Merze, per Dio! Perché

ballata by Paolo da Firenze

Sources

Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds italien 568, fol. 117v-118 (2/2).

Editions

1. Italian Secular Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1978. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century XI, p. 91.
2. The Music of Fourteenth-Century Italy, edited by Nino Pirrotta and Ursula Günther, Rome: American Institute of Musicology. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 8/VI. [forthcoming]

Text Editions

CORSI, Giuseppe. Poesie musicali del Trecento, Bologna: Commissione per i testi di lingua, 1970, p. 353.

Literature

GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Die "anonymen" Kompositionen des Ms. Paris BN, fonds ital, 568 (Pit)', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, XXIII (1966), p. 89.

Text

Merzé, per Dio! Perché morto mi vuoli,
che son servo di te?

Altri serventi puo' tu ben avere
non sì fedel né con sì pura fé:
esser pietoso dunque fia dovere
e per suggetto voler tener me
e io per signor te,
ch'onor ti fia e gran contento a me

Translation

Mercy, by God! Why do you wish me dead,
when I am your liege?

You may well have other servants
but not so loyal nor with such pure faith.
It is therefore your duty to be merciful
and to want to keep me as your liege,
and I will keep you as my Lord;
it will bring you honour, and happiness to me.

Text revision and translation © Giovanni Carsaniga