MARCABRU'S "A LA FONTANA DEL VERGIER": A HYBRID FORM Out ofMarcabru's forty or so poems, none has raisedmore questions in the minds of Provençalists than his "A la fontana del vergier." Is it a pastorela, perhaps even the first of its kind, or is it a modified chanson de toile?1 The thorny issue of gender authorship aside,2it is generallyconceded thatthe chanson de toile is a"female" genre. The usual setting is that of a young woman at work who, as Zumthor succinctly puts it, sings " un bref drame d'amour" (147). Bec summarizes the poetic type in this manner: En somme, la chanson de toile serait donc bien, en profondeur, . . . une chanson defemme,etcelaà tripleniveau: 1) Il s'agitd'un chant fonctionnellement lié à un travail strictement féminin; 2) Ce chant n'est chanté, du moins à l'origine, que par les seules femmes; 3) Enfin, sur le plan textuel (narratif et lyrique), le discoursapourunique sujet(oupresque) unejeunefemme. (Bec 1: 118) It is also part of medieval critical dogma that thepastorela, perhaps the invention of Marcabru, is decidedly more anti-feminist in its perspective: La fonction de la pastourelle dans la poésie lyrique du Moyen Ageestd'exprimerledésircharnelàl'étatpur,d'autantpluslibre de toute codification, de toute idéologie, de toute spiritualisation qu'il s'adresse à une créature sans âme, ou considérée comme telle, qui ne peut donc être qu'un pur objet erotique. (Zink 117) Clearlythereare someunansweredquestionsin thesecontradictictory statements, for ifa relationship does exist between these two genres, one must then explain a seemingly philogynous attitude in the work of a well-known misogynist.3 Letus begin by identifying the essential narratological features ofthe story told in the poem.4 Three characters are involved: (1) the narrating persona who appears to be recounting a personal experience , (2) the "donzelh" whose encounter has inspired his tale and (3) the absent lover who has gone offto the crusades. The poet/narrator situates the plot; he overhears the comments ofthe lamenting woman and then engages her in conversation. In brief, to use Emile Benveniste's terminology, an observing third person story-teller recreates past events, or engages in a récit historique and also incorporates within that narrative a discours. The narrator-voyeur ROUBEN C. CHOLAKIAN sets his story in a bucolic setting, poetic emblem of his desire for amorous adventure:5 A la fontana del vergier, On l'erb' es vertz jostal gravier, A l'ombra d'un fust domesgier, En aiziment de blancas flors E de novelh chant costumier . . . (1-5) (At the fountain by the orchard, there where the grass is green, near to the bank, under the shade ofa fruit tree, full of the charm ofwhite flowers and the customary song of the new season . . .) Though the poet/narrator would appear to be describing an event which occurred in the past, his fiction is in fact the displacement ofa fantasized future. It is a projection which helps to identify his conceptualization of the female. He has invented a past which has never existed but which in this reconstruction allows him to deal with an inner drama. Key lexematic references such as "fontana," "vergier ," and "blancas flors" situate the text in its erotic origins.6 The frequent references to renewal and song are a familiar part of the troubadourdiscourse, calling attention to thepoet's role as creatorof a universe in which he vicariously acts out his sexual fantasies. He accentuates these creativeprivileges by the conspicuous syntactical emphasis on the verb trobey: Trobey sola, ses companhier, Selha que no vol mon solate. (6-7) (I found her alone, without companionship, she who does not wish my company.) The homophonic play, moreover, between sola andsolati articulates the unspoken language ofthe text. The poet has a sense ofownership over the invention for which he is responsible. The woman therein belongs to him and is therefore beholden to him as inventor. The homophony introduces the necessary juxtaposition of solitude and comfort because the fantasized women brings gratification in a fictitious world in which she is alone, far from disapproving eyes. There is thus, at one and the same time, an implied eroticism but also a...