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66. Balade: «Car quanque voy ne me fait que desplaire»

GRANSON, 66. BALADE:«CAR QUANQUE VOY NE ME FAIT QUE DESPLAIRE»: EXPLANATORY NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: A: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, MS 350; B: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, f. fr. 1727; C: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, f. fr. 1131; D: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, f. fr. 24440; E: Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 8, Catalan, 1420–30; F: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, f. fr. 2201; K: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, IS 4254; N: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, MS 10961–10970, c. 1465; P: Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Van Pelt Library, MS Codex 902 (formerly Fr. MS 15), 1395–1400; 100B: Les Cent Ballades; Basso: “L’envol et l’ancrage”; BD: Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess; Berguerand: Berguerand, Duel; Boulton: Song; Braddy: Braddy, Chaucer and Graunson; Carden: “Le Livre Messire Ode d’Oton de Grandson; CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; DL: Guillaume de Machaut, Dit dou lyon; DLA: Guillaume de Machaut, Dit de l’alerion; FA: La fonteinne amoureuse; FC: Wimsatt, French Contemporaries; GW: Granson, Poésies, ed. Grenier-Winther; LGW: Chaucer, The Legend of Good Women; PA: Froissart, Paradis d’Amour; PF: Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls; Piaget: Grandson, Vie et poésies, ed. Piaget; PL: Guillume de Machaut, Poésies Lyriques; Poirion: Poirion, Poète et prince; TC: Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; RR: Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, Le Roman de la rose; VD: Guillaume de Machaut, Le livre dou voir dit.

This is the last of the six poems grouped together in manuscript F under the title “Les six balades ensuivans.” See the note to 35, above.

GRANSON, 66. BALADE:«CAR QUANQUE VOY NE ME FAIT QUE DESPLAIRE»: TEXTUAL NOTES


Abbreviations: A: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, MS 350; B: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 1727; C: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 1131; D: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 24440; E: Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya, MS 8, Catalan, 1420–30; F: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 2201; G: London, Westminster Abbey Library, MS 21; H: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 833, c. 1500; J: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 1952; K: Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire, IS 4254; L: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Rothschild MS I.I.9; M: Carpentras, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, MS fr. 390; N: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, MS 10961–10970, c. 1465; O: Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, MS 410, c. 1430; P: Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Van Pelt Library, MS Codex 902 (formerly Fr. MS 15), 1395–1400; Q: Berne, Burgerbibliothek da la Bourgeoisie, MS 473, 1400–40; R: Turin, Archivio di Stato, MS J. b. IX. 10; S: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fr. 24404; T: Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 556, 1826; V: Carpentras, Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, MS 411; W: Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, MS IV 541, 1564–81; Y: Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale e Universitaria, MS L.II.12.

For each poem, we provide the following:

Other editions: The location of the poem in the editions of Grenier-Winther (GW) and Piaget.

Base MS: The manuscript from which our text is taken, using the sigla listed on this page.

Other copies: The other manuscripts in which the poem appears, with the line numbers for excerpts.

Selected variants: Most of the notes record the editors’ emendations. A small number (for instance, regarding the titles) record alternative readings when we did not emend the base text. We do not, however, provide a complete list of variants, for which one may consult Grenier-Winther’s edition. Each note consists of a line number, a lemma (the reading from our text), the manuscript source for the reading that we have chosen, selected readings from other manuscripts; and the reading from the base manuscript when it was rejected. If no manuscript source is listed following the lemma, the adopted reading is the editors’ conjecture.

Other comments on the text, as required.

GW50, Piaget p. 219.
Base MS A. Other copies: F (1–24 and 36–43 only).

Title Balade. So A. F: lacks.

10 Ont. So F. A: On.

43 quanque. A: quaque.

 






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 		 66. Balade: «Car quanque voy ne me fait que desplaire»

Dolent de cuer et triste de pensee,
Plain de soucy, d’ennuy et de tourment,
Sans riens veoir qui me plaise n’agree,
Et sans avoir joye n’esbatement,
Et sans espoir avoir n’allegement
Suy et seray sans faillir, main et soir,
Jusquez a tant que j’aye le pouoir
Que vo beaulté je puisse regarder,
Ma belle dame, a qui mez yeux donner
Ont fait Amours et mon cuer sans retraire,
Et se brief n’est, il me fauldra finer,
Car quanque voy ne me fait que desplaire.

Ne il n’est heure qui soit en la journee
Qui ne me dure assez plus longuement
Qu’en vous veant ne feroit une annee.
Or regardez se je vis lielment;
Certez, nennil! n’Amours si durement
Oncquez ne fist a nul homme savoir
Que c’est d’amer et d’estre sans avoir
Celle c’on aime, dont me fault deporter.
Mez crueux maulx m’en fault mains endurer.
En gré le vueil, puis qu’il le me fault faire,
Sans bien avoir, ne veoir n’en parler,
Car quanque voy ne me fait que desplaire.

Ne jamais joye ne me sera donnee
Jusquez a tant que par vous doulcement
Soit ma doleur en pitié regardee,
Et que je voye ce qui si asprement
Donne a mon cuer le mal qu’i porte et sent
Et qui me fait en toute heure douloir.
C’est vo beauté, car sen sez biens avoir
Nulle leesse je ne puis recouvrer,
Pour tous lez biens c’on pourroit deviser.
Car nulle rien ne me pourroit tant plaire
Sans vous veoir, qui me peust conforter,
Car quanque voy ne me fait que desplaire.

Belle princesse, en qui maint mon espoir,
Par qui mon cuer est mat, pensiz et noir,
Moy qui suis voostre, vous prie et vueil prier
Qu’il vous plaise moy vouloir envoier,
Pour adoulcir le mal qu’il me fault traire,
De vo doulx cuer ung gracieux penser,
Car quanque voy ne me fait que desplaire.
 		 66. Ballade: “For whatever I see only displeases me”

Sorrowful in heart and sad in thought,
Full of care, of difficulty, and of torment,
Without seeing anything that pleases or satisfies me,
And without having any joy or mirth,
And without having any hope or relief
I am and will be without cease, at morn and eve,
Until the time that I have the power
That I might look upon your beauty,
My beautiful lady, to whom Love and my heart
Have caused my eyes to be given, without repeal,
And if it is not soon, I will be forced to die,
For whatever I see only displeases me.

Nor is there any hour in the day
That does not last for me considerably longer
Than, in seeing you, would last a year.
Now behold if I live happily:
Surely not at all. Nor did Love so harshly
Ever cause any man to know
What it is to love and to be without possessing
The one he loves, which I must do without.
I must endure my many cruel pains.
I wish it willingly, for I am forced to do so
Without having, seeing, or speaking of any reward,
For whatever I see only displeases me.

Never will any joy be given to me
Until the time my sadness is beheld
By you, gently and with pity,
And until the time I see that which so sharply
Gives to my heart the pain it bears and feels
And which causes me to grieve at every hour.
That is your beauty, for without its benefit,
I cannot recover any happiness
For all the good that one could imagine.
For nothing at all could please me so much
That it could comfort me without my seeing you,
For whatever I see only displeases me.

Beautiful princess, in whom rests my hope,
For whom my heart is sad, pensive, and dark,
I who am yours beseech you and wish to pray
That it please you to want to send to me,
In order to soften the pain that I must bear,
A gracious thought from your gentle heart.
For whatever I see only displeases me.
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