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, 15th century; 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.

As noted in the Introduction (p. 29), the closest model for this poem is Machaut’s VD, but with substantial differences. Basso (pp. 157–59) points out that even in following Machaut, Granson sometimes reverses the image that he borrows from his source. The imitation of the formal model of VD is also rather loose. As Wimsatt observes, Granson is rather less careful than Machaut about distinguishing the embedded lyrics from the narrative (in couplets) about their composition: there are instances (e.g. lines 1195–1218) where a lyric simply continues the narrative, while elsewhere, couplets are used “where we might expect a stanzaic piece” (e.g. lines 452–519). Such a blending, together with “the fragmentation of the Livre into numerous set pieces, . . . actually represents a logical development of the long love poem in the Middle French mode. The essential nature of the works is lyric” (FC, p. 231). The lyric basis of the Livre is also the burden of much of the small body of commentary on the poem, which has focused in different ways on its lack of narrative development and its lack of closure. Boulton, for instance, notes that the poem from the very beginning presents a record of the narrator’s “current distress, rather than the history of the love affair,” and thus is destined to end without resolution (p. 224). Granson “seems to have renounced the progression of the complainte-comfort structure [more typical of the dits amoureux] in favor of the stasis inherent in the lyric complainte” (p. 228). For Arden (“Love’s Martyrs”), the poem reconfigures the experience described by its predecessors into a type of game, “a perpetual pattern of suffering and submission played out in the mind of the lover” in which the lady, only a “mute idol,” “must keep the game going by a delicate balance between cruelty and kindness, so that the lover may continue to proclaim his pain forever” (p. 107). “Anything that ends the game is to be avoided” (p. 115), and for this reason Granson left his poem unfinished (p. 118). Basso also finds that the work “presents itself as unfinished” (p. 149), and she describes its lack of development in contrast to Machaut’s DLA, in which the four birds represent the growth in the narrator’s understanding both of love and of himself. Carden, however, who examines the manifestations of the first-person in the poem in relation to earlier poetry, finds a coherent pattern in the progress from the dream-vision in which the poet-narrator is distinguished from the lover that he observes, in the manner of a typical dit, to the final group of lyrics, in which the voices of poet and lover are again united as in the poem’s opening.
Among other possible sources, Wimsatt ( FC, pp. 227–34) lists Machaut’s Remede de Fortune, FA, and DLA, Froissart’s PA, and Chaucer’s TC and BD. Specific passages are cited below.

For the line numbering in this edition and in GW’s, whose numbering we have retained, compared to Piaget’s, see the Concordance on p. 393 below.

Title The poem contains no title and no indication of authorship in any of the manuscripts in which it appears. The title by which it is now known, Le Livre Messire Ode, is entirely Piaget’s invention, based on a line in Martin Le Franc’s Le Champion des Dames which may or may not refer to this poem, even if it is by Granson. For the problems of attribution, see the Introduction, pp. 14–15.

1–188 Boulton notes that Granson “begins his Livre in the present, and gives only enough history to account for his melancholy state” (p. 224). For Arden, this opening section introduces the motifs — particularly the interplay of suffering and hope and the paradox of the lover’s willing submission to his lady’s will — that are developed during the remainder of the poem (“Love’s Martyrs,” pp. 108–12). Specific details of the introduction are recalled in the first dream, which appears to recapitulate in greater detail the narrator’s revelation of his love to his lady. See the note to lines 189–1726 below.

1–4 Basso (p. 159n2) notes the similarity of these lines to Machaut’s VD, lines 11–12, though in this case, the narrator evidently intends to make a written request for love where the spoken word has failed (p. 150). Boulton observes that “although he intends to send [his book] to her, we never actually learn its fate” (p. 224). The promise that he refers to here is also not recorded, and in his later comments on the composition of the poem, he doesn’t refer again to the purpose of presenting it to her. Compare, for example, lines 215–16, 1088–89. For Carden (pp. 80–81), the opening lines establish the narrator both as poet and as lover, roles that are conventionally distinguished in the dit and that are separated in the dream that follows.

4 faiz. Faiz most often means simply “acts” or “deeds” (e.g. at 69.38), but in specific contexts it can also signify “nature” or “features” (37.5, 72.59, 78.1260 ) or “attacks” (59.15, 78.1683). In contexts related to writing, as here and in 75.58, it refers primarily to a poet’s compositions, his or her “works.”

5–6 Non pas tous, maiz une partie / Diray de ma mellencolie. Basso (p. 159) cites these lines for contrast to VD 513–15, in which Machaut promises to include everything he has done or said.

7–9 Amours . . . une maistresse. Piaget (p. 145) takes these lines as a reference to 76 (see particularly lines 105–06); see the Introduction, pp. 14.

120 Though there is no break in the sense, a line rhyming in –ire lacks in both manuscripts that contain this passage. With 122, we resume the line numbering as in GW.

189–1726 The largest part of the poem is made up of the first dream. As Wimsatt notes (FC, p. 231), each of the separate encounters in the dream refers in some way to the narrator’s love for his lady, though as Basso suggests (p. 154), the narrator doesn’t seem to realize it. Boulton points out that unlike the dream visions of Granson’s predecessors, this one offers no relief to the narrator but only serves to “remind him of his sorrow” (p. 224). Attwood (“Dialectique amoureuse,” pp. 96–100) describes the dialogue structure of most of the dream, referring also to the mise en abîme of the narrator’s experience in his encounter with the young squire in lines 614–43. For Carden (p. 81), the dream episode is a fictive space that “allows the poet to explore his lyric subjectivity, heightening the distance between his historical identity and the one that he constructs in the text” (all subsequent translations are by the editors).

The narrative portion of the dream up to line 850 appears to recapitulate in greater detail the narrator’s revelation of his love to his lady, the event that has caused him such distress as the poem begins. Some of the verbal correspondences are quite precise: compare lines 19 and 707–8 (and also 507); 21 and 612; and 32–34 and 848–50. The same gallery of personifications also appears (though each also occurs later in the poem): compare lines 22–23 et al. (Reffuz) and 759, 844, and 875; 24 (Dangier) and 665; 51–52 (Desir and Souvenir) and 438–39, 721, 775; 66 (Espoir) and 436–37, 555–68, 706, 753, 812; 88 (Loyauté) and 745.

213 Et la recommançay ma plaincte. Carden (p. 82) notes that from the very beginning of the dream, the distinction between the waking narrator and the character of whom he dreams is effaced.

217–326 Like all but one of Granson’s poems that are labeled complaintes (the exception is 74), this one uses a stanza form that Granson also employs in his ballades, here an 11-line stanza rhyming ababbccddc (compare 58). With the complainte (not in fact so labeled) in 1887–1996 below, it is one of only two that use concatenation of the rhyme, as the c-rhyme in each stanza becomes the a-rhyme of the next. An exception occurs in the second to last stanza (lines 307–16), where it is the d-rhyme that becomes both the a-rhyme and the d-rhyme of the final stanza (lines 317–26).

226 partie. That is, in the judicial metaphor employed here, one of the parties to the dispute as well as the judge. Compare 1460.

236 Priez pour moy, s’il vous plaist, amoureux. Compare 39.8.

267–96 These three stanzas are linked by the continuation of the sentence from one stanza to the next. See 1907–36 below and the note to 46.10–11.

327–28 Ainsi que ma plainte escripsoie / Et en mon livre la mectoye. As Boulton notes, with reference to lines 834–35 and 1123–24 (pp. 225–26), Granson here blurs the distinction between waking and sleeping, as he records the poem in his book while in his dream. Compare the lines that precede the complainte (215–16), where the transcription is set outside the dream; and also the note to 213 above.

332 Je me doy bien tenir en joye. Though the rhyme is imperfect, this appears to be the first instance in the poem in which the opening line of an inserted lyric also supplies the second line of a couplet. See the note to line 583 below.

421–22 Vestu de noir, par desplaisance, / Me suis, sans prendre autre couleur. Wimsatt (FC, p. 227) traces the motif of dressing in black to Chaucer’s BD, though in Granson’s poem it “symbolizes unhappiness rather than bereavement.” Compare lines 485–86.

452–519 Wimsatt (FC, p. 230) notes the use of couplets “where we might expect a stanzaic piece.”

475 Though there is no break in the sense, a line rhyming in –ant lacks in both manuscripts that contain this passage, unless Granson, either accidentally or intentionally, wrote three lines in succession with the same rhyme (474–77). With 477, we resume the line numbering as in GW.

571 l’Ostel de Joye. Compare the “Inn of Sadness,” line 149 and the “Tower of Happiness,” line 159.

583 Je ne sçay plus que demander. The opening line not only provides the a-rhyme for this rondeau; it also supplies the second line of the couplet that begins with line 582, thus anchoring the inserted lyric to this point in the text. There are four other similar examples in the Livre Messire Ode, at lines 1440, 1643, 1680, and 1711, and another at line 332, though there the rhyme is imperfect. In all but one of these, both lines of the couplet (and thus the rest of the lyric) are in octosyllables, but in 1439–40, the first line is octosyllabic while the second (and the rest of the chanson) are in decasyllables. See also the note to lines 1881–91, where Granson may or may not use a similar device to attach a lyric to the narrative.

591–93 In the three rondeaux that contain 5-line stanzas (here and at 2034–54 and 2449–69 below), there is no indication in the manuscripts whether the partial repetition of the refrain in the second stanza should consist of the first two lines or the first three. (On the scribal presentation of the refrains, see the note to 1–9, above.) Only in the third example is the third line required for the sense. The resulting 6-line stanza could not have been sung to the same melody as the other stanzas, but the rhyme scheme aabaab is more satisfying than the 5-line aabaa that would result if only the first two lines were used. In expanding the scribes’ abbreviations, we have chosen the 3-line alternative for all three of these poems here.

612 Maiz je cuidoie le mieulx faire. Compare line 21. See the note to lines 189–1726 above.

702–833 The “Lay de Plour” shares its title with two poems by Machaut (numbers XIX and XXII in PL, 2:434–42 and 459–66) and another by Deschamps (Œuvres Complètes, 2:306). See Poirion, pp. 419–20, who also sees the influence of Machaut’s complainte “Amours, tu m’as tant esté dure” (PL, 1:241–49); and Betemps, “Les lais de plour,” who also sees “echoes” of other of Machaut’s works, including his ballades and Le Jugement dou Roy de Behaingne. As noted in the Introduction (p. 25–26), the stanza form that Granson employs here is a shorter version of the lai stanza, with twelve lines instead of sixteen — aab aab bbc bbc — and with concatenation, as the c-rhyme of each stanza is carried over to become the a-rhyme of the next.

707–08 Par hardement / De trop parler, suis maintenant. Compare line 19. See the note to lines 189–1726 above.

738 Mon cueur est vostre, non pas mien. Piaget notes the similarity to RR, line 1983: “Li cuers est vostres, non pas miens” (p. 165).

759 Mais Reffuz tresfort me guerroye. Compare lines 22–23. See the note to lines 189–1726 above.

828–31 saint Valentin. This is the first of three references to Saint Valentine in this poem. See also lines 1246–47 and 1996, and the Introduction, pp. 32–34.

848–50 Compare lines 32–34. See the note to lines 189–1726 above.

991 don d’amy. See the note to 12.4 above.

1024–50 Boulton (p. 224) notes that this is the only time in the poem that the narrator addresses his lady directly. Basso (pp. 151–52) sees in the lady’s return of the narrator’s heart her desire that he be more himself if he wishes her to love him, a lesson that he does not understand.

1089 ff. Machaut’s VD, which is the closest model for the quasi-autobiographical narrative in this poem, contains 46 inserted letters in prose.

sire de Cornoaille. Wimsatt (FC, p. 232) identifies the “Lord of Cornwall” as John of Cornwall, “a well-known military figure in the service of Edward III” (actually Edward’s younger brother), who died, however, in 1337. After John’s death, the title of Duke of Cornwall was held by Edward the Black Prince, and on his death in 1376, it passed to Edward’s son Richard, who became king a year later on the death of Edward III. If there is a “Lord of Cornwall” during the time when we must suppose this poem to have been written, it is Richard II of England. If the reference is not deliberately fictitious, perhaps Granson was more familiar with British geography than he was with the peerage.

1123 At the conclusion of the prose passage, we resume the line numbering following GW.

1125–34 Is this a dream within a dream? The boundaries between sleeping and waking again become blurred, as they do in the immediately preceding lines, in which the writing of the book evidently occurs within the dream. See the note to lines 327–28, above.

1139–1523 The man’s account of his courting of the sparrowhawk and the falcon recalls the four episodes in which the narrator pursues different birds in Machaut’s DLA. Compare also the different use of avian imagery in 77 Le Songe Saint Valentin. Wimsatt sees in the dialogue frame of this episode a “clear evocation” of the situation in Chaucer’s BD (FC, pp. 227–28). Boulton labels the entire episode “a dit, though it is not separated from the rest of the text” (p. 224). Carden describes the whole passage as a jeu parti, the judge of which must be the absent lady of line 1452, and like the dialogue between Heart and Body that follows, it marks a transition from a narrative mode to the lyric mode in which the poem ends (pp. 85–86).

1178–92 According to Wimsatt, the model for this passage is found in Chaucer’s TC, 1.622–69 (FC, pp. 228–29).

1195–1218 There is some uncertainty about the c-rhyme in this ballade. In the first stanza, manuscript B (which we use as our base) has jardins/pris, but in the second and third stanzas pourpris/prins and advis/prins. As GW notes in her edition, there exists a form jardil which (though not otherwise attested in Granson) could give jardis in the plural, fixing the first rhyme. The second and third stanzas could be corrected by changing prins to the more common form pris. Manuscript N, which contains the only other copy of this poem, does not help in resolving the issue because it gives jardins/prins in the first stanza, pourpris/prist in the second, and advis/prins (as in B) in the third.

Wimsatt notes the highly unusual use of a lyric piece as part of narrative, here and in lines 1365–88 below (FC, pp. 230–31). For Carden, this ballade “inaugurates the collapse of the formal and generic system that has defined the text to this point,” as the poet moves from the model of the dit to one more like the 100B (p. 84).

1244–51 Kelly cites this passage in his argument that the feast of Saint Valentine was not yet linked to February 14 when Chaucer and Granson wrote (Saint Valentine, pp. 68–69). See also the note to 71.63–64.

1247 Que tous oyseaulx veullent chanter. Manuscript N (the only other copy to contain this passage) reads “prennent leur per [choose their mates].” This is the only place outside of 77 “Le Songe Saint Valentin” in which Granson makes any association between Saint Valentine and the birds.

1296 Que j’en seiché comme ung baston. For the expression, see Froissart, Œuvres, 9:280 (on the effects of poisoning on the young Charles V) and Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, I(A)1362 (on Arcite’s love-sickness). Machaut too uses the verb sechier “to become dry” to describe the effects of desire (PL, Balade XXII, line 3, [1:37] and Balade LXXXVII, line 10 [1:94]; Louange des dames, number 125, line 3 (p. 82) and number 134, line 10 [p. 84]).

1325 ma guignarde. La Guignarde [The Coquette] is the name given to the woman who argues against the strict need for loyalty in 100B. Carden sees a broader allusion to that work in the contrast between the bird-lover’s disloyalty and the absolute fidelity of the narrator (p. 85).

1365–88 For Wimsatt, the comic obtuseness of the narrator here evokes Chaucer’s BD, lines 740–41 (FC, p. 229). For Basso, the narrator’s superficial understanding reflects his rejection of what he might have learned both about the power of language and about the reasons for the ineffectiveness of his own quest from Machaut’s DLA (pp. 155–57). See also the note to lines 1195–1218 above.

1440 En languissant, j’actens vostre vouloir. This is one of several instances in the poem in which the opening line of an inserted lyric also supplies the second line of a couplet, but it is the only one in which the two lines of the couplet are of different length. See the note to 583 above.

1460 partie. See the note to 226 above.

1481 From this point on, manuscript B is the only witness. The generally poor quality of this copy tempts one to emend the text in more than the most obvious ways. We note some of the possibilities below.

1534–1726 The dialogue of the Heart and the Body constitutes virtually another separate dit within the Livre Messire Ode, though it is not marked off from the rest of the text. It begins with a nine-stanza complainte, and it incorporates three rondeaux (marked, like the others in the Livre, as chançons [songs]), the first of which, though attributed to the Body, is about the body and the heart, and the second of which cannot be ascribed to either. As analogues to this episode, Attwood (“Dialectique,” p. 100) cites examples by Charles d’Orléans, René d’Anjou, and François Villon, all of which are later than Granson’s. In this episode, according to Boulton, Granson “attempts to resolve his ambivalent feelings about love, to reconcile the ideal with the actual misery he experiences.” The apparent resolution in favor of love at the end “is illusory, for the poet resumes his reproaches to love immediately upon awakening” (p. 226). For Basso, the splitting of the narrator into two represents the fact that he can only exist outside himself, in the identity that he obtains from another, in contrast to the self-knowledge gained by the narrator of Machaut’s DLA (pp. 152–53).

1613 d’ «amy». See the note to 12.4, above.

1637–38 Manuscript B, the only copy to contain this passage, inserts a speaker marker (Le Corps [“The Body”]) between lines 1637 and 1638. It is unnecessary since the speaker is identified in the text, and we have omitted it rather than supplying the five other speaker markers that would be necessary for consistency.

1654 Au haultain bien des amoureux. Compare line 17.

1679 Comme faisoit Palamidés. See note to lines 1758–66 below.

1680 J’ay fait mon tresor de souhaiz. The manuscript reads “Jay fait mon souhait,” a line that is defective metrically, being three syllables short. In the two places where the scribe indicates the repetition of the refrain, however, he has written “Jay fait mon tresor &c.” Piaget (p. 447) suggests the combined reading “J’ay fait mon tresor de souhaiz” which we adopt here.

1758–66 Palamidés. Palamades, here and in line 1679, is Tristam’s rival for Iseult’s love; see the note to 12.15–16. He first appears in the Prose Tristan in the early thirteenth-century. He is cited elsewhere as an example of devoted suffering, e.g., in 100B, p. 204, but in no known version of the story does he die because of his love, much less by his own consent.

1763–64 Si dit on bien quelque hutin / Piteusement a la parfin. It is tempting to take this couplet as an insertion by a bored or exasperated scribe, for whatever it means, it interrupts the comparison between the speaker and Palamedes. (Hence our parentheses.) Dismissing it, however, does not resolve all of the issues that it poses. Hutin ordinarily means “noise” or “quarrel” (as in 100B, LXIII, line 4), and it sits uncomfortably with the verb dire, “to say,” suggesting that even if it is an insertion, there has been some kind of disruption in the text. Hutin is also the name that is given to the old knight who defends loiauté in 100B in three of the responses appended at the end (pp. 201, 224, 227). Could the original of this line have been another allusion to that earlier work? (Compare the note to line 1325 above.)

1846 qu’esperance. After sans, one would expect to find n’esperance. We retain the manuscript reading, but our translation reflects our understanding of the sense.

1881–91 In manuscript B (the only copy to contain this portion of the poem), these lines appear without any indication of a gap, and so we present them here, though we retain the line numbering from GW. They can be read straight through with no break in the sense, though strictly speaking, one would expect to find the preposition a repeated before la douleur in 1890 if it were part of the sentence that begins in 1883. 1883 and 1885 both lack their rhymes, however, and 1890 suddenly switches from octosyllables to decasyllables. Lines 1890–96, though beginning with three couplets, match the rhyme scheme of the last seven lines of a 10-line stanza like the nine stanzas that immediately follow, (aba)bbccddc. Those stanzas appear to make up a typical complainte, though it is not given a title. Both Piaget and GW assume that at least five lines have been lost here, the rhyming octosyllabic lines for 1883 and 1885 and the three decasyllabic lines at the beginning of the first stanza of the complaint, along with the title with which such lyrics normally begin in the Livre Messire Ode. They thus insert the title, “Complainte,” and they insert lines of dots to replace what they suppose to be missing lines. In their support, one could point not only to the missing preposition but also to the complete abandonment of the image of Danger on his horse in lines 1881–83, to the unusual switch from the past tense to the present that occurs between lines 1883 and 1896, and to the fact that the complaint, with its allusion to “lying slanderers” (line 1916) and to the narrator’s imminent departure (lines 1968–72, a theme that is also picked up in the two lyrics that follow), seems to be part of a different narrative from the one that immediately precedes. One could also cite the evident incompleteness or damage in another stanza of the complaint and in another of the poems that follow; see the notes to lines 1947–66 and 2055–64 below. The apparent gap suggests both that the narrative that begins in lines 1877–81 remains unfinished and that in an early copy, the group of poems that begins with this complaint might have lain apart before becoming attached to this text. And if that is the case, it is impossible to tell how many additional complete stanzas or even complete poems might also have been lost.

Line 1883 does rhyme, however, with 1890 (as here numbered), and the missing rhyme for 1885 could actually be supplied by 1882. In other words, strictly in terms of rhyme, lines 1882–85 could supply the missing three lines (the initial aba) for the ten-line stanza 1882–96 (though again they don’t have the required number of syllables). If that were so, then 1882 would function both as the second line of a couplet (1881–82) and as the opening line (providing the a-rhyme) of the 10-line stanza 1882–96. There are five and perhaps six examples earlier in the poem in which the opening line of a lyric also provides the second line for a couplet; see the note to line 583 above. In one of these, at line 1440, the second line of the couplet (the opening line of the lyric) is longer than preceding line with which it is paired (it is decasyllabic rather than octosyllabic). In none of these, however, does the sentence continue directly from the narrative into the lyric as it does here, and not even in 1440 is the metrical form of the lyric disrupted for even a single line, much less for three. Nonetheless, Granson, who has already shown a willingness to blend narrative into lyric (see the note to lines 1195–1218 above), may here take that blending one step further as he merges his couplets into a typical stanza form.

If that seems less likely an explanation, then the continuity of both sense and rhyme in lines 1881–85 is due either to extraordinary good luck or to an active scribal effort to paper over the incomplete passage at some point in the history of the text. What one decides can affect, or be determined by, how one reads the last two stanzas of the complaint, which pose another set of issues of their own. See the note to lines 1977–96 below.

1907–36 These four stanzas are linked by the continuation of the sentence from one stanza to the next. See 267–96 above and the note to 46.10–11.

1921 n’avoir. After ouir [hear], one would expect ne voir [or see], but we retain the reading of the manuscript.

1939 Though there is no evident gap in the sense, this line is two syllables short, suggesting a loss. Both Piaget and GW insert joieulx before deport.

1947–66 Piaget treats this passage as a single 13-line stanza in the midst of the 10-line stanzas that make up the rest of this complaint. The rhyme scheme, aabbcbccddeed, is not one that Granson (or any other poet that we know) used elsewhere. GW (whose line numbering we retain) presents the last ten lines of this passage as a regular 10-line stanza rhyming (like those that precede and follow) ababbccddc, and she treats the first three lines as the remnants of a defective stanza, lacking a line between 1947 and the line that follows, and lacking six lines before the third surviving line, which, judging from the concatenation of the rhyme and the repetition of the verb in the very next line, appears to be the last line of the stanza. If there is a gap, it is impossible to determine whether lines have been lost or the poet simply never finished writing them.

1974 Regnault. Piaget (p. 153) suggests that “Regnault” may refer to Regnaut de Trie, who provided the first of the responses to the 100B, defending the position of La Guignarde (pp. 201–02). Otherwise, if these names refer to specific real individuals, they are now unknown.

1977–96 Line 1977 introduces 20 lines of past tense narrative in the same stanza form as the narrator’s complaint that precedes. There are other examples of the insertion of lyric within narrative in the Livre Messire Ode (see the note to lines 1195–1218 above), and there are similar switches from present tense to past throughout the Livre, as, for instance, at line 91 and, even more like the present passage, at line 189. But for the switch to narrative within a stanzaic lyric the best precedent is provided by 76 “Complainte de Saint Vallentin Garenson,” in which the transition is marked by a shorter but otherwise identical line, “Ainsi que je me complaingnoie” (89). The final line of the second stanza (1996), with its reference to Saint Valentine’s Day, resembles the final line of that poem and also that of 69 and 71, which similarly set the scene on a particular day; and with the coming of morning and the relief of the narrator’s pain in the lines that precede, it appears to mark a conclusion. But to what? To this particular lyric within the Livre? To the Livre as a whole? Or to what may originally have been a separate poem (more like 76) that happens to have been inserted here? Directly related is the question of whether the coming of morning in line 1988 is meant to mark the end of the dream that begins in line 1881. So is it understood by both Carden (p. 87) and Basso (pp. 148–49), who see the remaining thirteen lyrics as occurring within a final period of wakefulness. Boulton, on the other hand, evidently sees the second dream as incorporating all of the following lyrics, noting, however, that line 1996 “seems to conclude the narrative part of the dit” (pp. 226–27).

1978–86 The voice that the narrator hears here resembles that of lines 555–61, and in both cases we are probably to associate it with Espoir [Hope]; compare lines 78–90.

1996–2501 The thirteen lyrics that conclude the Livre in manuscript B (the only copy that proceeds this far) are not linked by any narrative. Some repeated imagery suggests that they were indeed meant to be part of the same work. Both sections refer to the lady as “princesse” (e.g., lines 139, 375, 990 et al., and in the additional lyrics, lines 1929, 2027, 2250, 2318, 2377); and the references to her as “la meilleur de France [the best woman in France]” (line 1946) and “la non per de France [the one without peer in France]” (lines 2091, 2297) who has “point de pareille en France [no equal in France]” (line 2384) echo line 1594, where she is “non pareille de France [without peer in France].” (In his other poems, Granson addresses his “princesse” only in the envoys to 42, 57, 64, and 66, and nowhere else does he place the lady in France.) The exact relationship between these poems and the preceding narrative is nonetheless difficult to define. The first two refer to the narrator’s imminent departure (lines 2000, 2034–38), a theme that occurs only in the immediately preceding complaint and nowhere else in the Livre (see the note to lines 1881–91 above); while two of the ballades that follow contain references to the narrator dressing in black (lines 2134, 2155; compare 421 et al.), which suggest that they might have been meant to be included in an earlier part of the poem since the debate between the Heart and the Body leads to a resolve to resume dressing in white at line 1689. Other possible recollections of the earlier narrative are far from precise; see the notes to lines 2166 and 2207–13 below. In other respects, this last group of poems differs very little from what precedes. For Boulton, “the lover’s situation remains essentially unchanged, and the lyrics reflect his lack of progress” (p. 228), and for Basso too, “the quest for love thus appears to be a failure” (p. 149). For Carden, who sees the entire group as constituting a final waking scene, following the end of the second dream (see the note to lines 1977–96 above), these final lyrics provide a fit conclusion as they recall and comment upon the preceding elements of the Livre in the authoritative voice of the poet with which the work begins (pp. 87–88).

2042–44 See the note to lines 591–93.

2055–64 If lines 2055–56 belong to the same stanza as the lines that follow, at least two lines lack following line 2056, though there is no indication of a gap in the manuscript. But if they do, then according to the rhyme scheme of the rest of this complaint (ababbccdcd), 2056 should rhyme with line 2059 (as we continue to follow the line numbering in GW), and it does not. One could emend 2056 in order to fix the rhyme, but the stanza would still be two lines short (which GW marks with two lines of dots). It is possible that portions of two separate stanzas (or more) have been lost at this point, unless the poet simply left this portion of the poem unfinished.

2075–84 It is not unusual for Granson to refer to the lady as either a god or a goddess (as in, for instance, lines 2066, 2178, 2191, 2377, and 2393), and twice before he imagines her being courted by the God of Love (38.21–24, 65.25–28). But nowhere else does he suggest that she might make an appropriate mistress for God, much less that He might be prevented from having her.

2108 Car se j’avoie temps, loisir et espace. After si [so] in 2107, one expects que [that] rather than car [for], but we retain the reading of the manuscript.

2134 Et pour cela me tiens vestu de noir. The narrator’s claim to remain dressed in black, here and in line 2155, contradicts his resolution to set aside his black clothes for white in 1688–89, suggesting that this and other of these final lyrics might originally have been intended for inclusion earlier in the poem.

2143 Par ung reffuz assez prés du fossé. We offer a literal translation, not at all sure of exactly what is meant. Fosse (rather than fossé, which is required by the rhyme) might mean “a grave” (see Godefroy, Dictionnaire, vol. 9 [Supplement]), preparing line 2145, but the construction is still puzzling.

2155 Las! je suis en dueil vestu de noir. See the note to line 2134.

2166 Guion pieça le vous feist assavoir. This line might possibly refer to the episode described in lines 520–32, though the messenger (the narrator’s servant) is not there named.

2206–13 This stanza recalls both the episode in lines 1024–50 and the debate between Heart and Body in lines 1534–1726, but it does not correspond in detail to either.

2323 Vostre esloingner me fait mortel traveil. We retain the reading of the manuscript here, though we know of no other use of eloingner as a noun, and there is no other reference in the poem to the woman departing. Vous eloingner [departing from you] is just as good metrically and would better suit the context.

2326 Et se m’aist Dieux que je vous serviray. For the construction (se m’aist Dieux followed by que), compare lines 2075, 2290.

2336 mieulx. Our emendation here (mieulx for mienne) is greater than what we have normally allowed ourselves, but it appears to be compelled by both grammar and sense. Mienne, the feminine form of the possessive pronoun “mine,” is grammatically redundant since the object of the first person verb verray is already provided by vous. Its referent is also unclear: the only nearby feminine noun is Amour, which is being used as a vocative, however, to refer to the lady herself, not to the narrator’s emotional state. Mieux (“better”) poses no such problems, and it completes the thought, though it may not remove all of the challenges in this stanza. The referent of le (“it”) in the next line is still somewhat obscure, and the clause that follows presents a rather unusual image.

2342–2448 This passage is headed (in the one manuscript that contains it) “Complainte.” It begins, however, with three 10-line stanzas rhyming ababbccdcd and ending in the same line, thus matching the form of a ballade with its refrain. The remaining seven stanzas contain eleven lines, rhyming aabaabbcbbc (a stanza form that Granson uses elsewhere only in the complaint in lines 2230–2317). There is, however, no break in the sense between stanzas three and four. GW divides the passage into two poems, inserting the title “Ballade” before line 2342 and “Complainte” before line 2372. We present it here as it appears in the manuscript.

2399 Et se j’ay la puce en l’oreille?. This proverbial expression can evidently mean both “to be afflicted with desire” (Rey, Dictionnaire historique), as suggested by the preceding lines, and “to lie awake” (Greimas, Moyen), as suggested by the lines that follow.

2457–59 See the note to lines 591–93.

2486 Celle. French celle can function either as subject or as object; in English, we are unable to maintain the consistency of the refrain as we must choose between she and her. The difference in the function of the pronoun between lines 2486 and 2498 also requires a change in the punctuation of the refrain in both languages.

 

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.

GW91, Piaget p. 383.
Base MS: B. Other MSS: G (lines 702–833), J (lines 1–326, 872–966, 994–1089), N (lines 1–1480), O (lines 1–32, 617–57, 762–815, 917–54, 1066–1114).

Title Le Livre Messire Ode. Supplied by Piaget. No manuscript authority.
45 q’un. So N. B: qum.
63 nesq’un. So N. B: nesqum.
117–58 Plus n’en diray . . . je soye. So N. B: lacks (42 lines, the equivalent of one average manuscript page).
122 desroye. N: desroyr. J: desiouyz.
159 B resumes.
172 obeir. So J, N. B: obeiz.
179 Riens qui. So J, N. B: Bien que.
187 laisser. J: laiser. N: laissier. B: laissez.
192 Enceint. So N. J: ensaint. B: Au saint.
198 Enceint d’arbres. So N. J: ensains darbres. B: enceinr dabres.
200 desduisoient. So J, N. B: desduiroient.
206 Blanches. So J, N. B: Blandes.
216 Affin que mieulx m’en sovenist. So J, N. B: lacks.
217 Complainte. So J. B, N: lacks.
222 clains. So N. J: clame. B: clamy.
225 me. So J, N. B: lacks.
239 plours et. So J, N. B: plus en.
245 duray. B, J, N: diray.
249 douleur me. So J, N. B: doulce.
261 doulceur. So J, N. B: douleur.
265 Dy et diray ou que soye, en tous lieux. So J, N. B: lacks.
270 Pourtant souvent en penser me resveille. So J, N. B: Pour pensay maintesfoiz m’a resveillay.
277 De la servir, honnourer et doubter. So J. N: De la cherir, obeir, crainte, et doubter. B: De la cherir, prandre, craindre, obeir, doubter.
303 ordonner. So J, N. B: ordonnez.
309 souffrist. So J. B: souffrir.
329 tres liement. So N. B: treslierment.
332 Chançon. J: Ballade. B, N: lacks.
349 osillon. So N. B: orillon.
361 S’il vous plaist, lire la pourrez. So N. B: lacks.
394 Et doint a tous vrays amoureux. So N. B: lacks.
395 la. So N. B: de.
509 Pis. So N. B: Puis.
517 Affin que cesse ma doulour. So N. B: lacks.
556 voix. So N. B: foiz.
574 Me. So N. B: Ne.
589 racourcer. So N. B: recommancier.
613 ne m’en. So N. B: n’en.
628 descort. So N, O. B: desconfort.
632 corner. So N, O. B: cornes.
655 finent. So N, O. B: furent.
718 donne. So G, N. B: donnay.
726 Ayez pitié de ma clamour. So N. B, G: lacks.
744 Est. So G, N. B: Et.
763 enduréz. So N, O. B: endurer.
767 le. So G, N, O. B: la.
778 Garyr. B, G, N, O: Gary.
795 Seray. So G, N, O. B: Seroye.
798 N’ay. So G, N, O. B: Ne.
811–14 Je sens . . . doibt souffire. So N (very similar in G and O). B: lacks.
835 enregistré. So N. B: enregistray.
840–41 Lors pensay . . . ramantevoir. So N. B: Pour ma douleur ramantevoir / Me sembla que la veyre ne oir.
842 s’il. So N. B: il.
878 conseiller. So J, N. B: conseillez.
888 laisser. So N. B: laissez.
917 vint. So J, N, O. B: vient.
949 Et Souvenir, le vaillant champion. So J, N, O. B: Et avec lui Reffus, son compagnon.
960 Aprouche. So J, N. B: Apresse.
l’auront. So N. B: auront.
981 accorder. So N. B: agorder.
1006 suyt. So J, N. B: fait.
1009 me. So J, N. B: ne.
1019 fort. So J, N. B: fors.
1037 Garder. So J, N. B: Gardez.
1058 ne pourroye. So J, N. B: ne me pourroye.
1070 deshonnoré. So J, N, O. B: deshonnoray.
1083–84 Et a mon cueur . . . ce party. These two lines are reversed in B, spoiling both rhymes.
prose sire de Cornoaille. So N, O. B: lacks.
prose de mon cuer. So N, O. B: lacks.
prose celle qui. So N, O. B: lacks.
prose les. So N. B: vous.
1145 desconforter. So N. B: reconfortez.
1162 mercyoye. So N. B: mercyroye.
1190 se sçavoir. So N. B: ce savez.
1224 Enfermé dedans le jardin. So N. B: lacks.
1233 me plaisoit. So N. B: le plairoit.
1247 veullent chanter. So B. N: prennent leur per.
1256 chetis. So N. B: conquis.
1278 m’avint. So N. B: n’avint.
1299 Je viz ung tiercellet venir. So N. B: lacks.
1306 festoioyent. So N. B: festoient.
1325 guignardie. So N. B: grinardie.
1350 pourroye. So N. B: pouvoie.
1373 Nous. So N. B: Ne.
1384 diroye. So N. B: disoie.
1396 celle. So N. B: celles.
1420 qu’Espoir. So N. B: lacks.
1423 Espoir. So N. B: espouoir.
1443, 1455 gens. So N. B: sens.
1513 se. B: ceulx.
1521 tout. B: tous.
1535 Corps. B: Cueur.
Cueur. B: Corps.
1541 pensee. B: penser.
1546 De. B: lacks.
1567 qui. B: quen.
1575 y. B: luy.
1578 et tousjours. B: et tousjours et toujours.
1587 puet. B: point.
1591 luy pleust vous. B: vous pleust luy.
1608 retournray. B: retourray.
1617 recevrez. B: recevray.
1620 vous. B: me.
1625 savez. B: savoir.
1638 B: Le Corps (speaker marker, omitted here).
1645 Ne. B: Ne le.
1680 J’ay fait mon tresor de souhaiz. B: Jai fait mon souhait.
1686, 1692 J’ay fait mon tresor de souhaiz. B: Jay fait mon tresor &c.
1707 Luy. B: Leur.
1720 Endurons. B: En duron.
1721 En presentant. B: Presentement.
1728 enregistré. B: enregistray.
1735 travaillier. B: travailliez.
1749 souffrir. B: souffrez.
1771 qu’est. B: est.
1781 desplaisir. B: plaisir.
1799 desplaisoit. B: desplairoit.
1807 Qu’en. B: Que on.
1821 a fin. B: affin.
1823 desplaise. B: desplaire.
1838 peust. B: pleust.
1859 vivre. B: livre.
1862 nulle autre. B: autre nulle.
1867 non. B: nom.
1978 passer. B: passez.
1988 lever. B: la lever.
2019 de comforter. B: descomforter.
2031 ferez. B: fera.
2032reconfort. B: lacks.
2065 Plus. B: puis.
2083 ne l’en. B: le ne len.
2114 scet. B: scay.
2153 desesperé. B: desesperee.
2170 Qu’autre. B: quentre.
2172 amer. B: amez.
2173 avoye. B: savoye.
2198 Pouoir. B: pouez.
2221 Et. B: lacks.
2228 m’avez. B: ma vous.
2237 despourveu. B: despourveue.
2253 tousjours devant. B: devant tousjours.
2258 n’a. B: nay.
2266 veillant. B: vueillant.
2305 qui. B: quil.
2311 lauguis. B: languir.
2336 mieulx. B: mienne.
2341 souleil. B: sommeil.
2344 me. B: ne.
2361 mal que. B: mal de que.
2363 definer. B: desiner.
2387 Me font. B: ne fait.
2409 Ne. B: Je.
2416 plust. B: plus.
2419 elle. B: elles.
2425 me. B: ne me.
2428 si. B: sa.
2438 peusse. B: pense.
2456 folle. B: folie.
2461 Seulle. B: semble.
2469 Chançon. B: lacks.
2486 Chançon. B: lacks.