Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Poems > 51. Balade:«Dame, de moy plus que nulle autre amee»

51. Balade:«Dame, de moy plus que nulle autre amee»

GRANSON, 51. BALADE:«DAME, DE MOY PLUS QUE NULLE AUTRE AMEE»: 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 fifth of the six poems grouped together in manuscript F under the title “Les six balades ensuivans.” See the note to 35, above.

GRANSON, 51. BALADE: «DAME, DE MOY PLUS QUE NULLE AUTRE AMEE»: 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.

GW57, Piaget p. 218.
Base MS A. Other copies: F.

Title Balade. So A. F: lacks.

15 puist. So F. P: puisse.
 






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 		 51. Balade: «Dame, de moy plus que nulle autre amee»

Comment qu’il soit, mon cuer vous aimera,
Belle, plaisant, jeune, fresche et nouvelle.
Jamais autre que vous ne servira,
Car en ce monde ne pourroit servir telle
Comme vous estez, sy bonne ne sy belle,
Ne qui tant soit plaisant a regarder,
Ne qui tant face de tous biens a louer.
Et par cela, de cuer et de pensee,
Serez et estez, a tousjours sans muer,
Dame, de moy plus que nulle autre amee.

Ne, par ma foy, jamais ne me vendra
Autre vouloir pour nesune nouvelle
Que oir puisse, n’Amours le pouoir n’a,
Ne ja n’aura, pour chose tant s’en mesle,
Que puist faire, car tousjours renouvelle
L’ardeur en moy de plus fort vous amer.
Ne je ne puis en autre rien penser,
Car tant me plaist se penser et agree
Qu’en joye en fault mez griefz douleurz tourner,
Dame, de moy plus que nulle autre amee.

Pour ce doy je trop plus c’onquez n’ama
Homme qui fut vous amer, car par celle
Amour je puis, quant vo doulsour plaira,
Doulce plaisant que ma maistresse appelle,
Avoir dez biens, combien que je le celle,
Si largement qu’en cent ans deviser
Ne lez pourroit nul homme ne compter,
Et fust ung jour aussy long c’une annee.
Or en vueillés tout vo gré ordonner,
Dame, de moy plus que nulle autre amee.
 		 51. Ballade: “My lady, loved by me more than any other woman”

However it may be, my heart will love you,
Oh Beauty, charming, young, fresh, and new.
Never will it serve any other,
For in this world it could not serve a woman
Such as you, as good and as beautiful,
Nor one who is as pleasing to behold,
Nor one who does so much of all that is to praise.
And for that reason, in heart and in thought,
You will be and are, forever without change,
My lady, loved by me more than any other woman.

Nor, by my faith, will ever come to me
Any other wish, for any tidings
That I might hear, nor does Love have the power,
Nor will it ever, however much it tries,
To bring it about, for constantly renews in me
The burning desire to love you more strongly.
Nor can I think of anything else,
For so much does this thought please and satisfy me
That my grievous sorrows must turn into joy,
My lady, loved by me more than any other woman.

Therefore I must love you much much more
Than any man who was has ever loved, for by this love
I can, when it pleases your gentleness,
Sweet charming one whom I call my mistress,
Obtain rewards, however much I hide it,
So generously that in a hundred years
No man could describe or count them,
Even if a day were as long as a year.
Now please command your every pleasure,
My lady, loved by me more than any other woman.
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