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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 42. Balade: «Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie»

42. Balade: «Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie»

GRANSON, 42. BALADE:«DESLOIAULTÉ EN L'AMOUREUSE VIE»: 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 poem, together with 68 “Le Dit de Loiauté,” may well be Granson’s response to the invitation in the one-hundredth of the Cent ballades to offer advice on whether or not to adhere to Loyauté that is posed by the contrasting views of the old knight and the young lady in the bulk of the ninety-nine ballades that precede. Here Granson seems to address directly those among the thirteen respondents whose poems are included at the end of the Cent ballades who side with the lady, who argues not so much for disloyalty per se as for protecting oneself from the pains of unreciprocated love by playing the field. Without citing either the knight or any of the other respondents directly, Granson holds to the view, also expressed elsewhere in his ballades, that loyalty constitutes the only proper service to love.

25–28 Princesse d’Amours . . . l’amoureuse vie. Four of the last five responses in Le livre des cent ballades also end with an envoy (the only ballades in the collection to do so), one of them (the twelfth) also addressed to “Princesse.”

 

GRANSON, 42. BALADE: «DESLOIAULTÉ EN L'AMOUREUSE VIE»: 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.

GW68, Piaget p. 362.
Base MS P. Other copies: A.

4 soubz. So A. P: sur.

25–28 Princesse d’Amours . . . l’amoureuse vie. So A. P: lacks.

 

 

 

 






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 		 42. Balade: «Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie»

Vous qui voulez l’oppinion contraire
De loyaulté en amours maintenir,
Bien vous povez tous d’une part retraire.
Point ne devez soubz le pagnon venir
Du Dieu d’Amours. On vous en doit banir
Et debouter comme gent deffaillie,
Qui soustenez ce qu’on doit plus hair:
Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie.

C’est un renom tres noble, qui doit plaire
A un chascun, que loiaulté tenir.
Tout cuer gentil y doit prendre exemplaire
Et la raison aidier et soustenir
Des vrais amans, et l’autre anientir.
Quant endroit moy, je tien de la partie
De trestous ceulx qui veulent deguerpir
Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie.

Et me samble – de ce ne me quier taire –
Qu’on puet assez plus d’onneur acquerir
En loyaument amer, sans lui meffaire,
Qu’estre tenu vilotier ne querir
Son fol vouloir, s’il ne la a complir.
Car la est foy souventesfois mentie.
C’est deshonnour; pour ce doit on fuir
Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie.

Princesse d’Amours, ne vueillez consentir
Que loiauté soit pour eux amoindrie
Qui soustiennent, par largement mentir,
Desloiaulté en l’amoureuse vie.
 		 42. Ballade: “Disloyalty in the life of love”

You who wish to hold the view
Opposed to loyalty in love,
You can all step to one side.
You aren’t allowed to come beneath the banner
Of the God of Love. You should be banished
And thrown out as unworthy followers,
You who uphold what one ought most to hate:
Disloyalty in the life of love.

It is a most noble quality, remaining loyal,
That ought to please each and every one.
Every courteous heart should heed the example
And ought to help and sustain the cause
Of true lovers, and destroy the opposite.
As for me, I hold with the party
Of all those who wish to reject
Disloyalty in the life of love.

And it seems to me — on this I won’t be silent —
That one can acquire much more honor
In loving loyally, without doing wrong,
Than in being held a knave or in pursuing
A foolish wish, if he doesn’t have to.
For there faith is oftentimes belied.
It’s a dishonor; therefore one should flee
Disloyalty in the life of love.

Princess of Love, please do not consent
That loyalty be reduced because of those
Who maintain, by lying abundantly,
Disloyalty in the life of love.
 




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