Meg Bogin's The Women Troubadours

Meg Bogin's The Women Troubadours

What is Bieiris de Romans’ speaker seeking from the woman, Maria, about whom Bieiris writes? More generally, what are female troubadours as a whole seeking from their loves, and their craft? Meg Bogin, in her The Women Troubadours, asserts that “their poems were addressed to women… to whom they vowed eternal homage and obedience. In exchange for their prostration, the troubadours expected to be ennobled, enriched, or simply made ‘better’” (Bogin, 9). Is the poetry of female troubadours less about the women being addressed and more about the troubadours themselves? By performing a close textual analysis of Bieiris de Romans’ poem to Maria, I hope to elucidate some possible answers to these questions.

The poem opens with Bieiris’ speaker addressing her subject as “Lady Maria.” Rather than merely employing the woman’s first name, or utilizing a possessive phrase such as “my love” or “my Maria,” the speaker addresses her as “lady.” This implies a certain bestowal of respect upon her subject, and is potentially also a means to convey an understanding on the speaker’s part that this Maria has not yet consented to be hers. Next, the speaker proceeds to enumerate copious qualities that she finds pleasing in Maria. She begins by praising Maria’s “merit and distinction.” By “distinction” we can safely assume that the speaker refers to a pleasing reputation that Maria has cultivated within society, and possibly also the speaker’s own opinion that Maria is able to be distinguished as superior to other women.

The term “merit,” however, is relatively ambiguous. By “merit,” the speaker could be indicating one or many qualities, including, but not limited to, virtue, achievement, a...

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...g female companion, who will comply with her wishes and desires. Thus, Maria, judging from the qualities attributed to her in the poem, seems a perfect target for Bieiris’ speaker’s affections. Bieiris also appears to have created a speaker who is more concerned with being given the ability to express her desires than with the woman about whom those desires are expressed. Maria seems to be utilized as somewhat of a passive vessel about whom Bieiris can write and express herself in a literary fashion. The desire that Bieiris succeeds in expressing, then, is less one for Maria in particular and more one for composing lyric poetry in general. As a troubadour, Bieiris most likely avidly seeks patronage. Thus Maria is less of a goal to achieve and more a means to a different end: composing poetry for the sake of procuring a reputation, and obtaining financial gain.