Lecturae Tropatorum (Dec 2008)
Garin lo Brun, “Nueyt e iorn suy en pessamen” (BdT 163.1)
Abstract
The article provides a commentary and a new interpretation of Garin lo Brun’s poem “Nueyt et jorn”. The unusual typology of this dialogical poem has led to problems concerning generic classification, since it starts with an introductory stanza in the first person, where the theme of the inner debate is presented, followed by the opposed precepts of ‘Mezura’ (Measure, Moderation) and ‘Leujaria’ (Levity) in reported speech; moreover, the two personifications always address the lyric subject without really speaking to each other. Composed around 1150, when a system of dialogical genres had not yet been fixed, “Nueyt et jorn” has been classified in different ways by scholars. The poem contains some archaic features which connect it to the Occitan ‘tenso’ specimen by Uc Catola and Marcabru, as well as to Guilhem IX’s ironically dilemmatic poem “Companho farai un vers convinen”. Futhermore, a closer examination of the fifth stanza’s ‘varia lectio’ provides evidence of the affinity between “Nueyt et jorn” and Marcabru’s didactic poem “Cortesamen vuelh comenzar”, thus leaving room for the hypothesis that the latter has been a clear and direct source of inspiration for Garin. The collected data allow for the assumption that “Nueyt et jorn” carries out a transposition of the biblical conflictus between vices and virtues in the courtly context of troubadour lyric.
