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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 15. Balade: «Car j’ay perdu ma jeunesse, ma joye»

15. Balade: «Car j’ay perdu ma jeunesse, ma joye»

GRANSON, 15. BALADE: «CAR J’AY PERDU MA JEUNESSE, MA JOYE»: 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.

Granson constructs a topographical allegory of the speaker’s sadness and distress that provides a counter-image to the literary gardens of the type that appears in RR. Compare the God of Love’s tower in 56.11–18. For a different response to the effects of aging compare 9.

7 Jeunesse. Jeunesse here may be either the speaker’s youth (that is, he has grown old) or merely his youthfulness, as in 74.129, a sense that is perhaps more consistent with “my joy.”

 

GRANSON, 15. BALADE: «CAR J’AY PERDU MA JEUNESSE, MA JOYE»: 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.

GW55, Piaget p. 347.
Base MS A. No other copies.

 

 

 

 

 

 






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 15. Balade: «Car j’ay perdu ma jeunesse, ma joye»   

Fouir m’en fault a chace d’esperon,
Loing de tous biens, ou Deser de Tristour,
Et y feray lever une maison
Pour moy mucier, en ung petit destour.
La vueil languir, sans faire autre labour,
A celle fin, que plaisance ne voye,
Car j’ay perdu ma jeunesse, ma joye.

Mais diverse en sera la cloyson
De ce pourpris ou feray mon sejour.
Courroux, Soussy, Despit et Marrison
Feront le mur et yront entour,
Et Desespoir sera donjon et tour.
C’est le retrait ou il fault que je soye,
Car j’ay perdu ma jeunesse, ma joye.
Il y aura, car c’est tresbien raison,
Ung jardinnet de merveilleux atour
Qui, en tous temps, sera en sa saison
D’estre chargé d’Ennuy et de Doulour.
Et ou milieu, ung grant fleuve de plour.
De m’esnoyer seray souvent en voye,
Car j’ay perdu ma jeunesse, ma joye.		 15. Ballade: “For I have lost my youth and my joy”

Flee I must, as fast as I can spur,
Far from all good into the Desert of Sadness,
And I will have a house constructed there
In which to hide, in an isolated corner.
There I wish to languish, without further labor,
To this end, that I see no pleasure.
For I have lost my youth and my joy.

But diverse will be the enclosure
Of the dwelling in which I’ll make my stay.
Anger, Worry, Scorn, and Sadness
Will make up the walls that run around it,
And Despair will be the keep and tower.
That is the retreat in which I must reside,
For I have lost my youth and my joy.
There will be, since it is very fitting,
A little garden of wondrous character,
That will be in season throughout the year
And overgrown with Sorrow and Affliction.
And in the middle, a great river of tears.
I will often be found there, drowning myself,
For I have lost my youth and my joy.







(see note)

 


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