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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 50. Balade: «Je n’ay riens fait qu’Amours ne me fait faire»

50. Balade: «Je n’ay riens fait qu’Amours ne me fait faire»

GRANSON, 50. BALADE:«JE N'AY RIENS FAIT QU'AMOURS NE M'AIT FAIT FAIRE»: 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 one of five ballades by Granson that are spoken by a woman, as signaled by the opening address to doulz amis. Compare the opening of 32 and 34; see also 16 and 20. She also uses a feminine grammatical form to refer to herself in line 29 and masculine forms to refer to her new lover in lines 13 and 15. This is certainly one of the most remarkable of Granson’s poems, as the lady makes a spirited and unapologetic response to the lover’s reproach of her inconstancy in 49, reusing the same refrain and turning it against him. For possible models for the exchange, see the note to 49 above. The two poems appear together in three of the four manuscripts in which they occur (see the note to 49), and in each, 50 is labeled Response. Manuscript F, however, contains only the initial stanza. The lady’s briefer reply in this copy is in its own way even more effective since it is all the more dismissive of her lover’s complaint.

19 Je respondray que droit a droit revient. The same expression occurs in the refrain to Cent ballades XLI, where the context is the rightful punishment suffered by one who is disloyal in love. “What goes around, comes around” might be a suitable equivalent.


 

GRANSON, 50. BALADE: «JE N'AY RIENS FAIT QU'AMOURS NE M'AIT FAIT FAIRE»: 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.

GW41 (from Q), GW49 (from A), Piaget pp. 238, 342.
Base MS A. Other copies: F (lines 1–10), L, Q.

Title Balade. So A. F: Response. L: Ballade et Response. Q: Response de la dame.

11 ou temps dont vo parlés. So Q. A: ung temps de vous parler

17 face et. So Q. A: faciez.

 

 

 






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 		 50. Balade: «Je n’ay riens fait qu’Amours ne me fait faire»

Dea, doulx amiz, vous vous desconfortez
Trop durement a petit d’achoison.
Vous regretez lez biens que vous avez
Envers Amours par moult longue saison.
Et puis dictez que je fais trayson
Quant autrement de vous ne me souvient.
Mais se, par force, autre amer me convient,
En devez vous crier sur moy ne brayre?
Prenez en gré le temps tel comme il vient:
Je n’ay riens fait qu’Amours ne me fait faire.

Amours me fist, ou temps dont vo parlés,
Donner a vous entierement en don.
Maintenant veult c’un autre en soit doués
Que j’ayme autant que ou temps dont parlons
Faisoye vous, quar il est bel et bon.
A mon advis, aussy il apartient
Qu’au gré d’Amours le face, et c’il avient
Q’on en dye riens qui me puet desplaire,
Je respondray que droit a droit revient.
Je n’ay riens fait qu’Amours ne me fait faire.

Apaisiez vous et Amours merciez
Quant de sez biens avez eu foyson.
S’il lez reprent, humblement l’endurez.
Car sez jeux sont de tel condicion.
Quant il se joue aux gens de sa maison,
L’un corrocié, l’autre liel en devient,
L’un bouté hors, l’autre avec lui retient.
Or suis a luy, s’il lui plaist, sans retraire.
Et pour ce dy je a qui fausse me tient:
«Je n’ay riens fait qu’Amours ne me fait faire.»
 		 50. Ballade: “I have done nothing that Love doesn’t make me do”

Really, sweet friend, you are distressed
Too greatly for very little reason.
You miss the rewards that you have had
From Love for quite a long time,
And then you say that I commit treason
When I remember someone other than you.
But if I must necessarily love another,
Should you be screaming and shouting about me for it?
Accept willingly the time such as it comes:
I have done nothing that Love doesn’t make me do.

Love, at the time of which you are speaking,
Caused me to be given to you fully, as a gift.
Now he wants that another be so given,
Whom I love just as much as, at that time,
I did you, for he is handsome and good.
It seems to me that it follows that, by Love’s will,
I should do so, and if it happens
That anyone says anything that can displease me,
I will reply that right returns to right.
I have done nothing that Love doesn’t make me do.

Calm down, and give thanks to Love
Since you have had an abundance of his rewards.
If he takes them back, humbly endure it.
For his games are of just such a kind.
When he plays with those in his retinue,
One becomes angry, another becomes gay;
One gets booted, the other he retains.
Now I am his, if it please him, without repeal.
And thus I say to anyone who calls me false:
“I have done nothing that Love doesn’t make me do.”
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