Maldit-comiat

Maldit-comiat of Pere de Queralt

A maldit (Occitan: [malˈdit], also spelled maudit; Catalan: [məlˈdit, mal-], modern spelling maleit, "curse") was a genre of Catalan and Occitan literature practiced by the later troubadours. It was a song complaining about a lady's behaviour and character. A related genre, the comiat (Occitan: [kuˈmjat], Catalan: [kumiˈat, komiˈat]; "dismissal"), was a song renouncing a lover. The maldit and the comiat were often connected as a maldit-comiat (or comiat-maldit) and they could be used to attack and renounce a figure other than a lady or a lover, like a commanding officer (when combined, in a way, with the sirventes). The maldit-comiat is especially associated with the Catalan troubadours. Martí de Riquer describes un autèntic maldit-comiat as a song where a poet leaves a mistress to whom he has long been fruitlessly devoted, and explains her failings which have led him to depart.

The earliest comiat is probably a fragmentary work by Uc Catola, of the first generation of troubadours.