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In a recent article in these pages (MAE, 70 (2001), 95-111), Ineke Hardy investigates the authorship of the crusading song 'Nus ne porroit de mauvese reson' (RS 1887),1 which Pierre Desray, in his 1500 edition, attributed to Raoul de Soissons.2 In an interesting and provocative article, Hardy first compares 'Nus ne porroit ...' to the Chatelain de Coucy's song RS 700, identifying the latter as the model for RS 1887. In the second part of the article, Hardy analyses similarities between RS 700 and other songs attributed to Raoul de Soissons. According to her, such similarities support the idea that RS 1887 may be yet another example of Raoul using RS 700 as a source of inspiration, and this is offered as circumstantial evidence in support of Raoul's authorship of this polemical crusading song. In addition, Hardy marshals historical evidence that would support an attribution of RS 1887 to Raoul de Soissons. She feels able to conclude her article by declaring that it would 'seem justifiable to accept "Nus ne porroit" as "probably composed by Raoul de Soissons"'.
Despite Hardy's meticulous approach, the evidence offered in support of Raoul's authorship does not, I think, entirely carry conviction. It is certainly true that the rhyme scheme of RS 700 with its intricate stanza-linking has been borrowed in RS 1887. Yet, Hardy's attribution of RS 1887 to Raoul de Soissons is largely based on stylistic similarities between RS 1887 and RS 700 on the one hand, and between RS 700 and other songs by Raoul de Soissons on the other.3 However, many of the lexical and syntactic similarities advanced by Hardy arc so common in medieval lyric poetry that they can hardly serve as proof of direct inspiration or authorship. This can be illustrated by comparing RS 1887 with a number of crusading songs composed by authors other than the Chatelain de Coucy and Raoul de Soissons. From a total of thirty crusading songs, I have selected two songs by Conon de Bethune composed during the Third Crusade,4 three songs written by Thibaut de Champagne during the crusade of 1239,5 and a further song composed by Philippe de Nanteuil at the end of the ill-fated crusade of 1239,6 in circumstances not unlike those in which the author...