ABSTRACT
Buona pulcella fut Eulalia, Bel auret corps, bellezour anima. Voldrent la veintre Ii Deo inimi, Voldrent la faire diaule servir. Elle no'nt eskoltet les mals conselliers, 5 Qu'elle Deo raneiet, chi maent sus en ciel, Ne por or ned argent ne paramenz Por manatee regiel ne preiement; Niule cose non la pouret omque pleier La polle sempre non amast 10 Deo menestier. 10 E por 0 fut presentede Maximiien, Chi rex eret a eels dis soure pagiens. D Ii enortet, dont lei nonque chielt, Qued elle fuiet 10 nom christiien. EII'ent adunet 10 suon element; 15 Melz sostendreiet les empedementz Qu'elle perdesse sa virginitet; Por os furet morte a grand honestet. Enz enl fou 10 getterent com arde tost; Elle colpes non auret, por 0 nos coist. 20 A czo nos voldret concreidre Ii rex pagiens; Ad une spede Ii roveret tolir 10 chieef. La domnizelle celie kose non contredist: Volt 10 seule lazsier, si ruovet Krist; In figure de colomb volat a ciel. 25 Tuit oram que por nos degnet preier Qued auuisset de nos Christus mercit Post la mort et a lui nos laist venir
[Eulalia was a good girl, She had a beautiful body, a soul more beautiful still. The enemies of God wanted to overcome her, they wanted to make her serve the devil. She does not listen to the evil counsellors, 5 (who want her) to deny God, who lives up in heaven. Not for gold, nor silver, nor jewels, not for the king's threats or entreaties, nothing could ever persuade the girl not to love continually the service of God. 10 And for this reason she was brought before Maximian, who was king in those days over the pagans. He exhorts her - but she does not care - to abandon the name of Christian; She gathers up her strength. 15 She would rather endure torture than lose her (spiritual) purity. For this reason she died with great honour. They threw her into the fire, so that she would burn quickly. She was without sin, for that reason she did not burn. 20 The pagan king would not tolerate this; he ordered her head to be cut off with a sword. The girl did not oppose this; she wants to leave this earth, she calls upon Christ. In the semblance of a dove she flies to heaven. 25 Let us all pray that she will deign to intercede for us that Christ will have mercy on us after our death and bring us to himself through his mercy.]
Dating of the text
The date of composition of the text can be ascertained with a fair degree of certainty. The cult of Eulalia had been revived in France after the supposed discovery of the saint's bones in Barcelona in AD 878. In the manuscript, which is closely contemporary to the date of composition, the French poem is placed between a Latin sequence on the same theme and a German poem that celebrates the battle of Saucourt which took place on 3 August 881 and speaks of the victor (Louis III, t882) as still being alive, thereby narrowing down with some precision the chronology. We thus have none of the problems associated with the 150year gap between the composition and the surviving manuscript of the Strasbourg Oaths.
