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.
1. BALLADE. For the form of the ballade see the remarks on versification, p. xxi. 2. ESTOYE, étais; for initial e from _es_cf. esveillera, l. 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. 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. 12. COMBIEN QUE = bien 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, 6,1. RONDEL. "Le Temps a laissié son manteau." 22. LAISSIÉ, laissé. 24. BROUDERYE, broderie. 25. LUYANT, luisant, CLER, clair.
3. 4. LIVRÉE could be used now in the body of the line only 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 _e_is due to the influence of adjectives of three endings, and does not appear in Old French. 16. PIEÇA = naguère._ 18. PRENEZ PAÏS, 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.