21. Balade: «Pour miex garder de ma dame le fort»

by: Oton de Granson (Author) , Peter Nicholson (Editor) , Joan Grenier-Winther (Editor)

from: Poems  

5 10 15 20

21. Balade: «Pour miex garder de ma dame le fort» Se mon cuer font en larmes et en plours Par desconfort, ce n’est mie merveille, Car je ne puis de celle avoir secours Pour qui Desir si griefment me traveille. Helas, Pitié si me fait sourde oreille Quant je requier avoir son reconfort Contre Dangier, qui a toute heure veille, Pour miex garder de ma dame le fort. Sans remede voy definer mes jours Se Franchise briefment ne s’apareille A mon secours venir plus que le cours, Qui par doulçour Dame Pitié resveille. A Doulx Espoir humblement pri qu’il veille Moy aidier et me donner confort Contre Dangier, qui a toute heure veille, Pour miex garder de ma dame le fort. Courtoisie, sy depriez Amours Qu’a ma dame, qui d’onnour n’a pareille, Face savoir les paines, les doulours Que pour lui sent, et qu’il la conseille Qu’a son servant humblement me recueille. Si en seray plus viguereux et fort Contre Dangier, qui a toute heure veille, Pour miex garder de ma dame le fort.

21. Ballade: “Better to guard the fortress of my lady” If my heart melts in tears and weeping Out of distress, it is no wonder, For I cannot get any help from her For whom Desire so grievously torments me. Alas, Pity turns me a deaf ear When I seek to have her comfort Against Danger, which keeps watch at every hour, Better to guard the fortress of my lady. Without relief I am going to end my days If Generosity does not soon prepare To come to my aid at more than a gallop, Which out of gentleness awakens Lady Pity. I humbly pray to Sweet Hope that it wish To aid me and to give me comfort Against Danger, which keeps watch at every hour, Better to guard the fortress of my lady. Courtesy, you too, beseech Love That to my lady, who has no equal in honor, He make known the pains, the sorrows That I feel for her, and that he counsel her That she accept me humbly as her servant. Then I will be more vigorous and strong Against Danger, which keeps watch at every hour, Better to guard the fortress of my lady.

(see note) (t-note)

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Footnotes

GRANSON, 21. BALADE: «POUR MIEX GARDER DE MA DAME LE FORT»: 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.

Dangier, in line 7, is the personification of the woman’s reluctance, standoffishness, or resistance to the lover’s entreaties. Along with Malebouche (Evil Tongue), Honte (Shame), and Peor (Fear), it guards the rosebud and thus serves to frustrate the lover’s intentions in RR, while Bel Acueil (Fair Welcome), Franchise (Generosity), and Pitié (Pity) encourage him or come to his aid. These figures all stand for attributes of the woman herself as the lover experiences her. Later narrative dits enlarge the allegorical tableau to include figures such as Durté (Harshness), Courtoisie (Courtesy), Merci (Mercy) and Grace on the lady’s side, and Désir, Esperance or Espoir (Hope), Dous Penser (Sweet Thought) and Dous Regard (Sweet Sight) as representations of the emotional experience of the lover. These all became staples of the fourteenth-century lyric. Along with Danger, Granson here deploys Pitié, Franchise, Désir and Doulx Expoir in an allegory of a siege of the lady’s “fortress.”

7–8 Contre Dangier, qui a toute heure veille, / Pour miex garder de ma dame le fort. This is one of three examples of a two-line refrain. The others are at 27.7–8 and 43.8–9.

GRANSON, 21. BALADE: «POUR MIEX GARDER DE MA DAME LE FORT»: 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, 13th century (16th century addition); 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.

GW63, Piaget p. 353.
Base MS P. Other copies: A.

17 sy. So A. P: car.