THE DEAD LORDS.
As I have not wished to mix up smaller things with greater I have put this ballade separate from that of "the Ladies," though it directly follows it as an after-thought in Villon's own book. For the former is one of the masterpieces of the world, and this, though very Villon, is not great.
What it has got is the full latter mediaeval love of odd names and reminiscences, and also to the full, the humour of the scholarly tavern, which was the "Mermaid" of that generation: as the startling regret of:
Hélas! et le bon roy d'Espaigne
and the addition, after the false exit of "je me désiste"
Encore fais une question
He laughed well over it, and was perhaps not thirsty when it was written.
THE DEAD LORDS.
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