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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 53. Balade: «Puis qu’il lui plaist, il me souffist»

53. Balade: «Puis qu’il lui plaist, il me souffist»

GRANSON, 53. BALADE:«PUIS QU'IL LUI PLAIST, IL ME SOUFFIST»: 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 one of only two of Granson’s independent ballades in octosyllables; the other is 65. Granson also uses octosyllables in the ballades in 78 Le Livre Messire Ode that begin at lines 362, 1195, 1365 and (if it is to be considered a ballade) 2342 (see the note to 78.2342-2448 below). The tug-of-war between the speaker and his heart anticipates the debate between the Body and the Heart in Le Livre Messire Ode, 78.1534-1726. A different personification of the speaker’s heart is found in 64. See also 41.13-24.

Consistent with the editorial policy of this edition, we present this ballade as it appears in MS P. Those who studied this manuscript previously — Piaget, for his edition (Grandson, Vie et oeuvres), Mudge, “Pennsylvania,” and Wimsatt, Poems of “Ch” — all failed to notice that this was another version of a poem that appears in A. Piaget doesn’t include it in his list of the works of Granson contained in the manuscript (pp. 115-16), and Mudge and Wimsatt, in their catalogs of the contents of P, do not attribute it to Granson. In addition to some small textual differences, the copy in P also contains an envoy that does not appear in A:

Princesse, on me veult marier,
Mais savez vous qu’il en sera?
Mon corps sans cuer espousera,
Car long temps a qu’il vous promist
Qu’a tous jours mais vostre sera.
Puis qu’il lui plaist, il me souffist.

[Princess, they want me to marry,
But do you know how it will be?
My body will marry without the heart,
For long ago it promised you
Than it would be yours forever.
Since it pleases my heart, that’s enough for me.]

We place it here in the notes because the ascription to Granson is somewhat more doubtful. The circumstances it describes cannot literally be true: Granson married only once, in 1365, when we assume he was quite young (and before it was customary for a ballade to have an envoy), and his wife survived him. The specificity of the pose would be very unusual, however, if it did not refer to a real event. The sudden change in tone and the seeming inconsistency between the long temps [a long time] of the third to the last line and the un an [one year] of line 7 of the ballade, while certainly not unique, suggest that the envoy may have been added later and by another hand. If it is original, then we might have to presume that the envoy was deliberately omitted in A (though the time reference in A poses less of a problem; see the note to line 7 below). A also omits the envoy to 56 which is included in all four of the other copies of the poem, including P.

1 Pourquoy virent onques mes yeulx. The opening line is nearly identical to that of one of Machaut’s ballades, “Helas! pour quoy virent onques mi oueil” (Machaut, Poesies lyriques, 1.69, number LIII; Louange des dames, p. 73, number 92). There is no similarity in what follows.

7 Car onques puis d’un an an sa. MS A reads instead environ six an en ça [about six years ago]. See the note to 39.5, above.


 

GRANSON, 53. BALADE: «PUIS QU'IL LUI PLAIST, IL ME SOUFFIST»: 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, mid 15th century; 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.

GW89, Piaget p. 277.
Base MS P. Other copies: A.

10 souffist. So A. P: souffit.

22 vueilliez. So A. P: vueille.

 

 

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 		 53. Balade: «Puisqu’il lui plaist, il me souffist»

Pourquoy virent onques mes yeulx
Vostre beauté, belle sans per?
Pourquoy fu je si oultrageux
De vous vouloir onques amer?
Pourquoy me mis je en tele mer,
Ne mon cuer pourquoy y pensa?
Car onques puis d'un an an sa
Ses pensees ailleurs ne mist,
Et dit qu’en vous servant mourra.
Puis qu’il lui plaist, il me souffist.

Combien que j’amasse trop mieulx,
S’il se peust faire, l’en garder,
Car il n’en ris ne jeux,
Ne riens fors doulour a porter.
S’il ne vous plaist le conforter,
Je croy que bien brief finera.
Car onques mais nul cuer n'ama
Qui en tele doulourr languist.
Or languisse tant qu’il vouldra.
Puis qu’il lui plaist, il me souffist.

Et non obstant ce, je m'en deulx.
Ne vous en vueilliez merveillier
Car je vous jure, se m’aist Dieux,
Il ne puet dormir ne veillier
Qu’il ne lui faille traveillier
A penser comment il pourra
Guerir des maulx qu'il en a.
Mais il n'a gueres qu'il me dist
Que vostre bon gré atandra
Puis qu’il lui plaist, il me souffist.
 		 53. Ballade: “Since it pleases my heart, that’s enough for me”

Why did my eyes ever see
Your beauty, fair lady without peer?
Why was I ever so foolishly bold
As ever to want to love you?
Why did I put myself on such a sea,
And why did my heart consider it?
For ever since a year ago,
It directed its thoughts nowhere else
And said that it will die in serving you.
Since it pleases my heart, that’s enough for me.

How much I would have preferred
If it were possible, to prevent it,
For it has neither laughter nor play,
Nor anything but sorrow to bear.
Unless it please you to comfort it,
I believe that very shortly it will die.
For never did any heart ever love
That languished in such sorrow.
But let it languish as much as it wants.
Since it pleases my heart, that’s enough for me.

And nonetheless, I am in sorrow.
Please do not be amazed,
For I swear to you, so help me God,
I can neither sleep nor remain awake
That it is not compelled to struggle
Thinking about how it will be able
To recover from the pains it bears.
But it wasn’t long ago that it told me
That it would await your good will.
Since it pleases my heart, that’s enough for me.
 		  

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