DIRE LES BONS COUS. RICERCHE SULLA STROFA DI ELINANDO.

This thesis is structured as a collection of researches on the theme of «Hélinant's Strophe», a strophe that consists of twelve octosyllabes with rhyme scheme aabaabbbabba, first used by cistercian monk Hélinant of Froidmont in his Vers de la Mort, written around 1194-1197. The Vers de la Mort – the only surviving vernacular poem of all Hélinant's production – enjoyed of great appreciation and circulation between XIIIth and XVth centuries, and the so-called «Hélinant's» metre has been imitated and adopted in more than a hundred poems by different authors. The thesis is made of six chapters and a final appendix. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect or theme recurrent in the corpus, or on a single text. The first four chapters offer a thematic and 'cross-cutting' perspective; the first introductory chapter gives an overview on the origins, the characteristics and the circulation of the strophe, taking also stock of the current state of research in the field, with a brief summary of the main existing studies on the subject. The second chapter analyses more or less explicit quotes and imitations of Hélinant's Vers de la Mort on behalf of a number of authors active in the first half of XIIIth century. It is possible to observe that poems exploiting themes and subjects deriving from the Vers de la Mort often also exhibit Hélinant's linguistic and stylistic features, such as images, expressions, rhymes and wordplays. A thread connecting many of these poems can be therefore recognised. Among the themes exploited by the authors adopting Hélinant's metre the theme of death has a fundamental role, but other relevant subjects emerge, such as the criticism against the Roman Church, or an overall satirical characterization. The third chapter provides an analysis of selected metaphors and idiomatic expressions related to the semantic field of games (dices, chess and other games) which can be found in the poems; in particular, it is possible to recognise the inclination to bind the idea of playing a game with the idea of death, which builds up an image of Death as a player. Despite prohibitions and condemnations, playing enjoyed of wide popularity during the Middle Ages, and traces of this success can also be found in literature: together with technical handbooks, narrative and lyrical works make widespread use of references, metaphors and proverbial expressions relating to games. The aleatory element in these games is at the same time a source of fascination and threat, and seems to connect the playing itself with the idea of death, the fearsome and ultimate rival. The narration of life is hence symbolized by the development of a match where each man has to play for the sake of his own soul. Chapter four displays an essentially philological spin, focusing on the compilation strategies of XIIIth-XVth century miscellanies containing texts written in Hélinant's metre. Assuming a certain degree of awareness in the choice of the metric structure, we ask whether such awareness is reflected in the transmission and organization of the manuscripts. We ask in other words whether the criterion of metrical identity plays a role in the composition and organization of certain anthology codices or not; if so, to what extent and in which relation with other possible criteria guiding the composition of the miscellanies. The two following chapters focus instead on the study of specific texts. The fifth chapter offers a new critical edition of the anonymous De Renart et de Piaudoue, a satirical dispute between two rival minstrels. The prior edition by Rita Lejeune (1937), still precious and valuable from a historical point of view, is not particularly accurate from a philological perspective and is in need of an update in the interpretation of several passages. The new edition is accompanied by an introduction, an italian translation, commentary notes and a small inventory of idiomatic expressions. The final chapter offers a new critical editions of yet another anonymous poem, Des quatre gleves, accompanied by an introduction, an italian translation and commentary notes. The poem is an exemplum on the theme of the sad king, of which many different versions, both in vernacular and in latin, circulate during the Middle Ages. In spite of that, critical works on this subject seems to ignore the short french poem. While the prior edition by Petersen Dyggve (1937-38) is still valuable for several textual conjectures, it lacks commentaries and publishes the strophes in the wrong order; hence the need of an update and of a literary and cultural frame for the text. The appendix contains an inventory of the texts written in Hélinant's metre, which updates and integrates the two old inventories by Gotthold Naetebus (1891) and Adolf Bernhardt (1912). The corpus consists of all french texts written in Hélinant's metre by the XIVth century (with few exceptions), for a total of 80 works. For each entry the inventory gives (when available): title, name of the author, date, geographic origin, genre, number of strophes, number and list of manuscripts, a short description of the text, main critical edition and reference number in the inventories of Naetebus and Bernhardt.