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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 20. Balade: «Ainsi le fait cuer plain de fausseté»

20. Balade: «Ainsi le fait cuer plain de fausseté»

GRANSON, 20. BALADE: «AINSI LE FAIT CUER PLAIN DE FAUSSETÉ»: 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 ballade is spoken by a woman, as indicated not only by the comparison to Medea in line 1 but also by the feminine grammatical forms in lines 12 and 15 and the masculine forms to refer to her lover in 10, 17, and 22. Compare 16, 32, 34, and 50.

1–2 A Medee me puis bien comparer, / Qui a grant tort fu de Jason traie. For Jason and Medea, see the note to 18.17–19, above. Here the reference is to the unhappy ending of their story rather than to its happier beginning.

 

GRANSON, 20. BALADE: «AINSI LE FAIT CUER PLAIN DE FAUSSETÉ»: 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.

GW74, Piaget p. 373.
Base MS P. Other copies: A.

 

 

 

 

 

 






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 		 20. Balade: «Ainsi le fait cuer plain de fausseté»

A Medee me puis bien comparer,
Qui a grant tort fu de Jason traie.
Il lui promist, par decevant parler,
Foy, loyaulté porter toute sa vie.
Mais tost lui fust sa promesse mentie.
Quant de lui ot faite sa voulenté,
Il la laissa, par sa grant tricherie.
Ainsi le fait cuer plain de fausseté.

Pourtant le dy qu’ainsi m’est pour amer,
Car je me voy de celui deguerpie
Qui me souloit a tout heure clamer
Sa maistresse, sa dame, et s’amie.
Or m’aperçoy que s’amour departie
Est autrepart par sa desloiauté.
Lasse, dolente, ne le cuidasse mie.
Ainsi le fait cuer plain de fausseté.

Je l’ay amé loyaument, sans fausser,
Et encor fais, non obstant sa folie,
Car je ne vueil ne ne quier regarder
A son errour. Ma foy li ay plevie.
Je li tenray, certes, quoy que nul die,
Et s’il est tel qu’il ne tourne a bonté,
Dire porray, a plaine voix banie,
«Ainsi le fait cuer plain de fausseté.»
 		 20. Ballade: “Thus does a heart that is full of falsity”

To Medea I can easily compare myself,
Who was very wrongly betrayed by Jason.
He promised her, with deceitful speech,
To maintain faith and loyalty all his life.
But soon was his promise to her broken.
Once he had had his way with her,
He left her, out of his great treachery.
Thus does a heart that is full of falsity.

Thus I say, so it is for me in love,
For I see myself abandoned by the one
Who used to call me constantly
His mistress, his lady, and his love.
Now I see that his love has departed
Elsewhere out of his disloyalty.
Weary, sad, I would not have believed it.
Thus does a heart that is full of falsity.

I loved him loyally, without deceit,
And I still do, despite his foolishness,
For I neither want nor seek to heed
His straying. I pledged my faith to him.
I will uphold it, truly, whatever anyone says,
And if he is such that he doesn’t return to goodness,
I’ll be able to say, loudly and publicly,
“Thus does a heart that is full of falsity.”
 

(see note)

























 

 


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