THE STANZA.
We now come to the third division of the subject—the formation of the
stanza. The consideration of metre and rhyme has shown the skill of the
troubadours, but also the danger into which their marvellous finish led
them, viz., to forget the real poetical value of their work over the
beauty of form. This danger was not equally imminent in forming the
stanza, seeing that its rules were too securely founded on the national
sense of harmony, and too difficult to comply with, to afford an occasion
for easy trifling. The stanza, accordingly, we have to consider as the
highest development of art reached by the troubadours. It is therefore
surprising that the ‘Leys d’Amors’ says nothing of any importance
regarding its composition. The author of the work had evidently a very
vague idea of the real essence of the stanza. The only guide, therefore,
in our investigation must be Dante’s work, ‘De Vulgari Eloquentia,’ in
which he draws a full and logical account from his own deep knowledge and
experience. But many of his expressions will be obscure until the musical
system of the middle ages is better understood. The rules of musical
rhythm are indeed inseparably connected with all forms of Provençal
poetry. But the way at least may be partially cleared, and the words of
the great Italian poet illustrated by examples from the works of the best
troubadours.
The definition which the ‘Leys d’Amors’ gives of a stanza, or, as it
calls it, cobla, is very unsatisfactory, or rather is no definition at
all. It is expressed in a long poem of the author’s own manufacturing,
the meaning of which is simply that a cobla may consist at least of
five, and at most of sixteen verses, not including the shorter lines
known under the name of bordos biocatz. Nothing more is said on this
important subject. Of a division of stanzas according to their metrical
and musical composition the author seemingly knows nothing. Dante, on the
other hand, begins his long and careful investigation by stating first
that ‘omnis stantia ad quandam odam recipiendam armonizata est.’ The word
‘odam’ in this connection must be understood in a double sense—a musical
and a metrical: in the former it means simply melody, in the latter
the metrical scheme of the stanza. But this oda is very different in
different cases: ‘quia quædam [stantiæ] sunt sub una oda continua, usque
ad ultimum progressive, hoc est sine iteratione modulationis cujusquam
et sine dieresi;[41] et dieresim dicimus deductionem vergentem de una
oda in aliam; hanc voltam vocamus cum vulgus alloquimur.’ In the cases
here referred to, therefore, the flow of melody or verse must not be
interrupted by a marked rest or pause, but must go on in an equal strain
to the end of the stanza. This kind of stanza, Dante continues, was
used chiefly by the great Arnaut Daniel, and especially in the sestina
invented by that troubadour, and imitated by Dante himself. A stanza of
one of Arnaut’s sestine will at once make the meaning of Dante’s words
clear:
Lo ferm voler qu’el cor m’intra,
nom pot ges becs escoissendre ni ongla
de lauzengier, sitot de maldir s’arma;
e per no l’aus batr’ ab ram ni ab verga
sivals a frau, lai on non aurai oncle
jauzirai joi en vergier o dins cambra.
It would be impossible to find a point where to divide this stanza on
any principle. There are no groups of verses marked by rhyme, seeing
that there is no rhyme; there is no change between accen agut and accen
greu; there is not even a strong grammatical pause. Accordingly it may be
concluded that the musical accompaniment of the words was not interrupted
by any striking harmonious modulation such as would have made a rest
necessary. Exactly the same may be said of Dante’s own sestina,
Al poco giorno, ed al gran cerchio d’ombra,[42]
which is constructed on the same principle. In many other cases also
where there are rhymes a division of the stanza according to Dante’s
system is utterly impossible, because the different parts allow of no
forming into groups by the recurrence of the same order of rhymes. For
instance, the following stanza of Jaufre Rudel must have been sung to a
continued oda without any interruption:
Quan lo rius de la fontana
s’esclarzis, si cum far sol;
e per la flors aiglentina
el rossignoletz el ram
volf e refraing et aplana
son dous chantar et afina,
dreitz es queu lo meu refranha.
Stanzas, however, ‘sub una oda continua,’ are not the rule. ‘Quædam
vero sunt,’ Dante continues, ‘dieresim patientes, et dieresis esse non
potest, secundum quod eam appellamus, nisi reiteratio unius odæ fiat vel
ante dieresim vel post vel utrimque.’ The criterion, therefore, of the
possibility of a dieresis or volta is, first of all, that in the poem
there should be certain groups defined musically by the repetition of
the same melody, and metrically by the recurrence of the same rhymes and
of verses of the same length. The volta can, as has been seen, be either
before or after such a group, or between two different groups if both
parts of a stanza are divided in this way. Dante gives the terms for all
these combinations in the following words: ‘Si ante dieresim repetitio
fiat, stantiam dicimus habere pedes, et duos habere decet, licet
quandoque tres fiant, rarissime tamen. Si repetitio fiat post dieresim,
tunc dicimus stantiam habere versus; si ante non fiat repetitio, stantiam
dicimus habere frontem; si post non fiat, dicimus habere syrma sive
caudam.’ These few words contain in a nutshell the whole theory of
Italian, and, with some slight changes, also of Provençal, stanzas. It
remains to enter into the special cases referred to by this rule. The
first alternative Dante mentions is that of a division effected by the
repetition of certain melodic and rhythmic phrases in the first part of a
stanza. After these groups, which in this case are called pedes, a rest
or volta becomes necessary; and after this a new melody begins, which
lasts to the end of the stanza, and is called a cauda.[43] The following
is one of the very numerous examples of a stanza consisting of two pedes
and a cauda:
1. { Ai deus, ar sembles ironda,
{ que voles per l’aire,
{ qu’eu vengues de noit prionda
{ lai al seu repaire!
Pedes
2. { bona domna jauzionda
{ mortz es vostr’ amaire,
{ paor ai quel cors mi fonda,
{ s’aissom dura gaire.
{ domna, vas vostr’ amor
{ jonh mas mas et ador
Cauda { bel cors ab fresca color,
{ gran mal me fatz traire.
In this case the cauda is as long as one pes, consisting, as it does, of
four verses. Very seldom, says Dante, are there more than two pedes to
a cauda. This, however, applies only to the Italian literature of his
time. In Provençal poetry there are many instances of three pedes in a
stanza; and the favourite form of the Italian poets of the cinquecento,
the ottava rima, must also be defined as a stanza consisting of three
pedes and a cauda. The most important form of lyrical Italian poetry,
the sonnet, consists of pedes and cauda. The two quatrains show the
required repetitio unius odæ, and the two terzine form the cauda. If
the repetition of a melodic and metrical phrase takes place after the
volta, and only there, the two groups in the second part of the stanza
are called versus, while the first undivided part assumes the name of
frons. The number of versus scarcely ever exceeds two. This form is also
very common in Provençal poetry. In the following stanza of Guillem IX.
of Poitiers, the first three lines form the frons, and the last four are
divided into two versus of two lines each:
{ Eu conosc ben cel qui bem di
Frons { e cel quim vol mal atressi,
{ e conosc ben celui quem ri,
Versus 1. { e sil pro s’azautan de mi,
{ conosc assaz;
{
Versus 2. { qu’atressi dei voler lor fi
{ e lor solaz.
These two principles of division in a stanza, viz., pedes and cauda, or
frons and versus, Dante seems to consider as the most important. In both
cases the stanza is actually divided into three parts; and this, indeed,
was the fundamental principle of the Italian lyrical stanza, which in
this respect, in conformity with the middle-high-German strophe, differs
from the _langue d’oc_. Into old Italian poetry this tripartite division
was perhaps introduced from the leonine hexameter, which, as has been
stated before, sometimes took a similar form. In the Teutonic languages
it seems much older; and indeed it is to be found in the old Icelandic
ljôđahâttr, where the first two lines are of equal length and belong to
one another, while the third one, longer than each, stands by itself. In
the German popular epic this principle is not visible; but it appears
again unmistakeably in the mediæval ‘minneliet.’ The usual form in the
latter is pedes and cauda, which here are called Stollen and Abgesang. It
is impossible here to consider the interesting phenomena arising from the
conflict of this principle with the Provençal bias in those cases where
the German minnesinger tried to imitate the stanzas of the troubadours.
The prevalent principle in Provençal poetry seems to have been the
division of a stanza into two corresponding parts; and, accordingly, to
the above-mentioned combinations two more of great importance must be
added. The first of these, which Dante also is acquainted with, is the
division of a stanza into pedes and versus. In this case the stanza is
divided into four parts; but each pair of these is so closely connected
that the Provençal principle of a division into two halves is fully borne
out—the more so, as there were evidently only two different melodies,
each of them being repeated. The instances are again very numerous. In
the following stanza of Peire d’Alvernhe’s, the pedes and versus consist
of two lines each:
Pes 1. { Rossinhol, en son repaire
{ m’iras ma domna vezer,
{
Pes 2. { e digas lil meu afaire
{ et ill diguat del seu ver,
Versus 1. { quem man sai—com lestai;
{ mas de mill sovenha,
{
Versus 2. { qui ges lai—per nuill plai
{ ab ri not retenha.
The fourth and last combination occurs when the stanza consists of a
frons and a cauda, that is to say, when the two parts are undivided in
themselves, but when a new melodic and metrical period begins after a
certain number of verses. This form shows the Provençal principle of a
division into two parts more clearly than any of the others; but Dante,
from his point of view, is also right in not approving of it, or rather
in not acknowledging it as a division at all, seeing that there is no
‘repetitio unius odæ.’ One out of many examples of this phenomenon is a
stanza of Bertrand de Born’s, where the frons and cauda consist of three
lines each:
{ Autr’ escondig vos farai plus sobrier
Frons { e no mi posc orar plus d’encombrier:
{ seu anc failli vas vos neis del pensar,
{ quant serem sol en chambr’o dins vergier,
Cauda { faillam poder deves mon compaignier,
{ de tal guiza que nom posc’ ajudar.
The end of the first and the beginning of the second musical and
metrical phrase, as marked by the diesis or volta, was generally further
strengthened by the conclusion of the grammatical sentence. In most of
the numerous stanzas already quoted, the volta contains either a full
stop or a semicolon, or at least a comma. The sentence is seldom carried
on through the volta, though even the best troubadours were not always
careful in applying this rule.
By these various methods, the stanza was strictly divided into different
parts. But, on the other hand, the feeling of the troubadours for unity
and harmony was too keen not to make it desirable to bridge over somehow
the gap made by the volta, and to preserve the connection between the
two sides. This was done by means of the rhyme, which, as has been seen,
was used for a similar purpose between the different stanzas of a poem.
This process is called by Dante concatenatio; and this concatenatio might
be effected in two different ways. The first and simpler mode consists
in the cauda or versus adopting one or several rhymes of the frons or
pedes. This is the course usually followed; and almost all the stanzas
above quoted may serve as examples. So in Bertrand de Born’s poem the
cauda repeats both the rhymes of the frons. In Guillem IX.’s stanza the
versus take up the only rhyme of the frons, adding a new one of their
own. This concatenatio, however, was not considered absolutely necessary;
and Peire d’Alvernhe, for instance, one of the most finished troubadours,
introduces into the versus of his stanza rhymes entirely different from
those found in the pedes. Another kind of concatenatio is effected by
adding, either before or after the volta, a line which contains the rhyme
of the other part of the stanza. How the troubadours contrived not to
disturb the flow of their melody by this new and seemingly inharmonious
element it is difficult to say. Perhaps it was sung to a sort of
recitative or arioso of its own, which served as a prelude to the new
melody of the second part. The meaning of this will be clearly shown by
the following stanza by Raimbaut de Vaqueiras:
Era pot hom conoisser e proar
Que de bos faitz ren deus bon gazardo,
qu’al pro Marques n’a fait esmend’e do,
quel fai son pretz sobrels melhors pojar;
si quel crozat de Frans e de Campanha
l’an quist a deu per lo melhor de totz,
e per cobrar lo sepulcr’e la crotz
on fon Ihesus, qu’el vol en sa companha
l’onrat marques, et al deus dat poder
de bos vassalhs e de terr’e d’aver
e de ric cor per melhs far so quel tanha.
This stanza consists of a frons and two versus of three lines each. The
first four lines are a whole in themselves; and after them the frons
ought to be concluded by the volta, as is indicated by the punctuation
after ‘pojar.’ But the poet adds a fifth line, in order to introduce a
rhyme from the versus, and in this way effects the concatenatio he needs.
There was yet another way of connecting the two parts of the stanza which
might in a certain sense also be called concatenatio, but which was
seemingly unknown to Dante. The following stanza of Cercalmont’s,
Senhors e dompnas gerpira
s’a lei plagues queu li servis,
e quem diria m’en partis,
fariam morir des era,
qu’en autra non ai mon esper
noit ni jorn ni matin ni ser,
ni d’als mos cors no consira,
consists evidently of a frons and a cauda, of three lines each. The
fourth verse does not belong to either, and its rhyme is not to be
found in the same stanza; therefore it is to be called a clavis. But
nevertheless it is of use for the purpose of connecting the frons with
the cauda; for, by considering it as a kind of centre, and going from it
to the beginning and to the end of the stanza, the reader will see that
the two parts exactly agree as regards the length of the verses, and even
their feminine rhyme.
In the eleventh chapter of his ‘De Vulgari Eloquentia’ Dante speaks of
the relations between the parts of a stanza so far as the number and
length of the lines are concerned. He enumerates and explains no less
than nine different cases. For the present purpose, however, these are
scarcely of any importance; for the rules given by him cannot be traced
to the poems of the troubadours. In this respect the Provençal poets seem
to have exercised great liberty, being protected against choosing bad
proportions by their refined sense of harmony.
It still remains to mention a form of Provençal poetry, of which the
essence cannot be explained nor the rules defined without the aid of
Dante’s statements. This is the tornada, a kind of postlude or envoi
to the stanza, in which the poem is dedicated to the lady-love or the
protector of the troubadour, who is generally introduced under a senhal
or pseudonym to keep the real name secret. Peire Vidal always calls the
beautiful Azalais ‘Vierna,’ while the senhal ‘Bels Castiatz’ designates
his noble protector Sir Aimeric de Monrial. The ‘Leys d’Amors’ says that,
as a rule, there ought to be two tornadas, the first of them containing
the senhal. This, however, is not confirmed by the majority of Provençal
poems, which contain many examples of a single tornada. In another
respect also the ‘Leys d’Amors’ is very inaccurate. It says that the
tornada must be identical in form with the latter half of the stanza, if
this consists of an even number of lines, adding or leaving out one line
where the number of the verses cannot be divided by two. But this applies
only to those stanzas where no division is to be found. Where there is a
diesis the rule is quite different, and can be learned only from Dante,
who speaks of the tornada in the ‘Convito,’ where he derives the word
from tornar, owing to a part of the oda returning in it. Accordingly the
rule in the divided stanza is that the first tornada repeats the metrical
form and rhyme of that part of the stanza—cauda or versus—which stands
after the volta. Where there is a second tornada it generally agrees
with the first, being, however, always the shorter of the two. All this,
of course, the author of the ‘Leys d’Amors’ could not know, because he
was ignorant of the metrical and musical formation of the stanza; but it
is of the highest importance for the study of Provençal versification,
and shows again the great value of Dante’s work in that respect. The
above-stated rule is confirmed by so many examples from the canzos of the
troubadours that it is scarcely necessary to bring new evidence for it.
It will be more useful to mention some of the more important exceptions,
which in this, as in other cases, ‘firmant regulam.’ If the last stanza
of a poem ends with two versus, the tornada sometimes repeats only one
of them. Sometimes also part of the cauda remains unrepeated. In other
cases the tornada repeats exactly the metre of the cauda, but differs
slightly from its rhymes. In a sirventes of Marti de Mons, which was
written in the fifteenth century (1436), and by which the poet gained the
‘englantina’ in the competition of the Academy of Toulouse, the cauda of
the last stanza consists of the following four verses:
doranavant no cal plus dart ny lansa
depus que dieus s’es mes de nostra part;
qu’a tout l’erguelh al verenos leupart
que ta lonc temptz nos ha donat dampnatge.
The first of these lines serves as concatenatio; and for that reason its
rhyme agrees with the first part of the poem. In the tornada this reason
of course did not exist; and therefore the poet very skilfully rhymes
the first line with the last line of the tornada instead of making it
like the first verse of the cauda. The tornada, therefore, is this:
Confort d’amors, fons he cap de paratge
vostre car filh faytz que prim ho de tart
nos velha dar totz ensemps bona part
de paradis, le sobrier heretatge.
In many cases also there is no tornada at all, or it may be said to
consist of the last stanza of the poem, if in this the senhal and
dedication are introduced.
The principles insisted upon in the foregoing remarks may perhaps best
be illustrated by an accurate metrical analysis of the subjoined canzo
of Bernard de Ventadorn. For the purpose in question this poem has
the double advantage of presenting a great complication of metrical
rules, and of showing at the same time how the troubadours succeeded in
combining such a complicated structure with the beauty of genuine poetry.
_a._ Be m’an perdut lai enves Ventadorn
tuit mei amic, pos ma domna nom ama,
et es be dreitz que jamais lai no torn,
qu’ades estai vas mi salvatg’ e grama.
veus per quem fai semblan irat e morn,
quar en s’amor mi deleit em sojorn,
ni de ren al nos rancura nis clama.
_b._ Aissi col peis qui s’eslaiss’ el cadorn
e no sap re tro que s’es pres en l’ama,
m’eslaissei eu vas trop amar un jorn;
qu’anc no saup mot tro fui en mei la flama
que m’art plus fort que no fai focs de forn;
e ges per so nom posc partir un dorn,
aissim te pres s’amors que m’aliama.
_c._ Nom meravilh si s’amors mi te pres,
que genser cors no cre qu’el mon se mire;
bels es e blancs e frescs e gais e les,
e totz aitals cum eu volh e dezire;
no posc dir mal de leis, que non i es;
qu’el n’agra dig de joi, seu l’i saubes,
mas no l’i sai: per so m’en lais de dire.
_d._ Totz temps volrai sa honor e sos bes
elh serai hom et amics e servire,
e l’amarai, be li plass’o belh pes,
qu’om no pot cor destrenher ses aucire.
no sai domna, volgues o non volgues,
sim volia, qu’amar no la pogues;
mas totas res pot hom en mal escrire.
_e._ A las autras sui aissi escasutz:
laquals si vol mi pot vas si atraire,
per tal coven que nom sia vendutz
l’onors nil bes que m’a en cor a faire;
qu’enojos es prejars, pos es perdutz:
per mius o dic, que mals m’en es vengutz,
qu’enganat m’a la bela de mal aire.
_f._ En Proensa tramet mans e salutz,
e mais de bes qu’om no lor sap retraire,
e fatz esfortz, miraclas e vertutz,
car eu lor man de so don non ai gaire;
qu’eu non ai joi mas tan com m’en adutz
mos Bels Vezers en Faituratz sos drutz
en Alvergnatz lo senher de Belcaire.
_g._ Mos Bels Vezers per vos fai deus vertutz
tals c’om nous ve que no si’ ereubutz
dels bels plazers que sabetz dir e faire.
This poem consists of six stanzas and a tornada. The length of each
stanza is seven verses, that of the tornada three. In each stanza there
is, according to Dante’s expression, a diesis or volta, for there is
the required reiteratio unius odæ. This reiteratio takes place before
the volta, while after the volta no division is possible. The stanza
therefore must be divided into two pedes of two lines each and a cauda
of three lines. According to rule, the metrical division is marked by
a strong grammatical break (at least a semicolon), the only exception
being stanza _b_, where a punctuation in the volta is not possible. The
tornada repeats as usual the form and rhymes of the cauda; and in it the
poem is dedicated to the poet’s lady-love, who is addressed by a senhal.
Bel Vezer was in this case Agnes de Montluçon, wife of the troubadour’s
lord and protector, who raised him from the state of a common servant and
gave him the first lessons ‘del gay saber.’ The verse of the stanza is
decasyllabic; it occurs with masculine and feminine rhyme. The stanza may
be formulated metrically by using capital letters for the decasyllabic
line, and adding to them the sign ~ for the accen greu; the volta may be
marked by a semicolon, and the division of the pedes from each other by a
colon:
A B~: A B~; A A B~.
Hence it appears that in each stanza there are only two different rhymes,
the cauda repeating those of the pedes, which is the simplest form of
concatenatio. Moreover, each couple of stanzas have the same rhyme, or
are coblas doblas; the poet in consequence had to find, three different
times, eight masculine and six feminine rhyming words, which, though not
a very difficult task in the _langue d’oc_, required a certain amount
of skill. In the last group of stanzas this number was increased by the
tornada to ten and seven respectively. Nevertheless there are only two
cases of the same words with the same meaning occurring in the rhymes,
or of motz tornatz en rim as the ‘Leys d’Amors’ calls them. Both these
cases, _f_ 3 = _g_ 1 and _e_ 4 = _g_ 3, occur in the tornada, where they
were not as strictly forbidden as in other positions. On the other hand
there are many examples of ‘rime riche’ in its masculine as well as
feminine form. The former or rims consonans lejals are _a_ 1 = _b_ 1 =
_b_ 6, _c_ 6 = _d_ 1, _d_ 5 = _d_ 6, _e_ 3 = _e_ 5 = _f_ 5. The latter or
rims leonismes parfaitz are _e_ 2 = _f_ 2. But in all these cases it is
very doubtful whether these rhymes were intentional, since they exhibit
no system or order. A remarkable sense of the effects of sound is shown
in the alliterative use of the letter _f_ in _b_ 4 and 5, by means of
which the pains of the unhappy lover are onomatopoetically expressed.
In the verse of ten syllables the cæsura is always of importance: it
therefore remains to take note of it. The cæsura, where it appears
feminine, has been divided into the epical and the lyrical, the
difference being that in the epical pauza del bordo the accent always
remains on the fourth syllable, after which another unaccentuated
syllable is added to the first hemistich, while in lyrical poetry the
accent itself is removed from the fourth to the third syllable. In the
present poem the pauza con accen agut is by far the more common; where it
occurs with accen greu it always takes the lyrical form. These cases are
_d_ 5 and 6, _e_ 1, and _f_ 1.
It may be worth while to notice that once, _d_ 5, the word domna is
placed in the lyrical pauza. The troubadours, in addressing their
lady-loves, seem to have liked this particular position of the word,
by means of which it received a certain emphasis. In many canzos of
different troubadours there are instances of this device; in one of
Guillem de Cabestanh’s songs it occurs twice, or, according to a Parisian
manuscript in which the poem is also preserved, even three times.