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Possible Influences of Troubadour Poetry

on Francis of Assisi

Peter Bamford ofs

Introduction

Anyone unfamiliar with the story of Francis of Assisi who picks up any of the readily

available biographies of him and starts to read it will, within a relatively few pages,

come across a statement more or less like the following.

In his youth, Francis sat rapt at the tales of travelling French troubadours. (Mark Galli Francis of Assisi and his world. (2002), p17)

Although not fond of the sagas of the church, Francis and his friends were

enamoured by the tales of the troubadours such as the Song of Roland.

(Duane Arnold & George Fry Francis: a call to conversion. (1988), p27)

And so full was this joy that he did what had become a habit for him in times

of celebration; he broke out into song, a song of the Troubadours of

Provençal. [sic]

(Murray Bodo Francis: the journey and the dream. (1972), p25)

But the most likely explanation [of the name Francesco] is to be sought in his

own rapturous delight as a boy with the French troubadours who roamed about

Italy composing and singing their love songs and instilling a new code of

courtesy and chivalry towards women.

(Michael de la Bedoyère Francis: a biography of the saint of Assisi.

(1962), p28)

… the name (Francesco) has a certain significance, as connecting Francis from

the first with what he himself regarded as the romantic fairyland of the

Troubadours.

(G K Chesterton St Francis of Assisi. (1923), p40)

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Many readers probably pass quickly over such statements and concentrate on the main

events of the saint’s life, but the more attentive or rigorous might wonder:

1. How far are statements like these true?

2. Why are they being made?

3. If true, who and what were these troubadours?

4. To what extent can we claim that they had any influence on Francis?

This paper attempts to address those questions.

Francis and the troubadours: the popular modern view.

Quotations such as those in the introduction are a fair representation of references to

the troubadours in the ‘pocket’ biographies of Francis of Assisi which appear at fairly

frequent intervals, especially around some major anniversary of his birth or death.

The first biography of the saint in English, and aimed at the general reader, was that

by Mrs (Margaret) Oliphant. (I have disregarded the translation of Bonaventure’s

Major Life by Anthony Maria Browne, Viscount Montague, which was published at

Douai in 1610 by Laurence Kellam under the title The Life of the Holie Father S.

Francis. This clandestine publication was of course aimed at the Roman Catholic

recusant community, whether in exile or in England, and would have been unlikely to

have come into the hands of readers outside it – sympathetic ones, at least.) Mrs

Oliphant notes (1874, p4) that Francis spoke the French language imperfectly, and

also states that what he spoke “was not, however, pure French, but Provençal, which

was in those days the special language of poetry, carried everywhere by the

wandering Troubadours …”. Her appreciation that courtly Provençal (nowadays

generally referred to as Occitan) was a poetic lingua franca is reinforced by Paterson

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(1995, p4), who describes the troubadours as “establishing from the outset a literary

language or koine”. Its being “carried everywhere” might be considered an

exaggeration, but Paterson (1995, p4) also observes that for the troubadours: “Aside

from Angevin, the speech of northern France, Spain and Italy provokes no explicit

comments or difficulties.” If the troubadours could communicate their material to

audiences in those areas, it follows that the audiences would have been able to follow

a song in Occitan. In spite of being early in the field, Mrs Oliphant presents a more

accurate analysis of Francis’s relationship with the troubadours than some later

biographers.

Paul Sabatier’s Life of St Francis of Assisi describes Francis’s youth and observes

(1896, p9) that

“At this very time the troubadours were roaming over the towns of Northern

Italy and bringing brilliant festivities and especially Courts of Love into

vogue. If they worked upon the passions, they also made appeal to feelings of

courtesy and delicacy; it was this that saved Francis.”

Whatever one makes of Sabatier’s view of Francis, there is no arguing with the

scholarliness of his approach. He goes on (1896, p9, n2) to mention several

troubadours who were at the court of Monferrat in Piedmont at various periods in the

last two decades of the twelfth century.

The next substantial English biography of Francis was that by Father Cuthbert, a

Capuchin Franciscan; it can be seen as in some sense a riposte to Sabatier. He

provides a balanced view of the range of literature that Francis might have

encountered, noting (1921, p14, n2) that

“The influence of the troubadour’s love-song is very marked in early

Franciscan literature, notably in the religious songs of Jacopone da Todi; but

Francis seems to have drawn his inspiration more from the chivalric

romances.”

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Fr Cuthbert was undoubtedly right to say that Francis was inspired by the martial

epics of his day, but I would contend that it can be shown that there is equally present

in what we know of his life the influence of the lyric poetry of the troubadours.

I think it fair to say that the biographies by Mrs Oliphant, Sabatier and Fr Cuthbert are

the foundations on which later English non-scholarly biographies rest. The first step

in testing the validity of the statements which they all make regarding the influence on

Francis of the literature to which he might have been exposed (albeit by hearing rather

than reading) is to see how far back such statements go. If no writer earlier than the

19th

century makes them, then they probably have no foundation. But if lives written

by people who knew, if not Francis himself, then his closest companions, mention

such a possibility, then there is a far greater likelihood of its being so.

Francis and the troubadours: the early biographies.

The index (Volume 4) of Early Documents does not list any entries under

‘troubadour’ or ‘jongleur’. As far as Francis’s own writings are concerned, that is no

surprise: apart from his Testament, they are concerned with exhorting, strengthening

and comforting others, not summarizing the roots of his own spirituality or actions.

There are, however, a couple of entries under ‘minstrel’, the first of which is of great

significance and will be discussed later.

Although, as noted, none of the early biographies of the saint or the early collections

of stories about him makes any specific mention of the troubadours, some of them do

contain little nuggets of information, like the following (in chronological order).

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The earliest is by Thomas of Celano, who refers to Francis “singing praises to the

Lord in French” (1Cel (1228-1229), in Early Documents I, 147). Later Thomas, with

the benefit of additional information, was able to expand his account to:

Chapter XC

HOW THE SAINT USED TO SING IN FRENCH WHEN EXHILARATED

IN SPIRIT

Sometimes he used to do this: a sweet melody of the spirit bubbling up inside

him would become a French tune on the outside; the thread of a divine

whisper which his ears heard secretly would break out in a French song of joy.

Other times – as I saw with my own eyes* - he would pick up a stick from the

ground and put it over his left arm, while holding a bow bent with a string in

his right hand, drawing it over the stick as if it were a viola, performing all the

right movements, and in French would sing about the Lord. All this dancing

often ended in tears, and the song of joy dissolved into compassion for

Christ’s suffering. Then the saint would sigh without stopping, and sob

without ceasing. Forgetful of lower things he had in hand, he was caught up

to heaven.

*The narrator here is not Thomas, but the one who submitted the story

[editor’s note].

(2Cel (1245-1247), in Early Documents II, p331)

The same basic story is also found in The Assisi Compilation (1244-1260, in Early

Documents II, p142) and The Mirror of Perfection (1318, in Early Documents III,

p340). Both presumably derive it from 1 Celano or possibly, in the case of The Assisi

Compilation, from the same informant.

The Legend of the Three Companions, written between 1241 and 1247, says in its

author’s account of Francis’s pilgrimage to Rome before he left the world (Early

Documents II, p75):

As he was leaving [St Peter’s] and passed the doors of the church, where there

were many poor people begging alms, he secretly exchanged clothes with one

of those poor people and put them on. Standing on the steps of the church

with the other poor, he begged for alms in French, because he would speak

French spontaneously, although he did not do so correctly.

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The same source (Early Documents II, p83) also mentions three instances where

Francis speaks in French to various of his fellow-Assisians. These early references to

Francis’s singing and speaking in French make it clear that he was able to do so, but

leave us in the dark as to how he came by that ability, still less as to why he chose to

use it to speak to people in Rome and Assisi.

The significance of Francis’s ability to speak French.

Francis’s early biographers make it plain that he could speak and sing in French,

albeit incorrectly. Just as no modern biographer would make statements about his

subject which he did not believe to have some significance for what he was trying to

say in the biography, so these early writers must have considered Francis’s singing

and speaking in French to be of some importance to their understanding of him. The

“Three Companions” spent much time with Francis, and Thomas of Celano was

drawing on the memories of people who had done similarly. Francis’s ability to

speak French would not have been of great significance in terms of his preaching to

the people of Umbria. However, his knowledge of the language and poetry of France

must have seemed significant for some reason to those who knew him, or it would not

have stuck in their minds. They too would have encountered the poetry of the

troubadours, before they began to follow Francis and quite possibly afterwards.

Indeed one of them, Pacifico, had been a troubadour himself (Assisi Compilation

(1244-1260) in Early Documents II, p167; 2 Celano (1245-1247) in Early Documents

II, p316-317). So perhaps they at least glimpsed the influence of that poetry on

Francis. We also know that Francis had an “excellent”, “remarkable” memory for

both the written and the spoken word (1 Celano, 1228-1229, in Early Documents I,

pp202, 253; 2 Celano, 1245-1247, in Early Documents II, p314).

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From what we have seen so far, it seems reasonable to conclude that Francis had

encountered the poetry of the troubadours, that he had the ability to remember it, and

that his early biographers considered that it had significance for him. The next

section will explore the world of those troubadours in a little more detail.

The troubadours and their poetry: an overview.

The period when troubadour poetry flourished runs from a little before 1100 to a little

after 1300, or roughly a century either side of the dates of Francis’s birth and death.

Scholars continue to debate about the origins, technique and meaning of the songs of

the troubadours. Such debates will not be continued here: suffice it to say that the

main thrust of the songs is the expression of courtly love. Leaving all of those topics

aside, there are some things about the troubadours, their songs, and the society in

which they lived that are fairly self-evident. Some need to be grasped first in order

better to understand the rest; the most significant are as follows.

The langue d’oc and the langue d’oil.

As the various Latin-based European languages developed, two versions of the word

for “yes” were used in what is now France. In the southern part the word was “oc”

and in the northern part “oil”, from which comes modern French oui. So the language

spoken in what is now northern France came to be referred to as the langue d’oil and

that spoken in the south as the langue d’ oc, a name still given to that region. The

importance of Provence led to the language generally being known as Provençal,

though its use extended across the modern borders some way into Spain and Italy.

The later troubadours were mainly from Provence, but the earlier ones came from

Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou. The range of the language beyond Provence has led

to its generally being called Occitan by modern scholars.

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Trobador/troubadour is an Occitan word: the northern (modern) French equivalent is

trouvère. The trouvères flourished around the same period as the troubadours, but

began and continued a little later. The Italian word is trovatore. The origin of the

word trobador is debated, but it seems to mean “someone who finds”: in this context

someone who finds rhymes and turns of phrase to fit a scheme of rhyme, metre and

music, ie a poet-composer. This is some way from the idea of the troubadour as a

wandering singer, which, as we have seen, is an image that popular biographers, and

by extension their readers, have been ready to identify with Francis. The person who

actually performed the songs was called in Occitan a joglar and in French a jongleur.

These both derive from the Latin joculator – a teller of jokes – which also gives us the

English word juggler. The fact that the same root-word covers comedians, singers

and exhibitors of what are now called circus skills suggests that it became really an

all-embracing word for a professional entertainer. Northern France (and Norman

England) also used the word menestrel or minstrel. Basically this was the same thing,

but the word (which is related to minister, ie servant) strictly applied to an entertainer

who was in the service of a lord, like William the Conqueror’s Taillefer or Richard

the Lionheart’s Blondel. Francis describes his brothers as “minstrels of the Lord”

(Assisi Compilation: Early Documents II, p186). The Latin phrase so translated in

Early Documents is “joculatores Domini” (cf. Brooke (1970), p166). The Latin, then,

depicts those early Franciscans not so much as entertainers in God’s service, but as

performers of works of His composition.

The above does not mean that individual troubadours never performed their own

material, but many of them would have found it impossible to be itinerant

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professional entertainers, since, as we shall see, a fair number of them were feudal

lords themselves, of various ranks, from the lowest to the highest. An alternative

Occitan term for troubadour, trobaire, has given us the word trobairitz for a woman

troubadour, of whom there were a number.

As to what influence the troubadours may have had on Francis, the question can

perhaps be better phrased from a Franciscan standpoint as:

Can we say that God used the words of the troubadours to make of Francis the

person He wanted him to be?

It would be difficult to answer it either positively or negatively with anything like

certainty, but in searching for answers a number of steps need to be taken. First of all,

we need to establish whether or not Francis could have encountered the songs of the

troubadours. I do not think that we need be in any doubt that he could have or indeed

that he did. We have already seen that he could sing and speak in what his early

biographers called French, but which is more likely to have really been Occitan.

We need not be surprised at that, because the troubadours and jongleurs had a

presence in what is now Italy. One of them, the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras,

belongs just as much to Italy as he does to French Occitania. Raimbaut came from

Vacqueyras in the present-day department of Vaucluse, and was writing between

1180 and 1207, which corresponds almost exactly with Francis’s life up to his

conversion. Sometime after 1189 Raimbaut left the court of Orange in Provence and

made his way to Italy, where he led a wandering life until he was admitted to the court

of the Marquis of Montferrat (in Piedmont, south of the river Po, east of Turin, north

of Genoa). One of his songs is in the form of a dialogue between the narrator, who

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speaks in courtly Occitan, and an unsophisticated and hostile lady who speaks in a

broad Genoese dialect.

In the century following Francis’s death, and possibly in his lifetime, we know that

some Italians at least were familiar with the songs of the troubadours. Dante (1265-

1321), in the Divine Comedy (begun about 1300) features a number of them,

including Arnaut Daniel, who is portrayed as being in Purgatory (Purgatorio XXVI,

136-148) doing penance for lust. Arnaut’s reply to the narrator’s asking him who he

is is spoken in Occitan. It is the only passage in The Divine Comedy not in Italian,

apart from a few Latin words. So we can see that some troubadours, at least, knew

Italian and some Italian poets, at least, knew Occitan.

Another link in the chain is that Christian names of people living in Assisi in the 12th

century include, for example, Orlando and Oliviero. These are the Italian equivalents

of Roland and Olivier, the two heroes of the Song of Roland, the best-known of the

chansons de geste. These, among the earliest French poetry, tell of Charlemagne and

his knights, and the Assisians would almost certainly have learnt about them by

hearing them sung by travelling entertainers. In fact, Francis specifically mentions

“The Emperor Charles, Roland and Oliver, and all the paladins and valiant Knights

who were mighty in battle …” (Assisi Compilation: Early Documents II, p209).

The next step is to take a general look at troubadour poetry, its themes and content, to

see whether we can find there anything that is reflected in what we know of Francis.

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About 2,500 troubadour songs have survived, with the music surviving for about 10%

of them. They represent the output of about 460 writers (Davenson, 1961, p10), of

whom about 20 are known to have been women. Of the women’s names, over half

are given the prefix Na (the Occitan contraction of Latin Domina – Lady), indicating

feudal status, and another two were countesses. I have already made the point that a

fair number (indeed the majority) of the male troubadours were feudal lords.

Davenson (1961, p12-15), lists kings, marquises, counts, viscounts, lesser feudal

lords, knights, bishops (including the future pope Clement IV), canons and one monk.

However, there were others of different social background. It was possible for a

professional entertainer to become a troubadour if he had the ability to write the songs

as well as perform them. Marcabrun (writing in the 1130s) started off as a jongleur.

His name (“Mark Brown”), in an age before surnames as we know them were the

norm and people were often named after their birthplace, presumably comes from his

complexion or hair colour and may indicate that he had no fixed abode. Marcabrun

had learned his craft from an earlier jongleur/troubadour called Cercamon. This

man’s name means “Search the World”, which may well have been a nickname

indicating that he was something of a wanderer by inclination.

Another troubadour, Folquet de Marseille, lived a life which has some resemblances

to Francis’s. Originally a well-to-do merchant, Folquet became a troubadour, and

afterwards entered the Cistercian order, becoming abbot of his monastery of

Torondet, Bishop of Toulouse, a leader of the Albigensian Crusade and a founder of

the Inquisition. Of other “middle-class” troubadours we know of Guilhem Figueira (a

tailor), Salh d’Escola (another merchant), and Bernart Marti “lo pictor” (a painter or

possibly manuscript illuminator). The occupations of these three may have involved

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some travelling. Conversely, troubadours from high-ranking families occasionally

took to leading a wandering life and effectively becoming jongleurs, as we have seen

in the case of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras. If we look across the full range of troubadour

poetry in the langue d’oc, we see that its authors included all ranks and conditions of

men, some ordained but most lay, and a few women, bound together by a common

ideal, some at least of whom were itinerants. In contrast to the feudal hierarchy based

on a stratified society with everyone paying service to the next layer up in the locality,

or indeed to a traditional monastic community, this is a world turned upside down.

However, it does bear a resemblance to the Franciscan family, particularly as depicted

by Robson (1997, pvi), who says that Francis was happy to share his vision with men

and women regardless of their social background, and that among those who followed

him in his lifetime were bishops and knights, monks and merchants, scholars and

labourers..

Earlier I said that I did not propose to discuss the concept of courtly love or the extent

to which the feelings and amorous adventures described in troubadour love-songs

were real, or merely a convention which formed a framework for the exercise of

compositional skill and the provision of entertainment. However, the following

passage from Brother Anthony of Taizé

(http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/books/Med2.htm)

summarizing the concept is worth considering.

The man, no matter his rank, becomes a serf of the lady, and his service is

expressed by his way of acting in society. He cultivates the highest forms of

courtoisie such as valor (moral value), youthful elegance, joy and self-

discipline. All of this calls for people’s admiration, provokes praise for his

qualities, which thus becomes praise of his Lady since he is doing it all for

her.

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Another aspect of the relationship, though, adds drama. The two persons are

not married and cannot marry. This is partly because high class persons of the

period married diplomatically, not for love, and partly because the troubadour

performing the song is often a minstrel, or a lower-class secretary, while the

lady is always of a higher class.

There was certainly a Lady in Francis’s life, and he was devoted to her service from

his conversion until his dying day. His perception of Lady Poverty was inspired by

the Gospels, but supplemented by his encounters with the world of romantic literature

and chivalry, and expressed using nuptial forms and imagery (Robson, 1997, p117-

118).

Whatever our assessment of the influence of the ideals of courtly love on Francis as

an individual, Davenson (1961, p173) stated that it had been calculated that one-third

of those troubadours for whom we possess sufficiently precise data ended their days

in a monastery following a conversion which occurred later in life. I would not want

to read too much into this – a feudal baron who had survived basically by being an

“alpha male” might have found the religious life a convenient refuge once his

physical abilities began to wane, and plenty of them who were not troubadours

entered monasteries in their latter years. However, Davenson also notes (1961, p173)

that it is recorded that after Folquet de Marseille had become a Cistercian, he would

have only bread and water on any day when he chanced to hear a song which he had

composed while in the world.

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First Generation Troubadours

William IX of Aquitaine.

Moving from general considerations to one particular figure, let us look now

at William, 9th

Duke of Aquitaine and 7th

Count of Poitiers. It is necessary to discuss

him, as much because of any possible direct influence which he may have had on

Francis as because of his importance to troubadour poetry. William lived from 1071

to 1127 (Davenson, 1961, p11), ie about a century before Francis’s lifetime. A great

feudal magnate, he is the first known troubadour. The details of his life, and much of

his poetry, give the impression of a larger-than-life, Rabelaisian figure. William of

Malmesbury (p783-5) describes him as “a lecher and a fool” and states that on his

return from the First Crusade, where he had a lucky escape from captivity (which,

pace Orderic Vitalis, he did not actually suffer) or worse, “Gilding his foolish sports

with a spurious veneer of wit, he took nothing seriously, making his audience roar

with laughter”. This is amplified by Orderic Vitalis, who records (Vol V, p343) that

“being a gay and light-hearted man, he often recited the trials of his captivity in the

company of kings and magnates and throngs of Christians, using rhythmic verses with

skilful modulations”. William of Malmesbury also informs us that he was twice

excommunicated on account of the immorality of his life. He was one of the first

European lyric poets of the post-classical period; importantly for this study, he used

the vernacular language, rather than Latin, in his compositions.

As might be expected from his life story, some of his poetry fails to give women the

exalted status which courtly love later imposes. Let us look at some examples, in

chronological order. His earliest known poem, “Companho, farai un vers, qu’er

covinen”,

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(http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/guilhen_de_peiteu_01.php)

describes his inability to choose between two horses, both of which he would like to

ride.

Dos cavalhs ai a ma sselha, ben e

gen,

Bon son et adreg per armas e valen,

E no-ls puesc amdos tener,

que l'us l'autre non cossen.

I have two horses I can saddle well and

gladly

they are good and brave and fit for fighting,

and I can't keep them both

because they can't stand each other.

Only in line 24 do we find out that he is really talking about two women.

Cavalier, datz mi cosselh d'un

pessamen:

-Anc mays no fuy issaratz de cauzimen-

:

Res non sai ab qual me tengua,

de n'Agnes o de n'Arsen.

Knights, advise me about this

conundrum:

-never was I [so] troubled by a choice-

I don't know which one to keep to,

that of dame Agnes or that of dame

Arsen.

William tells us their names (Agnes and Arsen), but nothing about their status in

society.

In a later poem, “Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh” ,

(http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/guilhen_de_peiteu_05.php) he

meets another pair of females. He obviously already knows them, for he introduces

them (lines13-14) as “the wives of Lord Gari and of Lord Bernart”. This indicates

that they are feudal ladies, and in fact he subsequently refers to them (line 26) as

“Lady Agnes” and “Lady Ermessen”. When they greet him, he pretends to be dumb.

It occurs to the pair that he will not be able to tell anyone else what passes between

him and them. They take him home and, in order to make sure that he really is dumb,

produce an evil-tempered cat, whose claws, as Guillaume puts it “inflicted on me

more than a hundred wounds”. But he remains silent. Satisfied on that score, they

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proceed to some other satisfying business which would doubtless be offensive to

pious ears. William says that over the 41 days he was with them it occurred 188

times. The similarity of their names to those of the pair in “Companho, farai un vers”

has led to the supposition that they had no actual existence: either they were products

of William’s imagination, or they were pre-existing stock figures.

But later, he starts off with “a new song,” and in it he is on a completely new tack.

In this song, “Farai chansoneta nueva”,

(http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/guilhen_de_peiteu_08.php) his

lady (unnamed but described as such), far from serving as the butt of coarse sexual

humour, is putting him to the test. In the second verse, William, Duke of Aquitaine

and holder of vast lands, says that he surrenders and delivers himself to her.

Qu'ans mi rent a lieys e-m liure,

Qu'en sa carta-m pot escriure.

E no m'en tenguatz per yure,

S'ieu ma bona dompna am!

Quar senes lieys non puesc viure,

Tant ai pres de s'amor gran fam.

Instead, I surrender and deliver myself to her,

so that she can write my name in her charter.

And don't think I am drunk,

if I love my good mistress,

because I can't live without her,

so much I starve for her love.

In other words, he makes an act of feudal homage, albeit a spiritual one. He goes on

to say that she can inscribe him in her cartulary (as one of her feudal possessions). So

here he is using concepts with which he would have been familiar as a feudal

magnate, but giving them an entirely new application. Once again, the world is

turned upside down. William’s change of tack in this poem could fairly be described

as a conversion (metanoia), albeit not a religious one.

This next song to be considered was written when he was about to set off for Spain to

fight the Moors (about 1119, ie when he was approaching fifty). Having been on

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crusade once, he clearly was not expecting to survive another campaign. No bawdy

material here either. But in spite of all his sadness (indeed as part of it) he begins

“Pos de chantar m’e pres talenz” (literally “Since the urge to sing has taken hold of

me”).

(http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/guilhen_de_peiteu_11.php)

Pos de chantar m'es pres talenz,

Farai un vers, don sui dolenz:

Mais non serai obedienz

En Peitau ni en Lemozi.

Since I feel like singing,

I'll write a verse I grieve over:

I shall never be a vassal anymore

in Poitiers nor in Limoges

Qu'era m'en irai en eisil:

En gran paor, en gran peril,

En guerra, laisserai mon fil,

Faran li mal siei vezi.

For now I shall be exiled:

in a dreadful fright, in great peril,

in war, shall I leave my son,

and his neighbours shall turn on him.

Lo departirs m'es aitan greus

Del seignorage de Peitieus

En garda lais Folcon d'Angieus

Tota la terra e son cozi.

It is hard for me to abandon

the rule of Poitiers

I leave Folcon of Angiers as a keeper

of the whole country and of his cousin.

Si Folcos d'Angieus no-l socor,

E-l reis de cui ieu tenc m'onor,

Guerrejar l'an tut li plusor,

Felon Gascon et Angevi.

If Folcon of Angiers doesn't aid him

(and the king I owe my title to doesn't do

likewise)

most of them will attack him,

those villainous Gascons and Angevins.

Si ben non es savis ni pros,

Cant ieu serai partitz de vos,

Vias l'auran tornat en jos,

Car lo veiran jov'e mesqui.

If he isn't very wise and valiant,

as soon as I have left you,

they will upturn him,

because they will see him young and defenceless.

Merce clam a mon conpaignon,

S'anc li fi tort, qu'il m'o perdon,

Et il prec en Jezu del tron

En romans et en son lati.

I beg my companion for mercy:

if I ever wronged him, let him forgive me,

and let him praise lord Jesus in his throne

both in the common tongue and in his.

De proez'e de joven fui,

Mais ara partem ambedui,

Et ieu irai m'en a Cellui

On tut peccador troban fi.

I lived with youth and valour,

but now they are both gone,

and I shall go to the One

by whom all sinners find peace.

Mout ai estat cuendes e gais, I have been agreeable and gay,

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Mas Nostre Seigner no-l vol

mais;

Ar non puesc plus soffrir lo fais

Tant soi aprochatz de la fi.

but Our Lord doesn't allow it anymore;

now I can't bear the burden anymore,

so close I am to the end.

Tot ai guerpit cant amar sueill:

Cavalaria et orgueill

E pos Dieu platz, tot o acueill,

E El que-m reteigna ab Si.

I have left all I used to love:

knighthood and pride;

and since this pleases God, I accept it wholly,

and let him keep me with him.

Totz mos amics prec a la mort,

Qu-il vengan tuit e m'onren fort,

Qu'eu ai agut joi e deport

Loing e pres et e mon aizi.

I entreat all my friends to come to my death

and to honour me greatly

since I had and kept joy and disport

far and wide, and in my own abode.

Aissi guerpisc joi e deport,

E vair e gris e sembeli.

So I leave joy and disport,

and vair and grey squirrel and sable furs.

In a foreshadowing of Francis’s leaving the world, and his approach to the end of his

own earthly life, William here willingly abandons his earlier characteristics (gaiety,

knighthood, pride, joy, fine clothes), and asks forgiveness of his neighbour as he goes

to meet his Maker. And like Francis, he composes a song about it.

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Second Generation Troubadours

To repeat the question asked earlier:

Can we say that God used the words of the troubadours to make of Francis the

person He wanted him to be?

The way I mean to approach this specific issue is to look at some sample songs by

three other troubadours. They all lived in the century between the death of William

IX and that of Francis. I have chosen these three (a) because they were composing

either before Francis was born or in his early years, and (b) because they are major

figures among the troubadours, and so their work would presumably have been well

known in their own lifetimes and by the generations immediately following.

The three are

Bertran de Born

Arnaut Daniel

Bernard de Ventadour

The life and background of each will be outlined, and selected songs of each

discussed. It will be urged that these correspond to features which surface either in

Francis’s own writings or in the stories about him which were recorded from those

who had been his closest companions during his lifetime.

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Bertran de Born, (1140-1225) was lord (jointly with his brother) of the castle of

Hautefort. A minor feudal lord, his estate lay on the borders of Limousin and

Perigord. Up to now I have been talking mainly about love-songs (canzos in

Occitan), but there were other types of song. Bertran was master of the sirventes, a

song designed (as its name suggests) to serve a purpose, usually political. The

sirventes used the tune of an already familiar canzo, in the same way as satirical radio

or television programmes poke fun at contemporary events or figures using new

words to well-known tunes. Bertran was a lover of war and a perennial stirrer-up of

dissension, particularly between and among Henry II of England’s sons and their

father. He ended his days in the monastery of Dalon – possibly, after all his stirring,

the world had become too hot for him and only the Church could give him protection

from his enemies. Dante puts him in Hell (Inferno XXVIII, 118-142).

Be.m plai lo gais temps de pascor

(http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/bertran_de_born/poem30.php) is a reasonably

typical example of his output.

Be.m plai lo gais temps de pascor,

Que fai fuoillas e flors venir!

E plai me qand auch la baudor

Dels auzels que fant retintir

Lo chant per lo boscatge!

E plai me qand vei per los pratz

Tendas e pavaillons fermatz!

Et ai grand alegratge

Qan vei per campaignas rengatz

Cavalliers e cavals armatz.

E platz mi qan li corredor

Fant las gens e l'aver fugir,

E platz me qan vei apres lor

Granren d'armatz corren venir,

E platz m'e mon coratge

Qan vei fortz chastels assetgatz

I really love the jolly time of Easter

That makes leaves and flowers shoot

forth!

And I love it when I hear the birds

Making the woods resound with their

song!

And I love it when I see tents and

pavilions set up in the meadows!

And it gives me great joy when I see

knights and armoured horses drawn up

on the plain

And I love it when the skirmishers

set the people fleeing with their

possessions,

And I love it when I see numbers of

armed men come running after them,

And it cheers my heart when I see

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E.ls barris rotz et esfondratz,

E vei l'ost el ribatge

Q'es tot entorn claus de fossatz,

Ab lissas de fortz pals serratz.

Et atressi.m platz de seignor

Qand es primiers a l'envazir

En caval, armatz, ses temor,

C'aissi fai los sieus enardir

Ab valen vassalatge.

E pois qe l'estorns es mesclatz,

Chascus deu esser acesmatz

E segre.l d'agradatge,

Que nuills hom non es ren presatz

Tro q'a mains colps pres e donatz.

Massas e brans, elms de color,

Escutz traucar e desgarnir

Veirem a l'intrar de l'estor,

E maing vassal essems ferir,

Don anaran aratge

Cavail dels mortz e dels nafratz.

E qand er en l'estor intratz,

Chascus hom de paratge

Non pens mas d'asclar caps e bratz,

Car mais val mortz qe vius sobratz.

E.us dic qe tant no m'a sabor

Manjar ni beure ni dormir

Cum a qand auch cridar, a lor

D'ambas las partz, et auch bruir

Cavals voitz per l'ombratge,

Et auch cridar, aidatz aidatz

E vei cazer per los fossatz

Paucs e grans per l'erbatge,

E vei los mortz qe pels costatz

Ant los tronchos ab los cendatz.

Strong castles besieged and their

outerworks breached and broken down,

and I see the army drawn up on the

earthworks, which are circled with

ditches guarded by palisades made of

closely-packed stakes.

And I love a lord who is first into the

attack

On his horse, armed and fearless,

Because that is how he inspires his men

To valiant courage.

And then, when the fight comes to close

quarters,

Each one must be ready to follow him

willingly,

For no man is of any worth

Until he has given and received many

blows.

Entering the melee, we shall see

Maces and swords, helms in heraldic

colours, hacked and smashed.

We shall see many vassals coming to

blows,

And in consequence the horses of the

dead and wounded running about

haphazardly.

And once he’s into the fray

let every high-born man

think only of breaking heads and arms,

For it’s better to be a dead man than a

beaten living one.

And I tell you, I don’t find as much

enjoyment

In eating, drinking or sleeping

As when I hear the shout of “Get into

them!”

Or when I hear the whinnying of riderless

horses in the dusk,

And also the cries of “Help, help!”

Or when I see men small and great

Fall in the grass by the edge of the

ditches,

And when I gaze on the dead with lance-

shafts sticking through their sides,

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Baron, metetz en gatge

Castels e vilas e ciutatz

Enans c'usqecs no.us gerreiatz.

With the pennons still attached.

Barons, mortgage your castles,

cities and towns, rather than not

go to war.

Fr Cuthbert was undoubtedly right to claim the chansons de geste as a cause of

Francis’s youthful dreams of knighthood, but it is equally fair to argue that exposure

to songs such as this, with its obvious heartfelt delight in warfare and its gory details,

may provide at least part of the explanation.

Arnaut Daniel was a nobleman by birth – his family were of the castle of Ribeyrac in

Perigord. He was writing between about 1180 and 1200 or a little later, ie the very

years in which Francis was growing up. We have already seen that his work was

known in Italy. This poem

http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/arnaut_daniel/arnaut_daniel_04.php contains

features which can also be seen in the life of Francis.

Ab gai so cundet e leri

fas motz e capus e doli,

que seran verai e sert

quan n'aurai passat la lima,

qu'Amor marves plan e daura

mon chantar que de lieis mueu

cui Pretz manten e governa.

On a nice, gleeful and happy melody

I write, and polish and plane words

that will be true and certain

when I have filed them smooth,

since Love soon levitates and gilds

my song, which moves from her

upon whom Worth wakes and rules.

Tot jorn melhur e esmeri

quar la gensor am e coli

del mon, so'us dic en apert:

sieu so del pe tro qu'al cima

e si tot venta'ill freg'aura,

l'amor qu'ins el cor mi pleu

mi ten caut on plus iverna.

Every day I improve and polish,

because I love and crave for the kindest one

in the world: here I tell you openly

I'm hers from head to heel,

and even if the cold wind blows,

the love that rains in my heart

keeps me the warmer the colder it is.

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Mil messas n'aug en proferi

e'n art lum de cer'e d'oli

que Dieu m'en don bon acert

de lieis on no'm val escrima;

e quan remir sa crin saura

e'l cors qu'a graile e nueu

mais l'am que qui'm des

Luzerna.

I attend and offer a thousand masses,

and burn candles of wax and of tallow

for God to gift me with success

with her with whom fencing is useless;

and when I see her blond hair,

her body lean and fresh,

I love her more than [I would] one who'd give me

Lucerne.

Tan l'am de cor e la queri

qu'ab trop voler cug l'am toli,

s'om ren per trop amar pert,

que'l sieu cors sobretrasima

lo mieu tot e non s'aisaura:

tan n'a de ver fag renueu

q'obrador n'ai'e taverna.

So much I love her and want her in my heart

that I fear to lose her out of excessive desire,

(if one can lose something out of excessive love)

because her heart overcomes

mine and doesn't part from it:

so, indeed, she holds me

like the inn holds the worker.

No vuelh de Roma l'emperi

ni qu'om m'en fassa postoli

qu'en lieis non aia revert

per cui m'art lo cors e'm rima;

e si'l maltrait no'm restaura

ab un baizar anz d'annueu,

mi auci e si enferna.

I don't want the throne of Rome

nor to be made Pope

if I can't find refuge near her

for whom my heart burns and flares;

and if she doesn't correct the wrong

with a kiss within a year,

she kills me and damns herself.

Ges pel maltrag que'n soferi

de ben amar no'm destoli;

si tot mi ten en dezert

per lieis fas lo son e'l rima:

piegz tratz, aman, qu'om que

laura,

qu'anc non amet plus d'un

hueu

sel de Moncli Audierna.

In spite of the pain I endure,

I don't sway from loving well;

even if she deserts me,

I write melody and rhyme for her:

I suffer more loving than one who labours

because, compared to me, the one from Moncli

didn't love Audierna more than an egg.

Ieu sui Arnautz qu'amas l'aura

e cas la lebre ab lo bueu

e nadi contra suberna.

I am Arnaut who hoard the air

and hunt the hare with the ox

and swim against the flow.

As well as the intensity of feeling for the Lady, expressed throughout, we find a lack

of concern for being adequately clad against the weather (stanza 2), the rejection of

desire for wealth (that of Lucerne in stanza 3) and power or status (the rejection of

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ambition after Empire or Papacy in stanza 5). Furthermore the coda suggests a person

who is happy to be thought a fool in the judgment of the world.

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Bernard de Ventadour, whilst considered by some the greatest of the troubadours, is

something of a man of mystery. In time, he comes between Bertran de Born and

Arnaut Daniel, living from about 1125 to 1180 or possibly 1200. His poems were

written between 1147 and 1170. In the 13th

century there were composed vidas (short

biographies of individual troubadours) and razos (short accounts of why and how a

troubadour came to compose a particular poem). The razos often simply take

incidents or expressions in the poem and weave a story around them. A vida of

Bernard de Ventadour was written by another troubadour called Uc de St-Circ.

Uc’s output spans the years from about 1220 to about 1240 or 1250, and he says that

Bernard de Ventadour was from Limousin, from the castle of Ventadour. He

was a man of poor parentage, the son of a servant who was an oven-tender and

heated the oven to bake the bread for the castle of Ventadour. He grew

handsome and skilful, and knew how to compose and sing well, and he was

courtly and educated. The Viscount Ventadour, his lord, was greatly pleased

with him and his composing and singing, and honoured him greatly.

This Viscount Ventadour was Eble II, known as “the Singer”. No songs of his have

survived, but it seems that he was a troubadour himself, a probability strengthened by

the fact that either he or his father was a great friend of William IX, who was the

feudal lord over the Viscounts of Ventadour.

How reliable is this vida? Scholars agree that many vidas are fanciful, and they were

certainly written decades after the events they claim to describe. However, Uc says

that his information came from the son of the Viscount of Bernard’s day. That may

be so, but the information about Bernard’s parentage appears to be lifted from a poem

by yet another troubadour, Pierre d’Auvergne, who was writing between about 1150

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and 1170, that is to say in Bernard de Ventadour’s lifetime, and probably during the

period when he was actively composing.

Entitled “Cantarai d’aquestz trobadors” (I shall sing about some troubadours), each of

its verses is a somewhat mocking (not to say exaggerated and fanciful) portrait of one

of twelve named troubadours. Pierre points out their various deficiencies, and in the

end says of himself “maistres es de totz” (he is master of all). His verse about

Bernard is worth looking at in full.

E-l tertz, Bernartz de Ventedorn,

Qu’es menre de Borneill un dorn!

En son paire ac bon sirven

Per trair’ ab arc nanal d’alborn,

E sa mair’escaldava-l forn

Et amassava l’issermen.

And third, Bernard de Ventadour,

Who is less than (Giraut de) Borneil by a

handsbreadth!

For a father he had a good servant (man-

at-arms)

Who could shoot with a bow made of

laburnum,

And his mother heated the oven

And collected vine-shoots (for firewood).

(http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/alvernha/pealv12.php

(translation by author))

Davenson at least (1961, p17), repeats the story in the vida, while observing that it

would be best to avoid trying to sort out fact from fiction. But more recently, it has

been observed that here Pierre d’Auvergne seems to have taken a verse from one of

Bernard’s own poems, “Be m’an perdut”, and twisted it a little.

The poem begins “Be m’an perdut lai enves Ventadorn / Tuih mei amic, pois ma

domna no m’ama! (All my friends over there at Ventadorn have well and truly lost

me, since my lady does not love me!), and the second verse goes

Aissi co.l peis qui s’eslaiss’ el cadorn

E no.n sap mot, tro que s’es pres en

l’ama,

M’eslaissei eu vas trop amar un jorn,

C’anc no’m gardei, tro fui en mei la

Like the fish that quickly takes the bait,

And doesn’t know a thing until he is

hooked,

I let myself love too much one day,

And didn’t look out for myself, so fierce

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flama

Que m’art plus fort, no.m feira focs de

forn!

E ges per so no.m posc partir un dorn,

Aissi.m te pres d’amors e m’aliama.

in me was the flame

That burnt me more than the oven’s fire;

And I cannot move away a handsbreadth,

Her love holds and binds me so tightly)

http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/bernart_de_ventadorn/beven9.php

(translation by author)

Pierre has re-used some of Bernard’s rhyme-words (forn, dorn) and also taken

Bernard’s metaphor of love as the fire of an oven and treated it as something Bernard

would have been literally familiar with.

So it seems that we have two possibilities. Either Bernard really was of humble

origin, but rose to such prominence under the tutoring of his feudal lord, Viscount

Eble II, that Uc de St Circ referred to him as En Bernart (Sir Bernard). Or he was of

nobler origin, perhaps a son (legitimate or otherwise) of the Viscount, and Pierre

d’Auvergne was merely indulging in a little playful mockery in front of an audience

who would know the real details of the twelve troubadours and appreciate Pierre’s

humour.

If the first case is true, Bernard de Ventadour managed to beat the (feudal) system,

and if the second, he was a man who, from being rich, came to be regarded as poor.

Both those statements could be applied with equal accuracy to Francis of Assisi.

Turning from Bernard’s life to his songs, one in particular, Tant ai mo cor ple de joya

stands out as having affinities with events in Francis’s life. Its first two stanzas run:

Tant ai mo cor ple de joya,

Tot me desnatura .

Flor blancha, vermelh' e groya

Me par la frejura,

C'ab lo ven et ab la ploya

My heart is so full of joy that

The nature of everything is changed for

me.

Frost seems to me to be white, red and

yellow flowers.

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Me creis l'aventura,

Per que mos chans mont' e poya

E mos pretz melhura .

Tan ai al cor d'amor,

De joi e de doussor,

Per que.l gels me sembla flor

E la neus verdura .

Anar posc ses vestidura,

Nutz en ma chamiza,

Car fin' amors m'asegura

De la freja biza.

Mas es fols qui.s desmezura,

E no.s te de guiza.

Per qu'eu ai pres de me cura,

Deis c'agui enquiza

La plus bela d'amor,

Don aten tan d'onor,

Car en loc de sa ricor

No volh aver Piza.

For along with the wind and rain, my

good fortune increases.

And so my singing gets better and

stronger and my worth gets greater.

I have in my heart so much joy and

sweetness

That the ice seems to me to be flowers

and the snow greenery.

I can go about without clothing

Naked apart from my shirt

For true love protects me

from the cold breeze.

But it’s a fool who overreaches himself

and doesn’t hold himself in check.

And so I have watched out for myself,

since I have sought

the most beautiful of loves,

from whom I await such honour,

that in place the memory of her

I don’t want to have Pisa.

http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/bernart_de_ventadorn/beven4.php

(translation by author)

Here again we have features that we can recognize in Francis – the overwhelming joy,

the lack of concern for being adequately clothed, the self-restraint, the rejection of

wealth (Pisa was a prominent trading city). But an even more striking parallel can be

found in Celano’s First Life (1 Celano 1228-1229, in Early Documents I, p. The

scene is set immediately after Francis had divested himself of all his clothing in the

town square before his father and the bishop of Assisi.

Chapter VII

HOW, WHEN CAPTURED BY BANDITS,

HE WAS THROWN INTO THE SNOW,

AND HOW HE SERVED LEPERS.

He who had once enjoyed wearing scarlet robes now traveled about half-clothed.

Once while he was singing praises to the Lord in French in a certain forest, thieves

suddenly attacked him. When they savagely demanded who he was, the man of

God answered confidently and forcefully: “I am the herald of the great King!

What is it to you?” They beat him and threw him into a ditch filled with deep

snow, saying: “Lie there, you stupid herald of God!” After they left, he rolled

about to and fro, shook the snow off himself and jumped out of the ditch.

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Exhilarated with great joy, he began in a loud voice to make the woods resound

with praises to the Creator of all.”

What was it that Francis was singing when he left Assisi? Before him there was no

tradition of Christian song in the vernacular – he more or less invented it. Could it

possibly have been “Tant ai mo cor ple de joya”, or at least selected verses from it?

The parallels between its words and his actions are fascinating. Or could it have been

something of his own composing – in effect a sirventes, but on a religious rather than

a political theme?

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Conclusion.

The aims of this paper have been firstly to clear up the misconceptions and half-truths

about Francis and the troubadours which appear in most popular biographies, and

secondly to demonstrate that Francis knew the poetry of the troubadours. These two

can, I think, be said to have been carried out. The third and most important aim, that

of establishing the extent to which the troubadours influenced Francis and his

spirituality, is far harder to assess. The chief objection that can be made to the

argument above is that it is all a matter of post hoc, ergo propter hoc. However, I feel

that, if we are going to allow that God writes straight with crooked lines, and that He

uses all manner of means to call us to Himself, we must admit the evidence of the

early biographies, and the correspondences between lines of some well-known

troubadour songs and Francis’s own actions, as indicating that God did, in fact, use

the words of the troubadours (among other influences) to make of Francis the person

that He wanted him to be.

Bibliography.

Editions of early lives and writings of Francis of Assisi

Armstrong, Regis et al (1999-2002) Francis of Assisi: early documents. 3 vols +

index vol. New York: New City Press (Cited throughout as Early Documents)

Brooke, Rosalind (editor) (1970) Scripta Leonis, Rufini et Angeli sociorum s.

Francisci. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Editions of troubadours and other contemporary writers

Arnaut Daniel : http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/arnaut_daniel/ (Accessed 30 Sep

2005)

Bernard de Ventadour: http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/bernart_de_ventadorn/

(Accessed 30 Sep 2005)

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Bertran de Born: http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/bertran_de_born/ (Accessed 30

Sep 2005)

Dante Alighieri: Sissons, C H (translator) Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy.

Oxford University Press, 1998 reissue

Orderic Vitalis: Chibnall, Marjorie (ed.) The ecclesiastical history of Orderic Vitalis.

Oxford University Press 6 vols, 1969-80

Pierre d’Auvergne: http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/alvernha/

(Accessed 30 Sep 2005)

William IX of Aquitaine: http://www.trobar.org/troubadours/coms_de_peiteu/

(Accessed 30 Sep 2005)

William of Malmesbury: Myers, R A B (ed.) Gesta regum anglorum: the history of

the English kings. Volume I Oxford University Press, 1988

Other works

Anthony of Taizé (Anthony Graham Teague) The Middle Ages before 1300

http://anthony.sogang.ac.kr/books/Med2.htm (accessed 211/02/2017)

Arnold, Duane & Fry, George (1988) Francis: a call to conversion. Triangle

Bodo, Murray (1972) Francis: the journey and the dream. St Anthony Messenger

Press

Chesterton, G K (1923) St Francis of Assisi. Hodder and Stoughton

Cuthbert, Father, OSFC (1921) Life of St Francis of Assisi. London: New (3rd

) ed.

London: Longmans

Davenson, Henri (1961) Les troubadours. Paris: Editions du Seuil

de la Bedoyere, Michael (1962) Francis: a biography of the saint of Assisi. London:

Collins

Galli, Mark (2002) Francis of Assisi and his world. Oxford: Lion Publishing

Oliphant, Mrs (Margaret) (1874) Francis of Assisi. London: Macmillan (1st ed:

London: n.p., 1870)

Paterson, Linda M (1995) The World of the troubadours. Cambridge University

Press (pbk)

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Robson, Michael (1997) St Francis of Assisi: the legend and the life. Geoffrey

Chapman

Sabatier, Paul (1896) Life of St Francis of Assisi. Translated by Louise Seymour

Houghton. Hodder and Stoughton