Abbreviations: B: Paris, Bn,F fr. 1585; C: Paris, BnF, fr. 1586; D: Paris, BnF, fr. 1587; E: Paris, BnF, fr. 9221; F: Paris, BnF, fr. 22545; G: Paris, BnF, fr. 22546; H: Oeuvres de Guillaume de Machaut, ed. Ernest Hoepffner; J: Paris, Arsenal 5203; K: Berne, Burgerbibliothek 218; JRB: Machaut, Le Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne; JRN: Machaut, Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre; M: Paris, BnF, fr. 843; MS: Paris, BnF, fr. 1584 [base text]; P: Paris, BnF, fr. 2166; Pm: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 396; R: Paris, BnF, fr. 2230; Vg: Cambridge, Parker Library, Ferrell 1 (formerly Vogüé Ferrell).
As detailed in the introduction (p. 36), the following comments do not contain a list of variants, but discuss the problems presented by the readings in MS A (henceforth MS) and the way they were solved in this edition. A complete list of music variants can be found in Volume 10: The Lays.
THE LAY DE PLOUR
The Lay de Plour (Lay of Weeping) is intimately connected with the Navarre, at the end of which the narrator promises to compose exactly such a lay as part of his punishment. (For the relationship between the two works and the particular issues raised by its positioning in the various manuscripts see the introduction to this volume, pp. 27–33.) Current thinking (based on its position and notational style in C) places this work in the early 1350s.1 C, which presents this song in the music section where each lay is accompanied by an opening miniature, begins the Lay with an image of a man and woman debating (C102 according to Earp’s system).2 While more complex interpretations of the program of lay-illuminations in C have been suggested,3 this might be a simple link of association, affiliating this work with the two judgment (or debate) poems. J, the only manuscript to place the Lay immediately after the JRB, uniquely opens with an illumination (J4) depicting the main theme of the work — a woman dressed in black sitting in front of a coffin covered in black drapery.4 No other manuscript couples this song with a miniature.
The Lay follows Machaut’s preferred lay structure of twelve strophes; the last reproduces the text structure, rhyme scheme, and music (transposed a fifth higher) of the first. In comparison with the lay incorporated into the Remede, this text is shorter and has a simpler line-structure. Its rhyme scheme, however, is more complex, and the Lay is notated in note-shapes more typical of the up to date Ars nova style than the Remede lay, which in its use of longer note-values conforms better to the more archaic notational habits of the Ars antiqua. Like most lays, it has a wide vocal range: this time spanning the interval of a twelfth.
Text structure: Letters indicate single rhyme endings. Numbers indicate the syllable
count of the line in question. Apostrophes indicate an unstressed appendage syllable not
included in the syllable count.
As detailed in the introduction (p. 36), the following comments do not contain a list of variants, but discuss the problems presented by the readings in MS A (henceforth MS) and the way they were solved in this edition. A complete list of music variants can be found in Volume 10: The Lays.
THE LAY DE PLOUR
The Lay de Plour (Lay of Weeping) is intimately connected with the Navarre, at the end of which the narrator promises to compose exactly such a lay as part of his punishment. (For the relationship between the two works and the particular issues raised by its positioning in the various manuscripts see the introduction to this volume, pp. 27–33.) Current thinking (based on its position and notational style in C) places this work in the early 1350s.1 C, which presents this song in the music section where each lay is accompanied by an opening miniature, begins the Lay with an image of a man and woman debating (C102 according to Earp’s system).2 While more complex interpretations of the program of lay-illuminations in C have been suggested,3 this might be a simple link of association, affiliating this work with the two judgment (or debate) poems. J, the only manuscript to place the Lay immediately after the JRB, uniquely opens with an illumination (J4) depicting the main theme of the work — a woman dressed in black sitting in front of a coffin covered in black drapery.4 No other manuscript couples this song with a miniature.
The Lay follows Machaut’s preferred lay structure of twelve strophes; the last reproduces the text structure, rhyme scheme, and music (transposed a fifth higher) of the first. In comparison with the lay incorporated into the Remede, this text is shorter and has a simpler line-structure. Its rhyme scheme, however, is more complex, and the Lay is notated in note-shapes more typical of the up to date Ars nova style than the Remede lay, which in its use of longer note-values conforms better to the more archaic notational habits of the Ars antiqua. Like most lays, it has a wide vocal range: this time spanning the interval of a twelfth.
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Text structure: Letters indicate single rhyme endings. Numbers indicate the syllable
count of the line in question. Apostrophes indicate an unstressed appendage syllable not
included in the syllable count.
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p 5 a 7 |
b 3' v 5' || b 7' |
b v 7' x 4 b 7' |
a w 7 x 5 a 7 |
| | x 3 | |
a v 7' x 3 a 7 |
b 3' v 5' y 5 b 7' |
b 7' v 7' | b 7' |
5' w 7 x 4 a 7 |
|| || x 5 || |
x 3 |
x 3 |
y 5 |
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