Description
Book SynopsisThe Poetry of the Medieval Troubadour, William IX of Aquitaine: The Songs that Built Europe offers a new edition, translation, and critical discussion of the songs of the first European troubadour, William IX, Duke of Aquitaine. This book argues that William and his poetic works manifest the economic, political, and cultural forces that laid the foundations of modern Europe, including the subjectivities of modern westerners and the concerns and motifs of what later became the national literatures of France, Spain, England, Germany, and Italy. Encouraging personal freedoms, self-definition, and the pursuit of love and happiness, the culture of courtly love that William initiated is distinctly modern but can also be seen to have played a key role in the subjection of medieval Europeans to the then-emergent market economy, imperialist ambitions of the Church, and authority of proto-national kingdoms. As such subjection affected even the highest-ranking aristocrats, such as William, the road of liberation of desire appears to have been a fast lane to serfdom for everyone, perhaps the most pre-modern feature of the modern and postmodern conditions.
Table of ContentsList of Figures
Acknowledgments
Preface and Disclaimer
Introduction. William IX of Aquitaine, the Premodern and Postmodern Conditions
William IX, First of the Moderns
The Dialectic of Unreason: Romans, Christians, and Germanic Barbarians
The New Subjects of Love
Traveling to the Past
Neither Past, Nor Other
Women, Wealth, and Power
Courtly Culture
The Divinity of Love: Dante as a Troubadour
Caveat Evangelista
Chapter 1. The Life of William IX of Aquitaine
Carolingian Period
Capetians, Church, and Empire
Aquitaine
William IX of Aquitaine
Crusade of 1101–1102
Robert d’Arbrissel
Anjou and Other Affairs
Two-Faced William
Chapter 2. The Songs of William IX
Manuscripts
Manuscript C
Manuscript D
Manuscript E
Manuscript I
Manuscript K
Manuscript N
Manuscript R
Manuscript V
Manuscript a1
Song 1: “Companho, farai ieu un vers covinen” (My friends, I will make a proper song)
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Song 2: “Companho, non puosc mudar qu’ieu non m’esfrei” (My friends, I cannot help but be upset)
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Song 3: “Companho, tant ai agutz d’avols conres” (My friends, I have suffered so much ill treatment)
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Song 4: “Farai un vers de dreit nien” (I will make a song exactly about nothing)
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Song 5: “Farai un vers, pos me somelh” (I will make a song, since I am sleepy)
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Song 6: “Ben vueill que sapchon li pluzor” (I very much want for most people to know)
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Song 7: “Pos vezem de novel florir” (Since we see the flowers blooming again)
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Song 8: “Farai chansoneta nueva” (I will make a new little song)
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Song 9: “Mout iauzens me prenc en amar” (Full of joy, I give myself over to loving)
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Song 10: “Ab la dolchor del temps novel” (With the sweetness of the new season)
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Song 11: “Pos de chantar m’es pres talenz” (Since I feel a desire to sing)
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Chapter 3. The Economy of Love
All in Love: Production and Reproduction, Commerce and Capitalism
Women as Capital
Courtly Love and the Medieval Economy
Love is Green and Natural
Desiring Freedom, Choosing Subjection
All the Lord’s Horses, and All the Lord’s Women and Men Too
The First and One Thousand Other Nights: The Real Rights of the Lord
Nothing’s Not for Sale
Inexhaustible Resources: Drill, Baby, Drill
Private Property but Profitable Use: The Strange Communism of Capitalism
The Leis de Con: Demand and Supply
Modern Capitalism in Premodern Times
The Downsides of Economic Progress
Self-Interest in Disguise
The Cheater Cheated
Chapter 4. The Red Cat of Desire
The Taming of the Lord
Cat Disciplines
Varieties of Courtly Cats
Cat Caveats
How England Got its Royal Arms
Chapter 5. Riddles of Self and Others
A Riddle at Heart
Agnes and Ermessen
Geographical Riddles
Mon Esteve
The Ring of Love
The Sign of the Cross
The Riddle of the Self
At the Crossroads
Conclusion. The Legacy of William IX
Glossary
Bibliography
