35. Balade: «Prouchaine mort en lieu de garison»

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35. Balade: «Prouchaine mort en lieu de garison»

La grant douleur qui si fort me destraint
Que, nuit et jour, me convient souspirer,
Et le grief mal de quoy mon cuer se plaint
Et qui me fait toute joye oublier,
Ne puis je plus souffrir ne endurer.
Si me convient, a tresbonne achoison
Et de bon cuer, requerre et demander
Prouchaine mort en lieu de garison.

Ne du meschief qui me palit et taint
Ne puis jamais garison recouvrer
Se non par mort, car mon cuer est attaint
Du mortel cop, de quoy souvent plaier,
Des mesdisans de que le faulx parler
A mains bons cuers honniz par traison.
Le mien se plaint qui me fait desirer
Prouchaine mort en lieu de garison.

Ma vie hé et ma douleur contraint
Mon povre cuer de ma mort souhaidier,
Et Desespoir, qui dedens moy remaint,
Fait mon grant mal si fort multiplier
Que plus ne puis la destresse porter
Et le meschief dont j’ay si grant foison.
Pour ce humblement a jointes mains requier
Prouchaine mort en lieu de garison.

35. Ballade: “A quick death instead of any cure”

The great sorrow that grips me so strongly
That I am forced to sigh both night and day
And the grievous pain of which my heart complains
And that makes me forget every joy
I can no longer suffer or endure.
Therefore I must, with very good reason
And with good heart, seek and demand
A quick death instead of any cure.

Nor from the hurt that makes me both grow pale
And redden can I ever find a cure
If not from death, for my heart has been struck
With a mortal blow, which often wounds,
By slanderers, whose false speech treacherously
Has brought shame on many a good heart.
Mine complains, and it makes me desire
A quick death instead of any cure.

I hate my life, and my sorrow compels
My poor heart to wish for my death,
And Despair, which dwells within me,
Makes my great pain multiply so much
That no longer can I bear the distress
And hardship of which I have so much.
Therefore I humbly request, with joined hands,
A quick death instead of any cure.

(t-note)

(see note)

GRANSON, 35. BALADE: «PROUCHAINE MORT EN LIEU DE GARISON»: 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 first of the six ballades that are presented under the single title “Les six balades ensuivans [The sequence of six ballades]” in manuscript F. The others are 52, 63, 62, 51, and 66. As noted in the Introduction (pp. 19–20), this group constitutes a unity neither thematically nor formally, consisting as it does of three different stanza forms of different lengths (but compare Carden, “Oton de Grandson,” p. 143, for whom the six ballades “develop an extended complaint”). Two of these poems (35 and 63) appear only in manuscript F. The other four appear in manuscript A, but not grouped together and in a different order; one of these (66) contains a third stanza that is lacking in F. None of the six appears in manuscript P, and only 52 appears in any other copy. Since this sequence has a far more dubious status than the “Cinq balades ensuivans” (see the note to 37–41, below), we have not preserved it here, and we have adhered to our decision to present the individual poems in order of length and for the text, to privilege A over F.

11–14 Se non par mort . . . par traison. The fear of slander is a recurring theme in Granson; see the note to 22, above. This is his strongest statement of its impact upon the lover. There is no reference to the slanderers, however, in any of the other five poems that make up the “Six balades ensuivans.”

GRANSON, 35. BALADE: «PROUCHAINE MORT EN LIEU DE GARISON»: 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.

GW80, Piaget p. 214.
Base MS F. No other copies.

Title Balade. F: Les six balades ensuivans.