Note 201 — Chapter II · FATHER AND SONS 1179-1183
Reading edition
“Tost l’agral reis joves matat, Sil coms nol [nos, Stimming] n’agues ensenhat; Mas aissils clan els enserra Qu’Engolmes a per fort cobrat E tot Saintonge delivrat Tro lai part Finibus Terra.”
—“Eu chant,” ll. 7-12. Bertrand’s modern commentators have assumed that the nominative to “a cobrat e ... delivrat” is “lo reis joves,” and understood ll. 9-12 as referring to the invasion of the Angoumois and Saintonge by the Routiers in behalf of young Henry. I venture to suggest that the true nominative is “lo coms”—i. e., the count of Poitou. There could be no “recovery” of the Angoumois either by or for young Henry, who had never had any authority there. The whole structure and context of the lines indicate that they refer to Richard. “Finibus Terra,” Finisterre, doubtless stands here, like “Broceliande” in another of Bertrand’s poems (“D’un sirventes nom chal,” l. 33), simply for Britanny.