Avril Part 12

Line 7 and 8. These are obscure but apparently="And beseech him on my knees not to forsake all joy on that account."

Stanza 78, line 2. "_Le Romman du Pet au Deable_." The Pet au Deable was a great stone at the door of a private house in the university. The students took it away and all Paris fought over the matter. The "Roman"

was a set of verses, now lost, which Villon wrote on the quarrel.

Line 3. _Guy Tabarie_ who _grossa_ (wrote out), these verses was a friend of Villon's: soon hanged.

Line 5. _Soubz._ The "b" is pedantic, the _ou_ indicates of itself the loss of the _b_. The "z" (and the "s" in the modern _sous_) are due to the derivation not from _sub_ but _subtus_.

THE BALLAD OF OUR LADY.

Stanza 2, line 3. _Egypcienne._ St. Mary of Egypt.

Line 4. _Theophilus._ This was that clerk who sold his soul to the Devil and whom Our Lady redeemed. You may find the whole story sculptured on the Tympanum of the exquisite northern door of Notre Dame in Paris.

Line 8. _Vierge Portant_="Virgin that bore a son".

Stanza 3, line 4. _Luz_="luthus". "S" becomes "z."

The Envoi. Note the Acrostic "Villon" in the first letters of the first six lines. It is a trick he played more than once.

THE DEAD LORDS.

Stanza 1, line 1. _Calixte._ These names are of less interest. _Calixte_ was Pope Calixtus III, Alphonso Borgia, who died in 1458--in Villon's twenty-sixth year. _Alphonse_ is Alphonso V of Arragon, who died in that same year. The _Duc de Bourbon_ is Charles the First of Bourbon, who died at the end of the year 1456, "gracieux" because his son protected Villon. _Artus_ (Arthur) of Brittany is that same Richemont who recaptured Paris from Willoughby. Charles VII is Charles VII. The _Roy Scotiste_ is James II, who died in 1460: the _Amethyst_ half of his face was a birthmark. The _King of Cyprus_ is probably John III, who died in that same fatal year, 1458. Pedants will have it that the _King of Spain_ is John II of Castille, who died in 1454--but it is a better joke if it means n.o.body at all. _Lancelot_ is Vladislas of Bohemia, who died in 1457. _Cloquin_ is Bertrand de Guesclin who led the reconquest.

_The Count Daulphin_ of Auvergne is doubtful; _Alencon_ is presumably the Alencon of Joan of Arc's campaign, who still survived, and is called "feu" half in ridicule, because in 1458 he had lost his t.i.tle and lands for treason.

Stanza 2, line 3. _Amatiste_=amethyst.

Stanza 3, line 7. _Tayon_=Ancestor. "_Etallum._" Latin "_Stallio_."

THE DIRGE.

Line 1. _Cil_=celui-ci. The Latin "_ecce illum_."

Line 3. _Escuelle_=bowl. "With neither bowl nor platter."

Line 4. Note again the constant redundant negative of the populace in this scholar: "Had never, no--not a sprig of parsley."

Line 5. _Rez_=ras, cropped.

MAROT.

OF COURTING LONG AGO.

Line 5. _On se prenoit_, one attacked--"it was but the heart one sought."

Line 11. _Fainctz_=sham; "_changes_" is simply like the English "changes": the form survives in the idiom: "donner le change."

Line 13. _Refonde_=recast.

NOeL.

Verse 1, line 3. _L'Autre hyer_=alterum heri, "t'other day."

Line 10. _Noe._ The tendency to drop final letters, especially the _l_, is very marked in popular patois, and this is, of course, a song based on popular language. Most French peasants north of the Loire would still say "Noe" for "Noel." _Noel_ is, of course, _Natalem_ (diem).

Verse 2, line 2. _Cas de si hault faict_=so great a matter.

TWO EPIGRAMS. Epigram 1, line 2. _Vostre._ Marguerite of Navarre. As I have remarked, in the text, she had sent him a Dixaine (some say he wrote it himself). This one is written in answer.--_Ay._ Note, till the verb grew over simple in the cla.s.sical French of the seventeenth century there was no more need for the p.r.o.noun than in Latin. Thus Montaigne will omit the p.r.o.noun, but Malherbe never.

Line 5. _Cuydans_=thinking (_Cogitare_=_Cogtare_=_Coyde_=_cuider_, the _oi_ became _ui_ by a common transition; _cf._ noctem, octem, noit, nuit, huit.) The word is now archaic.

Line 9. _Encor._ Without the final e. This is not archaic but poetic licence. _Encore_="hanc horam," and a post tonic "am" in Latin always means a final mute e in French.

Epigram 2, line 1. _Maint_ (now archaic) is a word of Teutonic origin, our _many_.

Line 6. _Coulpe_=Culpam, of course; a fault.

Line 9. _Emport_. Note the old subjunctive without the final e. _Vide supra_, on "_Chant_." The modern usage is incorrect. For the first conjugation making its subjunctive in _em_, should lose the final syllable in French: a post tonic _em_ always disappears. The modern habit of putting a final e to all subjunctives is due to a false a.n.a.logy with verbs from the third conjugation. These made their subjunctive in _am_, a termination which properly becomes the mute e of French.

TO HIS LADY IN SICKNESS.

Line 4. _Sejour_=(here) "staying at home."

Line 14, 15. _Friande de la bouche_, glutton.

Line 17. _Danger._ The first meaning of "Danger" is simply "to be in lordship" (Dominicarium). The modern is the English "Danger." This is between the two; "held to your hurt."

Line 26. _Doint._ This subjunctive should properly be _don_ (_donem_, post tonic _em_ is lost). The "oint" is from a false a.n.a.logy with the fourth conjugation, as though the Latin had been _doniam_.

THE VINEYARD SONG.

Verse 1, line 2. _Clamours._ See how southern this is, with its Lanquedoc forms, "clamours" for "_clameurs_."

Line 5. So are these diminutions all made up at random, as southern as can be, and note the tang of the verse, fit for a snapping of the fingers to mark the rapid time.

Verse 3, line 2. _Benistre._ The older form of _benir_ from _Benedicere_; the _c_ between vowels at the end of the tonic syllable becomes _s_: the _t_ is added for euphony, to help one to p.r.o.nounce the _s_.

Line 3. _Silenus_ for _Silene_. Because the name was new, the Latin form is kept. The genius of the French, unlike that of modern English, is to absorb a foreign name (as we did once). Thus once we said "Anthony"

"Tully": but Montaigne wrote "Cicero"--his descendants say "Ciceron."

Line 4. _Aussi droict qu'une ligne_="right out of the flask." The flask held above one and the wine poured straight into the mouth. The happy south still know the way.

Line 5. _Bigne_: a lump, a knock, a bruise.

Line 6. _Guigne_=cherry.