Die Moderne Leda (Wilhelm Meyer).

58 Dyocletianus Leben von Hans von Bühel, ed. Adelbert Keller (1841), Emleitung, p. 26.

59 Le Bel Inconnu, ed. C. Hippeau, Paris, 1860, vv. 2443-50.

60 Li Romans de Durmart le Galois, ed. E. Stengel, 1873, vv. 4097 ff.

61 Méliador, vv. 28752-77, ed. A. Longnon, Paris, 1899.

62 Raynouard, op. cit., iii, p. 215.

63 Raynouard, op. cit., iii, p. 222. Cf. George Sand, La Mare au Diable, chap. xvii: “Depuis ce temps-la j'ai rêvé à toi toutes les nuits. Ah! comme je l'embrassais, Marie!”

64 Folquet de Romans, ed. Rudolph Zenker, 13, vv. 29-30.

65 J. B. Noulet et Camille Chabaneau: Deux Manuscrits Provencaux du XIVe Siècle (Montpellier-Paris, 1888), p. 26.

66 Vie et Correspondance de Pierre de la Vigne, ed. A. Huillard-Bréholles, Paris, 1864, p. 420.

67 A. Jeanroy, op. cit., no. 4, vv. 1-6.

68 Op. cit., no. 5, vv. 1-2. Of course it is not denied that the dream had a physiological basis, and may be explained on that ground. My contention is simply that we are here dealing with something universal, both as to thought and as to literary form.

69 Gaston Paris, op. cit., p. 260.

70 Mahn, Werke, i, p. 24.

71 Op. cit., i, p. 22.

72 Bartsch, Chrestomathie Provençale (1904), cols. 104, 105. Cf. Raynouard, l. c.

73 L. c.

74 Gaston Paris to the contrary: “…. il semble bien qu'il ait en vue une personne précise ….” op. cit., p. 248.

75 Gaston Paris, op. cit., p. 234.

76 Gaston Paris, op. cit., p. 234.