I do not think there is much probability of arriving at certainty with
regard to the problems indicated in the foregoing section. We must be
content to accept the names Golias and Goliardi as we find them, and
to treat of this literature as the product of a class, from the midst
of which, as it is clear to any critic, more than one poet rose to
eminence.
One thing appears manifest from the references to the Goliardi which I
have already quoted. That is, that the Wandering Students ranked in
common estimation with jongleurs, buffoons, and minstrels. Both
classes held a similar place in medieval society. Both were parasites
devoted to the entertainment of their superiors in rank. Both were
unattached, except by occasional engagements, to any fixed abode. But
while the minstrels found their temporary homes in the castles of the
nobility, we have reason to believe that the Goliardi haunted abbeys
and amused the leisure of ecclesiastical lords.
The personality of the writer disappears in nearly all the _Carmina
Vagorum_. Instead of a poet with a name, we find a type; and the verse
is put into the mouth of Golias himself, or the Archipoeta, or the
Primate of the order. This merging of the individual in the class of
which he forms a part is eminently characteristic of popular
literature, and separates the Goliardic songs from those of the
Provencal Troubadours. The emotions to which popular poetry gives
expression are generic rather than personal. They are such that all
the world, granted common sympathies and common proclivities, can feel
them and adopt the mode of utterance invented for them by the singer.
If there be any bar to their universal acceptance, it is only such as
may belong to the peculiar conditions of the social class from which
they have emanated. The _Rispetti_ of Tuscany imply a certain form of
peasant life. The _Carmina Vagorum_ are coloured to some extent by the
prejudices and proclivities of vagabond existence.
Trenchantly true as the inspiration of a popular lyric may be,
inevitable as may be the justice of its sentiment, unerring as may be
its touch upon reality, still it lacks the note which marks it out for
one man's utterance among a thousand. Composing it, the one has made
himself the mouthpiece of the thousand. What the _Volkslied_ gains in
universality it loses in individuality of character. Its applicability
to human nature at large is obtained at the sacrifice of that
interest which belongs to special circumstances. It suits every one
who grieves or loves or triumphs. It does not indicate the love, the
grief, the triumph of this man and no other. It possesses the pathos
and the beauty of countless human lives prolonged through inarticulate
generations, finding utterance at last in it. It is deficient in that
particular intonation which makes a Shelley's voice differ from a
Leopardi's, Petrarch's sonnets for Laura differ from Sidney's sonnets
for Stella. It has always less of perceptible artistic effect, more
enduring human quality. Some few of its lines are so well found, so
rightly said, that they possess the certainty of natural things--a
quality rare in the works of all but the greatest known poets. But
these phrases with the accent of truest truth are often embedded in
mere generalities and repetitions.
These characteristics of popular poetry help to explain the frequent
recurrence of the same ideas, the same expressions, the same stanzas
even, in the lyrics of the Goliardi. A _Volkslied_, once created,
becomes common property. It flies abroad like thistledown; settles and
sows its seed; is maimed and mutilated; is improved or altered for the
worse; is curtailed, expanded, adapted to divers purposes at different
times and in very different relations.
We may dismiss the problem of authorship partly as insoluble, partly
as of slight importance for a literature which is manifestly popular.
With even greater brevity may the problem of nationality be disposed
of. Some critics have claimed an Italian, some an English, some a
French, and some a German origin for the _Carmina Vagorum_. The truth
is that, just as the _Clerici Vagi_ were themselves of all nations, so
were their songs; and the use of a Latin common to all Europe in the
Middle Ages renders it difficult even to conjecture the soil from
which any particular lyric may have sprung. As is natural, a German
codex contains more songs of Teutonic origin; an English displays
greater abundance of English compositions. I have already observed
that our two chief sources of Goliardic literature have many elements
in common; but the treasures of the Benedictbeuern MS. differ in
complexion from those of the Harleian in important minor details; and
it is probable that if French and Italian stores were properly
ransacked--which has not yet been done--we should note in them similar
characteristic divergences.
The _Carmina Burana_, by their frequent references to linden-trees and
nightingales, and their numerous German refrains, indicate a German
home for the poems on spring and love, in which they are specially
rich.[14] The collections of our own land have an English turn of
political thought; the names Anglia and Anglus not unfrequently occur;
and the use of the word "Schellinck" in one of the _Carmina Burana_
may point, perhaps, to an English origin. France claims her own, not
only in the acknowledged pieces of Walter de Lille, but also in a few
which exhibit old French refrains. To Italian conditions, if not to
Italian poets, we may refer those that introduce spreading pines or
olive-trees into their pictures, and one which yields the refrain
_Bela mia_. The most important lyric of the series, _Golias'
Confession_, was undoubtedly written at Pavia, but whether by an
Italian or not we do not know. The probability is rather, perhaps, in
favour of Teutonic authorship, since this _Confession_ is addressed to
a German prelate. Here it may be noticed that the proper names of
places and people are frequently altered to suit different countries;
while in some cases they are indicated by an N, sufficiently
suggestive of their generality. Thus the _Confession of Golias_ in the
_Carmina Burana_ mentions _Electe Coloniae_; in an English version,
introduces _Praesul Coventriae_. The prayer for alms, which I have
translated in Section xiii., is addressed to _Decus N----_, thou
honour of Norwich town, or Wittenberg, or wherever the wandering
scholar may have chanced to be.
With regard to the form and diction of the _Carmina Vagorum_, it is
enough to say two things at the present time. First, a large portion
of these pieces, including a majority of the satires and longer
descriptive poems, are composed in measures borrowed from hymnology,
follow the diction of the Church, and imitate the double-rhyming
rhythms of her sequences. It is not unnatural, this being the case,
that parodies of hymns should be comparatively common. Of these I
shall produce some specimens in the course of this study. Secondly,
those which do not exhibit popular hymn measures are clearly written
for melodies, some of them very complicated in structure, suggesting
part-songs and madrigals, with curious interlacing of long and short
lines, double and single rhymes, recurrent ritournelles, and so forth.
The ingenuity with which these poets adapted their language to the
exigencies of the tune, taxing the fertility of Latin rhymes, and
setting off the long sonorous words to great advantage, deserves
admiring comment. At their best, it is almost impossible to reproduce
in English the peculiar effects of their melodic artifices. But there
is another side to the matter. At their worst, these Latin lyrics,
moulded on a tune, degenerate into disjointed verbiage, sound and
adaptation to song prevailing over sense and satisfaction to the mind.
It must, however, be remembered that such lyrics, sometimes now almost
unintelligible, have come down to us with a very mutilated text, after
suffering the degradations through frequent oral transmission to which
popular poetry is peculiarly liable.