Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Poems > 45. Balade: «Que mon cuer voit tousdiz, ou que je soye»

45. Balade: «Que mon cuer voit tousdiz, ou que je soye»

GRANSON, 45. BALADE:«QUE MON CUER VOIT TOUSDIZ, OU QUE JE SOYE»: 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.

Poirion (p. 468) cites this poem in his discussion of what he regards as the overuse of personification in the fourteenth-century lyric.

1–4 J’ay en mon cuer un oeil . . . voit tout cler. The image of the eyes of his heart recurs in 52.7; compare also 67.8–9.


GRANSON, 45. BALADE: «QUE MON CUER VOIT TOUSDIZ, OU QUE JE SOYE»: 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.

GW42, Piaget p. 334.
Base MS P. Other copies: A.

24 Qu’en. So A. P: Que.
 






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 		 45. Balade: «Que mon cuer voit tousdiz, ou que je soye»

J’ay en mon cuer un oeil qui toudiz veille
Ne riens ne fait fors que vous regarder.
Et quant des yeulx de ma teste sommeille
L’ueil de mon cuer, belle, vous voit tout cler.
Celui regart ne me peust nulz oster.
Je l’ay repris d’Amours en droit hommage,
Et par cest oeil ay je grant avantage,
Car autrement trop pou souvent verroye
Vostre bel, doulz, gent et jeune visage,
Que mon cuer voit tousdiz, ou que je soye.

Il a aussi en mon cuer une oreille
Qui veult tousdiz de vous oir parler.
En bonne foy, ce n’est mie merveille,
Que moult en peust de grans biens escouter.
Vostre bonté vous fait des bons louer,
Et vous amez honneur de droit usage.
Le Dieu d’Amours escript en mon courage
Voz loyaulx fais, pour ce que servir doye
Plus humblement vostre noble corsage,
Que mon cuer voit tousdiz ou que je soye.

Je sçay de vray que vous n’avez pareille
De loyauté, de sa ne de la mer.
C’est la chose qui plus fort me conseille
Qu’en vous servant doye mes jours finer.
Si feray je, de ce ne faut doubter.
Vous en tenez le cuer de moy en plaige.
Bien tient le corps qui a le cuer en gage.
Pour nul dangier oublier ne porroye
La grant beauté de vostre doulz aage,
Que mon cuer voit tousdiz ou que je soye./nobr>
 		 45. Ballade: “Which my heart sees constantly, wherever I am”

I have in my heart an eye that always wakes
And it does nothing else but look at you.
And when the eyes in my head are asleep,
The eye in my heart, my fair one, sees you clearly.
No one can take away from me this sight.
I received it from Love as his vassal,
And from this eye I have great benefit,
For otherwise too rarely would I see
Your fair, sweet, gracious, and youthful face,
Which my heart sees constantly, wherever I am.

There is also in my heart an ear
That wishes constantly to hear talk of you.
In good faith, this is certainly no wonder,
For it can hear of many great virtues this way.
Your goodness makes you praised by all good people,
And you love honor out of good custom.
The God of Love has inscribed within my heart
Your loyal nature, so that I be obliged to serve
More humbly your noble person,
Which my heart sees constantly, wherever I am.

I know for truth you haven’t any equal
In loyalty, here or beyond the sea.
That is the thing that counsels me most strongly
That I should end my days in serving you.
So will I do, of that one must not doubt.
Of that you hold my very heart in pledge.
She owns the body who has the heart as gage.
For no disdain would I be able to forget
The great beauty of your sweet youthfulness,
Which my heart sees constantly, wherever I am.
 

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