No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Enueg and Plazer in Mediæval French and Italian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
About three years ago an article was published by the present writer defining the essential features of the enueg and the plazer and showing the rise of this type of poetry in Provençal and its subsequent spread to Catalan, French, Italian, and Portuguese. The enueg was found to be a rimed composition on the subject of vexations and annoyances, while the plazer took pleasures as its theme. Except for this difference, the important characteristics of both are the same: (A) the enumeration of a series of vexations or pleasures, usually without continuity; (B) the repetition of a word or phrase which indicates the attitude of the poet, such as ‘it vexes me’ or ‘it pleases me.‘ Since that time the investigations have been continued, especially in French and Italian.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1915
References
1 R. T. Hill, “The Enueg,” Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xxvii (1912), pp. 265-296.
2 Le Roux de Liney, Le Livre des Proverbes Français, Paris, 1859, I, p. 69.
3 O. c., i, p. 181.
4 O. c., ii, p. 221. Others are i, p. 221, ii, pp. 137, 172, 191, 206, 216, 221, 278, etc.
5 O. c., ii, pp. 270, 375, 471.
6 O. c., ii, p. 284.
7 i, p. 382, ii, pp. 142, 283.
8 Hill, o. c., p. 294 n.
9 Le Roux, o. c., ii, pp. 283, 284.
10 Prof. Jeanroy in a review (Romania, xlii, p. 318) of my former article, points out two short pieces of this kind in a ms. at Clermont Ferrand, besides a long ballad by Deschamps. He also adds to my list in Provencal one strophe by Gaucelm Faidit and a poem by Guillem Peire de Toulouse. The latter had already been mentioned by me, p. 275, where I attributed it to Guillem Peire de Casals. According to Appel (Revue des Lang. Rom. xxxix, p. 183) the authorship is uncertain.
11 Soc. d. Anc. Textes, Vol. i, p. 310.
12 Montaiglon: Anc. Poés. Fr., v, p. 319.
13 Ibid., x, p. 152.
14 Ibid., x, p. 156.
15 Deschamps, Œuvres complètes, Soc. d. Anc. Textes, Vol. x, p. xxviii.
16 O. c., vii, p. 71.
17 O. c., v, p. 51.
18 O. c., vi, p. 100; vii, pp. 38, 40; viii, pp. 139, 145, 339.
19 O. c., vii, p. 40.
20 xi, pp. 80 ff.
21 O. c., vii, p. 90.
22 O. c., vi, p. 178.
23 O. c., iv, pp. 315, 321; vii, p. 33.
24 O. c., vii, p. 34.
25 O. c., iv, p. 315.
26 Ed. Fraticelli, Opere minori, i, p. 139; son. 32. Ed. Moore, son. 33.
27 Carducci: Antica lirica italiana, Firenze, 1907, p. 98. Volpi: Rime di Trescentisti Minori, Firenze, 1907, p. 47. Cf. Volpi: Il Trecento in Storia Lett. D'Italia, pp. 165 ff. for a discussion of the author and this poem. Volpi cites a canzone by Fazio degli Uberti Lasso che quando and the third chapter of the Book of Job as works of a similar style, but I fail to find sufficient resemblance in either to class them among the productions of this genre.
28 Volpi: Rime di trecentisti, pp. 48 f.
29 D'Ancona, Poesia Pop. It., 2nd ed., Livorno, 1906, p. 464.
30 Carducci: Cantilene e Ballate, p. 268. D'Ancona: o. c., p. 510.
31 Ed. Fiodo, Laneiano, 1913, p. 142.
32 Guittone d'Arezzo, Rime ed. Pellegrini, Bologna, 1901; Vol. i, No. liv, p. 82.
33 Pub. by Manni, Firenze, 1730. There is an Italian translation called Arrighetto, with introduction by Tiraboschi, pub. at Prato, 1841.
34 O. c., p. 10.
35 O. c., p. 28. For other cases of repetition and lists of ennuis cf. pp. 11, 18, 29.
36 O. c., pp. 12, 13. One should note the lists of curses with repetition of maledictus in Deut. 27, 15-26; 28, 16-19, and the series of lamentations introduced by vae Isaiah, 5, 18-22, Mat. 23, 13-16, Luke 6, 24-26. For corresponding lists of blessings, cf. the Beatitudes, Mat. 5, 3-11, Luke 6, 20-22.
37 This poem has been mentioned by Volpi: Il Trecento, p. 268, who also points out the similarity of the curses of Job in Chap. iii.
38 Carducci, Antica lir. it., ed. cit., col. 333.
39 D'Ancona, o. c., pp. 462, 510.
40 D'Ancona, o. c., pp. 238 f. and 553 f. Tigri, Canti pop. toscani, Firenze, 1860, p. 69.
41 D'Aneona, o. c., p. 299.
42 Tigri, pp. 114, 122. D'Ancona, pp. 463, 510.
43 Cf. Tigri, p. 121, where three forms of this ballad are quoted.
44 Tigri, p. 126.
45 Ibid., p. 130.
46 Carducci, o. c., p. 214.
47 Carducci, o. c., p. 434.
48 Volpi, o. c., pp. 233 f. Cf. the recent article by Oliver M. Johnston, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xxix, p. 542 n. where this sonnet is mentioned. Several pages are devoted to the enueg and the noie, but no new material of importance is added. There is a slight error, p. 537, n. 1, where the initial phrase of the poem by Christine de Pisan should be seulete suy, not je congnois. The latter phrase is repeated in a poem by Villon (Bartsch-Wiese, Chrest. de l'anc. fr. no. 93, d., Francois Villon, Œuvres, les Classiques Fr. du Moyen-Age, pp. 80, 81.) For other cases of repetition in Villon cf. the latter edition pp. 58, 79, 80, 81, 82.
49 Carducci, o. c., p. 464.
50 Carducci, o. c., p. 155.
51 Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xxvii, p. 266.
52 Cf. Hill, o. c., pp. 284-285.
53 Parnaso Italiano, Venezia, 1787, Vol. xxvii, p. 188.
54 I Documenti d'Amore di Francesco da Barberino, ed. F. Egidi, Roma, 1902, i, pp. 127, 225, 264, 266, 304.
55 The use of different words or phrases to indicate the attitude of the poet is seen to better advantage in a plazer by Guittone d'Arezzo, Tanto sovente dett' aggio altra fiata (ed. Valeriani, Vol. i, No. x, p. 56). Five of the six strophes have each a special repeated word which is not found in the others, while nearly all of them are included in the final strophe. Thus the first uses aggrada, the second hello m'è, the third piace, the fourth diletto and the fifth sa mi bel. These phrases are repeated at irregular intervals and serve to introduce different classes of people whom the poet desires to praise. In subject matter as well as in form each strophe possesses unity; the first deals with peace, the second humility, and the others have as their subjects honesty, women, and ecclesiastics. The poem ends with an outburst of religious fervor in the later manner of Guittone. This careful arrangement in subject matter recalls the noie of Pucci, whereas the use of a special repeated word for each strophe suggests a possible prototype for Bindo Bonichi's canzone, Guai a chi, etc. (Cf. Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xxviii, p. 286-7). When my first article on the enueg was written, I had not been able to examine this poem of Guittone and so was unable to put this note where it might have been more appropriate.
56 O. c., i, i, p. 225.
57 O. c., i, i, p. 127.
58 Pub. by Ildefonso di San Luigi in Vol. vi of the Delizie degli eruditi toscani, pp. 275-285; reprinted without change in Racoolta di rime antiche toscane, Palermo, 1817, Vol. iii, 311-320 and by F. Ferri, La poesia pop. in Antonio Pucci, Bologna, 1909, pp. 235-242. Pub. from the Oxford Ms. by Prof. K. McKenzie, Kittredge Anniversary Papers, Boston, 1913, pp. 175-183. Prof. McKenzie has also published the version found in the Codice Kirkupiano, Studii publ. in onore di F. Torraea, Napoli, 1912.
59 Rivista d. Fil. Rom., ii, pp. 45-48.
60 Parnaso It., Venezia, 1787, Vol. xxvii, p. 190.
61 E. Rivalta: Liriche del “Dolce Stil Nuovo,” p. 133.
62 P. Ercole, G. Cavalcanti e le sue rime, Livorno, 1885, pp. 269 f.
63 G. Navone, Le Rime di Folgore da San Gimignano e di Gene da la Chitarra, Bologna, 1880; p. cxv.
64 Poesia Pop., p. 467; cf. pp. 186, 187.
65 Tigri, o. c., pp. 114, 122.
66 Tigri, o. c., p. 338. Prof. Zenatti in a short study of the Noie of Patecchio or Pateg (Atti d. R. Accad. lucchese, xxix) calls attention, pp. 9 ff., to certain forms which resemble the noie, mentioning Bonichi's sonnet already discussed by me, the poem by Lapo Gianni and the vorrei. Most of the latter, especially the famous one by Dante, Guido, i' vorrei que tu e Lapo ed io, do not, I think, belong to the noie type, since they usually lack all its essential characteristics. Zenatti's suggestions and explanations regarding the poems ascribed to Patecchio deserve consideration.
67 G. Navone, o. c.
68 O. c., pp. lxxix f.
69 O. c., p. 9.
70 D'Ancona (Archivio per la tradiz. pop., ii, p. 257) mentions the sonnets by Folgore and calls attention to the fact that they do not refer to ordinary pastimes appropriate to the different months, but indicate the distractions of a select society fond of lavishness and artificiality. For popular poems on the pleasures of the months, cf. Gianini: Canti pop. della Montagna Lucchese, pp. 233-239. The idea is the same but the treatment is more popular.
71 O. c., p. lxxxv.
72 O. c., p. 65.
73 O. c., p. 83.
74 A. Pucci, La proprietà di Mercato Vecchio. F. Ferri, o. c., pp. 234-5.
75 Tigri, o. c., p. 157.
76 In many of the poems of Guittone d'Arezzo the word noia occurs often riming with gioia.
77 Saggi di Lett. Pop., p. 381. The same sonnet with slight changes is printed among the poems of Burchiello, Londra, 1751, p. 199.
78 There are three editions, two of which bear no date but appear to have been printed in the sixteenth century. The third is a reprint issued by a society of bibliophiles at Paris, 1860, and limited to 100 copies. It is the last that I have consulted. D'Ancona (La Poesia Pop., p. 16, n.) mentions this poem as belonging to the fifteenth century. There exists also a Riprehensione contro Il Manganello by Antonio Cornazzano, who died about 1500. Cf. Melzi, Dizionario di Anon. e Pseud., ii, p. 154; Affò, Mem. degli Scrittori e Lett. parmigiana, iii, pp. 29-57 and Cristoforo Poggiali: Mem. per la Storia lett. di Piacenza, Piacenza, 1789, pp. 64-130. Because of the literary interest and the rarity of Il Manganello, it is my intention to publish an edition of the entire poem in the near future.