© 2002 by Society for French Studies
RHYMES AND ‘RUSTY WORDS’ IN MARCABRU'S SONGS
1 Royal Holloway, University of London
This article explores a selection of issues concerning troubadour versification which are the products of insights gained in the course of preparing the new critical edition of the works of Marcabru. The manuscript evidence and editorial interpretation of this suggest that some pieces in the corpus of this poet's surviving songs contain irregularities in the quality, position and sequence of rhymes, features which flout the normative versificatory practice usually associated with the troubadour lyric. It is argued that these irregularities are authorial. At the same time, other compositions, though employing common rhyme-schemes, show evidence of the early use of complex metrical devices deployed by the poet to ensure a perfectly accurate rhyme-sound. Two pieces which feature a large number of instances of two rare rhyme-sounds are analysed in detail for the light they shed on the lexical range and resources exploited by Marcabru and on the self-conscious technical mastery of this poet. (The full texts and an English translation of these songs are given in an appendix.) It is suggested that Marcabru is both a more casual and a more accomplished rhymester than has generally been recognized.
Key Words: Troubadour lyric poetry; Marcabru; versification; rhyme; Medieval Occtian poetry.