54. Balade: «Un seul confort de ma tresbelle dame»

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

from: Poems  

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54. Balade: «Un seul confort de ma tresbelle dame» Amours, je voy des autres amoureux Que vous tenez en vostre gouvernement, Que maintes foiz vous les faites joyeux Et leur donnez de voz biens largement. Ceulx vous doivent servir songneusement De cuer, de corps, sanz rien y espargnier. Maiz moi qui suiz et seray sanz fausser Vo serviteur a tousjours maiz, par m’ame, Onques nul jour ne me voultes donner Un seul confort de ma tresbelle dame. Amours, Amours, se je suiz doulereux, Triste, pensiz, sanz nul esbatement, Nulz m’en doit blasmer, se m’aist Dieux. Car il y a trois ans entierement Que j’entrepris de servir loyaument Celle du monde que on doit plus prisier. Sa grant beauté fist en mon cuer entrer Feu mortel qui art, bruit et enflame, Ne onques mais si n’en peuz recouvrer Un seul confort de ma tresbelle dame. Amours, Amours, je suis sy envieux, Puis que fere ne se puet autrement, De nulle rien pour garir mes douleurs, Fors que sanz plus de la mort seulement. Se je me plains de voz fais trop souvent, Helas! Amours, vueilliez moy pardonner. Ce que j’en dy, c’est par force d’amer. Onques mais, las! je ne me plains, par m’ame. Ce sont mes maulx qui me font demander Un seul confort de ma tresbelle dame

54. Ballade: “A single comfort from my most beautiful lady” Love, I see, with regard to other lovers That you have in your governance, That many times you make them joyous And give them generously of your rewards. These ought to serve you attentively In heart, in body, without ever sparing. But to me, who am and will be, without deceit, Your servant forever more, by my soul, Never on any day have you wanted to give me A single comfort from my most beautiful lady. Love, Love, if I am sorrowful, Sad, pensive, without any mirth, No one ought to blame me, so help me God, For it has been three whole years now Since I undertook to serve loyally Her whom one must most esteem in the world. Her great beauty made enter into my heart A mortal fire which burns, roars, and inflames. Yet never am I able to obtain thereby A single comfort from my most beautiful lady. Love, Love, I am so envious Because it cannot turn out otherwise In any way in order to heal my sorrows, Except for death alone and nothing else. If I complain about your nature too often, Alas, Love, please pardon me. What I say is under the force of loving. Never more, alas, do I complain, by my soul. These are my pains that make me request A single comfort from my most beautiful lady.

(t-note) (see note)

Go To 55. Balade: «De mieulx en mieulx serviray ma maistresse»

Footnotes

GRANSON, 54. BALADE:«UN SEUL CONFORT DE MA TRESBELLE 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. 113; 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.

14 Car il y a trois ans entierement. See the note to 39.5 above.

GRANSON, 54. BALADE: «UN SEUL CONFORT DE MA TRESBELLE 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; 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.

GW78, Piaget p. 205.
Base MS F. Other copies: E.

Title Balade. E: Autre. F: lacks.