1 MS: C (172v) marcabru (C Reg. marc e bru)

Analysis of the manuscript

Line 27 is missing, 15 is hypometric and lines 20, 21 and 32 contain faulty rhymes. In line 32 this seems to be an error, but those in lines 20 and 21 result from, inflected nom, pi. forms which are also present in 16, 17, 13, 37 and 50; these may be attributable to notions of what constituted a pi. marker in the thirteenth century, but some may be authorial (see the Introduction, pp. 17–18). There are minor scribal errors in 13, 23, 30, 33 and possibly another in 31.

Versification

Frank, Repértoire, 476.3: a8 b8 b8 a8 a8 b8 b8 a8; six coblas unissonans with a tornada of four lines. In the sixth line of every stanza, saücx appears as a refrain-word.

Previous scholarship

Anglade, ‘Est-ce Marcabru?’; Appel, ‘Zu Marcabru’, pp. 444-45, 455, 459, 463; Bloch, Etymologies, pp. 109–10; Boissonnade, ‘Personnages’, p. 225; Chambers, Introduction, pp. 48, 50; Erraete, Marcabru, pp. 211–13; Gaunt, Troubadours, pp. 60–61; Mölk, Trobardus, pp. 24, 33, 86, 88-89; Lewent, ‘Beiträge’, p. 316; Nichols, ‘Promise’; Paterson, Troubadours, pp. 32–34; Pillet, ‘Zum Texte’, pp. 12–13; Robertson, ‘Five poems’, pp. 540–44; Roncaglia, ‘Al departir; Spanke, Marcabrustudien, pp. 32, 64; Vossler, ‘Marcabru’, pp. 29–30, Walsh, ‘Two problems’, pp. 99-104.

Studies involving this poem concentrate mainly on Marcabru’s nature imagery, deriving from the Christian tradition of spiritual fruitfumess, and its exploitation here to represent the moral decay and decline of society through the degeneracy of the nobility.

Dating

Previous suggestions for dating this composition to before the end of 1134 or to spring 1137 (see Robertson, ‘Five poems1, pp. 542–43 and Spanke, Marcabrustudien, p. 64) derived from Lewent’s emendations in lines 41–44 which were rejected as unnecessary by Roncaglia. In our view, there is no means of dating this composition.

Previous editions

Dejeanne; Roncaglia, ‘Al departir.

I

At the end of the harsh season when through the branch rises the sap which brings new life to the broom and the heather, the peach-trees flower and the frog sings in the fishpond and the willow and the elder shoot, faced with the dry season, I am intent on composing a vers.