Arnau March was a Provenço-
CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
knight and poet of the famous March family. He was related—it is unknown how—to Jaume I,
Jaume IIJaume March was a Catalan language poet.Brother of Pere March and uncle of Arnau March and the renowned Ausiàs March, Jaume's family had been lawyers and officers of the court of the kingdom of Aragon. Born in Valencia he was seemingly the eldest son, and inherited the family's possessions around...
,
PerePere March was a Valencian poet.Younger brother of Jaume March II, uncle of Arnau March, and father of Ausiàs March, Pere's family had been lawyers and officers of the court of the kingdom of Aragon...
, and
Ausiàs MarchAusiàs March was a Valencian poet who was born in Gandia towards the end of the 14th century. He was the son of Pere March, nephew of Jaume March II, and cousin of Arnau March....
. He bore the rank of
mossèn ("
milordIn the nineteenth century, milord was well-known as a word which continental Europeans whose jobs often brought them into contact with travellers commonly used to address Englishmen or male English-speakers who seemed to be upper-class – even though the English-language phrase "my...
"). He was active during the life and consortship of Margarida de Prades (queen 1409, nun 1424, dead 1430), to whom he addressed one poem, and before the compilation of the
Cançoner Vega-AguilóThe Cançoner Vega-Aguiló is a chansonnier predominantly carrying Catalan and Occitan pieces, but also some Castilian and Middle French verse.-Bibliography:*Anna Alberni Jordà , PhD thesis, University of Barcelona....
(1420–30), which contains three of his poems. In total, he has left only six pieces of verse. His dates suggest that he came a generation or two after the brothers Jaume II and Pere and one before Ausiàs. He may have been a nephew of the former and cousin of the latter, but it cannot be proved.
Arnau's work can be divided into three types: his three religious and three amorous pieces, and a single fragment preserved in part by Pere Torroella. His religious masterpiece is the
Visió de la Verge Maria ("Vision of the Virgin Mary") which, in a solemn and pious tone, heaps praise on the Virgin Mary, the
angelAngels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
s,
ApostleThe term apostle is derived from Classical Greek ἀπόστολος , meaning one who is sent away, from στέλλω + από . The literal meaning in English is therefore an "emissary", from the Latin mitto + ex...
s,
martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s, and virgins. Its final
tornadaIn Occitan lyric poetry, a tornada refers to a final, shorter stanza which is addressed to a patron, lady, or friend. They often contain useful information about the piece's composition and the troubadour's circle....
makes reference to
mercès a vós demana ("thanks to your pleading"), which may be an allusion to the local cult of
BarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
for Mary Mother of Mercy.
Arnau's
Qui parà dir lo misteri ten alt is a gloss on the
AnnunciationThe Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
as described in the
Gospel of LukeThe Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
, 1:31–38. The wording of this narrative poem is both
scholasticScholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
and emotional. The
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
VulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
translation of Luke is provided as a refrain after each verse:
Ecce ancilla Domini; fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum! ("Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" in the KJV). Arnau's final religious poem,
Un novell fruyt, exit de la rabaça, is a gloss on the
NativityThe Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....
as described in the first chapter of the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
. In it the scholasticism completely overtakes the traditional lyrical treatment of its subject.
Just as his religious poems fall completely within the scholastic tradition, so Arnau March's love poems fall completely within the
courtly loveCourtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife....
tradition of the
troubadourA troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s. His poetic style is similar in his religious and courtly verses: elegant , delicate, and emotive.
Si m'havets tolt, Amor, del tot lo sen, is a
planhThe planh or plaing is a funeral lament used by the troubadours, modeled on the medieval Latin planctus. It differed from the planctus in that it was intended for a secular audience...
(lament) of the duress of a lady in love. In
Novelh penser m'és vengutz soptamén Arnau questions whether a woman would actually believe the calumny raised against the service of love. Arnau's most famous love song is the
Cançó d'amor tençonada, which is phrased as a debate (
tensoA tenso is a style of Occitan song favoured by the troubadours. It takes the form of a debate in which each voice defends a position on a topic relating to love or ethics. Closely related genres include the partimen and the cobla exchange...
) between Wisdom and the Heart. The tension between the demands of these two domains was a constant theme in contemporary lyric poetry. The debate, in March, is unresolved, but according to its
rubricA rubric is a word or section of text which is traditionally written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The word derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
it was submitted for adjudication to
senyora reyna dona Margarida (Queen Margarida), but no further verses were added.
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