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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 67. Balade: «Ma seule amour, en quelque lieu que je soye»

67. Balade: «Ma seule amour, en quelque lieu que je soye»

GRANSON, 67. BALADE:«MA SEULE AMOUR, EN QUELQUE LIEU QUE JE SOYE»: 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 is the only of Granson’s ballades to use a 14-line stanza. The rhyme scheme, ababbccddeefef, derives from the shorter ballade forms and owes nothing at all to the sonnet. In the only manuscript in which this poem appears (F), it consists of only two stanzas plus the envoy.

8 des yeux de ma pensee. Compare “the eyes of my heart,” 45.1–4.

27 Car mon mal fault qui ne croit tant ne quant. For the construction, compare 47.17.

 

GRANSON, 67. BALADE:«MA SEULE AMOUR, EN QUELQUE LIEU QUE JE SOYE»: 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.

GW82, Piaget p. 239.
Base MS F. No other copies.

7 qu’a. F: que.

 

 

 

 

 

 






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 		 67. Balade: «Ma seule amour, en quelque lieu que je soye»

Mes yeulx sont plains d’ennuy et de tristesse
Et de souspirs qui font mon cuer doloir.
Ne si ne sçay se jamais ma maistresse
Par sa doulçour tournera son vouloir
A m’alegier le mal que, main et soir,
Me destraint si qu’il n’est un seul plaisir
Qui soit en moy, fors qu’a mon dormir,
Je cuidoye veir des yeux de ma pensee
Son beau corps gent. Dont ma paine est doublee
A resveillier, quant il n’en est neant,
Dont je reçoy, certes, de douleur tant.
Car il n’est riens qui me peust donner joye,
Quant ne vous voy assez plus que souvent,
Ma seule amour, en quelque lieu que je soye.

Si sçay je bien que ma dure destresse
Ne me laira un seul bien recevoir
Jusques alors que verray a largesse
Voz tresbeaux yeulx, car je sçay de voir
Que sanz cela je ne puis joye avoir.
Savez pourquoy? C’est mon joyeux desir,
C’est tout mon bien, mon plaisant souvenir,
C’est mon confort, c’est ma joye celee,
C’est mon espoir par qui sera cessee
Ma dure paine, qui dure longuement
Si ne vous plaist que bien prouchainement
Fine le dueil qui en larmes me noye,
Car mon mal fault qui ne croit tant ne quant,
Ma seule amour, en quelque lieu que je soye.

Ma souveraine, qui toutes autres passe,
Avant mouroye que jamais amasse
Autre que vous, journee ne demie.
Car mieulx vouldroye par vous perdre la vie
Que recevoir de tous biens a monjoye,
En esperance que ne m’oubliez mie,
Ma seule amour, en quelque lieu que je soye.
 		 67. Ballade: “My only love, in whatever place I be”

My eyes are full of distress and sadness
And of sighs that cause my heart to grieve.
And yet I do not know if my mistress
Will ever, out of gentleness, turn her will
To relieving the pain that, morning and night,
Constrains me such that there is not a single pleasure
That remains in me, except that, in my sleep,
I would think that I saw with the eyes of my mind
Her fair sweet self. Then my pain is doubled
On awakening, when there is nothing to it,
For which I receive, surely, so much sorrow.
For there is nothing that can give me joy
When I do not see you much more than often,
My only love, in whatever place I be.

Thus I know well that my harsh distress
Will not allow me to receive a single good
Until I see abundantly
Your beautiful eyes, for I know in truth
That without that, I can have no joy.
Do you know why? It is my joyous desire;
It is all my good, my pleasing memory;
It is my comfort; it is my hidden joy;
It is my hope, by which will be brought to an end
My harsh pain, which lasts a long time
If it doesn’t please you that very soon
Ends the grief that drowns me in tears.
For my pain lacks that does not grow and grow,
My only love, in whatever place I be.

My sovereign, who surpasses all other women,
I would die before I would ever love
Anyone but you, for a day or a half,
For I would rather lose my life through you
Than to receive an abundance of all goods,
In the hope that you do not forget me ever,
My only love, in whatever place I be.
 		  







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