Stanza II., line 2. Note the pronunciation of "Moyne" to rhyme (more or less) with "eine": the oi, ai and ei sounds were very similar till the sixteenth century at earliest. They are interchangeable in many popular provincialisms and in some words, e.g., Fouet, pronounced "Foit" the same tendency survives. The transition began in the beginning of the seventeenth century as we learn from Vaugelas: and the influence towards the modern sound came from the Court.
Stanza III., line 2. Seraine="Syren."
Line 5. "Jehanne," "Jehan," in spite of the classical survival in their spelling, were monosyllables from the earliest times.
Line 7. The "elles" here would not scan but for the elided "e" in "souv'raine" at the end of the line. In some editions "ils" is found and souveraine is spelt normally. Ils and els for a feminine plural existed in the middle ages.
Envoi. The envoi needs careful translation. The "que" of the third line="sans que" and the whole means, "Do not ask this week or this year where they are, without letting this refrain haunt you." "Que" might possibly mean "de peur que," did not the whole sense of the poem forbid such an interpretation.
[AN EXCERPT FROM THE GRANT TESTAMENT.]
Stanza 75, line 4. A charming example of those "flashes" which reveal Villon.
Stanza 76, line 2. Note the spelling of Grant in the feminine without an e. Adjectives of the third declension whose feminine was not distinguishable in Latin took no "e" in early French. A survival of this is found in grand' rue, grand' messe, etc.
Line 5. Grant erre, "quickly," and the whole line reads: "Let it (my body) be delivered to it (luy=la terre) quickly," the "erre" here is from the popular late Latin "iterare"="iter facere." It survives in the nautical idiom "reprendre son erre"="to get under weigh again."
Line 7. "Erre" here comes, on the contrary, from errare, to make a mistake, to err.