Daude de Pradas

Daude in a decorated initial in chansonnier A

Daude, Deude, Daurde, or Daudé de Pradas (fl. 1214–1282)[1][2] was a troubadour from Prades-Salars in the Rouergue not far from Rodez. He lived to an old age and left behind seventeen to nineteen cansos, including twelve on courtly love, three about sexual conquest, one tenso, one planh (on the death of Uc Brunenc), and a religious song.[1] Only one melody of his entire oeuvre has survived.[1]

According to his vida, he was a canon of Maguelonne.[3] A canon and magister of the name Deodatus de Pradas or Pratis appears in many documents from Rodez in the same time period.[2] Some scholars believe it is not likely that Daude was a canon at all,[3] while some presume him to have been a canon, not at Maguelonne, but Santa Maria in Rodez.[2] Daude is often found in the company of the Counts and Bishops of Rodez and was named vicar general of Rodez by Pope Clement IV (1266).[2]

According to his vida, Daude was reputed as a "wise man in letters, with natural wit and invention", but because he was not inspired by love, his songs were not popular and consequently not sung.[3] Daude also possessed a keen knowledge of raptors,[4] and wrote a treatise on falconry entitled Auzels Cassadors.[1] He also stepped outside of the troubadour lyric to write a didactic poem (ensenhamen) on the four cardinal virtues.[1]

Daude, in his love songs, expresses amor for a lady of higher rank in hope that Merces (mercy) will intercede for him.[5] But when he finally encounters his Joi Novel (new joy) in her castle, her haughtiness is unbearable:

on mi mostret tant gran orguoill
cum si tengues del mon la clau.[5]
where she demonstrated such great pride
as if she held the key to the world.

Daude, like many troubadours, turns to Bel Desir (fair desire) for assistance, but he sometimes employs the term bel desir to refer to the lady's desire as well as his own and sometimes possibly even to a male confidante when his lover becomes troublesome.[6]

Daude's surviving music has some features in common with Gui d'Ussel, to whom he refers in his tenso, but it is less motivically varied than Gui's.[7] It, too, however, is through-composed.[7] It is possible that Daude also had contact with Peire Cardenal or Guiraut Riquier in Rodez.[8]

  1. ^ a b c d e Gaunt and Kay, 282.
  2. ^ a b c d Aubrey, 24.
  3. ^ a b c Egan, 30.
  4. ^ "Rapacious birds", as his vida calls them.
  5. ^ a b Kay, "Desire and subjectivity," in Gaunt and Kay, 213–216.
  6. ^ Kay, "Desire and subjectivity," in Gaunt and Kay, 222–224.
  7. ^ a b Aubrey, 232.
  8. ^ Aubrey, 233.