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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 34. Balade: «Se je m’en plains, ce ne fait a blasmer»

34. Balade: «Se je m’en plains, ce ne fait a blasmer»

GRANSON, 34. BALADE: «SE JE M'EN PLAINS, CE NE FAIT A BLASMER»: 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 five ballades by Granson that are spoken by a woman, as signaled by the opening address to doulz amis; compare the opening of 32 and 50; see also 16 and 20. She also uses feminine grammatical forms to refer to herself and to her rival in lines 5, 6, and 10. Here, as in 20, she blames her lover for his disloyalty and falsehood.


 

GRANSON, 34. BALADE: «SE JE M'EN PLAINS, CE NE FAIT A BLASMER»: 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.

GW76, Piaget p. 377.
Base MS A. No other copies.

1 vous. A: lacks.

4 je. A: et.

16 m’en. A: me.

 

 

 

 






5





10




15





20




 		 34. Balade: «Se je m’en plains, ce ne fait a blasmer»

Hé! doulx amis, qu’avez vous en pensé?
Ou est la foy que vous m’avez promise?
Je vous voy tout le couraige mué.
Ailleurs, je croy, avez entente mise.
Lasse, dolent, je vous ain sans faintise.
Or me laissiez et pour une autre amer.
Ce n’est pas de bienfait ne de franchise.
Se je m’en plains, ce ne fait a blasmer.

Je vous tiens foy et bonne loiaulté
Et vueil tenir, ne quiers estre reprise
En mon vivant de tour de faulceté,
Car, en droit moy, je la hé et desprise.
Si doit faire chascun qui honneur prise.
Mais ne vous chault guerez de la priser.
Honte n’avez de vostre fole emprise.
Se je m’en plaing, se ne fait a blasmer.

Vous avés bien le cuer plain de durté
De me mener, sans raison, tel service.
Et sy savez que c’est desloiaulté
De maintenir en amours telle guise.
Retraiés vous, que meffait ne vous nuise,
Car, se autrement ne vous voy demener,
Au Dieu d’Amours en requerray justice.
Se je m’en plaing, ce ne fait a blasmer.
 		 34. Ballade: “If I complain, I should not be blamed”

Alas, sweet friend, what were you thinking?
Where is the faith that you promised me?
I see you with your heart completely altered.
Elsewhere, I believe, you have set your intent.
Weary, sad, I love you without feigning.
But you abandon me, and in order to love another.
This is neither a kind act nor a noble one.
If I complain, I should not be blamed.

I keep my faith and loyalty towards you
And wish to keep it, and don’t seek to be blamed
For a trick of falsehood while I am alive.
For as for me, I hate and scorn it.
So should everyone who values honor.
But it hardly matters to you to value it.
You aren’t ashamed of your foolish undertaking.
If I complain, I should not be blamed.

You have a heart chock full of hardness
To proffer me such service without reason.
And yet you know it is disloyalty
To maintain such conduct in love.
Quit it, so that the wrong not harm you,
For if I don’t see you act otherwise,
I will seek justice from the God of Love.
If I complain, I should not be blamed.
 

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