The Knight in History Read Free Page A

verga

The firm desire which enters
my heart cannot be taken from me by the beak or nail
of that talebearer whose evil words cost him his soul,
and since I dare not beat him with a branch or rod,
I shall at least, in secret, free from any spying uncle,
rejoice in love’s joy, in an orchard or in a chamber.
But when I think of that chamber
which, to my misfortune, no man enters
and is guarded as if by brother or uncle,
my entire body, even to my fingernail,
trembles like a child before a rod,
such fear I have of not being hers with all my soul.
Would that I were hers, if not in soul
at least in body, hidden within her chamber;
for it wounds my heart more than blows of rod
     
Car lo sieus sers lai on ill es non intra;
Totz temps serai ab lieis cum carns et ongla ,
E non creirai chastic d’amic ni d’oncle….
C’aissi s’enpren e s’enongla
Mos cors en lei cum l’escorssa en la verga;
Qu ’il m ’es de joi tors e palaitz e cambra ,
E non am tant fraire, paren ni oncle:
Qu ’en paradis n ’aura doble joi m ’arma ,
Si ja nuills hom per ben amar lai intra .
Arnautz tramet sa chansson d’ongla e d’oncle ,
A grat de lieis que de sa verg’a l’arma ,
Son Desirat, cui pretz en cambra intra .
that I, her serf, can never therein enter.
No, I shall be with her as flesh and nail
and heed no warnings of friend or uncle….
As if with tooth and nail
my heart grips her, or as the bark the rod;
for to me she is tower, palace and chamber
of joy, and neither brother, parent nor uncle
I love so much; and in paradise my soul
will find redoubled joy, if lovers therein enter.
Arnaut sends his song of nail and uncle
(by leave of her who has, of his rod, the soul)
to his Desirat, whose fame all chambers enters.
(Translation by Anthony Bonner) 45
    Arnaut Daniel has been described as the culmination of the troubadour poets; to Dante he was “the better craftsman of the mother tongue (il miglior fabbro del parlar materno) .” 46
    In the first decade of the thirteenth century, a historic calamity devastated the world of the troubadours. Pope Innocent III, alarmed by the Albigensian heresy that had spread through southern France, turned to the weapon his predecessors had forged for war with the Muslims. An army of knightly Crusaders mobilized in northern France invaded the land that had proved equally hospitable to poets and heretics. Poetry fell victim along with heresy. The aristocracy of the South was ruined, and many of the troubadours fled to Spain and Italy to find new patrons. Raimon de Miraval appealed in verse to Pedro II of Aragon, begging him to recover “Montégut and Carcassonne”:
     

 
    5
    William Marshal: Knighthood at its Zenith
    MANY NOBLE MEN BY THEIR INDOLENCE
    LOSE GREAT GLORY, WHICH THEY COULD HAVE
    IF THEY ROVED THROUGH THE WORLD .
    NOT CONSONANT WITH EACH OTHER
    ARE IDLENESS AND GLORY, I THINK ,
    FOR NO GLORY IS WON
    BY THE RICH MAN, WHO IDLES EVERY DAY .
    —Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès
    THEY SOJOURNED IN ENGLAND
    ALMOST A YEAR, IN WHICH HE DID NOTHING
    BUT ENGAGE IN JOUSTS
    OR IN THE HUNT OR THE TOURNEY .
    BUT TO THE YOUNG KING IT WAS NOT PLEASING ,
    HIS COMPANIONS ALSO
    WERE TERRIBLY BORED ,
    FOR THEY PREFERRED TO ROAM RATHER
    THAN TO SOJOURN, IF THEY COULD WANDER .
    FOR KNOW WELL, IT IS THE GIST ,
    THAT A LONG SOJOURN DISHONORS A YOUNG MAN .
    —L’Histoire de Guillaume Maréchal

 
    8
    English Knights of the Fifteenth Century: Sir John Fastolf and the Pastons
    IN THESE DAYS WE SEE OPENLY HOW MANY POOR MEN THROUGH THEIR SERVICE IN THE FRENCH WARS HAVE BECOME NOBLE, SOME BY THEIR PRUDENCE, SOME BY THEIR ENERGY, SOME BY THEIR VALOUR, AND SOME BY OTHER VIRTUES WHICH…ENNOBLE MEN .
    —Nicholas Upton, De Studio Militari
    AND NOWADAYS…THE MAN WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO SET PLACES ON FIRE, TO ROB CHURCHES AND USURP THEIR RIGHTS AND TO IMPRISON THE PRIESTS, IS NOT FIT TO CARRY ON WAR. AND FOR THESE REASONS THE KNIGHTS OF TODAY HAVE NOT THE GLORY AND THE PRAISE OF THE OLD CHAMPIONS OF FORMER TIMES, AND THEIR