Azalais de Porcairagues
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Azalais de Porcairagues was a trobairitz (woman troubadour), composing in Occitan in the late 12th century. From her name it is usually guessed that she was born in the village of Portiragnes, just east of Béziers and south of Montpellier.
The sole source for her life is the collection known as Biographies des Troubadours, which tells us only that she loved Gui Guerrejat, the brother of William VII of Montpellier, and made many good songs about him; meaning, probably, that the one poem of hers known to the compiler had been addressed to Gui.
One poem attributed to Azalais, classically simple and emotional, survives today. As usually printed it has 52 lines, but the text varies considerably between manuscripts, suggesting that it was not written down immediately on its composition. The poem appears to allude to the death in 1173 of the troubadour Raimbaut d'Aurenga (a cousin of Gui Guerrejat) and was apparently composed soon after that date. Gui himself died in 1177. The poem's envoi seems to mention Ermengarde of Narbonne (1143-1197), a well known patroness of troubadour poetry.
[edit] Sources and bibliography
- First stanza in Occitan and English.
- Pierre Bec, Chants d'amour des femmes-troubadours: trobairitz et chansons de femme (Paris: Stock, 1995) pp. 65-70: complete poem in Occitan and French.
- Biographies des troubadours ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 341-2.
- A. Sakari, 'Azalais de Porcairagues, le "Joglar" de Raimbaut d'Orange' in Neuphilologische Mitteilungen vol. 50 (1949) pp. 23-43.de:Azalaïs de Porcairagues
