The Troubadours Part 4

ez ab sos reproverbis afilatz e forbitz ez ab los nostres dos, don fo eniotglaritz, ez ab mala doctrina es tant fort enriquitz c'om non auza ren dire a so qu'el contraditz.

Pero cant el fo abas ni monges revest.i.tz en la sua abadia fo sil lums eseurzitz qu'anc no i ac be ni pauza, tro qu'el ne fo ichitz; e cant fo de Tholosa avesques elegitz per trastota la terra es tals focs espanditz que ia mais per nulha aiga no sira escant.i.tz; que plus de D.M., que de grans que pet.i.tz, i fe perdre las vidas els cors els esperitz.

Per la fe qu'icu vos deg, als sous faitz e als ditz ez a la captenensa sembla mielhs Antecritz que messatges de Roma.

"And of the bishop, who is so zealous, I tell you that in him both G.o.d and we ourselves are betrayed; for with lying songs and insinuating words, which are the d.a.m.nation of any who sings or speaks them, and by his keen polished admonitions, and by our presents wherewith he maintained himself as _joglar_, and by his evil doctrine, he has risen so high, that one dare say nothing to that which he opposes. So when he was vested as abbot and monk, was the light in his abbey put out in such wise that therein was no comfort or rest, until that he was gone forth from thence; and when he was chosen bishop of Toulouse such a fire was spread throughout the land that never for any water will it be quenched; for there did he bring destruction of life and body and soul upon more [82]

than fifteen hundred of high and low. By the faith which I owe to you, by his deeds and his words and his dealings, more like is he to Anti-Christ than to an envoy of Rome." (_Chanson de la croisade contre les Albigeois_, v. 3309.)

Folquet died on December 25, 1231, and was buried at the Cistercian Abbey of Grandselve, some thirty miles north-west of Toulouse. Such troubadours as Guilhem Figueira and Peire Cardenal, who inveighed against the action of the Church during the crusade, say nothing of him, and upon their silence and that of the biography as regards his ecclesiastical life the argument has been founded that Folquet the troubadour and Folquet the bishop were two different persons. There is no evidence to support this theory. Folquet's poems enjoyed a high reputation. The minnesinger, Rudolf, Count of Neuenberg (end of the twelfth century) imitated him, as also did the Italians Rinaldo d'Aquino and Jacopo da Lentino.

The troubadours as a rule stood aloof from the religious quarrels of the age. But few seem to have joined the crusaders, as Perdigon did. Most of their patrons were struggling for their existence: when the invaders succeeded in establishing themselves, they had no desire for court poetry. The troubadour's occupation was gone, and those who wished for an audience were obliged to seek beyond the borders of France. Hence it [83]

is somewhat remarkable to find the troubadour Raimon de Miraval, of Carca.s.sonne, continuing to sing, as though perfect tranquillity prevailed. His wife, Gaudairenca, was a poetess, and Paul Heyse has made her the central figure of one of his charming _Troubadour Novellen_.

Raimon's poems betray no forebodings of the coming storm; when it broke, he lost his estate and fled to Raimon of Toulouse for shelter. The arrival of Pedro II. of Aragon at Toulouse in 1213 and his alliance with the Count of Toulouse cheered the troubadour's spirits: he thought there was a chance that he might recover his estate. He compliments Pedro on his determination in one poem and in another tells his lady, "the king has promised me that in a short time, I shall have Miraval again and my Audiart shall recover his Beaucaire; then ladies and their lovers will regain their lost delights." Such was the att.i.tude of many troubadours towards the crusade and they seem to represent the views of a certain section of society. There is no trace on this side of any sense of patriotism; they hated the crusade because it destroyed the comforts of their happy existence. But the South of France had never as a whole acquired any real sense of nationalism: there was consequently no attempt at general or organised resistance and no leader to inspire such [84]

attempts was forth-coming.

On the other hand, special districts such as Toulouse, showed real courage and devotion. The crusaders often found much difficulty in maintaining a force adequate to conduct their operations after the first energy of the invasion had spent itself, and had the Count of Toulouse been an energetic and vigorous character, he might have been able to reverse the ultimate issue of the crusade. But, like many other petty lords his chief desire was to be left alone and he was at heart as little interested in the claims of Rome as in the attractions of heresy.

His townspeople thought otherwise and the latter half of the _Chanson de la Croisade_ reflects their hopes and fears and describes their struggles with a sympathy that often reaches the height of epic splendour. Similarly, certain troubadours were by no means absorbed in the practice of their art or the pursuit of their intrigues. Bernard Sicart de Marvejols has left us a vigorous satire against the crusaders who came for plunder, and the clergy who drove them on. The greatest poet of this calamitous time is Peire Cardenal. His work falls within the years 1210 and 1230. The short notice that we have of him says that he belonged to Puy Notre Dame in Velay, that he was the son of a n.o.ble and was intended for an ecclesiastical career: when he was of age, he was attracted by the pleasures of the world, became a troubadour and [85]

went from court to court, accompanied by a _joglar_: he was especially favoured by King Jaime I. of Aragon and died at the age of nearly a hundred years. He was no singer of love and the three of his _chansos_ that remain are inspired by the misogyny that we have noted in the case of Marcabrun. Peire Cardenal's strength lay in the moral _sirventes_: he was a fiery soul, aroused to wrath by the sight of injustice and immorality and the special objects of his animosity are the Roman Catholic clergy and the high n.o.bles. "The clergy call themselves shepherds and are murderers under a show of saintliness: when I look upon their dress I remember Isengrin (the wolf in the romance of Reynard, the Fox) who wished one day to break into the sheep-fold: but for fear of the dogs he dressed himself in a sheepskin and then devoured as many as he would. Kings and emperors, dukes, counts and knights used to rule the world; now the priests have the power which they have gained by robbery and treachery, by hypocrisy, force and preaching." "Eagles and vultures smell not the carrion so readily as priests and preachers smell out the rich: a rich man is their friend and should a sickness strike him down, he must make them presents to the loss of his relations. Frenchmen and priests are reputed bad and rightly so: usurers [86]

and traitors possess the whole world, for with deceit have they so confounded the world that there is no cla.s.s to whom their doctrine is unknown." Peire inveighs against the disgraces of particular orders; the Preaching Friars or Jacobin monks who discuss the relative merits of special wines after their feasts, whose lives are spent in disputes and who declare all who differ from them to be Vaudois heretics, who worm men's private affairs out of them, that they may make themselves feared: some of his charges against the monastic orders are quite unprintable.

No less vigorous are his invectives against the rich and the social evils of his time. The tone of regret that underlies Guiraut de Bornelh's satires in this theme is replaced in Peire Cardenal's _sirventes_ by a burning sense of injustice. Covetousness, the love of pleasure, injustice to the poor, treachery and deceit and moral laxity are among his favourite themes. "He who abhors truth and hates the right, careers to h.e.l.l and directs his course to the abyss: for many a man builds walls and palaces with the goods of others and yet the witless world says that he is on the right path, because he is clever and prosperous. As silver is refined in the fire, so the patient poor are purified under grievous oppression: and with what splendour the shameless rich man may feed and clothe himself, his riches bring him nought but pain, grief and vexation of spirit. But that affrights him [87]

not: capons and game, good wine and the dainties of the earth console him and cheer his heart. Then he prays to G.o.d and says 'I am poor and in misery.' Were G.o.d to answer him He would say, 'thou liest!'" To ill.u.s.trate the degeneracy of the age, Peire relates a fable, perhaps the only instance of this literary form among the troubadours, upon the theme that if all the world were mad, the one sane man would be in a lunatic asylum: "there was a certain town, I know not where, upon which a rain fell of such a nature that all the inhabitants upon whom it fell, lost their reason. All lost their reason except one, who escaped because he was asleep in his house when the rain came. When he awoke, he rose: the rain had ceased, and he went out among the people who were all committing follies. One was clothed, another naked, another was spitting at the sky: some were throwing sticks and stones, tearing their coats, striking and pushing... The sane man was deeply surprised and saw that they were mad; nor could he find a single man in his senses. Yet greater was their surprise at him, and as they saw that he did not follow their example, they concluded that he had lost his senses.... So one strikes him in front, another behind; he is dashed to the ground and trampled under foot... at length he flees to his house covered with mud, bruised [88]

and half dead and thankful for his escape": The mad town, says Peire Cardenal, is the present world: the highest form of intelligence is the love and fear of G.o.d, but this has been replaced by greed, pride and malice; consequently the "sense of G.o.d" seems madness to the world and he who refuses to follow the "sense of the world" is treated as a madman.

Peire Cardenal is thus by temperament a moral preacher; he is not merely critical of errors, but has also a positive faith to propound. He is not an opponent of the papacy as an inst.i.tution: the confession of faith which he utters in one of his _sirventes_ shows that he would have been perfectly satisfied with the Roman ecclesiastical and doctrinal system, had it been properly worked. In this respect he differs from a contemporary troubadour, Guillem Figueira, whose violent satire against Rome shows him as opposed to the whole system from the papacy downwards.

He was a native of Toulouse and migrated to Lombardy and to the court of Frederick II. when the crusade drove him from his home. "I wonder not, Rome, that men go astray, for thou hast cast the world into strife and misery; virtue and good works die and are buried because of thee, treacherous Rome, thou guiding-star, thou root and branch of all iniquity... Greed blindeth thy eyes, and too close dost thou shear thy [89]

sheep... thou forgivest sins for money, thou loadest thyself with a shameful burden. Rome, we know of a truth that with the bait of false forgiveness, thou hast snared in misery the n.o.bility of France, the people of Paris and the n.o.ble King Louis (VIII., who died in the course of the Albigeois crusade); thou didst bring him to his death, for thy false preaching enticed him from his land. Rome, thou has the outward semblance of a lamb, so innocent is thy countenance, but within thou are a ravening wolf, a crowned snake begotten of a viper and therefore the devil greeteth thee as the friend of his bosom." This sirventes was answered by a _trobairitz_, Germonde of Montpelier, but her reply lacks the vigour and eloquence of the attack.

It is not to be supposed that the troubadours turned to religious poetry simply because the Albigeois crusade had raised the religious question.

Purely devotional poetry is found at an earlier period.[29] It appears at first only sporadically, and some of the greatest troubadours have left no religious poems that have reached us. The fact is, that the nature of troubadour poetry and its homage to the married woman were incompatible with the highest standard of religious devotion. The famous _alba_ of Guiraut de Bornelh invokes the "glorious king, true light and splendour, Lord Almighty," for the purpose of praying that the lovers [90]

for whom the speaker is keeping watch may be undisturbed in interchange of their affections. Prayer for the success of attempted adultery is a contradiction in terms. For a theory of religion which could regard the Deity as a possible accomplice in crime, the Church of Southern France in the twelfth century is to blame: we cannot expect that the troubadours in general should be more religious than the professional exponents of religion. On the other hand, poems of real devotional feeling are found, even from the earliest times: the sensual Count of Poitiers, the first troubadour known to us, concludes his career with a poem of resignation bidding farewell to the world, "leaving all that I love, the brilliant life of chivalry, but since it pleases G.o.d, I resign myself and pray Him to keep me among His own." Many troubadours, as has been said, ended their lives in monasteries and the disappointments or griefs which drove them to this course often aroused religious feelings, regrets for past follies and resolutions of repentance, which found expression in poetry. Peire d'Auvergne wrote several religious hymns after his retirement from the world; these are largely composed of reiterated articles of the Christian faith in metrical form and are as unpoetical as they are orthodox, Crusade poems and _planhs_ upon the [91]

deaths of famous n.o.bles or patrons are religious only in a secondary sense. A fine religious _alba_ is ascribed to Folquet of Ma.r.s.eilles--

Vers Dieus, el vostre nom e de sancta Maria m'esvelherai hueimais, pus l'estela del dia ven daus Jerusalem que' m'ensenha qu'ien dia: estatz sus e levatz, senhor, que Dieu amatz!

quel jorns es aprosmatz e la nuech ten sa via; e sian Dieus lauzatz per nos e adoratz, el preguem queens don patz a tota nostra via.

La nuech vai el jorns ve ab elar eel e sere, e l'alba no's rete ans ven belh' e complia.

"True G.o.d, in Thy name and in the name of Saint Mary will I awake henceforth, since the star of day rises from o'er Jerusalem, bidding me say, 'Up and arise, sirs, who love G.o.d! For the day is nigh, and the night departs; and let G.o.d be praised and adored by us and let us pray Him that He give us peace for all our lives. Night goes and day comes with clear serene sky, and the dawn delays not but comes fair and perfect.'"

At the close of the Albigeois crusade the Virgin Mary becomes the theme of an increasing number of lyric poems. These are not like the farewells [92]

to the world, uttered by weary troubadours, and dictated by individual circ.u.mstances, but are inspired by an increase of religious feeling in the public to whom the troubadours appealed. Peire Cardenal began the series and a similar poem is attributed to Perdigon, a troubadour who joined the crusaders and fought against his old patrons; though the poem is probably not his, it belongs to a time but little posterior to the crusade. The cult of the Virgin had obvious attractions as a subject for troubadours whose profane songs would not have been countenanced by St Dominic and his preachers and religious poetry dealing with the subject could easily borrow not only the metrical forms but also many technical expressions which troubadours had used in singing of worldly love. They could be the servants of a heavenly mistress and attribute to her all the graces and beauty of form and character. It has been supposed that the Virgin was the mysterious love sung by Jaufre Rudel and the supposition is not inconsistent with the language of his poems. Guiraut Riquier, the last of the troubadours, provides examples of this new _genre_: from the fourteenth century it was the only kind of poem admitted by the school of Toulouse and the Jeux Floraux crowned many poems of this nature. These, however, have little in common with cla.s.sical troubadour poetry except language. The following stanzas from [93]

the well-known hymn to the Virgin by Peire de Corbiac, will give an idea of the character of this poetry.

Domna, rosa ses espina, sobre totas flors olens, verga seca frug fazens, terra que ses labor grana, estela, del solelh maire, noirissa del vostre paire, el mon nulha nous semelha ni londana ni vezina.

Domna, verge pura e fina, ans que fos l'enfantamens, et apres tot eissamens, receup en vos carn humana Jesu Crist, nostre salvaire, si com ses trencamen faire intral bels rais, quan solelha, per la fenestra veirina.

Domna, estela marina de las autras plus luzens, la mars nos combat el vens; mostra nos via certana; car sins vols a bon port traire non tem nau ni governaire ni tempest quens des...o...b..lha nil sobern de la marina.

"Lady, rose without thorn, sweet above all flowers, dry rod bearing fruit, earth bringing forth fruit without toil, star, mother of the sun, nurse of thine own Father, in the world no woman is like to thee, [94]

neither far nor near.

Lady, virgin pure and fair before the birth was and afterwards the same, Jesus Christ our Saviour received human flesh in thee, just as without causing flaw, the fair ray enters through the window-pane when the sun shines.

Lady, star of the sea, brighter than the other stars, the sea and the wind buffet us; show thou us the right way: for if thou wilt bring us to a fair haven, ship nor helmsman fears not tempest nor tide lest it trouble us."

CHAPTER VII [95]

THE TROUBADOURS IN ITALY

To study the development of troubadour literature only in the country of its origin would be to gain a very incomplete idea of its influence. The movement, as we have already said, crossed the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Rhine, and Italy at least owed the very existence of its lyric poetry to the impulse first given by the troubadours. Close relations between Southern France and Northern Italy had existed from an early period: commercial intercourse between the towns on the Mediterranean was in some cases strengthened by treaties; the local n.o.bles were connected by feudal ties resulting from the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire. Hence it was natural for troubadours and _joglars_ to visit the Italian towns. Their own language was not so remote from the Italian dialects as to raise any great obstacle to the circulation of their poetry and the petty princes of Northern Italy lent as ready an ear to troubadour songs as the local lords in the South of France. Peire Vidal was at the court of the Marquis of Montferrat so early as 1195; the Marquis of Este, the Count of San Bonifacio at Verona, the Count of [96]

Savoy at Turin, the Emperor Frederick II. and other lords of less importance offered a welcome to Provencal poets. More than twenty troubadours are thus known to have visited Italy and in some cases to have made a stay of considerable length. The result was that their poetry soon attracted Italian disciples and imitators. Provencal became the literary language of the n.o.ble cla.s.ses and an Italian school of troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure.

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, who spent a considerable part of his career (1180-1207) with the Marquis of Montferrat, belongs as a troubadour quite as much to Italy as to Southern France. He was the son of a poor n.o.ble of Orange and became a troubadour at the court of William IV. of Orange; he exchanged _tensos_ with his patron with whom he seems to have been on very friendly terms and to whom he refers by the pseudonym Engles (English), the reason for which is as yet unknown. Some time later than 1189, he left the court of Orange, apparently in consequence of a dispute with his patron and made his way to Italy, where he led a wandering life until he was admitted to the court of the Marquis of Montferrat. To this period of his career belongs the well-known poem in which he pays his addresses to a Genoese lady.

"Lady, I have prayed you long to love me of your kindliness... my heart [97]

is more drawn to you than to any lady of Genoa. I shall be well rewarded if you will love me and shall be better recompensed for my trouble than if Genoa belonged to me with all the wealth that is there heaped up."

The lady then replies in her own Genoese dialect: she knows nothing of the conventions of courtly love, and informs the troubadour that her husband is a better man than he and that she will have nothing to do with him. The poem is nothing but a _jeu d'esprit_ based upon the contrast between troubadour sentiments and the honest but unpoetical views of the middle cla.s.s; it is interesting to philologists as containing one of the earliest known specimens of Italian dialect. An example of the Tuscan dialect is also found in the _descort_ by Raimbaut. This is a poem in irregular metre, intended to show the perturbation of the poet's mind. Raimbaut increased this effect by writing in five different languages. He found a ready welcome from Bonifacio II. at the court of Montferrat which Peire Vidal also visited.

The marquis dubbed him knight and made him his brother in arms. Raimbaut fell in love with Beatrice, the sister of the marquis, an intimacy which proceeded upon the regular lines of courtly love. He soon found an opportunity of showing his devotion to the marquis. In 1194 Henry VI. [98]

made an expedition to Sicily to secure the claims of his wife, Constance, to that kingdom: the Marquis Boniface as a va.s.sal of the imperial house followed the Emperor and Raimbaut accompanied his contingent. He refers to his share in the campaign in a later letter to the marquis.[30]

Et ai per vos estat en greu preyzo Per vostra guerra e n'ai a vostro pro f.a.g maynt a.s.saut et ars maynta maiso Et a Messina vos cobri del blizo; En la batalha vos vinc en tal sazo Queus ferion pel pietz e pel mento Dartz e cairels, sagetas e trenso.

"For your sake I have been in hard captivity in your war, and to do you service I have made many an a.s.sault and burned many a house. At Messina I covered you with the shield; I came to you in the battle at the moment when they hurled at your breast and chin darts and quarrels, arrows and lance-shafts." The captivity was endured in the course of the marquis's wars in Italy, and the troubadour refers to a seafight between the forces of Genoa and Pisa in the Sicilian campaign. In 1202 he followed his master upon the crusade which practically ended at Constantinople.

He had composed a vigorous _sirventes_ urging Christian men to join the movement, but he does not himself show any great enthusiasm to take the [99]

cross. "I would rather, if it please you, die in that land than live and remain here. For us G.o.d was raised upon the cross, received death, suffered the pa.s.sion, was scourged and loaded with chains and crowned with thorns upon the cross.... Fair Cavalier (i.e. Beatrice) I know not whether I shall stay for your sake or take the cross; I know not whether I shall go or remain, for I die with grief if I see you and I am like to die if I am far from you." So also in the letter quoted above.

E cant anetz per crozar a Saysso, Ieu non avia cor--Dieus m'o perdo-- Que pa.s.ses mar, mas per vostre resso Levey la crotz e pris confessio.

"And when you went to Soissons to take the cross, I did not intend--may G.o.d forgive me--to cross the sea, but to increase your fame I took the cross and made confession." The count lost his life, as Villehardouin relates, in a skirmish with the Bulgarians in 1207. Raimbaut de Vaqueiras probably fell at the same time.

This is enough to show that troubadours who came to Italy could make the country a second home, and find as much occupation in love, war and politics as they had ever found in Southern France. Aimeric de Pegulhan, Gaucelm Faidit, Uc de Saint-Circ,[31] the author of some troubadour [100]

biographies, were among the best known of those who visited Italy. The last named is known to have visited Pisa and another troubadour of minor importance, Guillem de la Tor, was in Florence. Thus the visits of the troubadours were by no means confined to the north.

It was, therefore, natural that Italians should imitate the troubadours whose art proved so successful at Italian courts and some thirty Italian troubadours are known to us. Count Manfred II. and Albert, the Marquis of Malaspina, engaged in _tensos_ with Peire Vidal and Raimbaut de Vaqueiras respectively and are the first Italians known to have written in Provencal. Genoa produced a number of Italian troubadours of whom the best were Lanfranc Cigala and Bonifacio Calvo. The latter was a wanderer and spent some time in Castile at the court of Alfonso X. Lanfranc Cigala was a judge in his native town: from him survive a _sirventes_ against Bonifacio III. of Montferrat who had abandoned the cause of Frederick II., crusade poems and a _sirventes_ against the obscure style. The Venetian Bartolomeo Zorzi was a prisoner at Genoa from 1266 to 1273, having been captured by the Genoese. The troubadour of Genoa, Bonifacio Calvo, had written a vigorous invective against Venice, to which the captive troubadour composed an equally strong reply addressed [101]

to Bonifacio Calvo; the latter sought him out and the two troubadours became friends. The most famous, however, of the Italian troubadours is certainly Sordello.

There is much uncertainty concerning the facts of Sordello's life; he was born at Goito, near Mantua, and was of n.o.ble family. His name is not to be derived from _sordidus_, but from _Surdus_, a not uncommon patronymic in North Italy during the thirteenth century. Of his early years nothing is known: at some period of his youth he entered the court of Count Ricciardo di san Bonifazio, the lord of Verona, where he fell in love with his master's wife, Cunizza da Romano (Dante, _Par._ ix.

32), and eloped with her. The details of this affair are entirely obscure; according to some commentators, it was the final outcome of a family feud, while others a.s.sert that the elopement took place with the connivance of Cunizza's brother, the notorious Ezzelino III. (_Inf_.

xii. 110): the date is approximately 1225. At any rate, Sordello and Cunizza betook themselves to Ezzelino's court. Then, according to the Provencal biography, follows his secret marriage with Otta, and his flight from Treviso, to escape the vengeance of her angry relatives. He thus left Italy about the year 1229, and retired to the South of France, where he visited the courts of Provence, Toulouse, Roussillon, [102]

penetrating also into Castile. A chief authority for these wanderings is the troubadour Peire Bremen Ricas Novas, whose _sirventes_ speaks of him as being in Spain at the court of the king of Leon: this was Alfonso IX., who died in the year 1230. He also visited Portugal, but for this no date can be a.s.signed. Allusions in his poems show that he was in Provence before 1235: about ten years later we find him at the court of the Countess Beatrice (_Par._ vi. 133), daughter of Raimon Berengar, Count of Provence, and wife of Charles I. of Anjou. Beatrice may have been the subject of several of his love poems: but the "senhal" Restaur and Agradiva, which conceal the names possibly of more than one lady cannot be identified. From 1252-1265 his name appears in several Angevin treaties and records, coupled with the names of other well-known n.o.bles, and he would appear to have held a high place in Charles' esteem. It is uncertain whether he took part in the first crusade of St Louis, in 1248-1251, at which Charles was present: but he followed Charles on his Italian expedition against Manfred in 1265, and seems to have been captured by the Ghibellines before reaching Naples. At any rate, he was a prisoner at Novara in September 1266; Pope Clement IV. induced Charles to ransom him, and in 1269, as a recompense for his services, he received five castles in the Abruzzi, near the river Pescara: shortly [103]

afterwards he died. The circ.u.mstances of his death are unknown, but from the fact that he is placed by Dante among those who were cut off before they could repent it has been conjectured that he came to a violent end.

Sordello's restless life and his intrigues could be exemplified from the history of many another troubadour and neither his career nor his poetry, which with two exceptions, is of no special originality, seems to justify the portrait drawn of him by Dante; while Browning's famous poem has nothing in common with the troubadour except the name. These exceptions, however, are notable. The first is a _sirventes_ composed by Sordello on the death of his patron Blacatz in 1237. He invites to the funeral feast the Roman emperor, Frederick II., the kings of France, England and Aragon, the counts of Champagne, Toulouse and Provence. They are urged to eat of the dead man's heart, that they may gain some tincture of his courage and n.o.bility. Each is invited in a separate stanza in which the poet reprehends the failings of the several potentates.

Del rey engles me platz, quar es paue coratjos, Que manje pro del cor, pueys er valens e bos, E cobrara la terra, per que viu de pretz blos, Quel tol lo reys de Fransa, quar lo sap nualhos; E lo reys castelas tanh qu'en manje per dos, [104]

Quar dos regismes ten, e per l'un non es pros; Mas, s'elh en vol manjar, tanh qu'en manj'a rescos, Que, sil mair'o sabra, batrial ab bastos.