The songs attributed to Andrieu Contredit d'Arras: with a translation into English and the extant melodies (review)

168 Reviews to MacLaine's published contribution to the teaching of early literature; for example, his Student's comprehensive guide to the 'Canterbury Tales' (1964) and his introduction to The beginnings to 1558 (1980). Fortunately, MacLaine's success in assisting or inspiring the serious student is demonstrated convincingly by the essays honouring him. Janet Hadley Williams Canberra Nelson, Deborah H. and Hendrik van der Werf, eds, 77ie songs attributed to Andrieu Contredit d'Arras: with a translation into English and the extant melodies, (Faux titre, No. 59), Amsterdam & Atlanta, Rodopi, 1992; paper; pp. viii, 207; R.R.P. ? The combined efforts of a literary scholar and a musicologist have produced this new edition of the poetry of Andrieu Contredit a thirteenth-century trouvire of Arras. It replaces R. Schmidt's edition (1902-03) which is both unavailable and also incomplete since Eugenie Droz's discovery in the 1920s of a manuscript fragment containing three more songs attributed to Andrieu. These are included here together with a song attributed normally to Chatelain de Couci but to Andrieu in one manuscript (C). Altogether, the edition contains twenty-three poems and eighteen melodies. The editors have each written a concise introduction. Deborah H. Nelson describes the poet in his milieu, the manuscript tradition, language and form, method and translation. Hendrik van der Werf concentrates on the oral tradition, manuscripts, prosody, text and music, concluding with short essays on three particular songs. The essential facts, for example the summary of conventional themes, are explained economically. Just as Andrieu followed the conventions of form and content he also applied the common musical principles of the trouveres. Van der Werf believes that as performer the trouvere established the relationship between text and music. For reasons which are not stated, he has used the term afficionados (sic) to denote the performers of the songs, as distinct from the trouvires, thus seeming to emphasize enthusiasm rather than professionalism on their part The normal critical apparatus, clearly set out for an easy consultation, and a translation accompany the texts. More than one version of some poems is given. Notes, where they exist relate to the translation. The edition therefore provides little interpretation of Andrieu's work but by the same token, avoids elaborating on the conformity of his ideas and the rarity of any images. Yet the reader gains a certain satisfaction from the almost ritualistic presence of the vocabulary and themes of courtly love, as in chanson V, for example. Generally, the translations read quite smoothly. As Nelson concedes in her introduction, English terms do not convey adequately the meaning of some Old Reviews 169 French ones. Perhaps for this reason she has used the French courtoisie in italics (HI.3 & 30, pp. 64-65) to translate cortoisie, which does not figure in the glossary and is elsewhere rendered as 'courtesy\ A few other translations can be questioned: 'scoundrels' (orfelons, 'jokes' for (faus) jogleor, and 'pleasant' for plaisans in the apostrophe Damn plaisans. The abrupt change from first-person singular to third person and then back tofirstperson, all referring to the loverpoet (IV.46-47, p. 67), merits comment as also does the subtle expression of the interdependence of the merit and worth of lover-poet and lady (XIII.42-45, p. 104), which is obscured by the translation as a first person singular of monteplie (1.44), listed as third person singular in the glossary. The various forms of the poet's name, collated in table II, occur in fifteen poems. Andrieu's tendency to argue on the wrong side is emphasized by Guillaume le Vinier in the jeu-parti the two poets exchange (XXI.25-26, p. 129). The glossary gives only one meaning for contredit, 'one who disputes', but the word also means 'who refuses', '(who is) cursed or damned', and, when applied to a verdict or opinion, 'contradictory'. The name might thus also reflect the poet's sense of misfortune or his ill-starred experience in love of which he sings. These are small quibbles about an edition which will serve scholars and students very well and allow appreciation of the poems and melodies of a hitherto little-known trouvere. Glynnis M . Cropp Department of...