Bertran Carbonel, "Cor, diguas me per cal razo" (BdT 82.9); Id., "Un sirventes de vil razo" (BdT 82.18); Id., "S’ieu anc nulh tems chantiei alegramen" (BdT 82.15)

Abstract

In three poems of Bertran Carbonel (a fictive tenso between Lover and Heart, a sirventes, and a planh) an unknown person is referred to by the initials «P.G.». In the tenso, this mysterious person figures as the impartial judge of the tenso itself; in the sirventes he is bitterly blamed; in the planh he is mentioned as the object of the lament. On the basis of a metrical, rhetorical and stylistic analysis, the present article aims to demonstrate that these three poems are to be interpreted as progymnasmata, and that, although several scholars have assumed that the reference is to the troubadour Peire Guilhem, no real person is actually hidden under the fictive persona «P.G.» In the article a new critical edition of each poem is also provided.

Keywords

• Troubadours
• Old Occitan
• Interpretation