46 Fantôme, j'ai vécu comme vivent les hommes: Le Fantôme me dit: "Où donc est ton ouvrage?” Trésor que j'ai sauvé de plus d'un noir naufrage, Et ces vers de jeune homme où j'ai mis tout mon cœur. Oui! tout entier: espoirs heureux, légers caprices, J'ai tout dit à ces vers, tendres et sûrs complices. Que leur sincérité, Juge d'en haut, te touche, ABEL HERMANT L'ÉTOILE E suis le Chaldéen par l'Étoile conduit JE Vers un but inconnu que moi-même j'ignore. N'importe. Dans la nuit je vais. La nudité Du jour blessait mes yeux. L'ombre chaste est un voile. Ce flambeau, qu'il m'égare ou me guide, est clarté : L'Astre, même trompeur, est toujours une étoile. Trouverai-je en sa crèche, ainsi que dans un nid, Un enfant? Me mettrai-je à genoux? Que m'importe ! J'ai recueilli la myrrhe et le baume bénit: Je respire en marchant les parfums que je porte. NOTES. The full-face figures refer to the pages; the ordinary figures to the lines. N.B. For the poets before MALHERBE the spelling has not been modernized. Some uniformity however has been sought, and accents are used when they affect final vowels. CHARLES D'ORLÉANS. 1391-1465. Father of Louis XII., was taken prisoner in the battle of Agincourt (1415) and passed the next twenty-five years of his life in captivity in England. In this long leisure he developed his talent for poetry, and on his return to France he made his residence at Blois a gathering-point for men of letters. His poetical work marks the utmost attainment in outward grace of expression in the treatment of conventional subjects in the traditional fixed forms. Now and then there is a more personal strain which suggests the more distinctly modern lyric of Villon; but he is not to be compared with Villon in originality of view, sincerity of feeling, or directness and intensity of utterance. His works were not published till the eighteenth century. The best edition is that of Ch. d'Héricault, 2 vols., 1874 (Nouvelle collection Jannet-Picard). Charles d'Orléans also wrote some of his poems in English; these were published by G. W. Taylor in 1827 for the Roxburghe Club. For reference: Constant Beaufils, Étude sur la vie et les poésies de Charles d'Orléans, 1861; Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of Men and Books, London, 1882. BALLADE. For the form of the ballade see the remarks 1. on versification, p. xxi. 2. estoye, étais; for initial e from es cf. esveillera, 1. 14, Esté, 3, 8. 3. avoient, avaient; in the imperfect and conditional oi, from an earlier ei, continued to be written till late in the eighteenth century, long after in pronunciation it had come to have the value of ai. 4. hayent, haïssent; y is found frequently in the older spelling for i, especially when final. 5. desconfort: = découragement. 8. si fais ainsi je fais; the omission of the pronoun is common at this time; cf. 8, 24, direz. 10. ne . . . ne = ni... ni. grevance = dommage, malheur. 14. accort, accord. 16. soyent, soient; here of two syllables, in modern verse of one. 17. veoir, voir; here of two syllables. 22. sort, evil spell. 24. loing, loin. 2. 12. I. vueil, veux. hoir héritier. 5. nul ne porte = que nul ne porte. 6. vent, vend. marchié, marché. 7. tiengne = tienne. pour tout voir = vraiment; let every one consider it a certain fact. RONDEL. For the form of the rondel see the remarks on versification, p. xxi. II. avecques, avec. Combien que : 17. rapaise = s'apaise. 19. tantost = bientôt; s before l, m, n, and t has regularly disappeared; cf. vestu, 24, beste, 26, bruslerent, 4, 26, mesme, 5, 22, maistre, 6, I. RONDei.. Le Temps a laissié son manteau." 22. laissió, laissé. 24. brouderye, broderie. 25. luyant, luisant. cler, clair. bien que. 4. livrée could be used now in the body of the line only 3. before a word beginning with a vowel. 6. abille, habille. RONDEL. "Les Fourriers d'Esté sont venus." 13. vert, feminine; in adjectives of two endings of the Latin third declension, like grandis, fortis, viridis, the feminine ending is due to the influence of adjectives of three endings, and does not appear in Old French. 16. pieça == naguère. 18. prenez país, take to the country, i.e. depart. 19. yver, hiver. 4. RONDEL. "Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder." 2. sçay, sais; c was introduced into the forms of savoir under the mistaken notion that it was connected with scire. 4. ung, un. FRANÇOIS VILLON. 1431-146-?. Poet and vagabond, he led a most irregular life, twice narrowly escaped hanging, and composed many of his poems in prison. He was a poet of great originality, for he broke away from the conventional subjects and the allegorizing habit of the Middle Ages and gave to the lyric a personal note and a depth and poignancy of feeling that made it almost a new creation, though he still adhered mainly to the traditional forms and showed a special preference for the ballade. Most of his ballades are introduced into his main works, the Petit Testament and the Grand Testament, which are entirely personal in contents. His works were first published in 1489; Marot prepared an edition in the following century, Paris, 1533; they were not reprinted in the seventeenth century; convenient recent editions are those of P. L. Jacob (Paul Lacroix), 1854; P. Jannet (Nouvelle collection Jannet-Picard); and A. Longnon, 1892. For reference: A. Longnon, Étude biographique sur François Villon, 1877; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. xiv; Th. Gautier, les Grotesques; J. Lemaître, Impressions de théâtre, troisième série, 1889; Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of Men and Books, London, 1882. 4. BALLADE DES DAMES DU TEMPS JADIS. Dante Gabriel Rossetti has translated this ballade, which is perhaps the most famous one in the language. 6. Dictes, dites. n'en |