68. Le Dit de Loiauté

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

68. Le Dit de Loiauté

Loiaulté d’amour, necte et pure,
Clere, sans tache et sans laidure,
N’a en luy fait ne demonstrance,
Parler, regart ne contenance,
Atrait, acueil ne couverture,
Atour, devise ne brodure,
Prise, don, signe ne semblance
Pour donner a nullui esperance,
Fors ung tout seul d’autre nature.
La prent confort et nourriture,
Joye, soulas et souffisance,
Et toute mondaine plaisance.
C’est celle par qui Amour dure.
C’est Loiaulté qui, par droicture,
Deffent Amour de varience
Et la tient en sa grant puissance
Fine, fort, ferme et seure,
Et lui fait peser par mesure
Tous sez fais en juste balance.
Car Amours, qui a congnoissance,
Sent et entent de sa nature
Qu’est fauceté et mespriseure,
Et puet mettre par sa science
Sez faiz en loyal ordonnance,
Si que aigait ne aventure
Ne nul engin de creature
Ne font a Loiauté nuysance,
Tant soit de soubtil percevance.
Et se la chose a faire est dure,
Amours tresloiaument l’endure
Pour monstrer foy et afiance,
Mais non d’Amours est decepvance.
C’est une tresfause pointure.
Amour ne veult autre pasture
Que droicte, loial gouvernance.
C’est sa paix, c’est sa soustenance,
C’est tout son bien, je le vous jure.

68. The Poem about Loyalty

Loyalty in love, clean and pure,
Bright, without stain and without blemish,
Has not within it act or outward sign,
Speech, look, or countenance,
Attraction, welcome, or pretense,
Ornament, emblem, or embroidery,
Prize, gift, sign, or appearance
In order to give hope to anyone,
But just one thing of a different nature.
There it takes comfort and sustenance,
Joy, solace, and satisfaction
And every worldly pleasure.
It is that by which Love endures.
It is Loyalty that, out of right,
Protects Love from inconstancy
And keeps it, in its great power,
Pure, strong, firm, and secure,
And causes all its actions to be weighed
By measure in a true balance.
For Love, which has understanding,
Feels and understands by nature
What is falsity and wrong,
And with its knowledge, it can put
Its deeds in loyal arrangement,
So that neither ruse nor chance
Nor any device of any creature
Does any harm to Loyalty,
So subtle is its perception.
And if the thing is hard to do,
Love very loyally endures it
In order to demonstrate faith and commitment,
But deceit does not belong to Love.
It is a most false wound.
Love does not want any other nurturing
But proper, loyal governance.
That is its peace; that is its sustenance,
That is all its good, I swear to you.

(see note)

(t-note)
(t-note)

(t-note)

(t-note)

GRANSON, 68. «LE DIT DE LOIAUTÉ»: 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 shortest of Granson’s poems in couplets; it is the only one that uses only two rhymes throughout. Though it makes no direct allusion to any of the poems in 100B and though not itself in ballade form, this poem may constitute another contribution to the debate between Loiauté and its opposite initiated by the authors of that collection; see the note to 42 above.

9 Fors ung tout seul d’autre nature. One might expect fors a ung tout seul [except to one alone], completing the thought from the preceding line. As it is, it is not clear what ung, as another object of the verb a [has] in line 3, refers to, nor why it might be something in which Loiauté takes comfort and pleasure (lines 10–12). To make that change while preserving the meter, however, would also require altering d’autre nature to remove one syllable.

GRANSON, 68. «LE DIT DE LOIAUTÉ»: 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.

GW44, Piaget p. 336.
Base MS A. No other copies.

25 aigait. A: aigard.

26–27 Ne nul engin . . . nuysance. The order of these lines is reversed in A, disturbing the rhyme scheme.

28 percevance. A: perceverance.

32 est. A: et.