Azalais or Azalaïs d'Altier was an early-13th-century
trobairitz
The ''trobairitz'' () were Occitania, Occitan female troubadours of the 12th and 13th centuries, active from around 1170 to approximately 1260. ''Trobairitz'' is both singular and plural.
The word ''trobairitz'' is first attested in the 13th-c ...
.
She was from
Altier in the
Gévaudan. She has sometimes been confused with
Almucs de Castelnau.
Azalais wrote "Tanz salutz e tantas amors", the only ''
salut d'amor'' by a woman. It comprises 101 verses of rhyming
couplet
In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...
s. Its purpose was to reconcile two lovers, and it was addressed to a woman, possibly
Clara d'Anduza.
Its similarity in tone to Clara's ''
canso'' "En greu esmay et en greu pessamen" gives the impression that it may have been written in response. Azalais was well known in
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''.
The tr ...
circles, for
Uc de Saint-Circ
Uc de Saint Circ (San Sir) or Hugues (Hugh) de Saint Circq (floruit, fl. 1217–1253Aubrey, ''The Music of the Troubadours'', 22–23.) was a troubadour from Quercy. Uc is perhaps most significant to modern historians as the probable author ...
addressed his "Anc mais non vi temps ni sazo" to her in its ''
tornada''. Nonetheless, the great troubadour ignored her when composing the ''
vidas''.
Azalais herself was a woman of learning, and she must have been familiar with the
Matter of Rome through the ''
Roman de Troie
(''The Romance of Troy'') by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, probably written between 1155 and 1160,Roberto Antonelli "The Birth of Criseyde - An Exemplary Triangle: 'Classical' Troilus and the Question of Love at the Anglo-Norman Court" in Boitani, P. ...
'' of
Benoît de Sainte-Maure
Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century French poet, most probably from Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near Tours, France. The Plantagenets' administrative center was located in Chinon, west of Tours.
''Le Roman de Troie''
His 40,000 ...
, which she references in her ''salut'':
There is today a street named "Rue Azalais d'Altier" in
Montpellier
Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...
.
Notes
Sources
*
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. "The Trobairitz" in: ''A Handbook of the Troubadours'', edd. F. R. P. Akehurst and Judith M. Davis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. .
*
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn; Shepard, Laurie; and White, Sarah. ''Songs of the Women Troubadours''. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. .
*
Klinck, Anne Lingard; Rasmussen, Ann Marie. ''Medieval Woman's Song: Cross-Cultural Approaches''. Pittsburg: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:dAltier, Azalais
Trobairitz
13th-century French troubadours
People from Lozère