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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 27. Balade amoreuse: «Car vrayement ce martelé me tue»

27. Balade amoreuse: «Car vrayement ce martelé me tue»

GRANSON, 27. BALADE: «CAR VRAYEMENT CE MARTELÉ ME TUE»: 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 contains one of Granson’s more extravagant images, of an anvil in his heart, being pounded by the hammers of his desire. (For another, see 59.11–12.) While the refrain is memorable, it is not clear that the poet has been able to sustain the metaphor, particularly in lines 9–10.

7–8 Languir me fault ou a la mort aler, / Car vrayement ce martelé me tue. One of three examples of a 2-line refrain. See 21.7–8 and 43.8–9.

9–10 Celle enclume qu’en mon cuer est entee, / C’est le cler vis de ma dame honnorer. Honnoree [honored], rhyming with the preceding and following lines, would be easier to deal with: “It is the bright face of my honored lady.” The infinitive honnorer, however, is required by the abab rhyme scheme. Without pour, it expresses only the action in French and not the purpose, and the phrase might better be translated as “the honoring of the bright face of my lady.” It is difficult, however, to associate that action with the concrete image of the anvil.

 

GRANSON, 27. BALADE: «CAR VRAYEMENT CE MARTELÉ ME TUE»: 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.

GW28, Piaget p. 325.
Base MS A. No other copies.

4 mail. A: mal.

 

 

 

 






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 		 27. Balade amoreuse: «Car vrayement ce martelé me tue»

En mon cuer a une enclume plantee
Qu’Amours y fit doulcement y entrer.
La vient Desir, sans nulle demouree,
Qui tient en mains le mail de souspirer,
Et Doulx Espoir y vyent avec Panser.
Ferant, maillant, chascun fort s’esvertue.
Languir me fault ou a la mort aler,
Car vrayement ce martelé me tue.

Celle enclume qu’en mon cuer est entee,
C’est le cler vis de ma dame honnorer;
Et sez doulx yeulx, toute jour ajournee,
Soufflent le feu pour le fort eschauffer.
Et puis Beaulté vient avec marteler,
Et Doulz Plaisir, qui trestous lez esmue.
Languir me fault ou a la mort aler,
Car vrayement ce martelé me tue.

J’ay veu ouvriers qui, depuis la vespree
Jusque au matin, guerpissoient leur ouvrer,
Mais trestousjours Souvenir et Pensee,
Martelent fort; n’ont cure d’arrester.
Et se Pitié ne leur vient dire a cler:
«Leissez l’ouvrer, car la feste est venue»,
Languir me fault ou a la mort aler,
Car vrayement ce martelé me tue.
 		 27. Love Ballade: “For honestly, this hammering’s killing me”

Within my heart there is an anvil placed
Which Love caused softly to enter there.
There comes Desire, without any delay,
Which holds in its hand the hammer of sighing,
And then Sweet Hope comes, along with Thought.
Pounding, hammering, each one labors strongly.
I must languish or go to my death,
For honestly, this hammering’s killing me.

This anvil that is placed within my heart,
It is to honor the bright face of my lady.
And her sweet eyes, all day every day,
Fan the flame in order to make it hotter.
And then Beauty comes with its hammer,
And Sweet Pleasure, which excites them all.
I must languish or go to my death,
For honestly, this hammering’s killing me.

I have seen workers who, from evening
Until morning, set aside their work,
But constantly do Memory and Thought
Pound strongly; they have no wish to stop.
And if Pity doesn’t come to tell them clearly
“Leave off work, for the holiday is here,”
I must languish or go to my death,
For honestly, this hammering’s killing me.
 




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