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25. Balade: «Car de presant, je veul tout le contraire»
GRANSON, 25. BALADE: «CAR DE PRESANT, JE VEUL TOUT LE CONTRAIRE»: 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
See 9 for a somewhat different take on aging. It is easy to suppose that Granson might have been thinking about his own experience in this poem, for it could hardly have been written by a poet who was young, but the juxtaposition with 9 suggests that we shouldn’t take either completely literally. It is more interesting to ponder the poet’s use of a lyric form for what is in effect a renunciation of his earlier poetry.
3 Et me tenoie liéz, jolis et gais. This is not, of course, the impression created by the vast majority of the poems to which he refers, another reminder not to take either this poem or those as a precise biographical record.
9–16 Berguerand (p. 137) (like Piaget, p. 142) sees in this stanza an allusion to the troubles of Granson’s final years, when he was forced to defend himself against a charge of complicity in the death of Count Amadeus VII, and more specifically a possible admission that he had blindly allowed himself to fall into the trap of a judicial duel laid by his adversaries. The third stanza of this ballade, however, is much less suggestive either of the circumstances or of the options that Granson faced as the duel approached. Compare 47.
17–19 For readers of the English poet John Gower, these lines will recall the conclusion of the CA, in which the narrator, forced into confrontation with his old age, is urged by Venus to make a “beau retret” (8.2416) and to “preie hierafter for the pes” (8.2913). However striking the verbal similarity, the two passages in Gower are five hundred lines apart, the sentiments are otherwise very different, and it is difficult to establish any direct connection between Granson and Gower, even in Gower’s lyric sequence, the Cinkante Balades. If there were a borrowing, it would be difficult to tell in which direction it went, since the CA may have been complete as early as 1390.
GRANSON, 25. BALADE: «CAR DE PRESANT, JE VEUL TOUT LE CONTRAIRE»: 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.
GW10, Piaget p. 304.
Base MS A. No other copies.
2 amours. A: amour.
7 tourné. A: tourner.
18 recours. A: recorps.