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Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > Oton de Granson: Poems > 62. Balade: «Trop plus de biens que penser ne sauroye»

62. Balade: «Trop plus de biens que penser ne sauroye»

GRANSON, 62. BALADE:«TROP PLUS DE BIENS QUE PENSER NE SAUROYE»: 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 fourth of the six poems grouped together in manuscript F under the title “Les six balades ensuivans.” See the note to 35, above.

3–4 M’amour, m’espoir, mon plaisir, ma pensee, / Mon cur, ma joye, tout mon esbatement. For the enumeration in these lines, Poirion (Poète et prince, p. 463) cites Machaut’s refrain, “Mon cuer, m’amour, ma joie et mon espoir” (PL, 1:93, number LXXXVI; Louange des dames, p. 82, number 128) and other poems by Machaut, Froissart, Christine de Pisan, Chartier, and Charles d’Orléans.

 

GRANSON, 62. BALADE:«TROP PLUS DE BIENS QUE PENSER NE SAUROYE»: 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.

GW59, Piaget p. 217.
Base MS A. Other copies: F.

Title Balade. So A. F: lacks.

2 soient. So F. A: soye.

9 de plaisir. So F. A: desplaisir.

10 d’une. So F. A: dun.

24 sauroye. F: saroye. A: pourroye.

 

 

 

 

 

 






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 		 62. Balade: «Trop plus de biens que penser ne sauroye»

Puisqu’Amours veult et lui plaist et agree
Que vostre soient du tout entierement
M’amour, m’espoir, mon plaisir, ma pensee,
Mon cur, ma joye, tout mon esbatement,
Je l’en mercy, quar je sçay fermement
Que plus grans biens ne me pourroit donner
Que de vous faire par moy cherir, doubter,
Obeir, craindre, honnorer et servir.
Car, en ce faire, je prens plus de plaisir
Cent mille fois que se d’une autre avoye,
Sans mal avoir, a prendre et a choysir
Trop plus de biens que penser ne sauroye.

Car la beaulté, l’onneur, la renommee,
Le los, le pris, le bel maintenement,
Le bien, la grace dont vous estez louee,
A mis en moy amour si ardenment
Dont je vous ayme, que certez nulement
Ne vous ne autre ne le pourroit penser.
N’onquez Amours ne me fist endurer,
Jusquez a orez, son effort ne souffrir.
Mais maintenent bien le m’a fait sentir,
Dont j’ay main mal, maiz je le prens en joye
Quant c’est pour vous en qui sont, sans mentir,
Trop plus de biens que penser ne sauroye.

Ne pour douleur qui ja me soit donnee
Ne me vendra voulenté ne talant
D’autre servir, car mon cuer la devee,
Qui tant vous aime, craint et sert loiaulment.
Que sy falloit que douloureusement
Pour vous servir deust ma vie finer
Prouchainnement, ou par une autre amer/nobr>
Eusse lez biens dont l’en puet resjoir
Ung cuer dolent, cent mille fois mourir
Mieulx me plairoit, s’en ce party estoye.
Car seulement me puet par vous venir
Trop plus de biens que penser ne sauroye.
 		 62. Ballade: “Far more good than I could ever imagine”

Since Love wishes it, and it pleases him
That they be completely yours in every way
— My love, my hope, my pleasure, my thought,
My heart, my joy, all of my enjoyment —
I thank him, for I firmly know
That he could not give me any greater reward
Than to make you cherished, dreaded,
Obeyed, feared, honored, and served by me.
For in doing so, I take more pleasure
One hundred thousand times than if I had from another,
Without any pain, to take and choose
Far more good than I could ever imagine.

For the beauty, the honor, the renown,
The praise, the worth, the beautiful comportment,
The good, the grace, for which you are praised
Have set love in me so ardently
By which I love you that surely in no way
Could you or anyone else imagine it.
Nor did love make me ever endure,
Till now, or suffer its effects.
But now it has made me feel them strongly,
For which I have much pain, but I take it in joy
When it is for you in whom is, without lying,
Far more good than I could ever imagine.

Nor for any sorrow that might ever be given me
Will come to me the wish or the desire
To serve another, for my heart forbids it,
Which loves you, fears you, and serves you loyally,
So much that if it were necessary that, sadly,
My life were to come to an end at once
In order to serve you, or that by loving another
I might have the rewards with which one can rejoice
A sorrowful heart, to die one hundred thousand times
Would please me more, if I were in that state.
For only from you can come to me
Far more good than I could ever imagine.
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