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64. Balade: «Faitez de moy tout ce qu’il vous plaira»

GRANSON, 64. BALADE:«FAITEZ DE MOY TOUT CE QU'IL VOUS PLAIRA»: 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.

On the relation between the eyes and the heart compare 70.32–48.

2 Mon cuer le veult et vers moy le pourchace. For the personification of the heart, compare 41.13–24, 53, and the debate between Heart and Body in 78.1534–1726.

GRANSON, 64. BALADE:«FAITEZ DE MOY TOUT CE QU'IL VOUS PLAIRA»: 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.

GW48, Piaget p. 246.
Base MS A. Other copies: F.


 






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64. Balade: «Faitez de moy tout ce qu’il vous plaira»

Il me convient estre mal de mez yeux;
Mon cuer le veult et vers moy le pourchace,
Et leur met sur tant de cas et de tieulx
Que je ne sçay bonnement que j’en face.
Maiz toutesfoiz ilz m’ont demendé grace,
Et m’ont prié par bonne entencion
De recevoir leur excusacion.
Et je n’ay pas de ce faire pouoir.
Si en vueillez ordonner voz vouloir,
Belle plaisant, qui a jugier lez a,
Et puis aprez, tost et tart, main et soir,
Faitez de moy tout ce qu’il vous plaira.

Mon cuer me dit que me vaulsist trop mieulx
N’en avoir nulz et que plus endurasse,
Car ilz ne sont de rien sy tres joyeulx
Que de souvent me mener en la place
La ou mon cuer devient plus froit que glace,
Et autre fois plus chault que ung tison.
Et non pourtant c’est mon oppinion
Qu’il me vault mieulx beaucop de maulx avoir
En vous servant que d’autre recevoir
Trestous lez biens que jamais homme aura.
Pour ce, Belle, quant vous iré veoir,
Faitez de moy tout ce qu’il vous plaira.

Car, par ma foy, maulgré lez envieux,
Il ne pourroit que je ne vous aimasse,
Combien que j’ay grans annemis mortieulx
Vers vous, comme Danger, qui me menasse.
Durté aussy me veut mal. Mais quant a ce,
Je ne lez crains ne ne prise ung bouton,
Car vous avés Courtoisie et Raison
Qui vous conceillent a faire vo devoir,
Et j’ay tousjours avec moy Bon Espoir,
Qui mainte fois vo doulceur ditte m’a.
C’est quanque j’ay de bien, a dire voir.
Faitez de moy tout ce qu’il vous plaira.

Princesse belle, je puis trop mieulx valoir
Pour vostre amour, quant donnee me sera.
Je ne le dy que pour ramentevoir.
Faitez de moy tout ce qu’il vous plaira.
 
64. Ballade: “Do with me anything you please”

I am forced to be hurt by my eyes;
My heart wishes it and seeks it for me,
And places them in so many such situations
That I don’t really know what to do.
But they have constantly asked me for grace,
And they have begged me with good intent
To accept their apology.
And I don’t have the power to do so.
Therefore please command your will,
Charming beauty, who has the power to judge them,
And then afterwards, early and late, morning and eve,
Do with me anything you please.

My heart tells me that I would be better off
Not to have any eyes, and that I would last longer,
For they are not so joyous of anything
As of often leading me to the place
Where my heart becomes colder than ice
And another time hotter than a burning log.
And nonetheless it is my opinion
That it’s better for me to have a great deal of pain
In serving you than to receive from another
All the rewards that a man will ever have.
Therefore, fair one, when I come to see you,
Do with me anything you please.

For by my faith, despite the envious,
It could not be that I do not love you,
However many great mortal enemies I have
Around you, such as Danger, who threatens me.
Harshness also wishes me ill. But as for that,
I do not fear or care about them a bit,
For you have Courtesy and Reason
Who counsel you to perform your duty,
And I always have Good Hope with me,
Who has told me many times of your gentleness.
That’s all the reward I have, to tell the truth.
Do with me anything you please.

Beautiful princess, I can be worth much more
Because of your love, when it is given to me.
I don’t say so except as a reminder.
Do with me anything you please.
 
 


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