The word alba means “dawn” in Old Provençal, and
refers to a particular type of love poem introduced
by the TROUBADOURS that concerned the parting of
lovers at dawn. As this “dawn song” trope spread to
northern France, it was called an aubade, and in
Germany became known as a tagelied. There are
some 11 dawn songs surviving from Provence, six or
so from Old French, and well more than 100 from
German lyric poetry dating from the end of the
12th century to the end of the 14th. The genre was
certainly known in England, where CHAUCER creates
a lyrical dawn song within the context of his longer
narrative in TROILUS AND CRISEYDE and parodies the
form in his REEVE’S TALE.
The dawn song typically depicts a dramatic situation in which a pair of lovers, having secretly
spent the night together, are awakened at dawn,
usually by a watchman who is their ally. Sometimes
the lady argues that it cannot be dawn and is therefore not time to part. The lovers take turns chiding the night for not staying longer and the day for
arriving too soon. There is danger involved because of the lovers’ enemies: Talebearers and scandalmongers, or more often the “jealous one” or
gilos as he is called in Provençal—the lady’s husband. The lovers finally part while pledging mutual fidelity and commending one another to
God’s care. There are usually two speaking voices
in the poem—the lover and his lady—but sometimes the watchman has a part as well.
Though this formula may make the dawn songs
appear quite conventional, a poet’s genius within
the convention can make a poem particularly
memorable, as, for example, the imagery of the
first stanza of WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH’s tagelied
“Sîne klâwen durh die wolken sint geslagen”
demonstrates, comparing the rising sun to a great
bird of prey:
“Its claws have struck through the clouds,
it rises up with great power,
I see it turning gray, like day about to
dawn,
I see day, . . .”
(Goldin 1973, 147, ll. 1–4)
Bibliography
Goldin, Frederick, ed. German and Italian Lyrics of the
Middle Ages. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1973.
Hatto, Arthur T. EOS: An Inquiry into the Theme of
Lovers’ Meetings and Partings at Dawn in Poetry.
The Hague: Mouton, 1965.
Kaske, R. E. “The Aube in Chaucer’s Troilus.” In
Troilus and Criseyde and the Minor Poems:
Chaucer Criticism. Vol. 2, edited by Richard J.
Schoeck and Jerome Taylor, 167–179. Notre
Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1961.