- Guilhem Ademar
Guilhem Ademar (also spelled Guillem, Adamar, or Azemar; fl. 1190/1195–1217) was a
troubadour from theGévaudan . Noble by birth, but very poor, he travelled between the courts ofAlbi ,Toulouse ,Narbonne , andSpain . He achieved fame enough in his lifetime to be satirised by theMonge de Montaudon . He enteredholy orders towards the end of his life. Sixteen poems—fourteen "cansos", a "sirventes ", and a "partimen " withEble d'Ussel —form his surviving corpus. His "cansos" are his most famous pieces. Usually humorous, several mock the poetry of Ademar's more illustrious contemporaryArnaut Daniel . One "canso" survives with a tune.According to his "vida", Guilhem was the son of a poor knight from
Meyrueis ("Maruois"), the lord of which castle created him a knight. He was an eloquent man who "knew well how to invent ("trobaire") poetry."Egan, 46.] When he was no longer able to support himself as a knight he took tominstrel sy and "was greatly honoured by all the high society." Towards the end of his life he joined theOrder of Grandmont ("Granmon").Guilhem Ademar's career can be dated from a reference in a poetic satire of contemporary troubadours by the
Monge de Montaudon around 1195. The Monge playfully insults Guilhem as a "bad "joglar " who always wears old clothes and whose lady has thirty lovers. The earliest reference to a "W. Ademars", a petty noble of the Gévaudan, occurs in 1192, though this figure, who (variously as "Ademars" or "Azemars") appears in documents until 1217, cannot be definitively identified with the troubadour.Aubrey, 20.]One of Guilhem's more famous pieces is "Non pot esser sofert ni atendut", a sensuous "canso" of
courtly love wherein he is wishing that his lady's husband would go far away. It has presented a riddle for its dating through references to two Spanish kings: a "rey Ferrans" ("king Ferdinand") and "reis N'Amfos, cui dopton li masmut / e.l mieiller coms de la crestiantat" ("king Don Alfonso, whom theAlmohads fear / and the greatest count inChristendom "). Ferrans may be eitherFerdinand II of León (died 1188) orFerdinand III of Castile (began reigning in 1217), both of whom present difficulties because their reigns lie outside the usual dating of Guilhem's career. The Alfonso could beAlfonso II of Aragon (contemporary with Ferdinand II), who was also theCount of Barcelona . It could also beAlfonso IX of León , Ferdinand II's successor, whose kingdom lay about as far away as Guilhem coul possibly hope to send his lover's husband; orAlfonso VIII of Castile , whose exploits against the Almohads culminated in the definitive victory at Las Navas in 1212. Since Guilhem wrote a poem sometime between 1215 and 1217 in which he referred toRaymond VI of Toulouse as "En Raimon, mon seigner" ("Lord Raymond, my lord"), it has also be posited that the "mieiller coms" referred to in the previous work is Raymond, who was with Alfonso at Las Navas in 1212. Guilhem may thus have had in mind the events of Las Navas and been writing at a time after Ferdinand III's succession. Guilhem may have even been at Las Navas with Raymond.Guilhem's poetry is in general light, easy-going, and characterised by
irony . Like Peire Raimon, his contemporary at the court of Raymond VI of Toulouse, he seems to have been influenced by (and perhaps had an influence on) Arnaut Daniel. Guilhem's lone surviving piece of music, however, is not similar in style to Arnaut's. Rather, it isneumatic in texture andmotivic in phrasing. [Aubrey, 229.]In his primary love songs, Guilhem praises two ladies, one from
Albi ("Na Bona Nasques", a pet name) and another fromNarbonne ("Beatriz", perhaps her real name). Despite this, Guilhem has been accused ofmisogyny for his poem "El temps d'estui, qan par la flors el bruoill". His love song "Ben for'oimais sazos e locs" is written as a message to his lover to be delivered by herporter , who is strictly warned to follow through. In his only "sirventes", "Ieu ai ja vista manhta rey", Guilhem moralises in a slightlyMarcabru nian fashion on how loyal and generous suitors are rejected in favour "fools and misers".ources
*Aubrey, Elizabeth. "The Music of the Troubadours". Indiana University Press, 1996. ISBN 0 253 21389 4.
*Egan, Margarita, ed. and trans. "The Vidas of the Troubadours". New York: Garland, 1984. ISBN 0 8240 9437 9.
*Riquer, Martín de . "Los trovadores: historia literaria y textos". 3 vol. Barcelona: Planeta, 1975.Notes
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