New Site Announcement: Over the past several years, the METS team has been building a new website and new digital edition, in collaboration with Cast Iron Coding. This next phase of METS' editions includes improved functionality and accessibility, an increased focus on transparency, and conformity to best practices for open access and digital editions, including TEI markup. We are currently in a "soft launch" phase in which we will monitor the new site for bugs and errors. We encourage you to visit our new site at https://metseditions.org, and we welcome feedback here: https://tinyurl.com/bdmfv282

We will continue to publish all new editions in print and online, but our new online editions will include TEI/XML markup and other features. Over the next two years, we will be working on updating our legacy volumes to conform to our new standards.

Our current site will be available for use until mid-December 2024. After that point, users will be redirected to the new site. We encourage you to update bookmarks and syllabuses over the next few months. If you have questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us at robbins@ur.rochester.edu.
Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 43. Balade: «Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame»

43. Balade: «Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame»

GRANSON, 43. BALADE:«FORS QUE D'AMOURS ET DE MA BELLE DAME»: 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.

8–9 Que de riens plus ne me souvient, par m’ame, / Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame. One of three examples of a two-line refrain. See 21.7–8 and 27.7–8.

 

GRANSON, 43. BALADE: «FORS QUE D'AMOURS ET DE MA BELLE DAME»: 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.

GW45, Piaget p. 338.
Base MS P. Other copies: A.

 

 

 

 

 

 






5





10




15





20




25


 		 43. Balade: «Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame»

Loyal amour, ardant et desireuse,
Ferme, sans fin, entierement donnee,
Et ma dame, plaisant et gracieuse,
Plaine d’amour, de tout bien renommee,
N’ont en mon cuer laissié nulle pensee
Fors que celle qui d’eulz deux me vient,
Et en celle tant penser me convient
Que de riens plus ne me souvient, par m’ame,
Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame.

Je sens amour, puissant et oultrageuse,
De trop amer fort et desmesuree,
Et je congnois ma dame dangereuse,
Froide d’amer, sachant, bien avisee,
Pour sa bonté de plusieurs desiree.
Tousdiz meilleur et plus belle devient,
Et penser cilz si pres de moy se tient
Que de riens plus ne me souvient, par m’ame,
Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame.

Mais trop seroit amour plus savoureuse,
Mieulx avenant et plus aise portee,
Se ma dame, jeune, gente, joieuse,
Belle sans per, bonne, bien euree,
Vouloit savoir comment elle est amee
En tous les poins que loyal cuer maintient,
Car loyaulté de si pres m’apartient
Que de riens plus ne me souvient, par m’ame,
Fors que d’amours et de ma belle dame.
 		 43. Ballade: “Anything but love and my beautiful lady”

Loyal love, burning and desirous,
Constant, endless, given entirely,
And my lady, charming and gracious,
Full of love, renowned for every virtue,
Have not left in my heart a single thought
Except for that which comes to me from those two,
And on this I am forced to think so much
That by my soul, no longer do I recall
Anything but love and my beautiful lady.

I feel love, powerful and excessive,
Strong and uncontrolled in loving greatly,
And I know my lady to be disdainful,
Cool to love, wise and very prudent,
Desired by very many for her goodness.
She constantly gets better and more beautiful,
And this thought adheres to me so closely
That by my soul, no longer do I recall
Anything but love and my beautiful lady.

But love would be much more delightful,
More pleasant and more easily borne,
If my lady, young, gracious, joyful,
Beautiful without equal, good and fortunate,
Wished to know how much she is loved
In all the ways that a loyal heart maintains,
For loyalty is so much a part of me
That by my soul, no longer do I recall
Anything but love and my beautiful lady.
 








(see note)





















 

 


Go To 44. Balade: «Ainsi puet il don d’amours desservir»