8 Crusade Poems of Rutebeuf

Rutebeuf, Crusade Poet and Social Critic

Anne Latowsky

Between 1255 and 1277, the poet writing under the name Rutebeuf penned eleven poems related to the contemporary crusading movement, one of which eulogizes Eudes of Nevers.¹ Described variously as a minstrel, poet-preacher, poet-journalist, propagandist, and pamphleteer, Rutebeuf left behind fifty-five poems that range in tone from the playful and humorous to the moralizing and religious.² Although now recognized as a major figure in thirteenth-century French poetry, there is no contemporary mention of him, and anything to be gleaned about the poet himself derives exclusively from the scant and unreliable evidence provided by his own poems.³ Rutebeuf delights in mocking others, often irreverently, but also makes light of his own poetic persona. In an elaborate ten-verse digression, the poet plays with the rustic coarseness suggested by his name using repetition of the words rude, beuf, and euvre as in “rude,” “ox,” and “work.” His ironic expression of poetic humility ends with his famous pronouncement, “but Rutebeuf is as rude as an ox [mais Rutebués est ausi rudes coume bués].”⁴ His origins are unknown, although it is evident that he was well educated and seems to have spent his adult life in Paris. His poems, in particular those that memorialize Eudes of Nevers and Geoffrey of Sergines, suggest a strong affinity for the aristocratic milieu in the regions east of Paris, especially Champagne. One mention by a character in a single poem led many to believe that Rutebeuf was actually from Champagne, an idea refuted by Edmond Faral and Julia Bastin in their monumental edition of Rutebeuf’s complete works.⁵ Paris was not a center of aristocratic literary patronage at the time, and in 1261, Louis IX had closed the royal court to all entertainers for reasons of moral and financial austerity.⁶ Had he been attached to the court, it appears that he was cut loose after that point. Rutebeuf’s livelihood would therefore have depended on commissions from patrons beyond the royal court, and indeed he devoted the latter part of his career to writing propagandistic crusade poetry, although for whom remains a mystery.⁷

Rutebeuf’s crusade poems reveal a poet engaged in the historical moment through the creation of a poet-preacher persona charged with exhorting the faithful to mend their ways and save the Holy Land.⁸ As a poet, he was involved in two major contemporary causes, the great polemic at the University of Paris from 1255 to 1261 and the crusades.⁹ In the university quarrel, Rutebeuf sided with the secular masters against the preachers of the mendicant orders, which proved to be a vote for the losing side. His participation, which included verses openly hostile to the king, likely tarnished his name, so his turn toward crusade exhortation may well reflect a bid to regain favor in royal circles.¹⁰ His poetry shows signs of inspiration from papal crusade promotion and appears to respond directly, in some instances, to public criticism such as that of the preacher Humbert of Romans in 1266–68.¹¹ Here too, the circumstances of his career remain obscure to us, although in a burgeoning culture of literature related to current events, his poems may have been part of a world of leaflets and booklets that circulated after public recitations.¹²

The Translations

Rutebeuf’s eleven crusade poems can be roughly divided into eulogies of individual crusaders, direct exhortations to save the Holy Land, poems related to events in Apulia in the mid-1260s, and a well-known debate poem between two knights, one in favor of crusading and one skeptical.¹³ Of the eleven, we selected seven to transcribe as a single-text edition and translate from Old French into English. They include the two poems memorializing Eudes of Nevers and Geoffrey of Sergines, the four crusade exhortations, and the debate poem. Of the four not translated, two relate to Apulia and Charles of Anjou and two are laments for fallen crusaders on the ill-fated expedition that ended at Tunis in 1270. Interesting as they are, those individuals and events sit outside the scope of Eudes of Nevers’s experiences in the East, and therefore we chose not to include them here. Our transcriptions are of the poems found in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), manuscript français (MS fr.) 1635. This manuscript is one of the twenty manuscripts that Faral and Bastin used for their edition. We chose BnF, MS fr. 1635 because it contains eight of his poems that appear in no other manuscript, all related to crusading, and because it is closest in time to Rutebeuf’s own lifetime.¹⁴

Our English translations of Rutebeuf’s crusade poems, most of which were composed in the octosyllabic verse typical of the era, are rendered with no attempt to preserve syntax or rhyme scheme. We tried to remain relatively close to the Old French text, except for when an English idiom better captured the often rhetorically complex meaning. A major challenge in translating Rutebeuf into English is his frequent use of wordplay based on similar sounds including homonyms, rhymes, puns, and alliteration, a rhetorical device known as annominatio. For instance, in the space of the first eight verses of the “Lament for My Lord Geoffrey of Sergines [Complainte de monseigneur Joffroi de Sergines]” he uses the following words suggesting variations on concepts of endings or refinement: fin, defineroit, afineroit, defineir, finement, fineir, fine, fin, and fine. In another recurring example, death, la mort, rhymes or appears in proximity to words related to biting and, by extension, regret such as mord and remord. Some scholars have disparaged Rutebeuf for his wordplay, accusing him of undermining the solemnity of his crusade poems, but there is evidence that medieval audiences would not have shared this view. Scorn toward punning and rhymes was a later development, and in fact, these devices were in vogue during Rutebeuf’s era.¹⁵ Moreover, vernacular poetry at the time was strongly influenced by Latin oratory, and the establishment of sound patterns using rhetorical devices would have been familiar from Latin hymns. Poetry was created for the ear and not the eye, Nancy Freeman Regalado reminds us, and the similar sounds often pointed to deep metaphorical relationships between the rhyming words and sounds in question, as in the case of remorse and death’s deadly bite.¹⁶ For those translating from Old French into Modern French, it is possible to reproduce or at least approximate Rutebeuf’s frequent sound-based wordplay since the syntax can often be preserved and the phonetic similarities remained relatively stable over time. This is not the case when translating into English.¹⁷ Needless to say, we have not attempted to re-create Rutebeuf’s continual play of sound and meaning in English.

Reading the Crusade Poems

Throughout his poems promoting the crusade cause, the primary objects of Rutebeuf’s moral outrage are not the infidels abroad, but the inhabitants of the world around him, in France.¹⁸ He spares almost no one in his denunciations of moral failings, especially those of lazy clergymen, who, as he predicts, will soon have grown so fat that no burial shroud will fit around their paunches when they die.¹⁹ He rarely alludes to Muslims beyond the occasional reference to “the Saracen people [la gent sarrazine]” as ferocious enemies, or to a sultan in the lament for Eudes who exists in the bold fantasies of those who, in a state of drunkenness, promise to go on a crusade only to lose courage once sober in the morning.²⁰ He saves the majority of his swipes and barbs for the members of his own society, whether lazy knights happy to stay in France and joust, merchants who cheat their neighbors, or prelates who choose a warm bed over defense of the Holy Land.²¹ His rhetorical techniques are often adapted from preaching and include themes such as the scorn for earthly possessions, the evils of greed, and the promise of heaven and the threat of hell.²² Other recurring themes include the inexorable passage of time, the uncertain destination of the soul after the body is gone, the guarantee of judgment before God, and the crusade as an instrument of salvation and purification of the soul.²³ Rutebeuf also employs metaphors related to accounting.²⁴ Using a language of mortgage and credit, the poet exhorts his audience to leave behind family and possessions and take the “deal,” that is, the promise of heaven for the reasonable payment of crusade. In other words, God is a merchant who is selling at a bargain, but the deal will not be on the table for much longer. More often redemption through crusade will come at a painful financial and physical price, requiring great suffering, if not martyrdom: the sacrifice of the body to save the soul.²⁵

Scholars sometimes ponder the occasional mixed messages lurking in Rutebeuf’s verses.²⁶ A growing hostility toward further sanctioned war marked the era of his crusade promotion, and although still an object of great respect, Holy Land crusading seemed to be an increasingly lost cause.²⁷ Rutebeuf’s debate poem, most likely written between 1268 and 1269 while the expedition called in 1267 remained stalled in its preparations, dramatizes the opposing sides of the discussion, but with a surprising twist. After some predictable back and forth between the two knights, the noncrusader, who is loath to give up everything and risk his life to go on crusade, suddenly declares himself the loser and announces his intention to take the cross. As multiple critics have remarked, however, the arguments of the noncrusader are notably more compelling. As a paid propagandist, Rutebeuf could not have allowed the noncrusader to win, but social critic that he was, he may have simply allowed the superior arguments of the noncrusader to be aired publicly without comment.²⁸

For whatever doubts he harbored about the viability of the movement, Rutebeuf never abandoned his task of promoting crusading, and he continued to the last to hold up Eudes of Nevers as an ideal Christian knight who had made the ultimate sacrifice. He writes in his final poem, “The New Complaint of Outremer [La nouvele complainte doutremeir],” that no one could ever recite songs or verses about Eudes that were not full of praise for his good qualities, including the esteem he enjoyed at the royal court (vv. 129–32). This is self-referential, no doubt, as Rutebeuf trades here on his most valuable currency, his power to memorialize in verse, which he had done for Eudes and others. By portraying the count as the subject of praise-filled songs, Rutebeuf places Eudes among the ranks of Charlemagne, Roland, Godfrey, and Tancred, heroes whose deeds are remembered thanks to the verses of poets. He offers similar future poetic glory in “The Poem of the Route to Tunis [Li diz de la Voie de Tunes]” (vv. 270–73), when he exhorts his listeners to go rob the sultan of all his joy and pleasure so that great songs will then be sung of them.

Rutebeuf finished his career as a crusade propagandist with one final call for future action in the Holy Land. In one of his most widely discussed verses, which appears twice, the poet exhorts his listeners “to begin a new chapter [Reconmanciez novele estoire].” The phrase appears early in “The Complaint of Outremer [La complainte doutremeir]” (v. 16) after a vision of a bloodied Christ at the Last Judgment and again in his last poem, “The New Complaint of Outremer [La nouvele complainte doutremeir]” (v. 341), with a final memento mori about the unknown hour of one’s death and a gruesome reminder of Saint Paul’s decapitation. Michel Zink makes a distinct choice here by translating novele estoire as “nouvelle épopée,” thereby alluding to the Old French epic cycles that included songs about the First Crusade.²⁹ Yet the word estoire evokes both the word “story,” a tale in the literary sense, and historia as in a narrative of a historical event often included in the liturgy. Estoire also suggests a naval flotilla, thus implying a renewed military effort.³⁰ It is no accident, then, that in his final exhortation Rutebeuf evokes the leaders of the First Crusade, Godfrey, Bohemond, and Tancred, whose recovery of the Holy Land, long since squandered, still demanded a new iteration.³¹

In 1277, seven years after Louis’s death at Tunis, Rutebeuf was still waiting for another generation to rise to the occasion. In “The New Complaint of Outremer,” some twenty verses after his second call for a “novele estoire” with his work now complete, the poet announces that he is ending his sermon (“Rutebues son sarmon define”) (v. 366).³² For the poet-preacher-propagandist, Eudes of Nevers had been the ideal inheritor of the mantle of a crusade hero: a man for whom rumors of sanctity circulated, a knight worthy of being named alongside the likes of Godfrey of Bouillon. Eudes was a prudhomme to be emulated should Rutebeuf’s ever-more-leery public decide to heed his warnings about the perils of final judgment and write a new chapter in the story of the Holy Land.³³

Poems

Translated by Anne Latowsky, Anne E. Lester, Laura K. Morreale, and Caroline Smith

Rutebeuf’s crusade poems are presented here in the order in which they were written between the mid-1250s and the late 1270s. Although we know nothing of the circumstances of their earliest dissemination, the poems would likely have been shared in performance before being written down and fair-copied in Paris, BnF, MS fr. 1635, the late thirteenth-century manuscript that we have used for our transcription.³⁴ Although Rutebeuf wrote in the Parisian dialect of Francien, the contents of BnF, MS fr. 1635 strongly suggest that the scribes were from the regions to the east of Paris that included Champagne.³⁵ As indicated by the folio numbers, Rutebeuf’s crusade poems were spread throughout the manuscript, interspersed with poems of religious satire and devotion, verse miracle stories, personal poems on the poet’s marriage and poverty, and sayings attributed to Aristotle. The crusade poems address the period of the crusade movement that followed King Louis IX of France’s return, defeated, from Acre in 1254 and continue spanning the fall of the Latin Empire of Constantinople (1261), the rise of the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria (1258–68), and Louis IX’s second crusade expedition to Tunis (1270), then taking up the future of Acre, which would eventually fall in 1291. In this way, Rutebeuf offers both a biting critique of crusading culture and ambitions and a call for knights, prelates, lords, and kings to account and atone for their wrongs and to renew their aid to the Holy Land. Situated as both a critique of and a call to crusade, Rutebeuf’s poems offer a blunt assessment of the state of the movement, quite different from the formal preached sermons and papal encyclicals that called in ever more hyperbolic language for new military efforts across the Mediterranean. Rutebeuf’s descriptions align strikingly well with the Account-Inventory, as he is especially attuned to the financial and material hardships everyday French men, women, and children would have to endure to support the call to crusade. Loans, mortgages, and unfair financial dealings are a special concern for him and no doubt mirrored the worries of French families of all social backgrounds. Similarly, the hypocrisy of the clergy, whether friars, priests, bishops, or abbots, galled him and seemed an especial evil when compared with the personal sacrifices vowed crusaders—men like Geoffrey of Sergines and Eudes of Nevers—had made.

Several terms reoccur throughout Rutebeuf’s corpus of crusade poems that require some explanation. First, the titles of six of the seven poems here include the word complainte. The Old French complainte is a genre of lament, often in honor of a subject whose deeds were memorable. The genre is characterized by frequent direct exclamations and exhortations to the audience called apostrophes.³⁶ The Latin term for a formal poetic lament is a planctus. Laments, like the Latin planctus, were often composed after someone’s death, to be read aloud and to lament their loss and thereby to memorialize them. Laments were also written for the loss of places as much as people. After 1187, following the Christian loss of Jerusalem to Saladin, clerics and monks in the West composed several planctus hymns and poems.³⁷ In the context of the poems about Geoffrey of Sergines and Eudes of Nevers, we think “lament” is the appropriate translation rather than the closer English cognate, “complaint.” By contrast, for the poems focused on places like Outremer, Constantinople, and Tunis, especially in the context of calling a new crusade to aid those locales, we used the English word “complaint” since the poet is also admonishing and indeed complaining about the lack of sincerity or effort put toward aiding those places and their inhabitants.

Other terms that run throughout the poetic corpus of Rutebeuf’s crusade poems that are difficult to translate with ease include the following: Courtoisie, or courtesy, which is to say, courtliness, is the quality of being well-versed in the appropriate behaviors of courtly life, having good and generous manners, being well-meaning, and holding a positive bearing. Chevalerie, or chivalry in a general sense, is related to courtoisie in that it describes a code of knightly conduct central to medieval aristocratic culture. Rutebeuf also frequently uses the terms preux and prudhomme, to signify the embodiment of noble and chivalric qualities and to praise men who were wise, well-governed, and showed prudence and discernment in their behavior and affairs. More than simply describing a “wise man” prudhomme connoted an individual who had a noble bearing even if not of noble descent, a man who was upright and judicious.³⁸ Gentillesse was similarly a quality that a prudhomme might possess or enact, that is, to be genteel, in the sense of governing oneself and one’s relations with others with kindness, respect, and decorum. This was how men were to act at court, how they were to run their households and relate to family, and how they were to comport themselves publicly, with kindness, generosity, and goodwill. All of these terms encompassed a mindset, a way of being in the world, and a set of positive physical attributes that signaled a knight of esteem or the character of a man who could be extolled. For the most part, nearly all of these characteristics pertained to men, and therefore there is a degree to which ideals of masculinity come into view in these poems.³⁹

Rutebeuf’s Selected Crusade Poems

“The Lament for My Lord Geoffrey of Sergines” (1255–56)

“The Complaint of Constantinople” (1262)

“The Complaint of Outremer” (1265–66)

“The Lament for Count Eudes of Nevers” (1266)

“The Poem of the Route to Tunis” (1267)

“The Disputation between the Crusader and the Noncrusader” (1268–69)

“The New Complaint of Outremer” (1277)⁴⁰

The Lament for My Lord Geoffrey of Sergines

La complainte de monseigneur Joffroi de Sergines (17v–19r)

Composed in the wake of Louis IX’s failed crusade expedition (1248–54), this poem was written in honor of Geoffrey of Sergines, the commander of the garrison that King Louis IX maintained in Syria to oversee the cities of Jaffa and Acre following his return to France (April 25, 1254). The king would continue to provision the French garrison for the next decade. Geoffrey of Sergines is extolled here as an ideal knight and leader (“bon chevalier et prudhomme”), a model crusader to be emulated. It has been suggested that Rutebeuf and Geoffrey may have both hailed from Champagne and shared in the patronage of the king and other barons. The poet is clearly deeply moved by and sympathetic to Geoffrey’s example and notes how he had become the liegeman of the king of France after having been first the vassal of Hugh of Châtillon, count of St.-Pol. Rutebeuf’s “Lament” is directed at the seemingly futile struggle to defend Acre, and the lack of funds and support for the Holy Land more generally. The poem must have been finished before April 11, 1269, when Geoffrey of Sergines died, for he was certainly still alive at the time of composition. Because of the reference to Jaffa, and the series of truces signed by Geoffrey in an attempt to hold the remaining cities under French dominion, it seems most probable that the “Lament” was composed and delivered or performed between the end of 1255 and 1256.⁴¹

Ci en coumence la complainte de mon seigneur Joffroi de Sergines	Here begins the Lament of my lord Geoffrey of Sergines
[17v] Qui de loiaul cuer et de fin loiaument juques en la fin a dieu servir defineroit Qui son tens ⋅ i afineroit de legier devroit defineir5 Et finement vers dieu fineir. Qui le sert de pensee fine Cortoisement ⋅ en la fin fine Et por ce le sunt rendu maint 10Quenvers celui qui la sus maint⁴² Puissent fineir ⋅ courtoizement Sen vont li cors ⋅ honteuzement Se di ge por religieux Car chacuns deulz ⋅ nest pas prieulz et li autre ⋅ ront getei fors15 [18r] Le preu des armes ⋅ por les cors Qui riens plus ⋅ ne vuelent conquerre Fors le cors ⋅ honoreir seur terre Ainsi est partie ⋅ la riegle⁴³ De ceulz dordre et de ceulz du siecle20	[17v] He who is loyal and pure of heart, would choose to loyally serve God up until the end. He should reach the end of his life with ease, and, facing God, perfectly meet his end. He who serves Him with elegant thought in the end, ends his days with courtoisie.⁴⁴ And for this reason, many offer themselves up⁴⁵ so that they might end their days with courtoisie in the sight of Him who lives on high while their bodies shamefully decay. I say this about the religious,⁴⁶ since not every one of them is a prior. The latter have rejected [18r] the interests of the soul in favor of those of the body. They wish to obtain nothing outside of honoring the body on earth. There are two different rules;⁴⁷ one for those in orders and one for those in the world.
Mais qui porroit ⋅ en lui avoir Tant de proesse ⋅ et de savoir Que larme fust ⋅ et nete et monde Et li cors honoriez au monde Ci auroit trop bel aventage25 Mais de ceux ⋅ nen sai je cun sage Et cil est plains ⋅ des dieu doctrines Mes sires Joffrois de Sergines A non li preudons ⋅ que je noume	But whoever might have such prowess and knowledge within himself that the soul would be both pure and unstained, and the body honored in the world; that man would have a great advantage. Yet among these men, I know but one so worthy, and he is full of God’s teachings. My lord, Geoffrey of Sergines is the name of the prudhomme of whom I speak.⁴⁸
Et si le tiennent a preudoume ⋅ 30 Empereour ⋅ et roi et conte Asseiz plus ⋅ que je ne vos conte Touz autres ⋅ ne pris. ii. espesches Envers li ⋅ quar ces bones tesches Font bien partout a reprochier35 De ces teches vos voel touchier Un pou celonc ce ⋅ que jen sai Car qui me metroit a lessai De changier ⋅ arme ⋅ por la moie	Emperors, kings, counts, and many more— more than I can even tell you— deem him to be a prudhomme. All others are not even worth two cents compared to him, for his good qualities are cited as examples to others far and wide. Allow me to describe these qualities for you a bit, based on what I know. For whoever would challenge me to exchange his soul for mine,
Et je a leslire venoie40 De touz ceulz ⋅ qui orendroit vivent Qui por lor arme ⋅ au siecle estrivent Tant quierent pain ⋅ trestot deschauz Par les grans froiz et par les chauz Ou vestent haire ⋅ ou ceignent corde45 Ou plus fassent ⋅ que ne recorde Je panroie ⋅ larme de lui Plus tost asseiz ⋅ que la nelui dendroit dou cors ⋅ vous puis je dire Que qui me metroit ⋅ a leslire50 Luns des boens chevaliers de france Ou dou roiaume ⋅ a ma creance Ja autre ⋅ de lui nesliroie Je ne sai ⋅ que plus vos diroie	and if I were to choose among all those living right now who battle for their soul in the world— whether they beg for bread, go shoeless through great cold and heat, or wear a hairshirt, or gird themselves with a cord,⁴⁹ or go to greater lengths than I can even say— I would take his soul first, far more so than anyone else’s. As for the body, may I tell you, if anyone would ask me to choose one from among the good knights of France or of the kingdom,⁵⁰ in my opinion I would choose none other than his. I do not know what more I might say.
Tant est preudons si comme moi cemble55 Qui a ces ⋅ ii ⋅ choses encemble Valeur de cors ⋅ et bontei darme Garant li soit ⋅ la douce dame Quant larme dou cors partira Quele sache quel part ira60 Et le cors ait en sa baillie Et le maintiegne en bone vie	He is truly a prudhomme, it seems to me, who embodies these two things at once: valor of body and goodness of soul. May our sweet Lady be the guarantor when his soul leaves his body, and may she know where it is going and may she have his body under her protection so that she will ensure its safekeeping.
Quant il estoit ⋅ en cest pais Que ne soie ⋅ por folz naïz De ce que jai le lolz tenu 65 Ni estoit jones ⋅ ne chenuz Qui tant peust ⋅ des armes faire Dolz et cortoiz et debonaires Le trovoit hon ⋅ en son osteil Mais aulz armes ⋅ autre que teil70 Le trovast ⋅ li siens anemis Puis quil ci fust ⋅ mesleiz et mis Mult amoit Dieu et sainte esglise Si ne vousist ⋅ en nule guise	When he was in this land⁵¹— may I not seem foolishly naive because of how I have praised him— there was no one, young or old, who could accomplish such feats of arms. Those within his household found him to be gentle, courteous, and gracious, but once armed and in the thick of it his enemies deemed him to be otherwise. He loved God dearly, and the Holy Church. Therefore, whenever possible,
Envers nelui ⋅ feble ne fort75 A son pooir ⋅ mespanrre a tort Ses povres voizins ama bien Volontiers ⋅ lor dona dou sien Et si donoit ⋅ en teil meniere Que mieulz valoit ⋅ la bele chiere80 Quil fassoit ⋅ au doneir le don Que li dons ⋅ icist boens preudons Preudoume crut ⋅ et honora Ainz entour ⋅ lui ne demora Fauz lozengiers ⋅ puis quil le sot85	he did not wish to mistreat anyone, strong or weak, in any way. He loved his poor neighbors and willingly shared what he had, giving in such a manner that as he gave the gift, his pleasing countenance was worth more than the gift itself. This fine prudhomme trusted and honored other prudhommes. Never did false flatterers remain in his midst once he found out about them;
[18v] Car qui ce fait jel teing⁵² a sot Ne fu mesliz ne mesdizans Ne vanterres ⋅ ne despizans Ainz que jeusse ⋅ racontei Sa grant valeur ne sa bontei90 Sa cortoisie ne son sens Torneroit ⋅ a anui se pens Son seigneur lige ⋅ tint tant chier Quil ala avec li vengier La honte dieu outre la meir95 Teil preudoume doit hon ameir	[18v] whoever would do that, I deem a fool. He was not quarrelsome, nor slanderous nor boastful, nor contemptuous. Were I to recount all his great qualities and his goodness and his courtoisie and his good sense it would become tedious, I think. He held his liege lord so dear that he accompanied him beyond the sea to avenge God’s shame. One should love such a prudhomme—
Avec le roi ⋅ demora la ⋅ Avec le roi ⋅ mut et ala Avec le roi prist bien et mal Hom nat pas toz jors tenz igal100 Ainz pour painne ne por paour Ne corroussa son Sauveour Tout prist engrei ⋅ quanquil soffri Le cors et larme ⋅ a Dieu offri Ses consoulz fu ⋅ boens et entiers105 Tant com il fu ⋅ poinz et mestiers Ne ne chanja ⋅ por esmaier	he remained there with the king, he set out and travelled with the king, he weathered the good and the bad with the king— one day is never the same as the next. Despite pain and fear, he never angered his Savior. Everything he suffered, he did so willingly; he offered his body and soul to God. His counsel was good and wholehearted; when the time and the necessity arose,⁵³ he did not change it out of fear.
De legie devra ⋅ Dieu paier Car il le paie chacun jour A Jasphes ⋅ ou il fait sejour110 Cil at se jour de guerroier La vuet il ⋅ son tens emploier Felon voizin et envieuz Et cruel et contralieuz Le truevent ⋅ la gent sarrazine115 Car de guerroier ⋅ ne les fine Souvant lor fait ⋅ grant envaie Que sa demeure i est haie	He will easily pay what he owes to God because he pays Him every day.⁵⁴ In Jaffa, where he is stationed, if there is a pause in the fighting he wishes to make use of his time. The Saracen people find him to be a cruel, covetous, and hostile neighbor, for he is never done waging war upon them. He often launches such powerful assaults against them that his presence there is hated.
Des or croi ge ⋅ bien cest latin Maulz voizins ⋅ done mau matin120 Son cors ⋅ lor presente souvent Mais il at trop petit couvent Se petiz est ⋅ petit sesmaie Car li paierres qui bien paie Les puet bien ⋅ cens doute paier125 Que nuls ⋅ ne se doit esmaier Quil nait coroune de martir Quant dou siecle ⋅ devra partir Et une riens ⋅ les reconforte Car puis quil sunt fors de la porte130 Et il ont ⋅ mon seigneur Joffroi Nunz doulz niert ja puis en effroi ⋅ Ainz vaut li uns ⋅ au besoing⁵⁵ quatre	Now I truly believe this saying: “bad neighbors make for bad mornings.” He continuously offers up his body to them, but his retinue is too meager. Though their numbers are small, so too is their fear, for the payer who pays well is no doubt able to pay them handsomely; and so none should fear that he will not receive the martyr’s crown when he must depart from this world.⁵⁶ And one thing comforts them: if they are outside the gates and they have my lord Geoffrey with them, none among them will ever be afraid. For when the need arises, a single one of them is worth four,
Mais cens lui ne sozent combatre Par lui jostent ⋅ par lui guerroient135 Jamais cens lui ⋅ ne ce verroient En bataille ne en estour Quil font de li ⋅ chastel et tour A li sasennent et ralient	but without him, they dare not fight. Because of him they joust, because of him they fight, without him they would never see a battle or melee. For they make of him a castle and a tower. They rally to him and gather around,
Car cest ⋅ lor estandars ce dient.140 Cest cil qui dou champ ⋅ ne se muet El champ le puet ⋅ troveir qui vuet Ne ja por fais ⋅ que il soutaigne Ne partira ⋅ de la besoigne Car il seit bien ⋅ de lautre part145 Se de sa partie ⋅ se part Ne puet estre ⋅ que sa partie Ne soit tost sans li departie Sovent asaut et va en proie Sor cele gent qui Dieu ne proie150 Ne naime ⋅ ne sert ⋅ ne aeure Si com cil ⋅ qui ne garde leure Que Dieux ⋅ en fasse son voloir	for they say he is their standard. He is the one who does not quit the field of battle. Whoever so wishes can find him on that field. Whatever charge he takes up, he never abandons the cause. On the other hand, he is well aware that if he were to abandon his party, there is no doubt that his group would quickly fall apart without him. He often attacks and preys upon those people who do not pray to God, who neither love, nor serve, nor praise Him, just as one who is always ready to do what God wills of him.
Por Dieu fait mult ⋅ son cors doloir Ainsi soffre ⋅ sa penitence.155 [19r] De mort ⋅ chacun jor en balance ⋅ Or prions donques ⋅ a celui Qui refuzeir ⋅ ne seit nelui Qui le vuet priier ⋅ et ameir Qui por nos ot ⋅ le mort ameir160 De la mort ⋅ vilainne ⋅ et ameire En cele garde ⋅ quil sa meire Commanda a lesvangelistre Son droit maistre ⋅ et son droit menistre Lou cors a ce preudoume gart165 Et larme resoive en sa part	For God he makes his body endure great pain. Thus he suffers his penitence; [19r] each day death hangs in the balance. So let us now pray to Him who is unable to refuse anyone wishing to pray to and love Him. Let us pray to the One who, on our behalf, received the bitter bite of evil and bitter death, that under that protection—by which His mother was entrusted to the Evangelist, His rightful master and rightful servant— He may preserve the body of this prudhomme and receive his soul at His side.
Explicit	The End

The Complaint of Constantinople

La complainte de Coustantinoble (13r–14v)

Written just after the fall of the city of Constantinople to the Greek ruler Michael VIII Paleologus on July 25, 1261, this poem is both a lament, that is, a doleful remembrance, and a complaint and indictment about how this state of affairs could have occurred. From April 1204, when a combined force of French, Flemish, and Venetian crusaders took the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, much of the former Byzantine Empire, as well as the Greek Morea and Peloponnese, had been under Latin, and principally French, Flemish, and Champenois, control. The loss of the city in 1261 signaled the end of this Latin Empire, although claims to its titles and dominion would persist for generations, passing to the Courtenay family and eventually the Angevins. Rutebeuf complains about the lack of interest and support—both financial and material—for Constantinople, for those who remain in the former Latin Empire, and for the Holy Land in general. He criticizes the clergy who grow fat and lazy, while Greece—the place where knighthood and chivalry first flourished—suffers disgrace and neglect. This poem aired grievances and critiques that aligned with that of the papacy, which had attempted to channel support to aid the Latin Empire for two decades. The poem was most likely composed in the summer or fall of 1262 following the promulgation of Pope Urban IV’s commission to the Franciscans (May 21, 1262) to preach a new crusade against Michael Paleologus. In some key respects—the mention of Crete, Cyprus, and “the Islands [les Iles],” references to the menacing movements of the “Tartars,” and a nostalgia for Achaea and the Morea—it seems clear that Rutebeuf knew of, or had heard read aloud, and followed the language of the papal letter. Moreover, he often referred to himself in his poems as “a sermonizer” or as offering up a “sermon,” in the guise of a poem.⁵⁷

Ci en coumence la complainte de Coustantinoble	Here begins the Complaint of Constantinople
[13r] Sopirant pour lumain linage Et pencis au crueil damage Qui de jour en jour i avient5 Vos wel descovrir mon corage Que ne sai autre · laborage Dou plus parfont do cuer me vient Je sai bien · et bien men souvient	[13r] Sighing for humankind and mindful of the cruel suffering that befalls it day after day, I wish to reveal what is in my heart, for I know no other way to work; it comes from the deepest part of my heart. I know truly and remember well
Que tout a avenir covient10 Quan cont dit li prophete sage Or porroit estre · se devient Que la foi qui feble devient Porroit changier nostre langage Nos en sons bien · entrei en voie15 [13v] Ni at si fol · qui ne le voie Quant Coustantinnoble est perdue Et la Moree se ravoie A recevoir teile escorfroie I sainte eglize · est perdue20 Quen cors at petit datendue Quant il at la teste fendue Se Jhesucriz · ni fait aiue A la Sainte Terre absolue Bien li est esloigniee joie25 Dautre part viennent li Tartaire Que hom fera · mais a tart taire Com navoit cure daleir querre Diex gart Acre · Jaffes · Cezeire Autre secors ne lor puis feire.30 Car je ne sui · mais hom de guerre Ha Antioche · Sainte Terre Qui tant coutastes a conquerre Ainz con vos peust · a nos trere Qui des ciels cuide ovrir la serre,35 Conment puet teil doleur sofferre Cil at Dieu · ciert donc par contrere	that everything to come must happen just as the wise prophets said. Now it may be, perhaps, that the faith, which grows weak, may change the way we speak. We are already well on our way down this path. [13v] There is no one so foolish that he does not see that, ever since Constantinople was lost, and the Morea is on its way to a similar onslaught. The Holy Church is thus in despair, for there is little hope in the body when the head has been cleaved in two. If Jesus Christ does not grant aid to the blessed Holy Land, all joy is truly gone from there. The Tartars are coming from the other side;⁵⁸. it will be too late to silence them now, for no one did enough to seek them out. May God preserve Acre, Jaffa, and Caesarea. I cannot offer them any more help since I am not a man of war. Oh! Antioch, oh! Holy Land, You, who cost so much to conquer before we could make you our own. He who believes he can open the gates of heaven how can he tolerate such suffering? If that man were to reach God, then all would be turned on its head.
Isle de Cret · Cosse · Sezile Chipre · douce terre · et douce isle Ou tuit avoient · recovrance40 Quant vos seroiz · en autrui pile Li rois tanra · desa concile Conment Ayoulz · sen vint en France Et fera · nueve remenance A cex qui font · nueve creance.45 Novel Dieu· et nueve Evangile Et laira semeir · par doutance Ypocrisie · sa semance Qui est dame de ceste vile	Isle of Crete, Corsica, and Sicily, Cyprus—sweet land and sweet isle where everyone once had safe harbor— when you find yourself crushed under another’s dominion the king will hold a council on our shores on how Ayoul⁵⁹ came to France. And he will establish new foundations for those who are creating a new faith, a new God, and a new Gospel, and, out of fear, he will allow Hypocrisy to sow Her seed, for She is the lady who rules over this city.
[Se li]⁶⁰ denier · que hon at mie50 En celx qua Dieu · ce font amis Fussent mis · en la Terre Sainte Ele en eust · mains danemis Et mains tost ce fust entremis Cil qui la ja brisie et frainte55 Mais trop a tart · en fais la plainte Quele est ja si forment empainte Que ces pooirs · nest mais demis De legier · sera mais atainte Quant sa lumiere est ja etainte.60 Et sa cire devient remis· De la Terre Dieu · qui empire Sire Diex · que porront or dire Li rois et li cuens de Poitiers Diex resueffre · novel martyre65 Or faissent large cemetyre Cil dAcre · quil lor est mestiers Touz est plains derbe · li santiers· Com suet batre si volentiers	If the money that had been given to those who make themselves out to be friends of God had instead been sent to the Holy Land, She would have had fewer enemies, and those who had already broken and shattered Her would have been slower to undertake their task.⁶¹ But I made my complaint too late, for She is already under such intense attack that Her powers are now but half of what they were. Now [the Holy Land] will be easily attained, since Her light is already extinguished and Her candle is burning low. Lord God, now what will the king and the Count of Poitiers be able to say about the worsening condition of God’s land. God is once again suffering a new martyrdom. It is time to break ground on a large cemetery for the people of Acre, for they need it now. Wholly overgrown is the pathway that men once beat so willingly,
Por offrir sarme · en leu de cÿre.70 Et Diex na mais · nuns cuers entiers · Ne la terre na nuns rentiers · Ansois se torne · a desconfire Jherusalem · ahi · hai · Com ta blecie · et esbahi75 Vainne gloire · qui toz maux brace Et cil qui ceront envaÿ Si cherront lai · ou cil chaÿ · Qui par orguel · perdi sa grace Or dou foir la mors les chace80 Qui lor fera · de pie eschace Tart crieront · trahi trahi· Quele at ja entesei sa mace Ne jusquau ferir ne menace Lors harra Diex qui le haÿ · 85 [14r] Or est en tribulacion La Terre · de Promission · A pou de gent · toute esbahie Sire Diex · por quoi loblion Quant por notre redemption90 I fu · la chars · de Dieu trahie Hom lor envoia · en aïe Une gent despite · et haïe⁶² Et ce fut · lor destrucion Dou roi durent avoir la vie95 Li rois ne la pas a sa vie (assouvie)⁶³ Or guerroient sa nacion	offering their soul in lieu of a candle. God no longer has a single heart devoted to Him, nor does anyone pay their dues to the Holy Land and so She is driven to destruction. Alas, alas, Jerusalem, how you have been wounded and laid low by vainglory, which is the sum of all evils. Those who will be invaded will fall to the same place where he who lost his grace due to pride fell. Now is the time to flee! Death is chasing them, and will cause them take to their heels. They will cry, “betrayed, betrayed” for she [Death] has already brandished her mace; she will give no warning before she strikes. Now, God will despise the one who despised Him. [14r] With so few people remaining, the Promised Land is now being tested and is in shock. Lord God, why do we forget this, when for our redemption, God’s own flesh was betrayed there. We sent to help them despised and hated people, and that was their destruction. Their lives should have been safeguarded by the king, but the king did not do his part, and they are now fighting people of their own nation.⁶⁴
Hom sermona · por la croix prendre Que hom cuida · paradix vendre Et livreir · de par lapostole100 Hom pot bien · le sermon entendre Mais a la croix · ne vout nuns tendre La main · por piteuze parole Or nos deffent · hon la quarole Que cest ce · que la terre afole105 Se nos welent li frere⁶⁵ aprendre Mais fauceteiz · qui par tot vole Qui crestiens · tient a escole Fera · la Sainte Terre rendre	Some sermonized on taking the cross, for they believed they were selling paradise and delivering it on behalf of the pope. Others may well have paid attention to the sermon, but were in no way moved by such heart-rending appeals to take up the cross. Now they forbid us from dancing the carole, for they say that is what wounds the Holy Land; this is what the brothers wish to teach. But Falsity, who flies around everywhere, who becomes the instructor of Christians, will cause the Holy Land to be lost.
Que sunt li denier devenu110 Quentre · Jacobins et menuz Ont receuz · de testamens De bougres por loiaux tenuz Et duzeriers vielz et chenuz Qui se muerent soudainnement115 Et de clers · ausi faitement I il ont grant aunement I li oz Dieu · fust maintenuz Mais il en font · tot autrement Quil en font lor granz fondemenz.120 Et Diex remaint · la outre nuz De Grece vint · chevalerie Premierement · danceserie Si vint en France et en Bretaingne Grant piece I at estei chierie.125 Or est a mainie escherie Que nuns nest teiz quil la retaingne Mort sunt Ogiers · et Charlemainne Or sen vont · que plus ni remaingne Loyauteiz est · morte et perie130 Cestoit · sa monjoie · et sensaingne Cestoit · sa dame · et sa compaingne Et sa maistre · habergerie	What has become of the money that Jacobins and Minors⁶⁶ received from the wills of heretics deemed to be faithful, from old and white-haired usurers who die suddenly, and likewise from clerics? They have a great stash, and they might have supported God’s army from it, but they do the complete opposite. They use it to build their own grand foundations, while over there, God remains exposed. Knighthood first came from Greece long ago, then it made its way to France and Britain, and has long been cherished there. Now its company is few in number, for there is no one who can maintain it. Ogier and Charlemagne are dead.⁶⁷ Now they have all departed; no one remains here. Loyalty is dead and gone: it was once the knighthood’s rallying cry and standard; it was its lady and companion, and its chief abode.
Coument amera · sainte Eglize Qui ceux nainme · par con la prize.135 Je ne voi pas · en queil meniere Li rois ne fait · droit ne justize A chevaliers · ainz les desprize Et ce sunt cil · par quele est chiere Fors tant quen prison · fort et fiere.140 Met lun avant et lautre arriere Ja tant niert hauz hom · a devise	How will he love the Holy Church who does not love those who have esteemed her? I do not see how. The king neither upholds the law nor renders justice for the knights, except for when he places them, one after the other, into a harsh and cruel prison no matter how distinguished they may be. Thus, he dishonors them even though it is they who bring esteem to her.⁶⁸
En leu de Nainmon de Baviere Tient li rois · une gens doubliere Vestuz de robe ·blanche et grise145 Tant fas je bien ·savoir le roi Sen France sorsist. I. desroi Terre ne fu · si orfeline Qui les armes · et le conroi Et le consoil · et tout lerroi150 Laissast hon · sor la gent devine Lors si veist hon · biau couvine De cex qui France · ont en saisine Ou il na mesure · nelroi Sou savoient · gent tartarine.155 [14v] Ja por paor · de la marine Ne laisseroient · cest aroi	Rather than a Naime of Bavaria⁶⁹ the king keeps a duplicitous people dressed in white and grey robes.⁷⁰ I wish to alert the king that should a crisis arise in France, never would there be a land left so defenseless because its weapons, equipment, planning, and the entire operation would be left to the so-called righteous people. In that case, one might see the lovely conclave of those who would take possession of France— where there is neither order nor a king.⁷¹ If the Tartars knew this, [14v] they would never—even if they feared the sea— let this opportunity pass them by.⁷²
Li rois · qui païens asseure Pence bien · ceste encloeure Por ce tient il · si pres son regne.160 Teiz at alei · simple aleure Qui tost li iroit · lambleure Seur · le destrier a lasche regne Corte folie · est plus seigne Que longue · de fol consoil pleigne165 Or se teigne · en sa teneure Soutremeir · neust fait estreigne De li miex en vausist li reignes Cen fust la terre · plus seure	The king, who appeases the pagans, grasps this vulnerability well. For this reason, he keeps a tight rein on his kingdom. He who went at only a footpace would soon go at a trot on a warhorse if the reins were loosened. A short folly is wiser than a long one full of foolish council. Now may he remain in his domain. If he had not given himself over to Outremer, the kingdom would be in a better state, and the lands more secure.
Mes sires Joffrois · de Sergines.170 Je ne voi · par desa nul signes Que hon · orendroit vos secore Li cheval · ont mal enz eschines Et li riche home · en lor poitrines Que fait Diex que nes par aqueure.175 Ancor vanra · tot a tenz leure Que li maufei · noir comme meure Les tanront en · lor decepline Lors auront il non chantepleure Et senz secours · lor corront seure.180 Qui lor liront · longues matines ·	My lord Geoffrey of Sergines, I see no sign at this moment that anyone is sending you aid. The horses have pain in their backs, and the rich men evil in their breasts. What is God doing, that he does not penetrate their hearts? For soon, the hour will come when the demons, dark as blackberries, will inflict their punishments upon them. Then they will be called chantepleure,⁷³ and with no help in sight, those who will read them long Matins will trample them underfoot.⁷⁴
Explicit	The End

The Complaint of Outremer

La complainte doutremeir (8v–9v)

This poem can be dated to the end of 1265 or early 1266. It aligns with a new papal call to crusade in the Holy Land, rather than in Sicily, where so much attention and support had been focused in the years leading up to Charles of Anjou’s victory over the Hohenstaufen heirs and his coronation (January 5, 1266) as king of the Regno, that is, over the Kingdom of Naples and the Island of Sicily. The campaigns in Sicily, supported if not engineered by the papacy, were called as crusades against the German rulers and received severe critique as a consequence.⁷⁵ With Charles’s victory, however, attention turned once again to Jerusalem and to Outremer. In the spring of 1265, Pope Clement IV composed an exhortation to the Dominican and Franciscan friars of France to encourage the king, Louis IX, and the knights of the realm to take the cross. King Louis would do so only in 1267, but Hugh of Burgundy, Eudes of Nevers’s father, took a crusade vow at this point, which was commuted and taken up by Eudes in his father’s stead some time before October 1265, when Eudes departed for Acre. The allusions to the Gospel of Matthew, to renounce one’s ties to family and worldly positions and to follow Christ and secure his patrimony, as well as pointed calls to the king of France and to Alphonse, the count of Poitiers, the king’s brother, to take the cross, render this poem a vernacular pseudo-sermon. Rutebeuf seeks both to shame and to intimidate kings, prelates, knights, and especially tourneyors—those who only play at war in tournaments rather than on crusade—to take the cross and thus to do what was right for Outremer. In this way, the poem is both a complaint about the behavior of those who refuse to hear the call and a lament for Outremer itself. The poet goes one step further and evokes Geoffrey of Sergines, whom Rutebeuf had extolled in an earlier verse composition. He reminds his listeners at the close of the poem that “Geoffrey is asking for aid.” Eudes of Nevers and those in his entourage would clearly have been a target audience for such a poem, if he was not already on his way to the East when it was performed.⁷⁶

Cest la complainte doutremeir	This is the Complaint of Outremer
[8v] Empereour et roi et conte Et duc et prince a cui hom conte Romans divers por eux esbatre De cex qui se⁷⁷ suelent combatre Sa en arrier por sainte eglise5 Car me dites par queil servise Vos cuidiez avoir paradix Cil le gaaignerent ia diz Dont vos oeiz ces romans lire Par la poinne par le martyre.10 Que li cors soffrirent sus terre Veiz ci le tens diex vos vient querre Braz estanduz de son sanc tainz Par quoi li fex vos iert estains	[8v] Emperors, kings, counts, dukes, and princes, for your entertainment varied tales are told of those who in bygone days engaged in combat on behalf of the Holy Church. Tell me then, by what service do you believe you will attain paradise? You hear tales read about those who have already gained it by the pain and martyrdom that their bodies suffered on earth. The moment has arrived when God is coming to seek you, arms outstretched, stained in his blood by which the fires of hell and purgatory
Et denfer et de purgatoire 15 Reconmenciez novele estoire Serveiz dieu de fin cuer entier Car dieux vos moustre le sentier De son pays et de sa marche Que hom cens raison⁷⁸ le sormarche20 Por ce si devriiez entendre A revangier et a deffendre La terre de promission Qui est en tribulacion Et perdue ce Diex nem pence.25 Se prochainnement na deffence Soveigne vos de dieu lo peire Qui por soffrir la mort ameire Envoia en terre son fil [9r] Or est la terre en grant peril.30 Lai ou il fut et mors et vis Je ne sai que plus vos devis Qui naidera a ceste empointe Qui ci fera⁷⁹ le mesacointe Pou priserai tout lautre afaire35 Tant sache lou papelart faire Ainz dirai mais et jor et nuit Nest pas tout ors quanque reluit	were extinguished for you. It is time for you to begin a new chapter. Serve God with your whole heart, for God is showing you the path toward his land and its frontiers that are being trampled by ignorant men. You must try, therefore, to avenge and to defend the promised land, which is in turmoil and will be lost if God does not attend to it and if it is not defended soon. Remember God the Father who sent his Son to earth to suffer a cruel death. [9r] Now the land where He both lived and died is in great peril. I do not know what else to share with you. And to him who will not support this struggle and dismisses it, I will accord little value to his other claims, no matter how well he plays the devotee.⁸⁰ Thus, I will say again, day and night, “all that glitters is not gold.”
Ha ⋅ rois de France rois de France La loiz la foiz et la creance40 Vat presque toute chancelant Que vos iroie plus celant Secorez la quor est mestiers Et vos et li cuens de poitiers Et li autre baron encemble45 Natendeiz pas tant que vos emble La mort larme por deu seigneur Mais qui vorra avoir honeur En paradix si la deserve Car je ni voi nule autre verve50	Ah, King of France, King of France, religion,⁸¹ faith, and belief are all on the brink of collapse. Why would I hide this from you any longer? Send help— you, and the Count of Poitiers, as well as the other barons together—for it is needed now. My lords, do not wait until death takes your soul, by God! For he who wishes to have honor in paradise, may he be worthy of it. For I have no other words to say.
Jhesucriz dist en lewangile Qui nest de truffe ne de guile Ne doit pas paradix avoir Qui fame et enfans et avoir Ne lait por lamour de celui55 Quen la fin iert juges de lui Asseiz de gens sunt mout dolant De ce que hom trahi rollant Et pleurent de fauce pitie Et voit ax eux lamistie60 Que Deux nos fist qui nos cria Qui en la sainte croix cria Au Juys que il moroit de soi Ce nert pas por boivre a guersoi Ainz avoit soi de nos raiembre.65 Celui doit hon douteir et criembre Por teil seigneur doit hom ploreir Quensi se laissat devoreir Quil ce fist percier le costei Por nos osteir de mal hosteil70 Dou costei issi sancz et eigue Qui ces amis netoie et leive Rois de France qui aveiz mis Et votre avoir et voz amis Et le cors por dieu en prison.75 Ci aurat trop grant mesprison	Jesus Christ says in the Gospels— which is neither a joke nor a ruse— he will not attain paradise who does not leave his wife and children for the love of Him who will judge him at the end. Many people are very sad that Roland⁸² was betrayed, and they weep with fake pity. And yet they see, with their own eyes, the affection that God who created us shows us, the one, who on the holy cross, cried out to the Jews that He was dying of thirst. But this was no drinking game, for He thirsted to redeem us. He is the one we should fear and dread, and we should weep for such a Lord who allowed Himself to be so tormented that He let his side be pierced to deliver us from the house of evil. From His side flowed blood and water that washed and cleansed his friends. King of France, you who have placed your belongings and your friends and your own body in prison for God, it would be a great mistake
Ce la sainte terre failliez Or covient que vos i ailliez Ou vos i envoiez des gent Cens apairgnier or et argent.80 Dont li droiz dieu soit chalangiez Diex ne wet faire plus lons giez A ces amis ne longue longe Ansois i wet metre chalonge Et wet cil le voisent veoir85 Qua sa destre vorront seoir Hay prelat de saint eglise Qui por gardeir les cors de byse Ne voleiz leveir aux matines	if you abandoned the Holy Land. Now it is time for you to go and to send people there sparing neither gold nor silver. Where the rights of God are challenged, God does not wish to extend further credit to his friends, nor a longer leash. Thus he wishes to put forward a challenge. He wishes that those who want to sit at his right side should come to see him. Alas, prelates of the Holy Church who, to protect their bodies from the cold north wind, do not wish to arise for Matins.
Messires joffrois de sergines.90 Vos demande de la meir Mais je di cil fait a blameir Qui nule riens plus vos demande Fors boens vins et boenne viande Et que li poivres soit bien fors95 Cest votre guerre et votre effors Cest vostre diex cest votre biens Votre peires⁸³ itrait le fiens [9v] Rutebues dit qui riens ne soile Quasseiz aureiz ⋅ dun poi de toile⁸⁴100 Se les pances ne sont trop graces Et que feront les armes lasses Elz iront lai ou dire noze Diex iert juges de ceste choze [4 lines missing] Hai grant clerc grant provendier105 Qui tant estes grant vivendier Qui faites Dieu de votre pance Dites moi par queil acointance Vos partireiz au Dieu roiaume Qui ne voleiz pas dire. I. siaume110 Dou sautier tant estes divers Fors celui ou na que ii vers Celui dites apres mangier Diex wet que vos laleiz vengier Sanz controuver nule autre essoinne.115	My lord Geoffrey of Sergines is calling you from beyond the sea. But I say that he is blameworthy, who asks no more of you than good wine and good food and that the pepper be good and spicy. It is your war and your effort. It is your God and your possession, yet it is your Father who toils in the fields.⁸⁵ [9v] Rutebeuf will give it to you straight: soon you will need nothing more than a small burial cloth unless your stomachs have grown too fat. And what will these wretched souls do? They will go to the place I dare not mention. God will be the judge of this affair. [4 lines missing] So, great clerics, great prebenderies— you who are living large, you who make a God of your fat bellies— tell me by what means you will take part in the Kingdom of God. You who do not wish to recite a single psalm in the psalter—so contrary are you— outside of the one that has but two verses, the one you say after dinner, God wants you to go and avenge him without concocting any more excuses.
Ou vos laissiez le patrimoinne Qui est dou sanc au crecefi Mal le teneiz jou vos afi Se vos serveiz Dieu a leglise	Or, you should renounce the patrimony that comes from the blood of the crucified one. You are maintaining it poorly, I assure you. If you serve God in the church,
Dieux vos resert en autre guise120 Quil vos paist en votre maison Cest quite a quite par raison Mais ce vos ameiz le repaire Qui sanz fin est por joie faire Achateiz le car Diex le vent125 Car il at mestier par couvent Dacheteours et cil sengignent Qui orendroit ne le bargignent Car teil fois le vorront avoir Com ne laurat pas por avoir130 Tornoieur et vos que dirois Qui au jor dou juise irois Devant Dieu que porroiz respondre Car lors ne se porront repondre Ne genz clergies ne gens laies.135 Et Dieux vous monterra ces plaies Ce il vos demande la terre Ou por vos vout la mort soffere Que direiz vos je ne sai quoi Li plus hardi seront si quoi140 Com les porroit panrre a la main Et nos navons ⋅ point de demain Car li termes vient et aprouche Que la mort nos clourat la bouche Ha antioche ⋅ terre sainte145 Con ci at delireuze plainte Quant tu nas mais ⋅ nuns godefrois Li feux de charitei est frois En chacun cuer de crestiien Ne jone home ne ancient150 Nont por Dieu cure de combatre Asseiz se porroit ja debatre Et jacobins et cordeliers Quil trovassent ⋅ nuns angeliers	God serves you in other ways, since he nourishes you in your house. By that logic, everything evens out. But if you love the abode that brings joy without end, then buy it! Because God is selling it. For He needs committed buyers, and those who do not make a deal right away cheat themselves, for a time will come when they wish to have it, and they will not be able to obtain it for any price. And you, tourneyers, what will you say when you go to the day of judgment? Before God, how will you be able to respond? For then, they will not be able to hide neither clergy nor laity. And God will show you his wounds. If He asks you about the land where He wished to suffer death on your behalf, what will you say? I don’t know. The bravest among them will be so tame that you could catch them with your bare hand. And there will be no tomorrow, because the end draws near when death will close our mouths. Alas, Antioch, Holy Land, oh you have such a painful lament since you have no more Godfreys.⁸⁶ The fire of devotion has gone cold in each Christian heart; no man, neither young nor old, cares to fight for God. Dominicans and Franciscans alike could go to great lengths and not find a single Angeliers,⁸⁷
Nuns tangreiz ⋅ ne nuns bauduÿns.155 Ansois lairont aux beduÿns Maintenir la terre absolue Qui par defaut nos est tolue	nor a Tancred nor a Baldwin.⁸⁸ They would sooner leave the Bedouins in charge of the Holy Land, which was taken from us due to our neglect.
Et Dieux lat ja dune part arse Dautre part vienent cil de tarse160 Et coramin et chenillier Revanrront por tot escillier Ja ne serat qui la deffande Ce mes sires joffrois demande Secours si quiere qui li fasse165 Car je ni voi nulle autre trasce ⋅ Car com plus en sarmoneroie Et plus lafaire empireroie Cils siecles faut: qui bien fera apres la mort le trovera170	God has already seen it burned on one side, and from the other, those from Tarsus, the Khwarazmians and the Chananians,⁸⁹ will return to destroy everything. Then there will be no one there to defend it. If my lord Geoffrey is asking for aid, let him seek someone who will render it, for I do not see any other course.⁹⁰ For, the more I might sermonize, the worse the situation would become. This world is failing: he who will do good now will then reap it after death.
Explicit	The End

The Lament for Count Eudes of Nevers

La complainte dou conte Hue de Nevers (42r–43r)

Composed in the months following the death of Eudes of Nevers (August 7, 1266, in Acre), this poem can be dated with certainty to the autumn of 1266 (see figure 31). Eudes was born in 1230, the son of Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy. He was well connected with the major baronial families of the day, and in 1265, the year before he died, his eldest daughter, Yolande, was married to the son of the king of France, Jean Tristan. The poem was clearly written before March 1267—the year Louis IX took the cross for a second time—because Rutebeuf is still exhorting Louis and his brother, Alphonse of Poitiers, to take the vow. Moreover, Rutebeuf mentions the fact that Eudes’s heart, which had been extracted and embalmed for transport across the Mediterranean, was sent to the monks of Cîteaux, where the crusading dukes of Burgundy had their family tomb. The poem not only praises Eudes as a flower of chivalry and a knight and lord of unmatched renown, it also laments his loss for the East and for France. In addition, several stanzas praise those close to Eudes, including his companion and friend Érard of Vallery, who served as one of the executors of the Account-Inventory. Érard would no doubt also have been the subject of a similar poem had he died young. He was one of a cadre of knights who worked in service first to Eudes, then as the constable of the Count of Champagne, then under the king of Sicily, Charles of Anjou, finally serving as military and political advisor to King Philip III.⁹¹ Any insight we have about Eudes’s character and how he was perceived by others comes principally from Rutebeuf’s poem. Indeed, in many respects this “Lament” reads like a public funeral oration, although there is no definitive proof that it was read in this way. The poem is an invaluable complement to the Account-Inventory, which gives insight into the ways Eudes styled himself through his material possessions and the networks such things created.⁹²

Ci en coumence la complainte dou conte huede de Nevers	Here begins the Lament for Count Eudes of Nevers
[42r] Lamors ⋅ qui tozjors ceulz aproie Qui plus sunt de bien faire en voie Me fait descovrir ⋅ mon corage por lun de ceulz que plus amoie Et que mieux ⋅ resemble vodroie5 Coume ⋅ qui soit ⋅ de nul langage Huedes ot non ⋅ preudome et sage Cuens de neuers ⋅ au fier corage Que la mors apris ⋅ en sa proie Cestoit la fleurs ⋅ de son lignage.10 De sa mort est plus granz damage Que je dire ⋅ ne vos porroie	[42r] Death, which always preys upon those who stay true to the path of good deeds, reveals to me my feelings for one among them whom I loved the most and whom I would most like to resemble, more than any man who exists, among speakers of any tongue.⁹³ His name was Eudes, a prudhomme and wise, the Count of Nevers, brave of heart, whom death has taken as its prey. He was the flower of his lineage. His death is such a great pity that I could not describe it to you.
Mors est li cuens diex en ait lame Sainz Jorges ⋅ et la douce dame Vuellent prier ⋅ le sovrain maître15 Quen cele joie ⋅ qui nentame Senz redouteir linfernal flame Mete le boen conte a sa destre Et il ideit ⋅ par raison estre Quil laissa ⋅ son leu et son ester20 Por cele glorieuze jame Qui a non ⋅ la joie celestre Mieudres de li ⋅ ne porra nestre Mien esciant ⋅ de cors de fame Li cuens fu tantost chevaliers25 Com il en fu poinz et mestiers Quil pot les armes endureir Puis ne fu ⋅ voie ne sentiers Ou il nalast mout ⋅ volentiers Se hon si pot aventureir30 Si vos puis bien dire et jureir Cil peust son droit tenz dureir Conques ne fu ⋅ mieudres terriers⁹⁴ Tant se seust amesureir Au boenz et les fauz forjureir35 Auz unz dolz et auz autres fiers Ce pou quaux armes fu en vie	The count is dead, may God receive his soul. May Saint George and the sweet Lady, pray to the Sovereign Master that He place the count at His right side, into that joy, which cannot be corrupted, and without the fear of the flames of hell. And he must rightly be there, since he left his home and way of life for this glorious gem that is called celestial joy. In my opinion, it will not be possible for a better man than him to be of woman born. The count was quickly knighted, when the time and necessity arose, as soon as he was able to bear arms. Then, there was neither a course nor a path that he did not take most eagerly if one were able to venture thereupon. If I might tell you truly and swear to it, had he been able to live out the full measure of his days, never would there have been a better lord of his lands; so well did he know how to administer justice to the good and to renounce the deceitful. To the former he is mild, and to the latter, harsh. During the brief period of his life that he bore arms,
Tuit li boen avoient envie De lui resambleir de meniere	all the good men wanted to resemble him in their bearing.
Se Diex namast sa compaignie.40 Neust pas Acre desgarnie De si redoutee baniere La mors a mis la faire ariere Dacre ⋅ dont nuns mestiers nen iere La terre en remaint esbahie45 Ci a mort ⋅ delireuze et fiere Que nuns ⋅ hom nen fait bele chière Fors cele pute gent haie ⋅ La terre plainne de noblesce De charitei et de largesce50 Tant aveiz fait vilainne perde Ce morte ne fust gentilesce Et vaselages et proesce Vos ne fussiez pas si deserte Hai hai ⋅ genz mal aperte55 La porte des cielz est overte Ne reculeiz pas por peresce En brief tanz la or Diex offerte Au boen conte ⋅ par sa deserte	If God did not love his company, He would not have deprived Acre of such a formidable standard.⁹⁵ Death has set back the cause of Acre, which was the last thing it needed. That land remains dumbstruck.⁹⁶ In that place there is death, so painful and terrible that no one can put a brave face on it except for that vile, hated people. Oh Land, full of nobility, charity, and generosity, you have suffered such a dreadful loss. If gentillesse were not dead, as well as courage and prowess, you would not be so desolate. Alas, alas, you ill-mannered men, the gate of heaven is open. Do not back away out of laziness. God did not hesitate to present this opportunity to the good count as his reward,
Quil l’a conquise en sa jonesce ⋅60 Ne fist mie de sa croix pile⁹⁷ Si com font souvent teil. x. mile Qui la prennent par grant faintize Ainz a fait selonc levangile [42v] Quil a maint borc et mainte vile65 Laissie por morir au servize Celui Seigneur ⋅ qui tot justize Et Diex li rent ⋅ en bele guize Ne cuidiez pas ⋅ que se soit guile Quil fait granz vertuz a devize70 Bien pert ⋅ que Diex a sarme prise Por metre en son roial concile Encor fist li cuens a sa mort Quavec les plus povres samort Des plus povres ⋅ vot estre el conte75	which he seized during his youth. He did not turn his back on his cross, as do tens of thousands who so often take it with great insincerity. Thus, he did it according to the Gospel: [42v] for he left behind many towns and many villages to die in the service of that Lord who renders justice to all. And God repays him handsomely— do not think this is a trick— for He performs many great miracles. It truly appears that God took his soul to place him in his royal council. The count arranged that at his death he would be as one with the very poor. He wished to be counted among the poorest.
Quant la mors .1. teil home mort Que doit quele ne ce remort De mordre ⋅ si tost un teil conte Car qui la veritei nos conte Je ne cuit pas que jamais monte80 Sor nul cheval feble ne fort Nuns hom ⋅ qui tant ait doutei honte Ne mieulz seust que honeurs monte Na ci doleur ⋅ et desconfort ⋅ Li cuers le conte ⋅ est a Citiaux.85 Et larme la sus en sains ciaux Et li cors en gist outre meir Cist departirs est boens et biaux Ci a trois precieulz joiaux	When Death bites such a man, how can she have no remorse for devouring such a count so early in life? For, if truth be told, I think that no man has ever mounted a horse, weak or strong, who so feared shame, or better understood the meaning of honor. Is this not a tale of sadness and pain? The heart of the count is at Cîteaux, and his soul in the saintly heavens above, and his body lies beyond the sea. This division is good and beautiful, for we now have three precious jewels
Que tuit li boen doivent ameir90 La sus elz cielz fait boen semeir Nestuet pas la terre femeir Ne ne ci puet repaitre oiziaux Quant por Dieu se fist entameir Que porra Diex ⋅ sor li clameir95 Quant il jugera ⋅ boens et maux ⋅ Ha cuens Jehan biau tres dolz sire De vos puisse hon ⋅ tant de bien dire Com hon puet dou conte Huede faire Quen lui a si bele matyre100 Que Diex cen puet joer et rire Et sainz paradix cen resclaire A iteil fin ⋅ fait il bon traire Que hon nen puet nul mal retraire Teil vie ⋅ fait boen eslire105 Doulz et pitouz et debonaire Le trovoit hon ⋅ en toz afaires Sages est ⋅ quen ces faiz ce mire Mes sire Erart ⋅ Diex vos maintiegne Et en bone vie vos tiegne110 Quil est bien mestiers en la terre Que cil avient que tost vos preigne	that every good person should revere. There, up in heaven, it is a good time to plant;⁹⁸ one need not fertilize the soil, nor can birds feed upon the seeds. Since he allowed himself to be torn apart in God’s name, what claim can God make against him, when He judges the good and the evil? Ah, Count John,⁹⁹ fine, sweet lord, may as many great things be said about you as one can say about Count Eudes. For in him, we have such good material¹⁰⁰ in which God can rejoice and delight, and by which saintly paradise is brightened. It is good to pursue such an end, for no one can find any wrong in it; it is good to choose that kind of life. People found him to be sweet and pious and noble in all regards; wise is the one who sees himself in his [Eudes’s] deeds. My lord, Érard, may God preserve you and keep you well, for in that Land¹⁰¹ there is great need. But should He take you early,
Je dout li pais ⋅ ne remeigne En grant doleur et en grant guerre Com li cuers ⋅ el ventre vos serre115 Quant Diex a mis ⋅ si tost en serre Lou conte ⋅ a la doutee enseigne Ou porroiz teil compaignon querre En France ne en Aingle terre Ne cuit pas com le vos enseingne.120 Ha ⋅ rois de france ⋅ rois de france Acre est ⋅ toute jor en balance Secoreiz la ⋅ quil est mestiers Serveiz Dieu ⋅ de vostre sustance Ne faites plus ci remenance125 Ne vos ne li cuens de poitiers Diex vos i verra ⋅ volentiers Car toz est herbuz ⋅ li santiers Con suet batre ⋅ por penitance Qua Dieu sera ⋅ amis entiers130 Voit destorbeir ⋅ ces charpentiers Qui destorbent notre creance ⋅	I fear those lands would remain in a state of great suffering and war. Oh, how your heart tightens in your chest knowing that God brought the count, with his much-feared standard, to His side so soon. Where might you seek a companion like him? Whether in France or in England, I do not think anyone could show you one. Ah! King of France, King of France Acre hangs in the balance daily. Send help to her, for it is needed. Serve God with all you have. Do not remain here any longer, neither you nor the Count of Poitiers. God will be pleased to see you there, for the path that others were able to clear as penance has become overgrown. He who will be a wholehearted friend of God, go then, and confront those who wield the axe and undermine our faith!
Chevalier ⋅ que faites vos ci Cuens de Blois ⋅ sire de Couci [43r] Cuens de Saint Pol ⋅ fils au boen Hue135 Bien aveiz avant ⋅ les cors ci Coument querreiz a Dieu merci Se la mors ⋅ en voz liz vos tue Vos veeiz ⋅ la terre absolue Qui a voz tenz ⋅ nos ert tolue140 Dont jai ⋅ le cuer triste et marri La mors ne fait ⋅ nule estandue Ainz fiert a massue estandue Tost fait nuit ⋅ de jor esclarci Tornoieur ⋅ vos quatendeiz145 Qui la Terre ⋅ ne deffendeiz Qui est a votre creatour Vos aveiz bien les yex bandeiz Quant ver Dieu ne vos desfendeiz Nen vos ne meteiz nul atour150 Pou douteiz ⋅ la parfonde tour Dont li prison nont nul retour Ou par peresce ⋅ descendeiz	Knights, what are you doing here? Count of Blois, Lord of Coucy, [43r] Count of Saint-Pol, son of the good Hugh,¹⁰² Since your bodies are still here before us, how then will you seek the mercy of God if death kills you in your beds? You see, the Holy Land in your time has been taken from us, which makes my heart sad and dismayed. Death does not wait, rather she wields her club and strikes, quickly making night of a clear day. Tourneyers, what are you waiting for? You who are not defending the Holy Land, who is your Creator? Your eyes are truly blindfolded, since you are neither defending yourself nor have you prepared yourself to face God. You scarcely fear the deep tower from which prisoners have no escape and into which you are descending through sloth.
Ci na plus ne guanche ne tour Quant la mors vos va si entour155 A Dieu ⋅ cors et arme rendeiz ⋅ Quant la teste est ⋅ bien avinee Au feu ⋅ deleiz la cheminee Si nos croizonz de plain eslaiz Et quant vient ⋅ a la matinee160 Si est ceste voie finee Teil coutume a ⋅ et clers et lais Et quant il muert ⋅ et fait son lais Si lait sales ⋅ maisons palais A doleur ⋅ a fort destinee165 Lai sen va ⋅ ou na nul relais De lavoir ⋅ rest il bone pais Quant gist mors ⋅ desus lechinee	There is no way to avoid it nor to turn back when death is closing in on you. You offer up your body and soul to God. When the head is tipsy with wine, around the fire, near the hearth, then we leap with great verve. And when the morning comes this journey ends. Such is the habit of both the cleric and the layman. When he dies and writes his will¹⁰³ he leaves behind halls, houses, and palaces in sadness, because of this cruel fate. He goes there where there is no relief. Wealth is no longer a concern when one lies dead on one’s back.
Or prions ⋅ au roi glorieux Qui par son sanc esprecieulz170 Nos osta ⋅ de destrucion Quen son regne delicieuz Qui tant est doulz ⋅et gracieuz Faciens la nostre mansion Et que par grant devocion175 Ailliens en cele region Ou Diex soffri ⋅ la mort crueulz. Qui lait en teil confusion La terre de promission ⋅ Pou est de sarme curieulz180	Now let us pray to the glorious King who by his precious blood delivered us from destruction, that we may make our home in His exquisite kingdom, so sweet and filled with grace. And with great devotion, let us go to that land where God suffered cruel death. Whoever leaves the promised land in such a state of disarray has little regard for his soul.
Explicit.	The End.

The Poem of the Route to Tunis

Li diz de la voie de Tunes (56v–58v)

On March 25, 1267, Louis IX took a second crusade vow following nearly two years of papal and mendicant organization and preaching. He was joined in this commitment by his brother, Alphonse, count of Poitiers, and two of his sons, Philip (who would become Philip III) and Jean Tristan, who held the title of Count of Nevers, as well as his nephew Robert, count of Artois. On June 5 (at Pentecost), 1267, his son-in-law, Thibaut V, count of Champagne and king of Navarre, also took the vow. It was not clear yet at that point that the crusade expedition was destined for Tunis. There was some consideration of Egypt as a strategic goal toward regaining Jerusalem, and the poet’s references to the “desert” underline that such ideas were circulating. The title of the poem, “the Route to Tunis,” was most likely appended after the poem was first composed and performed, thus after 1270, when it was fair-copied into the manuscript tradition. Even if Rutebeuf could not know where the king and his crusade would end up, the themes developed in the poem—of service to God and to courtoisie, of the sacrifices one must make especially regarding the body to win paradise, and of the unavoidable “bite” of death—were almost prescient of the outcome. For Louis IX, his son-in-law Thibaut V, daughter Isabelle, and son Jean Tristan would all die on campaign in Tunis or in the protracted funeral cortège that returned to France by way of the Kingdom of Sicily. Rutebeuf surely could not have known this when he wrote; however, the fact that his verse aligns with broader associations uniting crusading with martyrdom, self-sacrifice, and the inevitability of death suggests that such ideas circulated widely and certainly beyond the royal court. The poem must have been composed then between June 5, 1267, and August 25, 1270, the day Louis IX died in Tunis. More likely is that it was written in connection with the June 5 celebration of the knighting of Louis’s two younger sons, Pierre, future count of Alençon (a title he would take up in March 1269), and Jean Tristan, which coincided with Pentecost and was the occasion of a public celebration and preaching all directed toward the new crusade.¹⁰⁴

Ci en coumence li diz de la voie de tunes.¹⁰⁵	Here begins the poem¹⁰⁶ of the route to Tunis.
[56v] De corrouz et danui De pleur et damistie Est toute la matiere dont je tras mon ditie Qui na pitie en soi5 Bien at Dieu fors getie Vers Dieu ne doit trouveir amour ne amistie Evangelistre ⋅ apostre martyr et confesseur10 Por Jhesucrit soffrirent De la mort ⋅ le presseur Or vos i gardeiz bien Qui estes successeur Con nat pas paradyx15 Cens martyre plus eur On ques en paradix nentra nuns fors par poinne Por cest il ⋅ foulz cheitis Qui por larme ne poinne20 Cuidiez que Jhesucris En paradyx nos mainne Por norrir en delices La char nest pas sainne Sainne nest ele pas25 De ce ne dout je point Or est chaude ⋅ or est froide Or est soeiz ⋅ or point Ja niert en. i. estat Ne en un certain point30 Qui sert Dieu de teil char Mainne il bien sarme a point	[56v] Anger and frustration, sadness and attachment, all are themes upon which I draw for my verses. He who does not have pity within himself has rejected God. He should find neither love nor friendship with God. Evangelists, apostles, martyrs, and confessors suffered the torment of death for Jesus Christ. Now be well aware, you who are their successors, one does not attain paradise without intense suffering. No one ever enters paradise except through pain. For he is a miserable fool who does not suffer for his soul. Do you think Jesus Christ leads us to paradise for having fed with delicacies our unhealthy flesh? And it [the flesh] is not healthy— of that, I have no doubt. At times it is warm, at times it is cold, sometimes it is at ease, other times not at all; never will it be in a single state, nor in a stable condition. He who serves God with that sort of flesh, does he guide his soul well?
A point la moinne il bien A cele grant fornaize Qui est dou puis denfer35 Ou ja nuns naura aise Bien se gart qui i vat Bien se gart qui i plaise Que Dieux ne morra plus Por nule arme mauvaise40 Dieux dist en lewangile Se li preudons seust A queil heure li lerres Son suel chaveir deust [57r] Il veillast por la criente45 Que dou larron eust Si bien qua son pooir De rien ne li neust¹⁰⁷ Ausi ne savons nos Quant Dieuz dira veneiz50 Qui lors est mal garniz Mult iert mal aseneiz Car Dieux li sera lors Com lions forceneiz	He is certainly leading it directly to that great furnace, into the pits of hell, where no one will be comfortable. Beware, he who goes there, beware, he who enjoys it [the pleasures of the flesh], for God will not die again for any evil soul. God said in the Gospel: “if the prudhomme had known at what time the thief would breach his threshold, [57r] out of fear of the thief, he would have kept watch as best he could so the thief would do him no harm.” Also we do not know when God will say “Come!” He who is poorly prepared at that time will be sorely out of luck. Because God will rage at him like a lion.
Vos ne vos preneiz garde55 Qui les respis preneiz Li rois ne le prent pas Cui douce France est toute Qui tant par ainme larme Que la mort nen redoute60 Ainz va par meir requerre Cele chiennaille gloute Jhesuchriz par sa grace Si gart lui et sa route Prince prelat baron65 Por Dieu preneiz ci garde France est si grace terre Nestuet pas com la larde¹⁰⁸ Or la wet cil laissier [qu]¹⁰⁹	You are failing to take heed, you who are taking your time. The king, to whom sweet France is everything, is not delaying. He loves his own soul so much that he does not fear death. Rather, he will cross the sea to attack this vile pack of dogs. May Jesus Christ, by His grace, protect him and his expedition. Princes, prelates, barons, take heed of this, for God’s sake. France is so well-fatted a land that it should not be further larded. And so, he who maintains and protects it
Qui la maintient et garde70 Por lamor de celui Qui tout a en sa garde	wishes to leave it for the love of Him who has all under His protection.
Desor mais se deust Li preudons sejorneir75 Et toute sa tendue A sejour atourneir Or wet de douce France Et partir et tornei Dieux le doint a paris80 A joie retorneir Et li cuens de Poitiers Qui. i. pueple souztient Et qui en douce France Si bien le sien leu tient85 Que. xv. jors vaut miex li leux par ou il vient Il sen va outre meir Que riens ne le detient Plus ainme Dieu que home90 Qui emprent teil voiage Qui est li souverains De tout pelerinage Le cors mettre a essil	From now on that prudhomme [the king] ought to stay home and rest and turn all his attention to his respite. And yet he wishes to take off and leave sweet France behind. May God grant that he return to Paris with joy. And the Count of Poitiers— who oversees an entire people and who in sweet France plays his role so well that any place he passes through is then better off for a fortnight¹¹⁰— is going overseas and nothing will hold him back. He loves God more than his fellow man, who undertakes such a voyage which is the greatest of all pilgrimages. He puts his body in peril
Et meir passer a nage95 Por amor de celui ⋅ Qui le fist a symage Et mes sires Phelipes Et li boens cuens dartois Et li cuens de Nevers⋅100 Qui sunt preu et cortois Refont en lor venue A Dieu biau serventois Chevalier qui ne suit Ne pris pas. i. nantois105 Li boens rois de Navarre Qui lait si bele terre Que ne sai ou plus bele Puisse on troveir ne querre	and sails across the sea out of love for Him who made him in His image. And my lord Philip, and the good Count of Artois, and the Count of Nevers,¹¹¹ who are wise and courtois render a beautiful service to God by their journey.¹¹² A knight who does not follow them is not worth a penny to me. The good king of Navarre— who leaves behind such beautiful lands that I do not know where one might seek or find any more beautiful,¹¹³
Mais hom doit tout laissier110 Por lamor Dieu conquerre Ciz voiages est cleis Qui paradix desserre Ne prent pas garde a choze Quil ait eu a faire115 [57v] Sa il asseiz eu Et anui et contraire Mais si con Dieux trouva Saint Andreu debonaire Trueve il le roi Thiebaut120 Doulz et de boen afaire Et li dui fil le Roi Et lor couzins germains, Ce est li cuens dArtois ⋅ Qui nest mie dou mains125 Revont bien enz dezers Laboreir de lor mains Quant par meir vont requerre Sarrazins et Coumains	(but then one must leave it all behind to attain the Love of the God since this journey is the key that unlocks paradise)— does not worry about the things that he might have had to do [57v] even though he has had many troubles and afflictions. But just as God found Saint Andrew¹¹⁴ to be benevolent¹¹⁵ so too does he find King Thibaut well-intentioned and kind. And the two sons of the king and their first cousin— that is, the Count of Artois who is in no way the lesser— are themselves going into the desert to labor with their hands.¹¹⁶ For they are going by sea to attack the Saracens and Cumans.
Tot soit qua moi bien faire130 Soie tardiz et lans Si ai je de pitie Por eulz le cuer dolant Mais ce me reconforte Quiroie je celant135 Quen lor venues vont En paradix volant Sains Jehans eschiva Compaignie de gent En sa venue fist de sa char140 Son serjant Plus ama les desers Que or fin ne argent Quorgueulz ne li alast Sa vie damagent145 Bien doit ameir le cors Qui en puet Dieu servir	Although for me, they are late and slow to do the right thing, nonetheless my heart aches with pity for them. But what comforts me (and why would I hide it?) is that by their journey they go on the wing to paradise. Saint John, eschewing the company of men, in his turn made a servant of his flesh. He loved the desert more than gold or silver and he avoided pride, lest it mar his life. He who can serve God must love his own body
Quil en puet paradix Et honeur deservir Trop par ainme son aise150 Qui lait larme aservir Quen enfer sera serve Par son fol mes servir Veiz ci mult biau sermon li rois va outre meir155 Pour celui roi servir Ou il n’a point dameir Qui ces. ij. rois vodra Et servir et ameir Croize soi voit apres160 Mieulz ne puet il semeir Ce dit cil qui por nos Out asseiz honte et lait Nest pas dignes de moi	so that he can merit paradise and honor. The one who loves comfort too much allows his soul to be in servitude, such that it will be a serf in hell because of his foolish disservice. Here is a very beautiful appeal:¹¹⁷ the king is going overseas to serve that King in whom there is no bitterness. Whoever wishes to serve and love these two kings, may he take the cross and go after them; he can sow no better seed. He, the one who endured shame and ugliness for us, says: “He is not worthy of Me who
Qui por moi tot ne lait165 Qua pres moi wet venir Croize soi ne delait Qui apres Dieu nira Mal fu norriz de lait Vauvaseur bacheleir170 Plain de grant non savoir Cuidiez vos par desa Pris ne honeur avoir Vous vous laireiz morir Et porrir votre avoir175 Et ce vos vos moreiz Diex nou quiert ja savoir Dites aveiz vos pleges De vivre longuement Je voi aucun riche home180 Faire maisonnement Quant il a assouvi trestout entierement Se li fait hon. i. autre de petit coustement185	does not leave everything behind for Me. He who wishes to come to Me, may he take the cross and not delay.” He who does not go toward God was nourished with the milk of evil. Vavasors, young knights full of great ignorance, do you think you have gained honor back here on this side? You will allow yourself to die and your fortunes rot, and if you are dying, God will pay no heed. Tell me, do you have a guarantee of a long life? I see some rich men who build houses for themselves. When the work is complete someone makes another for them, at little cost.¹¹⁸
[58r] Ja coars nenterra en paradyx celestre Si nest nuns si coars Qui bien ni vouxist estre Mais tant doutent mesaize190 Et a guerpir lor estre Quil en adossent Dieu Et metent a senestre	[58r] A coward will never enter heavenly paradise, but there is no one so cowardly that he does not wish to be there. But they so dread discomfort and abandoning their way of life, that they turn their backs on God and leave Him aside.
Des lors que li hons nait a il petit a vivre195 Quant il a. xl. ans Or en a mains on livre Quant il doit servir Dieu Si saboivre et enyvre Ja ne se prendra garde200 Tant que mors le delivre Or est mors ⋅ qua il fait Quau siecle a tant estei Il a destruiz les biens Que Dieux li a prestei205 De Dieu ne li souvint Ne yver ne estei Il aura paradix Ce il la conquestei Foulz est qui contre mort210 Cuide troveir deffence Des biaux ⋅ des fors ⋅ des sages Fait la mors sa despance La mors mort Absalon Et Salomon et Sance215 De legier despit tout Quades a morir pance Et vos a quoi penceiz Qui naveiz nul demain Et qui a nul bien faire220 Ne voleiz metre main Se hom va au moustier Vos dites je remain A Dieu servir dou votre I estes vos droit romain225	From the moment a man is born, he has little time to live. When he is forty years old there is even less time on the ledger. When he ought to serve God he drinks too much and gets drunk. He will never be mindful until death delivers him. Now he is dead, and what has he accomplished, he who was in this world for so long? He has destroyed the goods that God lent him. He never remembers God, neither in winter nor in summer. He will gain paradise if only he strives for it. He is a fool who believes he has found a defense against death. Death feeds on the handsome, strong, and wise. Death bit Absolom, and Solomon, and Samson. He easily holds all things in contempt who thinks endlessly about death. And you, what do you think about, you who have no tomorrow, you who do not wish to lift a finger to do the slightest good? If another man goes to church you say, “I am staying home.” In serving God with what is yours, you are a true Roman.¹¹⁹
Se hom va au moustier La naveiz vos que faire Nest pas touz dune piece Tost vos porroit maufaire A ceux qui i vont dites230 Quailleurs aveiz a faire Sans oir messe sunt Maint biau serf embiaire	If another man goes to church, you want nothing to do with that place: it is not built of one single piece, it could easily injure you.¹²⁰ To those who attend, you say you have business elsewhere: why go to Mass when there are many beautiful stags at Bierre.¹²¹
Vous vous moqueiz de Dieu Tant que vient a la mort235 Si li crieiz merci Lors que li mors vos mort Et une consciance Vos reprent et remort Si nen souvient nelui240 Tant que la mors le mort Gardeiz dont vos venistes Et ou vous revandroiz Diex ne fait nelui tort	You mock God until the moment of death. Then you cry out for mercy as death bites you, and your conscience seizes and gnaws at you. And yet no one remembers this until death has him in her maw. Look where you came from and to where you will return. God does wrong to no one.
Nest nuns juges si droiz245 Il est sires de loiz Et cest maitres de droiz Touz jors le trovereiz Droit juge en toz endroiz Li besoins est venuz250 Quil a mestier damis Il ne quiert que le cuer De quanque en vos a mis Qui le cuer li aura Et donei et promis255 [58v] De resouvoir son reigne Ciert mult bien entremis Li mauvais demorront Nes convient pas eslire Et cil sunt hui mauvais260 Il seront demain pire De jour en jour iront	There is no judge who is as just. He is the lord of laws and the master of justice. Every day and everywhere you will find Him to be a fair judge. The time has come when He will need friends. Despite how much He has given you, He seeks only your heart. Whoever gives and promises Him his heart, [58v] will be well placed to inherit His kingdom. The wicked ones will stay behind. They should not be chosen; if they are bad today, they will be worse tomorrow. Day after day, they will go from
de roiaume en empire Se nos nes retrouvons Si nen ferons que rire265 Li rois qui les trois rois en belleem conduit Conduie touz croisiez Qui a mouvoir sunt duit Quosteir au soudant puissant270 et joie et deduit Si que bonnes en soient Et notes et conduit	kingdom to empire.¹²² If we do not retrieve them, all we can do is ridicule them. May the King, who led the three kings to Bethlehem, compel all crusaders who are set to embark so they may deprive the sultan of joy and pleasure, and so that good music and song may come of it.¹²³
Explicit.	The End

The Disputation between the Crusader and the Noncrusader

La desputizons dou croisie et dou descroizie (10r–11v)

Like the “Diz de la voie de Tunes,” the “Desputizons” was composed in the period between March 25, 1267, the year in which Louis IX, together with his sons—Jean Tristan, count of Nevers; Pierre, count of Alençon; and Philip the future king—took his second crusade vow, and March 1270, when the king and his entourage departed for the southern port of Aigues-Mortes. Most likely Rutebeuf wrote closer to the earlier date as internal references to the extreme proximity of “the enemies” to Acre (so close they could shoot their arrows into the city) suggest that he had heard news of the attack on the city by Mamluk forces under the command of Sultan Baybars on May 2, 1267. If the allusion to the feast of Saint Remy in the first line is taken literally, the poem could be dated to just after October 1 (the feast of Saint Remy), 1267.¹²⁴ The debate of the title may also allude to the debates that ensued, albeit privately within court circles, concerning the objective of the crusade expedition itself. Should a crusade return to Syria or Egypt, or go to Tunis as a strategic objective? Pushed by Mongol advances to the east, Baybars and his forces menaced the last remaining French strongholds on the Syrian coast, principally Acre and Jaffa, while the emir of Tunis, Al-Mustansir, continued to try to thwart the efforts of Charles of Anjou and his attempted dominance of Sicily and the western Mediterranean. As Michael Lower has shown, the choice of Tunis was complicated and probably overly optimistic and ambitious. Indeed, in August 1270, the king and many in his retinue died from disease on the Tunisian beach before any real military action was taken. The debate of the poem may have mirrored the debate over a crusade destination that must have occupied Louis IX and his court for much of the ensuing period between 1268 and 1270 as the political, religious, and diplomatic situation in the Mediterranean continued to be negotiated among the leading powers, Angevin, Mamluk, Hafsid, and Aragonese.¹²⁵

Ci coumence la desputizons dou croisie et dou descroizie	Here Begins the Disputation between the Crusader and the Noncrusader
[10r] Lautrier entour la Saint Remei Chevauchoie por mon afaire Pencix car trop sunt agrami5 La gent dont Diex at plus a faire Cil dAcre qui nont nul ami Ce puet on bien por voir retraire Et sont si pres lor anemi Qua eux pueent lancier et traire10 Tant fui pancis a ceste choze Que je desvoiai de ma voie Com cil qua li meismes choze Por le penceir que gi avoie Une maison fort et bien cloze15 Trouvai dont je riens ne savoie Et cestoit la dedens encloze Une gent que je demandoie Chevaliers i avoit teiz quatre Qui bien seivent parleir fransois20 Soupei orent si vont esbatre En un vergier deleiz le bois Ge ne me voulz sor eux embatre Que ce me dist ⋅ uns hom cortois Teiz cuide compaignie esbatre25 Qui la toust cest or sans gabois Li dui laissent parleir les deux Et je les pris a escouteir Qui leiz la haie fui touz seux Si descent por moi acouteir30 Si distrent entre gas et geux Teiz moz con vos morreiz conteir Siecles i fut nomeiz et Deus De ce pristrent a desputeir Li uns deux avoit la croix prise35 Li autres ne la voloit prendre Or estoit de ce lor emprise Que li croiziez voloit aprendre	[10r] The other day, around the feast of Saint Remy, I was riding along, minding my own business, troubled, because those for whom God has the greatest task are in deep distress: the people of Acre are friendless —this is easily proved— and their enemies are so close they can draw their bows and shoot at them. I was so deep in thought about this matter that I lost my way, like someone quarreling with himself over the thoughts that were on my mind. Then I came upon a house, tightly locked up, about which I knew nothing, and there inside were the sort of people whom I was seeking. There were four knights there, who knew how to speak French well.¹²⁶ Having dined, they were off to amuse themselves in an orchard near the woods. I did not want to intrude upon them, for a courtly man once said to me: “He who thinks he is delighting the crowd is the one who ruins the fun.” Now that’s no joke. Two of them allowed the other two to speak, and I, all alone next to the hedge, started to listen to them. Then I dismounted to get closer. Between jokes and pleasantries, they exchanged these words that you will hear me say. They spoke of the world, and God; this was the subject they began to debate. One of the two had taken the cross; the other did not want to take it. This was the topic of their debate, for the crusader wanted to instruct
A celui qui pas ne desprise La croix ne la main ni vuet tendre40 Quil la preist par sa maitrize Ce ces sans ce puet tant estendre Dit li croisiez premierement Entens a moi biaux dolz amis Tu seiz moult bien entierement45 Que Diex en toi le san a mis Dont tu connois apertement Bien de mal amis danemis Se tu en euvres sagement Tes loiers ten est promis50	the other one—who, although he did not disdain the cross did not want to take it in hand— to accept it on account of his expertise; that is, if his meaning could be grasped. The crusader spoke first: “Listen to me, dear, sweet friend. You know very well that God has given you good sense, with which you distinguish clearly good from evil, and friends from enemies. If you employ it wisely, your reward is promised to you.
Tu voiz et parsois et entens Le meschief de la Sainte Terre Por quest de proesse vantans Qui le leu Dieu lait en teil guerre Suns hom pooit vivre cent ans55 Ne puet il tant doneur conquerre Com se il est bien repentans Daleir le Sepuchre requerre Dit li autres jentens moult bien Por quoi vos dites teiz paroles60 Vos me sermoneiz que le mien Doingne au coc et puis si men vole Mes enfans garderont li chien Qui demorront en la parole (pailliole)¹²⁷ Hon dit ce que tu tiens si tien65 Ci at boen mot de bone escole [10v] Cuidiez vos or que la croix preingne Et que je men voize outre meir Et que les. c. soudees deingne Por. xl. cens reclameir70 Je ne cuit pas que Deux enseingne Que hom le doie ainsi semeir Qui ainsi senme pou i veigne Car hom le devroit asomeir	You see and perceive and understand the suffering of the Holy Land. How is it that a man, who leaves God’s land in such a state of war, can boast of prowess? If a man could live a hundred years, he could not gain as much honor as he would if he were to go, truly repentant, to reconquer the Sepulcher.” The other one said. “I understand very well why you say these things. You are preaching to me that I should hand over all I have to the rooster and then fly the coop. The dogs will look after my children, who will be left to live in the straw.¹²⁸ As they say, ‘hold on to what you have.’ These are some good and wise words. [10v] Do you think that I will now take the cross and set off overseas, and that I will give up 100 sous in rent and then ask for only 40 in return? I do not think that God teaches that a man must sow his seeds like this. Anyone who plants in this way had better hide his face, since he will deserve what he gets.”
Tu naquiz de ta mere nuz75 Dit li croisiez cest choze aperte Or iez juqua cet tens venuz Que ta chars est bien recoverte Quest Dieus ne quest lors devenuz Qua cent dobles rent la deserte80 Bien iert por mescheanz tenuz Qui ferat si vilainne perde	“You were born naked from your mother,” said the crusader: “that is clear. Now you have reached a point where your flesh is well covered. What is God for you now, He who repays you a hundredfold? Anyone would be seen as truly unlucky who had suffered such a humiliating loss.
Hom puet or paradix avoir Ligierement Diex en ait loux Asseiz plus, ce poeiz savoir85 Lacheta sainz Piere et sainz Poulz Qui de si precieux avoir Com furent la teste et li coux Laquistrent ce teneiz a voir Icist dui firent. ii. biaux coux90 Dit cil qui de croizier na cure Je voi merveilles dune gent Qui asseiz sueffrent poinne dure En amasseir. i. pou dargent Puis vont a Roume ou en Esture95 Ou vont autre voie enchergent Tant vont cerchant bone aventure Quil nont baesse ne sergent Hom puet moult bien en cet paÿx Gaiaignier Dieu cens grant damage100 Vos ireiz outre mer laÿs Qua folie aveiz fait homage Je di que il est foux naÿx Qui se mest en autrui servage Quant Dieu puet gaaignier saÿx105 Et vivre de son heritage	One can easily get to paradise now, praise be to God! You should know, the price was much higher when Saint Peter and Saint Paul purchased it, for they obtained it for something as precious as their heads and necks; believe me! Those two men made two great coups!”¹²⁹ The one who did not care about crusading said: “I marvel at people who go to such great pains to gather up a little money, and then go off to Rome or to Asturias,¹³⁰ or take up other routes. They are so intent on great adventure that they take along neither maid nor servant. One can certainly reach God right here in this country, without great suffering. You go there to Outremer because you have sworn homage to folly. I say he is a born fool who places himself in servitude to another, when he can reach God from here and live off his inheritance.”¹³¹
Tu dis si grant abusion Que nus ne la porroit descrire Qui wes sans tribulacion Gaaignier Dieu por ton biau rire110 Dont orent fole entencion Li saint qui soffrirent martyre Por venir a redempcion Tu diz ce que nuns ne doit dire	“You are talking such complete nonsense that no one could even describe it, you who wish, without any hardship, to reach God, relying on your pretty face. So then, did the saints who suffered martyrdom, have a foolish plan for obtaining their redemption? You are saying things no one ought to say.
Ancor nest pas digne la poingne115 Que nuns hom puisse soutenir A ce qua la joie sovrainne Puisse ne ne doie venir Por ce se rendent tuit cil moinne Qua teil joie puissent venir120 Hom ne doit pas douteir essoinne Con ait pour Dieu juquau fenir Sire qui des croix sermoneiz Resoffreiz moi que je deslas Sermoneiz ces hauz coroneiz125 Ces grans doiens et ces prelaz Cui Diex est toz abandoneiz Et dou siecle toz li solaz Ciz geux est trop mal ordeneiz Que toz jors nos meteiz es laz130 Clerc et prelat doivent vengier La honte Dieu quil ont ces rentes Il ont a boivre et a mangier Si ne lor chaut cil pluet ou vente Siecles est touz en lor dangier135 Cil vont a Dieu par teile sente [11r] Fol sunt cil la welent changier Car cest de toutes la plus gente	Such as that there is no pain that a man might endure that would be worthy enough to earn him sovereign joy.¹³² This is why all these men become monks, so that they may reach such joy. One should not fear the hardships that we must take on for God up until the end.” “Sir, you who are sermonizing about crosses, you should let me off the hook. Preach to the crowned ones,¹³³ the grand doyens and the prelates, to whom God gives everything and who have all the comforts of this world. This contest is rigged,¹³⁴ and every day you ensnare us in your net. Clerics and prelates must avenge God’s dishonor, since they receive his revenues. They have plenty to eat and drink, they do not care whether it is rainy or windy. The world is completely under their sway. If they are taking this path toward God, [11r] then they are crazy if they want to change course, for this one is the most pleasant of them all.”
Laisse clers et prelaz esteir Et te pren garde au roi de France140 Qui por paradix conquesteir Vuet metre le cors en balance Et ces enfans a Dieu presteir Li pres nest pas en aesmance Tu voiz quil se vuet apresteir145 Et faire ce dont a toi tance Moult a or meillor demoreir Li rois el roiaume que nos Qui de son cors wet honoreir Celui que por seignor tenons150 Quen crois se laissa devoreir Ce de lui servir ne penons Helas trop avrons a ploreir Que trop fole vie menons	“Set aside the clerics and prelates and consider the king of France, who in order to conquer paradise, wishes to place his own body in the balance and lend his children to God. The value of that loan cannot be estimated. You see that he wishes to prepare himself and do exactly what I am arguing with you about. The king has much better reasons to stay here in the kingdom than we do, and yet he wishes to honor with his own body Him whom we hold to be our Lord, who, on the cross, allowed Himself to be devoured. If we do not suffer to serve Him, alas, we will have much to lament, for the lives we lead are far too foolish.”
Je wel entre mes voisins estre155 Et moi deduire et solacier Vos ireiz outre la meir peistre Qui poeiz grant fais embracier Dites le soudant vostre meistre Que je pri pou son menacier160 Cil vient desa mal me vit neistre Mais lai ne lirai pas chacier Je ne faz nul tort a nul home Nuns hom ne fait de moi clamour Je cuiche tost et tien grant soume165 Et tieng mes voisins a amour Si croi par saint Pierre de Roume Quil me vaut miex que je demour Que de lautrui porter grant soume Dont je seroie en grant cremour170 Desai bees a aise vivre Seiz tu se tu vivras asseiz Di moi ce tu ceiz en queil livre Certains vivres soit compasseiz Manjue et boif et si ten yvre175 Que mauvais est de pou lasseiz Tuit sont. i. saches a delivre Et vie doume et oez quasseiz Laz ti dolant la mors te chace Qui tost tavra lassei et pris180 Desus ta teste tient sa mace Viex et jones prent a un pris	“I want to be among my neighbors and to have fun and take pleasure in life. You will go and find [spiritual] nourishment beyond the sea since you can bear these great burdens. Tell your master the sultan that I take little heed of his threats. If he comes here, I will see that he pays, but I will not go there to hunt him down. I am not doing anyone any harm; no one is complaining about me. I go to bed early and sleep well, and I have love for my neighbors. And so I believe, by Saint Peter of Rome, that it is better for me to stay here than to carry someone else’s heavy load, a task that would cause me great fear.” “And so, you aspire to live here in comfort? Do you know whether you will live a long time? Tell me if you know in what book certain lives are measured? Eat and drink, and then get drunk, for a poor wretch is soon exhausted. Know this well: a man’s life and broken eggs are one and the same. Alas, you poor soul, Death is chasing you and soon she will have ensnared and trapped you. Death wields her club above your head. Young and old, she takes for the same price.
Tantost at fait de pie eschace Et tu as tant vers Dieu mespris Au moins enxui. i. pou la trace185 Par quoi li boen ont loz et pris Sire croiziez merveilles voi Moult vont outre meir gent menue Sage large de grant aroi	She has quickly turned a foot into a peg leg. And you! You have so much contempt for God. Try to follow, at least a little bit, the path by which good men have earned praise and esteem.” “Lord crusader, I marvel at what I see! Many humble people are going beyond the sea. They are a wise, generous, upstanding,
De bien metable convenue190 Et bien i font si com je croi Dont larme est por meilleur tenue Si ne valent ne ce ne quoi Quant ce vient a la revenue Se Diex est nule part el monde195 Il est en France cet sens doute Ne cuidiez pas quil se reponde Entre gent qui ne lainment goute Et vostre meir est si parfonde Quil est bien droiz que la redoute200 Jaing mieux fontainne qui soronde Que quen estei sesgoute Tu ne redoutes pas la mort Si seiz que morir te couvient Et tu diz que la mers tamort205 Si faite folie dont vient [11v] La mauvaistiez quen toi samort Te tient a lostel se devient Que feras se la mors te mort	and trustworthy company, and they are doing some good there, I think, for which their souls are held in higher regard. Yet they are worth nothing at all when it comes to their return. If God is anywhere in the world, he is in France, without a doubt. Do not think he is hiding over there among people who do not love him one bit. And your sea is so deep that it is quite right that I fear it. I prefer a fountain that runs over to one that runs dry in the summertime.” “You do not fear death, yet you know you will have to die. And you say that the sea frightens you? Where does such foolishness come from? [11v] The villainy that takes hold of you is what keeps you at home, perhaps? What will you do if death bites you,
Que ne ceiz que li tenz deviant210 Li mauvais desa demorront Que ja nuns boens ni demorra Com vaches en lor liz morront Buer iert neiz qui delai morra Jamais recovreir ne porront215 Fasse chacuns mieux quil porrat Lor peresce en la fin plorront Et sil muerent nuns nes plorra Ausi com par ci le me taille Cuides foir denfer la flame220 Et acroire et metre a la taille Et faire de la char ta dame A moi ne chaut coument quil aille Mais que li cors puist sauver lame Ne de prison ne de bataille225 Ne de laissier enfans ne fame	since you do not know what the future holds? The wretches will remain here— and no good man will be left— like cows they will die in their beds; he who dies over there was born under a lucky star. They will never revive; let each man try as he might. They will end up lamenting their laziness, and if they die, no one will cry for them. While others do the work for you, you imagine you will flee the fires of hell, buying on credit, living in debt, and making your flesh your mistress. As long as I can use my body to save my soul, I don’t care how it plays out, whether I am taken prisoner or face battle or leave my wife and children behind.”
Biaux sire chiers que que dit aie Vos maveiz vaincu et matei A vos macort a vos mapaie Que vos ne maveiz pas flatei230 La croix preing sans nule delaie Si doing a Dieu cors et chatei Car qui faudra a cele paie Mauvaisement avra gratei En non dou haut Roi glorieux235 Qui de sa fille fist sa meire Qui par son sanc esprecieux Nos osta de la mort ameire Sui de moi croizier curieux Por venir a la joie cleire240 Car qui a same est oblieux Bien est raisons quil le compeire	“Dear sir, whatever I was able to say, checkmate, you have bested me! I agree and make my peace with you, for you did not sugarcoat things for me. I am taking the cross without further delay, and thus give my body and my possessions to God. For the one who defaults on this payment will have made a bad deal. In the name of the great glorious King who made of His daughter His mother, who by His precious blood delivered us from a bitter death, I long to go on crusade to attain such radiant joy. For if a person forgets his soul, it is only right that he pay the price.”
Explicit	The End

The New Complaint of Outremer

La nouvele complainte doutremeir (54r–56v)

In this late poem, Rutebeuf returns once again to the tone of a lament, or complaint, as the title evokes (see figure 32). Taking the form of a verse sermon, a harangue, and call to action, the poet begins the second stanza with a quotation, as sermons would have, from Saint Paul. This new complaint of Outremer articulates Rutebeuf’s extreme frustration with courtly life, the distracted nobility, and bourgeois townsmen gone soft and lazy. He critiques their ongoing procrastination while the Holy Land hangs in the balance. As he sees it, Acre is in such a fragile state that it will be lost within the year. But which year? The poem was composed sometime between June 24, 1274, when the great barons of France took the cross (including Philip III, the new king of France; the Duke of Burgundy; and the king’s son, Robert II of Béthune who held the title to Flanders and Nevers), and June 24, 1277, when they planned to depart. In the intervening three years, a robust papal correspondence called vowed crusaders to action, condemned the sins of usury, and offered indulgences to clerics and laymen who would take up the cross. The mention of William of Beaujeu, the newly elected master of the Temple, and the references to holding Acre and the Temple suggest that it was composed after June 1275 when William departed France for the East.¹³⁵ The poet closes by presenting an offer of salvation in Christian terms, recalling the benefits of sacrifice and martyrdom for those who are brave and worthy: “No one reaches paradise if he does not suffer pain.” Echoing the sermon genre he imitates, he closes with a prayer, offering us a sober poetic voice rather than the more sarcastic persona he presents in his satirical poems. Rutebeuf’s frustrations were entirely justified, as no crusade to the East ever departed from France during the reign of Philip III; rather the new king’s interests—political and diplomatic—turned south, to a crusade against Aragon.¹³⁶

Ci en coumence la nouvele complainte doutremeir	Here begins the New Complaint of Outremer
[54r] Pour lanui et por le damage Que je voi⋅ en lumain linage⋅ Mestuet mon pencei descovrir En sospirant mestuet ovrir La bouche ⋅ por mon voloir dire.5 Com hom corrouciez et plains dire Quant je pens ⋅ ala sainte terre Que picheour doient requerre Ainz quil aient pascei jonesce Et jes voi entreir en viellesce10 Et pius aleir de vie a mort Et pou envoi qui sen amort A empanrre la sainte voie Ne faire par quoi diex les voie⋅ Sen sui iriez par charitei15 Car sains poulz dist par veritei Tuit sons ⋅i⋅ cors en Jhesucrit Dont je vos monstre par lescrit Que li uns est ⋅ membres de lautre¹³⁷ Et nos sons ausi com li viautre20 Qui se combatent ⋅ por ⋅ i ⋅ os Plus en deisse ⋅ mais je noz ⋅	[54r] On account of the suffering and the wretchedness that I see in humankind, I must reveal my thoughts. Sighing, I must open my mouth to say what I want to say as an angry man, full of wrath. When I think of the Holy Land that sinners ought to retake before they move beyond their youth, and I see them enter into old age, and then go from life to death, and I see so few people commit themselves to undertake the holy journey, and do nothing to attract approval in the eyes of God, my sense of charity fills me with anger. Because Saint Paul says, in truth, “We are all one body in Jesus Christ.” So I demonstrate to you through Scripture that each one of us is a part of the other. And yet we are also like boarhounds who fight over a bone. I would say more, but I dare not.
Vos qui aveiz sans et savoir Entendre vos fais et savoir Que de dieu sunt bien averies25 Les paroles ⋅ des prophecies ⋅ En crois morut por noz mesfais Que nos et autres ⋅ avons fais ⋅ Ne morra plus ce est la voire Or poons sor noz piauz a croire30 Voirs est que David nos recorde Diex est plains de misericorde ⋅ Mais veiz ci trop grant restrainture Il est juges plains de droiture ⋅ Il est juges fors et poissans35 Et sages et bien connoissans ⋅ Juges que on ne puet plaissier Ne hom ne peut sa cort laissier Fors si fors fox est qui cesforce A ce que il vainque sa force40 Poissans que riens ne li eschape Por quoi quil at tot soz sa chape	You who have sense and wisdom, I will have you know and understand that the words of the prophecies are rendered true by God: He died on the cross for the misdeeds that we and others have committed. He will not die again, that is for sure. Now it is we who mortgage our hides. It is true what David says to us: God is full of mercy, but take note, there is a major restriction. He is a judge full of righteousness. He is a judge, strong and powerful, and wise and very learned. He is a judge whom no one can bend, nor can any man escape His court. He is strong, so strong that anyone who tries to best his strength is crazy. He is so powerful that nothing escapes Him. Why? Because He has everything under His mantle:
Sages con non puet desovoir Se peut chacuns aparsovoir Connoissans quil connoist la choze45 Avant que li hons la propoze Qui doit aleir devent teil juge Sens troveir recet ne refuge Cil at tort paour doit avoir Cil a en lui sans ne savoir50 Prince baron tournoieur Et vos autre sejorneour Qui teneiz a aise le cors Quant larme serat mise fors Queil porra elle osteil prendre55 Sauriiez le me vos aprendre Je ne le sai pas diex le sache Mais trop me plaing de votre outrage Quant vos ne penceiz a la fin Et au pelerinage fin60 Qui larme pecheresse afine Si qua dieu la rent pure et fine Prince premier qui ne saveiz [54v] Combien de terme vos aveiz A vivre en ceste morteil vie65 Que naveiz vos ⋅ de lautre envie Qui cens fin est por joie faire Que nentendeiz a votre afaire Tant com de vie ⋅ aveiz espace Natendeiz pas que la mors face70 De larme et dou cors desevrance Ci auroit trop dure atendance Car li termes vient durement Que dieux tanrra son jugement Quant li plus juste dadam nei75 Auront paour destre dampnei Ange et archange trembleront Les laces armes que feront Queil part ce porront elz repondre Qua dieu nes estuisse responder80 Quant il at le monde en sa main Et nos navons point de demain.	wise, for no one is able to deceive Him, as anyone can see; knowledgeable, for He understands the case before a man has even stated it. Whoever should go before such a judge, finding neither refuge nor place to hide, should be afraid if he is in the wrong, if he has any common sense. Princes, barons, tourneyers, and you other layabouts, who tend to the comforts of your body, when your soul is cast out what refuge will it take? Can you tell me that? I don’t know; God knows. But I am complaining too much of your excesses while you think neither of your own demise, nor of the ultimate pilgrimage¹³⁸ that refines the sinful soul, so that it is rendered to God, more pure and perfect. First of all, princes, you who do not know [54v] how much time you have to live in this mortal life, why do you not desire the other life which is joy without end? Why do you not attend to your affairs while you still have time in your life? Do not wait until death severs your soul from your body. There will be terrible anticipation because the painful moment will come when God renders his judgment. When the most righteous, who were born of Adam, are afraid of being damned, and the angels and archangels tremble, what will the wretched souls do? Where can they hide so they will not have to answer to God when He has the world in His hand and we have no tomorrow?
Rois de France rois dAingleterre Quen jonesce deveiz conquerre Loneur dou cors le preu de lame85 Ains que li cors soit soz la lame Sans espairgnier cors et avoir Sor voleiz ⋅ paradix avoir Si secoreiz la Terre sainte	King of France, King of England,¹³⁹ while you are young, you ought to win honor for your body and advantage for your soul, before your body lies beneath your tombstone; you must offer up your body and your wealth if you truly wish to attain paradise. Go rescue the Holy Land,
Qui est perdue a seste empainte90 Qui na pas un an de recours Sen lan meimes na secours Et cele est a voz tenz perdue A cui tens ert ele rendue Rois de Sezile par la grace95 de dieu qui vos dona espace de conquerre ⋅ Puille et Cezille Remembre vos de lEwangile Qui dist qui ne lait peire et meire Fame et enfans et suers et freires100 Possessions et manandie Quil na pas ⋅ avec li partie Baron quaveiz vos en pancei Seront jamais par vos tensei Cil dAcre qui sunt en balance105 Et de secorre en esperance Cuens de Flandres dus de Bergoingne Cuens de Nevers con grant vergoinge De perdre la Terre absolue Qui a voz tenz nos iert tolue110 Et vos autre baron encemble Quen dites vos que il vos cemble Saveiz vos honte si aperte Com de soffrir si laide perde Tournoieur vos qui aleiz115 En yver ⋅ et vos enjaleiz Querre places a tournoier Vos ne poeiz mieux foloier Vos despandeiz et sens raison Votre tens et votre saison120	which was lost in this¹⁴⁰ assault and which has no more than a year left if no aid is sent this year. And if it is lost in your time, in whose time will it be regained? King of Sicily, by the grace of God, who gave you the opportunity to conquer Apulia and Sicily, remember the Gospel, which says that he who does not leave behind father and mother, wife and children, sisters and brothers, possessions and domains, has no share in His inheritance.¹⁴¹ Barons, what are your intentions? Will you ever go to the defense of those in Acre, whose lives hang in the balance and who are hoping for succor? Count of Flanders, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Nevers, what a great shame to lose the Holy Land, which was taken from us in your time. And all you other barons, what do you say? How does it look to you? Can you think of a more overt disgrace than the suffering of such a hideous loss? Tourneyers, you who go in winter, and freeze yourselves seeking places to tourney,¹⁴² you could not commit a greater folly. You thoughtlessly waste your time, your opportunity,¹⁴³
Et le votre et lautrui entasche Le noiel laissiez por lescraffe Et paradix ⋅ pour vainne gloire Avoir deussiez ⋅ en memoire Monseigneur Joffroi de Sergines125 Qui fu tant boens et fu tant dignes Quen paradix est coroneiz Com sages et bien ordeneiz Et le conte Huede de Nevers Dont hom ne puet chanson ne vers130 Dire se boen non et loiaul Et bien loei en court roiaul A ceux deussiez panrre essample [55r] Et Acres secorre et le Temple	your money and that of others, all at once. You abandon the nut in favor of its shell, and likewise, paradise in favor of vainglory. You ought to remember my lord Geoffrey of Sergines, who was so good and so worthy, that he is crowned in paradise among the wise and steadfast. And Count Eudes of Nevers, about whom no man can recite songs or verses unless they are of his goodness, loyalty, and esteem in the royal court. You ought to follow the examples of these men [55r] and rescue Acre and the Temple.
Jone escuier au poil volage135 Trop me plaing de votre folage Qua nul bien faire ⋅ nentendeiz Ne de rien ne vous amendeiz Si fustes filz a mains preudoume Teiz com jes vi je les vos nome140 Et vos estes muzart et nice Que nentendeiz a votre office De veoir preudoume aveiz honte Vostre esprevier sunt trop plus donte Que vos niestes cest veriteiz145 Car teil i a quant le geteiz Seur le poing aporte la loe Honiz soit ⋅ qui de lui se loe Se nest Diex ne vostre pays Li plus sages est foux nayx150 Quant vos deveiz aucun bien faire Qua aucun bien vos doie traire Si le faites tout autrement Car vos toleiz vilainnement Povres puceles lor honeurs155 Quant ne pueent avoir seigneurs Lors si deviennent ⋅ dou grant nombre Cest. i. pechiez qui vos encombre Voz povres voizins soz marchiez Ausi bien at ⋅ leans marchiez160 Vendre voz bleiz et votre aumaille Com cele autre ⋅ povre pietaille Toute gentilesce effaciez ⋅ Il ne vous chaut que vous faciez Tant que viellesce vos efface165 Que ridee vos est la face Que vos iestes viel et chenu Por ce quil vos seroit tenu	Downy-faced young squire, I greatly lament your folly, for you have no plans to do good and no intention of mending your ways. Yet you are the sons of great prudhommes, (I know them and name them as such) and you are lazy and half-witted, and you do not concern yourself with your duties. You are ashamed to encounter a prudhomme. Your sparrowhawks are better trained than you are, that is true. For there are those that, when you release them, bring a lark back to your hand. Shame on him who praises you, since neither God nor your country does so. The wisest among you is a true fool. When you ought to do something good that would be to your benefit, you do the complete opposite. For you vilely take the honor of poor young girls. Then, they can no longer have honorable men and they become one of the many. That is but one of the sins that weighs upon you. You trample upon your poor neighbors: you even go to the market to sell your wheat and livestock alongside these other poor wretches. You wipe away all gentillesse. You do not care about what you do until old age renders you invisible, when your face is wrinkled and you are old and grey-haired. Because of this, people will say you are
A Gilemeir dou parentei Non pas par vostre volentei170 Sestes chevalier leiz la couche Que vous douteiz. i. poi reproche Mais se vous amissiez honeur Et doutissiez la deshoneur	of Gilemeir’s lineage,¹⁴⁴ which is something you would not want. You were born into knighthood and therefore, you have some fear of reproach. But if you loved honor and feared dishonor
Et amissiez votre lignage175 Vous fussiez et proudome et sage Quant vostre tenz aveiz vescu Quainz paiens ne vit votre escu Que deveiz demandeir celui Qui sacrefice fist de lui180 Je ne sais quoi se Diex me voie Quant vos ne teneiz droite voie Prelat clerc chevalier borjois Qui trois semainnes por. i. mois Laissiez aleir a votre guise185 Sens servir Dieu et sainte Eglise Dites saveiz vos en queil livre Hom trueve combien hon doit vivre Je ne sai je nou puis troveir Mais je vos puis par droit proveir190 Que quant li hons commence a nestre En cest siecle a il pou a estre Ne ne seit quant partir en doit La riens qui plus certainne soit Si est que mors nos corra seure195 La mains certainne si est leure Prelat auz palefrois norrois Qui bien saveiz par queil norrois? Li filz dieu fu en la crois mis Por confondre ces anemis200 Vos sermoneiz aus gens menues Et aus povres vielles chenues Quelz soient plaines de droiture [55v] Maugrei eulz ⋅ font ele penance Queles ont sanz pain ⋅asse painne205 Et si nont pas ⋅ la pance plainne ⋅	and loved your lineage, then you would be a wise man and a prudhomme. When you have lived out your time and no pagan¹⁴⁵ has ever seen your shield, what might you ask of Him who made a sacrifice of Himself? With God as my witness, I do not know, since you are not keeping to the right path. Prelates, clerics, knights, bourgeois, who let three weeks of a month go by at your whim, without serving God and the Holy Church, tell me, do you know in which book one finds how long a man will live? I do not know, I cannot find it. But I can rightly prove to you that once a man is born he has little time to be in this world. He does not know when he will have to depart. What is more certain is that death will run us down. Less certain is at what hour. Prelates on your Norwegian palfreys, you who know well by what barbaric deed the son of God was put on the cross to confound his enemies, you sermonize to the little people and the poor grey-haired old ladies that they should be full of righteousness. [55v] They do penance in spite of themselves for, without bread, they do not have a full belly and suffer greatly.
Naiez paour ⋅je ne di pas Que vos meueiz isnele pas Por la sainte ⋅ terre deffendre Mais vos poeiz ⋅ entor vos prendre210 Asseiz de povres ⋅ gentilz homes Qui ne mainnent soumiers ne soumes Qui doient ⋅ et nont de quil paient Et lor enfant de fain semaient A cex doneiz ⋅ de vostre avoir215 Dont par tens ⋅ porreiz pou avoir Ces envoiez outre la meir Et vos faites ⋅ a Dieu ameir Montreiz ⋅ par bouche et par example Que vos ameiz Dieu et le Temple220	Do not fear; I am not saying that you should set out this minute to defend the Holy Land. But you can gather up plenty of poor gentlemen who have neither beasts of burden nor burdens for them to carry, who owe, yet have nothing with which to pay, while their children are fainting from hunger. Donate your wealth to these people, for, in the end, you might have very little left, and send these people across the sea and make yourselves loved by God. Demonstrate by word and by example, that you love God and the Temple.
Clerc ⋅ a aise ⋅ et bien sejornei Bien ⋅ vestu ⋅ et bien sejornei (conraei)¹⁴⁶ Dou patrimoinne ⋅ au Crucei Je vos promet ⋅ e vos afi Se vos failliez ⋅ Deu orendroit225 Quil vos faudra ⋅ au fort endroit Vos sereiz ⋅ forjugie en court Ou la riegle faut qui or court Por ce te fais ⋅ que tu me faces Non pas por ce ⋅ que tu me haces230 Diex vos fait bien ⋅ faites li donc De quoi (de cors) ⋅ de cuer et darme don¹⁴⁷ Si fereiz que preu ⋅ et que sage Or me dites ⋅ queil aventage Vos puet faire ⋅ vostres tresors235 Quant larme iert ⋅ partie dou cors Li executeur ⋅ le retiennent Ju qua tant qua lor fin reviennent Chacuns son eage a son tour Cest maniere ⋅ dexecutour240	Comfortable, well-rested clerics, well-dressed and well-tended,¹⁴⁸ living off the patrimony of the Crucified One, I promise and assure you that if you let God down now, He will let you down at the crucial moment. You will be convicted at His court where the rule that applies now is no longer in force: “I am doing this for you, so that you will do it for me, not so that you will hate me.” God does good for you, so give Him the gift of your body, heart, and soul.¹⁴⁹ In doing so, you would behave decorously and wisely. Tell me now, what good can your wealth bring to you when your soul has left your body? The executors hold onto it until the time of their deaths, each in his own turn. This is how it is with executors.
Ou il avient par mecheance Quil en donent ⋅ por reparlance Xx. paire de solers ⋅ ou trente Or est sauve ⋅ larme dolante Chevaliers ⋅ de plaiz et daxises245 Qui par vos faites vos justices Sens jugement ⋅ aucunes fois Tot i soit ⋅ sairemens ⋅ ou foiz Cuidiez vos ⋅ toz jors ⋅ einsi faire A un chief ⋅ vos covient il traire250 Quant la teste est ⋅ bien avinee Au feu ⋅ deleiz la cheminee Si vos croiziez ⋅ sens sermoneir Donc verriez ⋅ grant coulz doneir	When the time comes, they will give away twenty or thirty pairs of shoes, just for show, and then a wretched soul is saved.¹⁵⁰ You knights, who preside at the judicial court and assises, who render verdicts on your own behalf, sometimes even without good judgment— regardless of oaths or sworn testaments— do you think you can always behave this way? Things will come to a head for you.¹⁵¹ When your head is full of wine by the fire, next to the hearth, that is when you take the cross without being preached to; then you envision yourself
Seur le sozdant ⋅ et seur sa gent255 Forment les aleiz ⋅ damagent Quant vos ⋅ vos leveiz au matin Saveiz changie vostre latin Que gari sunt tuit li blecie Et li abatu ⋅ redrecie260 Li un vont au lievres chacier Et li autre ⋅ vont porchacier Cil panront. i. mallart ou deux Car de combatre nest pas geux Par vos faites voz jugemens265 Qui sera vostres dampnemens Se li jugemens ⋅ nest loiaus Boens ⋅ et honestes et feaus Qui plus vos done ⋅ si at droit Ce faites ⋅ que Diex ne voudroit270 Ainsi defineiz ⋅ vostre vie Et lors que li cors ⋅ se devie Si trueve larme ⋅ tant a faire [56r] Que je ne porroie ⋅ retraire Car Diex vos rent ⋅ la faucetei275 Par jugement ⋅ car achatei Aveiz enfer ⋅ et vos laveiz Car ceste choze ⋅ bien saveiz	striking the sultan and his people with powerful blows, and inflicting great damage upon them. When you awake in the morning, then you change your tune, and all the wounded are healed and those cut down are upright once more. Some will go hunting for hare, and the others will try to capture a mallard or two, if they can, for making war is no game. You make your judgments for your own benefit, which will be your damnation if the judgment is not loyal, good, honest, and faithful. For you, whoever gives you the most is in the right. You are doing what God would not want. This is how you are ending your life, and when the body becomes lifeless, then the soul finds so much to do [56r] that I cannot even describe it. God will repay your hypocrisy with judgment; since you have purchased hell, now you have it. In this matter, as you well know,
Diex rent de tout ⋅ le guerredon Soit biens ⋅ soit maux ⋅ il en a don280 Riche borjois ⋅ dautrui sustance Qui faites Dieu ⋅ de vostre pance Li povre Dieu ⋅ chiez vos saunent Qui de fain muerent ⋅ et geunent Por atendre ⋅ vostre gragan285 Dont il nont pas a grant lagan Et vos entendeiz ⋅ au mestier Qui aux armes ⋅ neust mestier Vos saveiz ⋅ que morir convient Mais je ne sai ⋅ cil vos souvient290 Que luevre ensuit ⋅ lome et la fame Cil at bien fait ⋅ bien en a larme Et nos trovons bien en escrit Tout va fors lamour JhesuCrit Mais de ce ⋅ naveiz vos que faire295 Vos entendeiz ⋅ a autre afaire Je sai toute ⋅ vostre atendue Dou bleis ameiz ⋅ la grant vendue Et chier vendre ⋅ de si au tans Seur lettre ⋅ seur plege ⋅ ou seur ⋅ nans.300 Vil acheteir et vendre chier Et uzereir et gent trichier Et faire ⋅ dun deable Deus Por ce ⋅ que enfers ⋅ est trop seux Jusqua la mort ⋅ ne faut la guerre305 Et quant li cors ⋅ est mis en terre Et hon est ⋅ a losteil venuz Ja puis nen iert ⋅ contes tenuz Quant li enfant ⋅ sunt lor seigneur Veiz ci conquest ⋅ a grant honeur310 Au bordel ⋅ ou en la taverne Qui plus tost puet ⋅ plus ci governe Cil qui lor doit ⋅ si lor demande Paier covient ce com commande Teiz marchiez font ⋅ com vous eustes315 Quant en vostre autoritei fustes Chacuns en prent ⋅ chacuns en oste Enz osteiz pluee sen vont li oste Les terres demeurent en friche Sen sunt li hom estrange riche320	God renders payment for all, whether good or bad; that is His gift. Bourgeois, you get rich off what others need to survive, and make a God of your belly,¹⁵² while God’s poor are gathering at your house, dying of hunger and starvation, waiting for your scraps, which are not plentiful, and you go about your business, which renders no service to souls.¹⁵³ You know you have to die, but I do not know whether you recall that deeds follow both man and woman.¹⁵⁴ He who has done good has goodness in his soul, and we find this clearly in the scriptures: “Everything falls away except for the love of Jesus Christ.” But you do not care about this. You attend to other matters. I know everything you are up to. You like to close the big deal on your wheat, and then sell it at a high price in installments by letter [of credit], by pledge, or collateral. Buying low and selling high, charging usurious rates and cheating people, and making one devil into two, because hell is too lonely. This battle endures until death. And when the body is put in the ground and people have returned home, from then on, no one will take any account. When children become their own lords, behold their most valued pursuit: who can steer himself to the brothel or the tavern the fastest? He who is in their debt comes calling; one must pay for what one has ordered. They bargain the way you did when you were in charge. Each one takes some and each removes a little. It rains in the house, and the tenant leaves, the lands remain uncultivated, and the foreigners get rich off it.¹⁵⁵
Cil qui lor doit paier nes daingne Ansois convient ⋅ que hon en daingne Lune moitie ⋅ por lautre avoir Veiz ci la fin ⋅ de vostre avoir La fin de larme ⋅ est tote aperte325 Bien est qui li rant ⋅ sa deserte Maistre doutre meir et de France Dou temple ⋅ par la Dieu poissance Frere Guillaume de Biaugeu330 Or poeiz veioir le biau geu De quoi li siecles ⋅ seit servir Il nont cure de Dieu servir Por conquerre ⋅ sainz paradis Com li preudome de ja diz335 Godefroiz ⋅ Buemons ⋅ et Tancreiz Ja niert lor ancres ⋅ a encreiz En meir ⋅ por la neif rafreschir De ce ce vuelent ⋅ il franchir Ha bone gent Diex vos sequeure340 Que de la mort ne saveiz leure Recoumanciez ⋅ novele estoire Car Jhesucriz ⋅ li rois de gloire vos vuet avoir ⋅ et maugre votre [56v] Sovaingne vos ⋅ qui li apostre345 Norent pas ⋅ paradix por pou Or vos remembre de saint Pou Qui por deu ot ⋅copei la teste Por noiant ⋅ nen fait hon pas feste Et le saveiz bien ⋅ que sains peires350 Et sains Andreuz ⋅qui fu ces freres Furent por dieu ⋅en la coix mis Por ce fu dieux⋅lor boens amis Et li autre saint⋅ausiment Que vos iroie ⋅ plus rimant355 Nuns na paradix ⋅cil na painne Por cest cil sages ⋅ qui san painne Or prions au roi glorieux Et a son chier fil ⋅ precieux Et au saint esperit ⋅ensemble360 En cui toute bonteiz ⋅sasemble Et a la precieuze dame	He who owes them does not deign to pay them, so it becomes necessary to give over one half of it [the debt] to keep the other. This is how your fortunes are lost. The fate of your soul is clear; indeed, someone will render it what it is due. Master of the Temple in Outremer and in France, by the power of God Brother William of Beaujeu,¹⁵⁶ now you can see the clever game the world knows how to play. They have no interest in serving God to obtain holy paradise like the prudhommes of old: Godfrey, Bohemond, and Tancred. They will never drop their anchors at sea to resupply their ship; they wish to be free of all that. Ah! Good men, may God help you, for you know not the hour of your death. Begin a new story,¹⁵⁷ for Jesus Christ, the King of Glory wants you at his side, in spite of yourself. [56v] Remember that the apostles did not reach paradise for a trifle. Indeed, think of Saint Paul, who had his head chopped off for God; we do not celebrate him for nothing. You know well that Saint Peter and Saint Andrew, who was his brother, were put upon the cross for God. Therefore, God was their good friend, just as He was to the other saints. What more can I rhyme about for you? No one reaches paradise if he does not suffer pain. For this reason, he is wise who takes this on. Let us pray to the Glorious King and His dear, precious Son, together with the Holy Spirit in whom all goodness is gathered, and to the precious Lady
Qui est saluz de cors et darme A touz sainz⋅et a toutes saintes Qui por dieu ⋅orent painnes maintes365 Quil nos otroit⋅ la joie fine Rutebues ⋅ son sarmon define.	who is the salvation of body and soul, to all the saints, male and female, who have endured many pains for God, may they grant us pure joy. Rutebeuf ends his sermon.¹⁵⁸
Explicit	The End.

1. Dates for Rutebeuf’s crusade poems, given below, are adapted from Onze poèmes de Rutebeuf concernant la croisade, ed. Julia Bastin and Edmond Faral (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1946), 144–45.

2. Oeuvres complètes de Rutebeuf, ed. Julia Bastin and Edmond Faral, 4th ed., vol. 1 (Paris: Picard, 1977), 60; Nancy Freeman Regalado, Poetic Patterns in Rutebeuf: A Study in Noncourtly Poetic Modes of the Thirteenth Century (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970), 6; Jean Dufournet, L’univers de Rutebeuf (Orléans: Paradigme, 2005), 30; Michel Zink, “Poète sacré, poète maudit,” Recherches et Rencontres 1 (1990): 235–36; Sung-Wook Moon, “Engagement difficile: Les poèmes de croisade de Rutebeuf,” Loxias 54 (2016): 5; Jacques E. Merceron, “Rutebeuf, marchand de croisades et le système de la comptabilité spirituelle: Le dit et le non-dit,” Romania 131 (2013): 383; Anne-Lise Cohen, “Exploration of Sounds in Rutebeuf’s Poetry,” French Review 40 (1967): 658.

3. Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 32.

4. “La vie de sainte Elyzabel,” vv. 2005–6, in Rutebeuf: Oeuvres complètes, ed. Michel Zink (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2001), 748.

5. Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 32, 35, 37; Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 8.

6. Merceron, “Rutebeuf, marchand,” 382.

7. Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 6; Dufournet, L’univers, 26–27; Linda Paterson, Singing the Crusades: French and Occitan Lyric Reponses to the Crusading Movements, 1137–1336 (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2018), 224.

8. Estelle Doudet, “Rhétorique en mouvement: Rutebeuf, prêcheur et polémiste de la Croisade,” Méthode! Revue de littératures 9 (2006): 16; Moon, “Engagement difficile,” 5.

9. Moon, “Engagement difficile,” 8.

10. Edward Billings Ham, Rutebeuf and Louis IX (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1962), 33; Arié Serper, “Le Roi Saint Louis et le poète Rutebeuf,” Romance Notes 9 (1967): 134; D. A. Trotter, Medieval French Literature and the Crusades (1100–1300) (Geneva: Droz, 1987), 213 and 218.

11. Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 40; Paul Rousset, “Rutebeuf, poète de la croisade,” Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte 60 (1966): 110; Doudet, “Rhétorique en mouvement,” 11.

12. Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 106; Merceron, “Rutebeuf, marchand,” 387.

13. Trotter, Medieval French Literature, 171.

14. Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 17–20. See the preface, above, for the methods we employed in transcribing and translating the text collaboratively.

15. Cohen, “Exploration of Sounds,” 660.

16. Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 205–7 and 216–17; Cohen, “Exploration of Sounds,” 664–65.

17. Zink’s 2001 edition and translation, with its detailed critical apparatus, has been an invaluable guide.

18. Moon, “Engagement difficile,” 14.

19. “The Complaint of Outremer,” vv. 100–101.

20. “Lament of Geoffroy,” v. 115, “Lament of Eudes,” 157–61.

21. Edward B. Ham, “Rutebeuf—Pauper and Polemist,” Romance Philology 11 (1958): 236.

22. Doudet, “Rhétorique en mouvement,” 12–14.

23. Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 48; Rousset, “Rutebeuf,” 107; Caroline Smith, Crusading in the Age of Joinville (Farnham: Ashgate, 2006), 79.

24. Merceron, “Rutebeuf, marchand,” 391.

25. Merceron, “Rutebeuf, marchand,” 398–99.

26. Ham, “Rutebeuf—Pauper and Polemist,” 237; Moon, “Engagement difficile,” 7.

27. Rousset, “Rutebeuf,” 104; Doudet, “Rhétorique en mouvement,” 11; Paterson, Singing the Crusades, 223.

28. Merceron, “Rutebeuf, marchand,” 402; Trotter, Medieval French Literature, 225.

29. Zink, Rutebeuf, 847 and 997. In Jessalynn Bird, Edward Peters, and James M. Powell, eds., Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187–1291 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), at 389, the editors of “Rutebeuf’s ‘Lament of the Holy Land,’ ca. 1266,” follow Zink’s lead by translating “novele estoire” as “a new epic tale.” See also Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 53; Doudet, “Rhétorique en mouvement,” 16; Moon, “Engagement difficile,” 9.

30. Zink, Rutebeuf, 845n1; Philippe Buc, Holy War, Martyrdom, and Terror: Christianity, Violence, and the West (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), 284; Doudet, “Rhétorique en mouvement,” 16; Marisa Galvez, The Subject of Crusade: Lyric, Romance, and Materials, 1150 to 1500 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 202.

31. Rousset, “Rutebeuf,” 108; Buc, Holy War, 284; Galvez, The Subject of Crusade, 202.

32. For this verse and the word “sermon,” see note 158.

33. According to Dufournet, Prudhomie as embodied by Geoffrey and Eudes was a combination of courage, a sense of honor, generosity, a spirit of hospitality, sociability, friendship, charity, loyalty, fair not venal justice, equity in distribution of gifts, and defense of causes. See Dufournet, L’univers, 33.

34. We relied principally on the digitized images of Paris, BnF, MS fr. 1635 to establish the text for translation. The digitized images can be found at Gallica, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105253083. However, there were instances when the reading from MS fr. 1635 was nonsensical, at which point we referenced Brussels, KBR MS 9411–9426 (especially regarding “La nouvele complainte doutremeir,” in this manuscript called “Li complainte daccre,” fols. 34r–36r). When adjustments were made to the Paris manuscript for comprehension, we note this in the French text.

35. Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 18–19.

36. Regalado, Poetic Patterns, 3, 53.

37. See M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, Invisible Weapons: Liturgy and the Making of Crusade Ideology (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017), 192–225.

38. For more on prudhomme, see Anne Latowsky’s introduction above.

39. On prudhomme, prudefemme, and courtly conduct, see David Crouch, The Chivalric Turn: Conduct and Hegemony in Europe before 1300 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).

40. Dates adapted from Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 144–45; and Zink, Rutebeuf.

41. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 123; Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 19–21.

42. We elected to transcribe the poems almost exactly as they appear in BnF, MS fr. 1635, which means there are no added apostrophes or other punctuation marks. Here in verse 10, for instance, what should be read as qu’envers remains as quenvers. On occasion we note that we have deferred to another manuscript following Faral and Bastin when our scribe had clearly made an error, and in some places, we use parentheses or em dashes to indicate poetic asides. We have numbered the Old French verses according to our transcription of BnF, MS fr. 1635, so they are not always identical to those of Zink or Bastin and Faral, whose editions are based on multiple manuscripts. In the English translation the verse numbers represent our best approximation of the corresponding verses in the Old French text rather than actual line numbers of the English text.

43. The rhyme here is slightly awkward, “riegle” and “siecle,” but we have verified against the manuscript and there may have been variations of pronunciation that elided differences audible in modern French.

44. Courtoisie, including its adverbial form cortoisement, is difficult to translate because it encapsulates an entire set of values including generosity, lack of avarice, openness, nobility, solicitousness, and respectability. See the comments above in the introduction to the poems and in the glossary.

45. A few lines later, Rutebeuf clarifies this statement by telling the reader that he is referring to those who join religious orders.

46. This is a reference to canons and monks and vowed religious as opposed to their leaders, whom he calls out below.

47. For more on Rutebeuf’s attitudes toward the religious life, see his “Le Dit des règles,” in Zink, Rutebeuf, 167–79.

48. Martino da Canale also addresses Geoffrey in the introduction to book 2 of Les Estoires de Venise, written between 1267 and 1275. Martino da Canale, Les estoires de Venise: Cronaca veneziana in lingua francese ale origini al 1275, ed. Alberto Limentani (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1972), 157.

49. A reference to the mendicants, and to the Franciscans specifically, who were known as cordeliers, named for the simple cord they used to secure their brown tunics.

50. A reference to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, or to the Kingdom of France as opposed to the Île-de-France, that is, the region associated with the heart of France.

51. We think this means France, before he departed for the Holy Land.

52. MS fr. 1635 reads “teig.” This is a scribal error; we have made the correction and translated the text accordingly.

53. Rutebeuf uses the same language in his “Lament for Count Eudes of Nevers,” at stanza 3, line 2; see below.

54. See chapters 1 and 7 of the commentary for more on Geoffrey’s payments.

55. MS fr. 1635 reads “besoig” This is a scribal error; we have made the correction and translated the text accordingly.

56. The words in this passage might call to mind the recent actions of Louis IX. Louis “pays well,” for he maintains the garrison in Acre and Jaffa, and pays Geoffrey. The crown of the cult of martyrs may also allude to King Louis IX, who had acquired the crown of thorns and paid well for it. He established a cult of martyrs’ crowns in the Sainte-Chapelle to complement the crown of thorns. See Robert Branner, “The Painted Medallions in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 58 (1968): 1–42.

57. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 401; Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 28–35. For the repeated calls to aid the Latin Empire leading up to 1261 and a close reading of the papal documents, see Michael Lower, The Barons’ Crusade: A Call to Arms and Its Consequences (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).

58. See the glossary for an explanation of the term “Tartars.”

59. Ayoul or Aiol is the eponymous hero of a chanson de geste from the early thirteenth century. Some have posited that Aiol was presented at the court of Philip Augustus in 1212 on the occasion of his marriage to Jeanne of Constantinople, the daughter of Baldwin of Flanders. See Aiol: A Chanson de Geste, Modern Edition and First English Translation, ed. and trans. Sandra C. Malicote and A. Richard Hartman (New York: Italica Press, 2014).

60. The first letters of this verse are obscured in BnF, MS fr. 1635, but they appear in BnF, MS fr. 837, fol. 326r as “Se li.” See also Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 426.

61. We have capitalized the pronouns in the above stanzas that refer to Hypocrisy and the Holy Land because the poet is personifying both.

62. When confronting the harsh realities of war, some crusaders felt compelled to renounce their Christian faith in favor of Islam. This in turn made them both traitors and criminals, and therefore hated by those who remained Christian. Evidence for such conversions comes from chapter 23 of the Livre au roi, a legal text from the Crusader States that may date to the late twelfth century but was recopied in Cyprus at approximately the same time Rutebeuf composed his poems. The chapter includes a series of regulations about how territories should be forfeited if a landholder “renounces the law of Jesus Christ for that of Mohammed.” Le livre au roi, ed. Myriam Greilsammer (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1995), 201.

63. In BnF, MS fr. 837, fol. 326r, we read “assouvie,” as do Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 420, and Zink, Rutebeuf, 410, in their editions of the poem.

64. Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 423–24. This may also be a critique of the negotiations and truce that Louis IX brokered with the Muslims in Egypt, in exchange for the release of French captives, or following the conversion either of Christians to Islam or of Muslims in Syria, many of whom Louis then brought to France after 1254. See William Chester Jordan, “Etiam Reges, Even Kings,” Speculum 90 (2015): 613–34; and Jordan, The Apple of His Eye: Converts from Islam in the Reign of Louis IX (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019).

65. Frere in this instance refers to the friars. Given the context and papal commission this was most likely the Franciscans.

66. Jacobins and Minors refer to the Dominicans and Franciscans respectively. See the glossary.

67. Rutebeuf is employing a version of the topos of translatio studii et imperii (transfer of learning and empire) found notably in the twelfth-century verse romance of Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès (lines 27–35), in which the poet writes that chevalerie had come from Greece and then moved to Rome and finally to France. For Rutebeuf, Ogier and Charlemagne are heroes of a mythic bygone era when chevalerie still flourished.

68. This may be a reference to the very public trial of Enguerrand of Coucy, which took place only three years earlier, in 1259. On the trial and its reception, see Dominique Barthélemy, “L’affaire Enguerran de Coucy (1259),” in Affaires, scandales et grandes causes: De Socrate à Pinochet, ed. Nicolas Offenstadt and Stéphane Van Damme (Paris: Stock, 2007), 59–77; and William Chester Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979), 204.

69. Naime is a trusted counselor of Charlemagne in the Old French epic tradition, a vieux sage (wise old man), who, unlike Ganelon, would never betray him.

70. White and grey robes were the colors of the monastic or religious habits worn by the Jacobins or Dominicans as well as the Cistercians (white) and the Franciscans (grey, hence the Greyfriars in England). For contemporary associations with cloth of this color, see Jordan, Apple of His Eye, 72–75.

71. On April 10, 1261, an Assembly was called in Paris to discuss concerns about the “Tartars,” that is, the threat of Mongol expansion into Europe. See Jacques Paviot, “England and the Mongols (c. 1260–1330),” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 10 (2000): 305–18.

72. This is a striking phrase and may refer to the perception that the Mongols were reticent to cross the Black Sea or the Mediterranean, as some Europeans feared they would. This popular perception of fear of the sea may in fact correspond to the preference among the Mongols for a nomadic way of life far from seaports. See the comments in John Ross Sweeney, “ ‘Spurred on by the Fear of Death’: Refugees and Displaced Populations during the Mongol Invasion of Hungary,” in Nomadic Diplomacy, Destruction and Religion from the Pacific to the Adriatic: Papers Prepared for the Central and Inner Asian Seminar, University of Toronto, 1992–93, ed. Michael Gervers and Wayne Schlepp (Toronto: Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, 1994), 34–62; and Ulf Büntgen and Nicola Di Cosmo, “Climatic and Environmental Aspects of the Mongol Withdrawal from Hungary in 1242 CE,” Scientific Reports 6, no. 1 (2016): 1–9.

73. The idea here, based on Luke 6:25, is that the pleurechantes will cry and then sing by suffering in life and then singing in heaven, while the chantepleures will sing first in life and then weep in hell. This verse certainly alludes to the poem “La chantepleure” from the 1230s by an anonymous supporter of the grand inquisitor Robert le Bougre who terrorized France from 1232 to 1239, and which also appears in BnF, MS fr. 837, fols. 335v–336v close to the last Rutebeuf poem, which ends at 332v. Achille Jubinal reproduced “La chantepleure” in a long note in his Oeuvres complètes de Rutebeuf, Trouvère du XIIIe siècle: Recueillies et mises au jour pour la première fois (Paris: Edouard Pannier, 1839), 1:398–405. The poem describes the torments inflicted by devils that are “noirs comme meure” (v. 8) or dark as blackberries. See Jean-Marie Fritz, “La clepsydre et l’oxymore: Variations sur la ‘chantepleure,’ ” Romania 134 (2016): 373nn91, 92.

74. “Reading long Matins,” figuratively speaking, means to inflict a long painful trial on someone, because Matins entailed waking in the middle of the night for sometimes lengthy liturgical offices. See the comment in Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 430.

75. Although we do not translate them here, Rutebeuf’s two short poems “La Chanson de Pouille” (ca. 1264–65) and “Le Dit de Pouille” (mid-1265) both address the campaign or crusade in Apulia, in the far southeast of the Italian peninsula.

76. Zink, Rutebeuf, 845; Bastin and Faral, Onze poémes, 52–57.

77. MS fr. 1635 reads “ce.” This is a scribal error; we have made the correction and translated the text accordingly.

78. Rutebeuf creates a deliberate play of sound and meaning here with “hom cens raison,” which would have sounded enough like hom sarrasin to suggest to a listener that men without reason and Saracen men were trampling the Holy Land.

79. Lines 33–34, scribe has “naiderat” and “ferat,” which are mostly likely scribal variants.

80. The word papelart means a hypocrite, in this case the slippery-tongued sort who is not truly devout.

81. This word is usually translated as “law,” but in this context it is better understood as religious law.

82. In the Old French epic tradition, Roland is the beloved nephew of Charlemagne who dies alongside the emperor’s finest knights at the Battle of Roncevaux after his stepfather Ganelon betrays the Frankish troops in a deal with Marsile, the Muslim king and last holdout in Spain. The two most famous versions in the French tradition are the Song of Roland and Chronicle of Pseudo-Turpin. Rutebeuf is criticizing those who lament the loss of a character of popular poetic tradition rather than the true suffering of Jesus.

83. This line can be interpreted in different ways: Father could refer to Father in heaven, i.e., God, or to the king.

84. On “toile,” see the glossary.

85. Faral and Bastin note the difficulty of this passage and underline the contrast between the dining pleasures of lazy prelates and, in the reading they suggest, God working the land, Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 447.

86. Godfrey of Bouillon was a hero of the First Crusade and the subject of multiple Old French epic songs written beginning in the late twelfth century. See Anne Latowsky, “Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Louis IX,” in The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the Crusades, ed. Anthony Bale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 202–5; Galvez, The Subject of Crusade, 202–3.

87. Angeliers (Engelers), duke of Aquitaine, is mentioned among the dead at the mythic eighth-century Battle of Roncevaux in various texts including the Song of Roland and the Old French translations of the popular Chronicle of Pseudo-Turpin.

88. Like Godfrey, Tancred and Baldwin were also heroes of the successful First Crusade, but without the vernacular literary afterlife that Godfrey inspired.

89. Both the Khwarazmian and Chananians were Turco-Persian peoples who were part of the Persianate Sunni Muslim empire of Mamluk origin that stretched across the region encompassing Iran and Afghanistan, between Tabriz, Shiraz to the south, and Kabul to the east. The association with those from Tarsus (on the coast of south-central Turkey, in the region of Cilicia) suggests that Rutebeuf, like many of his contemporaries, amalgamated a common Muslim-Persian-Turkic enemy.

90. See Alexandre Teulet et al., eds., Layettes du Trésor des chartes (Paris: H. Plon, 1863–1909), 4:228–29, no. 5293 (June 1267), for a letter from Geoffrey asking for funds and support.

91. Érard died on August 11, 1276, almost exactly a decade after Eudes. See Xavier Hélary, L’Ascension et la chute de Pierre de La Broce, chambellan du roi († 1278): Étude sur le pouvoir royal au temps de Saint Louis et de Philippe III (v. 1250–v.1280) (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2021), 77–79, 410–12.

92. Zink, Rutebeuf, 859; Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 64–69.

93. This mention of “speakers of any tongue” is an example of hyperbole used to convey that there is no man anywhere in the world whom the poet would more like to resemble than Eudes.

94. A terriers was a landlord, literally, and as such, someone who carried out justice.

95. A standard in this case refers to the flag or banner carried in battle to represent opposing forces.

96. La terre (that land) is a reference to the Holy Land.

97. There is a play on words here involving the term “cross” (croix), which is also a reference to a coin, the French denier tournois, which bore the image of a cross on its obverse and was also the symbol of a promise to go on crusade. To turn your coin from heads to tails meant to be deceitful, or to abandon your vow to crusade. Here, Eudes remained true to his commitment to go on crusade. See figures 9.1 and 9.2: French denier tournois.

98. There is a temporal element to the idiom “fait boen semeir” meaning that now is the time to go on crusade.

99. This is most likely a reference to Jean Tristan, son of Louis IX, who had married Eudes’s daughter Yolande in 1265. Jean took up the title of count of Nevers following Eudes’s death.

100. The word matyre here refers both to Eudes’s own person, as well as to material or subject matter, meaning things that could be sung and written about him, as in the French term “matière.” This bit of typical Rutebeufian play of sound and meaning allows the poet to suggest that God is an audience for the very sorts of poems of praise that he himself is writing.

101. A reference to the Holy Land, where Eudes’s body was buried.

102. According to Zink, who follows Bastin and Faral (above), these named persons are John of Châtillon, son of Hugh of Châtillon (count of Blois), Guy of Châtillon the count of Saint-Pol, and Enguerrand IV of Coucy.

103. See note 1 of the Account-Inventory for an explanation of lais.

104. Zink, Rutebeuf, 875; Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 76–78. On the Tunis crusade, see Michael Lower, “Louis IX, Charles of Anjou, and the Tunis Crusade of 1270,” in Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict, ed. Thomas Madden, James Naus, and Vincent Ryan (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 173–93; Xavier Hélary, La dernière croisade: Saint Louis à Tunis (1270) (Paris: Perrin, 2016); and Lower, The Tunis Crusade of 1270: A Mediterranean History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

105. We have transcribed this poem as it appears in BnF, MS fr. 1635 rather than rendering it in quatrains of twelve-syllable Alexandrine verse as Jubinal did in his 1839 edition of the poem also based on BnF, MS fr. 1635, a format that Faral and Bastin and then Zink retained in their subsequent complete works of Rutebeuf.

106. A dit is a poem that is spoken, not sung, which is what separates it from lyric. There is no particular form that defines a dit; however, it was a phenomenon distinctive to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The term voie can mean route or way and is occasionally translated as “crusade.” Audiences would have understood this term to refer to the planned crusade expedition led by Louis IX in 1270 that was directed to Tunis. This title may have been given to the poem after the full text was composed, and possibly after Louis IX’s death.

107. See Matthew 24:43.

108. Regarding the word grace, Zink, Rutebeuf, 880n1, notes that a fatty meat requires no larding. The verb larder means to lace with strips of bacon, while arder means to destroy by burning. The couplet reads “France is such a fatty land that there is no need to lard it” but, with some adjustments for grammar, can sound like “France is such a blessed land that one ought not destroy it.”

109. We believe this is a scribal error. An extra set of letters is repeated here that belongs at the head of the next line.

110. This is a reference to itinerant aristocratic courts that would set up for a short period of time and then move on to the next locale. See Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 464–65n43.

111. See Roll C Back of the Account-Inventory for an echo of this passage.

112. The play on words here suggests that these men had inspired songs of praise. The serventois is a genre of poetry influenced early on by the satirical and political Occitan sirventes but had evolved by Rutebeuf’s time into a genre of pious praise.

113. The king of Navarre at this time was also the count of Champagne, Thibaut V.

114. Saint Andrew was a patron saint of the crusades, so Rutebeuf is encouraging his audience to follow his example.

115. The word debonair suggests nobility, gentility, kindness, and generosity of spirit.

116. The reference to the desert and “to labor with their hands” may evoke monks laboring with their own hands and thus also refer to the religious vow crusaders took, which was akin to the monastic vow. But this may also be a nod to the destination of the crusade, to the “desert” landscapes of either North Africa or Syria and Palestine.

117. In Old French, sarmon or sermon, with the related verb sermoner, means a long talk or discourse, likely rooted in the idea of joining together. It often involves moralizing speech or exhortation and, by extension, the most common modern understanding of the term as a form of religious preaching. Rutebeuf interweaves all these meanings.

118. This most likely refers to making a coffin, a final resting place made of cheaper wood.

119. Rutebeuf is playing here with the double meaning of droit Romain, which suggests both Roman law and acting like a “a true Roman.” Since he is moralizing about lack of service to God, the reference is likely to the stereotype of Roman avarice. See Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 467n112, and Zink, Rutebeuf, 888–89n1.

120. The poet is criticizing negligent Christians who come up with excuses to avoid going to church, in this case the fear that because the building is not complete it could fall down, injuring or killing those inside. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 890n1.

121. A reference to the forest of Fontainebleau, which was well known as a place to hunt stag, especially among vavassors and bachelors, that is, among younger knights and men at arms. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 890n2.

122. The verb empirer means “to get worse.” This is a play on words, suggesting that those who do not answer God’s call are going from bad to worse.

123. Like the serventois, the conduit is also a poetic genre. Here too, the poet finds a single word that evokes both the act of crusade and its role in providing material for poets.

124. Zink, Rutebeuf, 895; Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 84.

125. See Lower, “Louis IX, Charles of Anjou, and the Tunis Crusade of 1270,”; and Lower, The Tunis Crusade, 71–99.

126. See chapter 4 of the commentary for more information about French speakers of this class, that is, those who are learned and know how to speak rightly accented and correct French.

127. Faral and Bastin supply pailliole based on the version in KBR, MS 9411–9426, fols. 24r–25v, Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 472. See note 128 below. Parole is clearly an error, so we have translated accordingly.

128. See above, note 127, for choice of straw, pailliole, rather than speech, parole.

129. The double entendre of “.ii. biaux coux” is “two beautiful necks” and “two lovely feats.” Zink suggests that there is also an echo of the coups of a game of dice here, Zink, Rutebeuf, 903n1. Likewise, coux also echoes the French coup, that is, to cut or offer a blow of an axe, referencing perhaps the cutting off of a head. Here therefore beaux coux or beau coup could also refer to beautiful cuts that render them martyrs.

130. This is meant to evoke the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, in Spain.

131. The meaning is surely deliberately ambiguous here since “his” inheritance may refer to the material inheritance of the noncrusader, or to the legacy left to man by God. This would capture both laymen and clergy who stay behind and do nothing. See v. 223 of “La nouvele complainte” about clergy living well off the patrimony of the Crucified One.

132. This refutation of the excuse that even the most extreme pain and suffering would not be enough to win God’s grace also appears in Rutebeuf’s “Le Dit des règles,” vv. 61–64. The passage is also a paraphrase of Paul’s Letter to the Romans 8:18, which states that present suffering is not worthy of comparison with future glory to be revealed by God. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 907n1.

133. Here again is a double entendre that allows the poet to speak to the laity and the clergy at the same time, referring both to those who wear royal crowns as well as those belonging to religious orders, who are tonsured.

134. Geux means “game,” but this verse also alludes to the genre of medieval lyric poetry known as the jeu-parti, a two-part debate in verse between two poets.

135. Zink, Rutebeuf, 975; Bastin and Faral, Onze poèmes, 111–17.

136. Joseph R. Strayer, “The Crusade against Aragon,” Speculum 28 (1953): 102–13, repr. Strayer, Medieval Statecraft and the Perspectives of History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971), 107–21.

137. Romans 12:5.

138. In the second part of this stanza Rutebeuf plays with the term fin or end. Here the “pelerinage fin” could be a reference both to the crusade’s end or final destination, its terminus in Acre and Jerusalem, but also to the end of one’s pilgrimage on earth and thus a final end, which is death.

139. The king of France is Philip III (b. 1245; r. 1270–85), and the king of England is Edward I (1239–1307). Both were in their thirties.

140. It is unclear which campaign is being referenced here.

141. From Matthew 19:29.

142. This refers to locations in which to hold a tournament.

143. Here “votre saison,” which we interpret as one’s moment to take action, could refer both to the season of one’s life, that is, one’s age, or to the ideal season of the year when one might go on campaign, typically in the summer.

144. “Gilemeir” is said to be the uncle of Ganelon from the Song of Roland. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 986–87n1. For verses 169–71, there is some debate. Zink thinks this refers to Ganelon; others think Guinevere or a totally different interpretation is warranted. In the copy of the text owned and annotated by Edward Billings Ham, he notes next to Guilemeir that this is “comme une tromperie,” that is, suggesting a play on words related to guiler, to trick or to fool, therefore suggesting that one is a trickster, a pretender, or dishonest. Ham’s volume is in the collection of Caroline Smith.

145. The word “pagan” was often used to refer to Muslims in Old French epic poetry.

146. Bastin and Faral supply conraei rather than repeating sejournei based on the version in KBR, MS 9411–9426, fols. 33r–35r, Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 504. See note 148 below regarding translation.

147. Bastin and Faral supply de cors rather than repeating de quoi based on the version in KBR, MS 9411–9426, fols. 33r–35r, Bastin and Faral, Oeuvres complètes, 504. See note 149 below regarding translation.

148. The doubling of sejournei was likely a scribal error. In our translation we chose a meaning closer to that of conraei, although all four descriptors in the couplet are related to comfortable living.

149. See note 146 above regarding the decision to translate using “body” based on de cors rather than de quoi.

150. The poet is criticizing those who make only a paltry gift of alms in their wills for the remission of their sins, thinking it will suffice to save their souls. Similar criticisms appear elsewhere in Rutebeuf’s polemical literature against the mendicants. See Zink, Rutebeuf, 77, 991.

151. A version of the following scenario of drunken promises appears in “La complainte dou conte Hue de Nevers,” vv. 157–61.

152. Philippians 3:19.

153. Note the double entendre of “aux armes” as “souls” or “arms” as military service.

154. Revelation 14:13.

155. This may be a reference to the mounting indebtedness of the crown and the aristocratic class to Italian lenders and the social anxiety that accompanied it.

156. Note the play on words here between the name Biaugeu or Beaujeu, which also sounds like “good game,” the subject of the subsequent verse with biau geu.

157. For the appearances and significance of the phrase “novele estoire,” see Anne Latowsky’s introduction above.

158. Rutebeuf ends his crusade poems as he began them, using annominatio to play with the sound [fin], evoking both endings and perfection. In his final gesture, he announces the end of his sarmon, a word that allows him to, once again, convey multiple meanings in a single term, and to sum up in four words his endlessly intertwined roles of self-reflexive poet and paid preacher for the cause of crusading.

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Notes

8

Crusade Poems of Rutebeuf