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 = ni en ; in Old French ne could be used for the simple alternative 'or.' 7. FLORA; a late tradition made of the Roman goddess of flowers and spring a wealthy and beautiful woman. 8. ARCHIPIDIA, perhaps Hipparchia is meant; THAIS, an Athenian beauty of the fourth century B.C. 10. ECHO, the nymph of classical mythology. MAINE, mène. 11. ESTAN, étang. 13. ANTAN, last year (from Latin ante annum); Rossetti translates "yesteryear". 14. HELOÏS, Heloise, or Eloise. 16. ESBAILLART, Abelard (1079-1142), a French scholar and philosopher, whose love for the beautiful and accomplished Heloise, one of his pupils, has passed into legend, which has quite transformed the fact. SAINCT-DENYS, Saint-Denis, only four and one half miles from Paris, celebrated for the cathedral of Saint-Denis in which are the tombs of the kings of France. Abelard resided for a time in the abbey of Saint-Denis. 17. ESSOYNE = peine. 18. ROYNE, reine; Marguerite de Bourgogne, wife of Louis le Hutin, is meant, the heroine of the legend of the Tour de Nesle, according to which she had her numerous lovers killed and thrown into the Seine. Buridan was more fortunate and escaped; he was afterwards a learned professor of the University of Paris. She herself was strangled in prison in 1314. 21. LA ROYNE BLANCHE, Blanche de Castille, mother of Saint Louis. 22. SEREINE, sirène. 23. BERTHE AU GRAND PIED, celebrated in the chansons de geste, was the mother of Charlemagne. BIETRIS, Beatrix de Provence, married in 1245 to Charles, son of Louis VIII. ALLYS, Alix de Champagne, married in 1160 to Louis le Jeune. 24. HAREMBOURGES, Eremburge, daughter of Elie de la Flèche, count of Maine, who died in 1110. 25. JEHANNE, Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake at Rouen in 1431.
5. 1. N'ENQUEREZ, do not seek to know. SEPMAINE,semaine. 3. QUE … NE, lest. REMAINE = reste. LAY ou PLUSTOST RONDEAU. 8. SE, si. 12. DEVIE = meure. 13. VOIRE = vraiment. JE CONNAIS TOUT FORS QUE MOI-MEME. 15. LAICT. lait. 21. BESONGNE = travaille. CHOMME, chôme. 24. GONNE, gown, a monk's garment.
6. 3. PIPEUR, one who whistles in imitation of birds ; je congnois pipeur qui jargonne, I know the tricks of the bird-catcher. 4. FOLZ NOURRIZ DE CRESME, refers perhaps to the pampered court jesters. 7. MULLET, mulet. 10. GECT, a counter for counting and adding (qui nombre et somme). 12. BOESMES, Bohemians; la faults des Boesmes is the heresy of the followers of John Huss (1369- 1415) and Jerome of Prague (1375-1416). 16. COULEREZ ET BLESMES = teints colorés et blêmes»
CLEMENT MAROT.
1497-1544.
He abandoned the law to live at court and write verses. After his first successes, he became page in the household of Marguerite of Navarre, and continued to enjoy her protection and that of her brother, Francis I., though this could not save him, when accused of heresy because of the welcome that he gave to the ideas of the Reformation, from the necessity of twice fleeing to Italy for safety. In spite of some deeper notes and in spite of his translation of the first fifty Psalms, which is used in French Protestant churches, he was by no means a religious reformer. He was essentially a court poet, putting into graceful verse, ballades, rondeaux, epistles, epigrams, etc., the trifles, jests, sallies, and elegant badinage that delighted courtly society.