THE GREAT PALINODE /LA GRANDE PALINODIE

Source for contemporary Amplificatio exercise: extract from a passage of Anonymous early thirteenth century ‘Chanson de Geste’ in langue d’oc relating the Albigensian Crusade, La Canso de la Crosada [See English translation below].

Tot dreit a Carcassona l’en portan sebelir

E.l moster Sent/Nazari, celebrar et ufrir.

E ditz e l’epictafi, cel qui.l sab ben legir,

Qu’el es sans ez es martirs e que deu resperir

E dins e.l gaug mirable heretar e florir

E portar la corona e e.l regne sezir.

Ez ieu ai auzit dire c’aisi.s deu avenir

Si, per omes aucirre ni per sanc espandir

Ni per esperitz perdre ni per mortz cosentir

E per mals cosselhs creire e per focs abrandir

E per los baros destruire e per paratge aunir

E per las terras toldre et per Orgolh suffrir

E per los mals escendre e pels bes escantir

E per donas aucirre e per efans delir,

Pot hom en aquest segle Jhesu Crist comquerir,

El deu portar corona e e.l cel resplandir.

[English version]

Straight to Carcassonne they brought him to be buried

In the church of Saint Nazaire, and his mass was said.

In his epitaph, for one who can read, it is clearly said

He’s a saint and martyr who’ll be raised from the dead

And in wondrous joy enraptured bloom and spread

Until the crown of Heaven descend on his head.

This must necessarily be, I’ve heard it said,

If, by killing men and unleashing torrents of blood,

By damning souls and encouraging murder to spread,

Taking ill counsel, spreading fire through the world,

Vilifying nobility and dispossessing knighthood,

By stealing good lands and giving free rein to pride,      

Nurturing the rise of evil and stifling the good,

Raping women and allowing children to be defiled,

May someone in this world win the love of Jesus Christ,

This one will wear a crown and by all Heaven be blest.

[CANSO DE LA CROSADA, Part 2 ‘The Anonymous’, laisse 208, verses 1-16^[1]. Immortally ironic commentary on the death of Simon de Montfort IV outside the walls of Toulouse and his religious burial at Carcassonne].

Contemporary Amplification (please click on):

http://www.croisade-albigeois-2009-2013.org/index.php/ressources/textes-d-origines/epique/239-and-i-have-heard-it-said-simon-de-montfort-goes-to-paradise

^[1] Eugène Martin-Chabot, 1961. La Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise, Tome III, Le Poème de l’Auteur Anonyme, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, pp. 226-228