and by King René came into the hall and took his seat on the throne.He wore a rich robe of purple velvet, embroidered all over in thebrightest silks and gold; after him came a great troupe of troubadoursand minnesingers, some carrying their own harps or viols, and somefollowed by little pages who bore their masters’ belongings.
As the good King René looked at his gay company and the brilliantlylighted hall and the long tables, his eyes sparkled with delight, andhis heart swelled with joy when he thought of the coming contest;for he was never so pleased as when thus surrounded by his deartroubadours, whom he loved to make in every way as happy as possible.
Then, when all was ready, a gaily dressed herald came into the hall,and kneeling before the king, and bowing to the assembled company,announced the coming of the two counts, William and Reynaurd. All theother troubadours and minnesingers stood up, and King René smiledgraciously as the two noblemen entered, followed by their pages,Pierrot and Henri, each of whom carried a viol bedecked with longsilken ribbons.
When the counts had saluted the king and taken their places before him,he commanded a seneschal to bear in the prize; and so the beautifulcollar of jewels was brought in upon a silver tray and placed on acarved bench beside the king. Then a herald stepped out, and, liftingthe collar upon the point of a flower-wreathed lance, displayed it toall the company and announced the terms of the contest of song about totake place.
This ceremony was a great deal better and prettier than the customs ofmost of the other royal courts of that time. In all the lands exceptwhere King René lived, when the people desired entertainment, they usedto gather together to see contests called tournaments, in which noblelords tried to overthrow one another with real lances on which were nogarlands. But King René could not endure such barbarous displays, andso in his palace no one fought another except with pretty verses, andthe best poet was champion.
When all the usual ceremonies had been gone through, the king calledCount William to step forth first and sing his song. There was a merrytwinkle in the count’s eyes as he took his viol from Henri, hung thesilken ribbons about his neck, and then, after striking a few softnotes with the tips of his fingers, began to sing, as his own, the songmade up by Count Reynaurd. He went through the whole piece, althougheach time when he came to the Latin lines he mumbled them over so thatthe words sounded indistinct, and one could not be certain just whatthey were.
When he had finished, the king was delighted, and all the listenersclapped their hands and wondered how it would be possible for CountReynaurd to do better. Indeed, they looked rather pityingly onReynaurd, as one already defeated.
Then, when the cheers had somewhat quieted down, King René commandedCount Reynaurd to stand forth and take his turn for the prize. Reynaurdquietly stepped out, and, saluting the king, said:
“My royal liege, the song to which you have just listened was not thework of Count William of Auvergne, but of myself, Reynaurd of Poitiers.”
At this, as Count Reynaurd had expected, every one looked incredulous,and Count William pretended to be very indignant, and declared thathe had not been outside of his own apartments for the ten days; thathe had not set eyes on Count Reynaurd through all that time; andaltogether he appeared to be terribly angry that Count Reynaurd shouldhint that the song belonged to him.
Count Reynaurd, however, asked but one thing of the king, who readilygranted his request. It was that Count William be commanded to sing thesong once more, and that each time he should sing the Latin lines asplainly as possible.
Count William looked somewhat abashed at this proposal, and began tosuspect that a trap had been laid for him. However, he could not refuseto do the command of King René, especially when it seemed so simple athing; and so he was obliged to sing again, and say the Latin wordsplainly, all the while very angry with himself because on the spur ofthe moment he could think of no other words to put in place of theLatin refrain, which was so cleverly woven into each stanza that itcould not be left out without spoiling the rhyme.
The king listened attentively, for, as the Count Reynaurd knew, Renéwas a good Latin scholar himself; and presently, when the refrain cameinto the song:
Hoc carmen non composui, Quod cano, quod cano!
King René began to laugh; and he laughed and laughed till the tearsfairly ran down his cheeks; for what do you think the words reallymean? They mean:
I did not make this song, That I sing, that I sing!
When the king at last managed to stop laughing for a few minutes, hetranslated the lines so that every one could hear.
At first Count William looked very blank; then, realizing how cleverlythe tables had been turned upon him and he had been caught in hisown prank, he enjoyed the joke as much as anybody, and laughed theloudest of all. Indeed, such a “Ha, ha!” as went up through the wholebanquet-hall was never before heard, and the very rafters seemed toshake with glee.
The good king was so delighted with the entertainment that he calledCount Reynaurd and Count William both before him, and taking a handof each, he declared that the jeweled collar must be divided equallybetween them. He at once ordered his goldsmiths to set to work to makeit into two collars instead of one; which they could very easily do, asit was so wide and heavy.
Then the king had a lovely silver cup brought in for Pierrot, becauseof his cleverness in the Latin tongue; and afterward the whole companyof troubadours and minnesingers and pages sat down and feasted somerrily that, years later, when Pierrot himself grew to be a famoustroubadour, he used often to sing, in the castles of the French nobles,of the gaiety of that great festival.
Troubadour Tales Page 3