Société François Villon, Bulletin
Volume 11, No. 1 (Winter 1995)
Robert D. Peckham, editor
HTML Conversion from ISO 8859-1 by David A. Gatwood
A Little April Humour
Conference Announcement:
François Villon: The Drama and the Text at St Hilda's
College, Oxford
(22-25 March 1996). Contact Dr. Jane Taylor, St. Hilda's College,
Oxford OX4
1DY.
Bibliography:
the most recent titles which have not appeared in previous
issues
of this bulletin, including some from the 1994 MLA
International Bibliography
and Bibliographie
der französischen Literatur-wissenschaft (O.
Klapp).
Abbreviations:
BJ=Ballades en Jargon ; L=Lais
; PV=Poèmes Variés ;
SFVB=Société
François Villon, Bulletin ; T=Testament
.
Books
Bockl,
Manfred. Erdbeermund
: das abenteuerliche Leben des François Villon.
Hamburg: Facta, 1990.
Kozlova, Lilit. Marina T Svataeva,
kto Vy?
Ul i anovsk: "Laboratori i a
kulturologii", 1993 [Villon's
and Mikhail Lermontov's influence on T Svetaeva].
Meszoly,
Dezso. Villon Arnyekaban. Budapest: Szapirodalmi,
1983.
Ospina Londono, Uriel. La vida turbulenta
de François Villon. Prologo Bernardo
Montoya Alvarez.
Coleccion Autores antioquenos ; 77. Medellin : Gobernacion de
Antioquia,
1993.
Seitz, Gustav.
Vier Dichter : François Villon, Heinrich Mann, Bertolt Brecht,Thomas
Mann.
Plastik, Zeichnung, Druckgraphik Ausstellung, Museum fur Kunst
und Kulturgeschichte
der Hansestadt Lubeck-St. Annen-Museum 4. Dezember
1994 bis 22. Januar,
1995. Ed. Gerhard Gerkens ; tr. Gerhard Gerkens, Ursel Grohn
und Brigitte
Heise. Lubeck : Das Museum, 1994.
Villon, François.
Complete Poems.
Ed. and tr. Barbara N. Sargent-Baur. Toronto
Medieval Texts
and Translations, 9. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994
[reviewed
below].
---- . Euvres. Ed. Dominique
Aury. Fleuron, 9. Genève : Slatkine, 1994.
---- .
œuvres. Editées par Auguste Longnon. 4e édition revue
et augmentée par
Lucien Foulet. Nouveau tirage suivi de notes sur le texte
par André Lanly.
Classiques
Français du Moyen Age, 2. Paris: H. Champion, 1992.
---- .
Opere. Grandi classici, 7. Milano : A. Mondadori,
©1990.
---- . Poems. English. Selections. Twelve
poems. Tr. Arpad Barna. [S.l : s.n.], 1987
[privately
published].
---- . Poesía. Tr.
Carlos Alvar. Mexico City: Origen, 1992.
---- . Selected
Poems.
Tr. Peter Dale. London: Penguin, 1993 [1978 edition reissued].
----
. Villon. OEuvres. 67 illustrations
en couleur de Dubout. [ Paris ]: M. Trinckvel,
1993.
Fiction
Fischerová, Daniela. "Dog
and Wolf". Tr. A. G. Brian. In Czech Plays.
Ed. Barbara
Day. 139-224. London: Nick Hearn Books, 1994.
Hodjak,
Franz. Franz,
Geschichtensammler : ein Monodrama. Edition
Suhrkamp;
1698= n.F., Bd. 698 Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, c1992.
Koopmans,
Jelle et Paul Verhuyck, eds. Les Repues franches
de maistre FrançoisVillon et de ses compagnons.
Textes Littéraires Français, 455. Geneva: Droz,
1995.
Laws, Robert Anthony. Dance of the Hanging
Men: the Story of François Villon,Killer,
Thief and Poet.
West Bridgford, Nottingham: Paupers' Press, ©1993.
Mayer, Bernadette.
"François Villon follows the thin lion". In [Sound recording
of
poetry reading from the The Bernadette Mayer reader
]. New York, NY: Mark's
Church In-the-Bowery Poetry
Project, [1991] [1 sound cassette (40 min.) : analog].
Neuss, Wolfgang.
Neuss' Testament
: eine satirische Zeitbombe nach Texten vonFrançois
Villon. Ed. Volker Kuhn. Taschenbucher-Syndikat
:EVA ; NO. 55.
Frankfurt: Syndikat, 1985.
Villarreal, José
Javier. "Balada a la memoria de François Villon/ Ballad in memory
of
François Villon[tr. Michael Koch]." In Light from a
Nearby Window :Contemporary Mexican Poetry.
Ed. Juvenal
Acosta. 200-201. San Francisco : City
Lights Books, ©1993.
Music
Debussy,
Claude.
"Trois Ballades de François Villon." In Songs.
Selections. Songs ofClaude
Debussy. Ed. James R. Briscoe.
The Vocal Library. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: H.
Leonard Publishing Corp.,
©1993 [vol. 2, piece 9].
Francaix,
Jean. Triade de toujours. Vocal score: drei Duette
für Sopran, Bariton,Blaserquintett,
Streicherquintett und Harfe = Three duets for soprano, baritone,wind
quintet, string quintet and harp; auf Texte von
Villon, La Fontaine undAristophanes ; Klavierauszug
vom Komponisten. Mainz. New York : Schott,
c1992.
ED 7964 Schott. [1 vocal
score (55 p.). Débat du coeur et du corps de Villon (François
Villon)
-- Tircis et Amarante (Jean de La Fontaine) -- Vif entretien entre la dèche et
l'argent
(Aristophanes)].
Klein, Gideon. Prvni hrich
; Dva madrigaly = Sundenfall ; Zwei Madrigale = Thefirst
sin ; Two madrigals. Berlin : Bote
& Bock, ©1993 [2 vocal scores in Czech,
German and English: 16, 19 pages].
Articles
and Chapters
Anonymus. "500 anos de la primera
edición de las poemas de François Villon."
Noticias
culturales. Bogata. Instituto Caro y Cuervo. No. 44
(1989): 14-15.
Andrieux-Reix, Nelly. "X, Y, Z et quelques autres:
Etudes de lettres dans le
Testament
de Villon." L'Information Grammaticale
57 (mars 1993): 11-15.
Bastide,
Mario. "La Critique religieuse dans l'oeuvre de Villon."
L' Illustration Littétaire
45 No. 1 (janvier-février 1993): 3-9 [issue of
Villon's faith his views of
the Church].
Bernard, Michel. "Le
Secret de Villon à l'épreuve de l'ordinateur:
Tristan Tzara et
les anagrammes." Romania
113, Nos.
1-2 (1992-1995): 242-52.
Coldiron, A. B. E. "Rossetti on Villon.
Dowson on Verlaine: 'Impossibility' and
Appropriation in Translation."
The Comparatist 17 (May 1993): 119-40
(Dante
Gabriel Rossetti and Christopher Ernest Dowson].
Cropp, Gynnis
M. "La 'Ballade des seigneurs' de François Villon et les chroniques."
Le
Moyen-Age 100, No. 2 (1994):
221-236 [historical rather than
literary sources for
T357-85].
Demarolle, Pierre. "Temps et
espaces dans le Testament de François
Villon." LeMoyen
Age 99, No. 2 (1993): 281-91.
Draskau, Jennifer.
"Syntactic Equivalence." In Textlinguistik und Fachsprache.
Ed. Reiner Arntz. 469-83. Studien zu Sprache
und Technik, 1. Hildesheim:
Olms, 1988
[about translating T453-532].
Ferrand, Françoise C. "Villon.
les enfants perdus." Magazine Littéraire [Paris]
312
(juillet-août 1993): 47-49 [linked to Charles
d'Orléans].
Favier, Jean. "Villon (François de Montcorbier dit)."
In His Dictionnaire de laFrance
médiévale. 972.73. [Paris]: Fayard,
[©1993].
Gros, Gérard.
"Villon sans masque, ou, la plume et le papier." Revue
des languesromanes
97, No. 2 (1993): 363-74 [references to writing in T].
Lançon,
Philippe. "Les Deux Nigauds." L'Infini: Littérature
- Philosophie - Art - Science - Politique
37 (Printemps 1992): 110-20 [Villon and Charles d'Orléans].
Lanly,
André.
"Sur un Verbe de Villon, «acouter» (et «s'acouter»)." PerspectivesMédiévales
19 (1993): 106-109.
Meiller, Albert. "La
belle qui fut heaulmiere de Villon et un fait de langue
méconnu."Bibliothèque
d'Humanisme et de Renaissance.
56, No. 2 (1994): 469-73
[T451-63].
Mitterand,
Henri. "Testament (Le)/François
Villon. Poésie lyrique./ environ 1460.
In his Dictionnaire
des grands oeuvres de la littérature française.
607-608. Paris:
Dictionnaire Le Robert, 1994.
Peckham, Robert D. "The
Current State of Villon Studies. Part IX." Fifteenth-Century
Studies
21 (1994): 193-208.
---- . "Dark Laughter in the Chambers of
the King: François Villon in America."
Medievalism
in North America..
Studies in Medievalism, 6. Ed. Kathleen
Verduin. 123-42. Cambridge:
D. S. Brewer, 1994.
Pickens, Rupert T. "Villon on the Road to
Paris: : Contexts and Intertexts of Huitain XIII
of the Testament
." in Conjunctures: Studies in
Honor of Hans Erich Keller: Medieval
French and Occitan Literature and
Romance Linguistics. 425-53.
Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval
Institute Publications, 1993.
Queffelec, Ambroise. "Du statut
des modes quasi-nominaux en moyen-français: Le
Témoignage du Testament
de F. Villon." L'Information
Grammaticale 57 (mars
1993): 37-40 [stylistics].
Regalado,
Nancy
Freeman. "Gathering the Works: The 'œuvres de Villon' and the
Intergeneric
Passage of the Medieval French Lyric into Single-Author Collections."
L'Esprit
Créateur 33, No. 4 (Winter
1993): 87-100.
---- . "1456, François Villon écrit le Lais
."ö in De La Littérature
française. Eds.
Denis Hollier, et al. 115-21.
[Paris]: Bordas, [1993].
Sargent-Baur,
Barbara N. "Truth-claims as captio benevolentiae
in Villon's
Testament." in Conjunctures:
Studies in Honor of Hans Erich Keller: MedievalFrench
and Occitan Literature and Romance Linguistics.
505-14. Kalamazoo,
Michigan: Medieval Institute
Publications, 1993.
Van Hemelryck, Tania. "Villon lecteur de Chastelain."
Les
Lettres Romanes 47
Nos. 1-2 (février-mars 1994):
1-15.
Youens, Susan. "Trois ballades de François Villon." In
Perspectives on Music :Essays
on Collections at the Humanities Research Center.
Eds. Dave Oliphant
and Thomas Zigal. Texas : Humanities Research Center,
The University of Texas at
Austin, ©1985.
Zink, Gaston. "François
Villon." In his Littérature
française du moyen âge. 294-98.
[Paris]:
Presses Universitaires de France, [1992].
---- . "Noms
et adjectifs suffixes dans le Testament
de Villon (éd. A. Longnon-L.
Foulet Paris, Champion)." L'Information
Grammaticale 56 (janvier 1993):
42-45
[alinguistic study].
Internet Documents (with
URLs)
Villon, François. "Ballade des dames du temps jadis" [T329-56]:
Villon, François. "Ballade des pendus" [PVxi]:
Villon, François. "LaBallade des Pendus" [PVxi]:
Villon, François. "Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan" (commentary and facing page translation of T329-56 in Romanian):
Villon, François. "Regrets" [T169-184, 201-208, 225-240]:
Villon, François. "Rondo - Mort, j'appelle de ta rigueur..." [T978-92]:
Villon, François. "Three Translations from François Villon [T329-56, T978-92,T873-909]". In Dante Gabriel Rossetti, POEMS (1870):
Dissertations
Tatos,
Mariana V. "The Universal and Individual in the Poetry of François
Villon
and their Projection in the Rumanian Culture." Diss. University
of North Carolina,
1989 [principally Villon and Alexandru Alexianu].
Dessureault, Jacques. "François Villon." M.A. thesis. Université
du Québec à
Trois-Rivières,
1984.
Films and Recordings
The
Beloved rogue videorecording.
Directed by Alan Crosland ; screen play by Paul
Bern. Santa
Monica, California: Distributed by The Voyager Company, [1991] 1
videodisc
(99 min.) : si., b&w ; 12 in. [1 videodisc (99 min.)].
Debussy,
Claude. "Ballades de Franços Villon." In Maderna
dirige Debussy.
Milano:
Arkadia ; New York : Distributed by Qualiton Imports, 2 CDMAD
011 Arkadia, 1991
[2 sound discs (147 min.) : digital, stereo. ; 4 3/4 in.].
Debussy,
Claude. "No. 2: Ballades de François Villon." In
Pelleas et Mellisande;14
Songs; 4 Arias & Songs [sound recording]. [France]:
EMI, 1988 [3 sound disks,
digital, monoral; 4 3/4 in.].
Debussy,
Claude. "Trois Ballades
de François Villon [ 3rd work on 1st CD]." In
Maderna
dirige Debussy. Milan: Arkadia ; New York : Distributed
by Qualiton
Imports, 1991 [2 CDMAD 011 Arkadia 2 sound discs (147 min.)
digital, stereo. ;
4 3/4 in.].
Debussy, Claude. [Songs.
Selections]. Melodies [sound recording]. Esprit
français.
[Hayes, Middlesex, England]: EMI Classics, [1991]. CMS 7 64095
2 EMI;
CDM 7 64096 2 EMI; CDM
7 64097 2 EMI; CDM 7 64098 2 EMI; CDMC 64095 EMI;
64095 EMI [3 sound discs
: digital, stereo. ; 4 3/4 in.].
Honegger, Arthur. "Rédemption de
François Villon." In Semiramis et autres inéditsd'orchestre.
France : Timpani,
1C1016 Timpani, 1993 [1 sound disc : digital ; 4 3/4 in.].
Conference
and Seminar Presentations
Norris
J. Lacy
(Washington University in Saint Louis), "Villon Lais: A Problem
Revisited",
at the Fifth Annual International Confenence of the Texas Medieval
Association,
at Trinity University, Huston (7-9 September 1995).
Dr.
Jane H.M. Taylor (Fellow in French, St. Hilda's College, Oxford) "Villon Voyeur:
from
Belle Helaine to Grosse Margot" Seminars on Medieval Literature
and Culture,
at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (25 September 1995).
Reviews
Bellon,
Roger. Rev. of François Villon.
Poésies Complètes , ed. Claude Thiry. LeMoyen
Français 30
(1992): 128.
Faure, Marcel. Rev. of Villon hier et
aujourd'hui. Actes du colloque pour le cinq- centième
anniversaire de l'impression du Testament de Villon, Bibliothèquehistorique
de la Ville de Paris, 17 décembre 1989 ,
ed. Jean Durens, et al. Revue desLangues
Romanes 98, No. 1 (1994): 216-27.
Fein,
David. Rev. of Villon hier et aujourd'hui.
Actes du colloque pour le cinq-centième
anniversaire de l'impression du Testament de Villon, Bibliothèquehistorique
de la Ville de Paris, 17 décembre 1989 , ed. Jean
Durens, et al. FrenchStudies
48, No. 4 (October 1994): 454-55.
Fox, John.
Rev of Villon hier et aujourd'hui. Actes du colloque pour
le cinq-centième anniversaire de l'impression
du Testament de Villon, Bibliothèquehistorique
de la Ville de
Paris, 17 décembre 1989 , ed. Jean Durens, et al.
Medium
Aevum 64, No. 2 (1995): 335-336.
Harding,
Jeremy. Rev. of François Villon. Complete Poems.
Ed. and tr. Barbara
N. Sargent-Baur. London Review
of Books 17, No. 8 (10 April 1995): 16-19.
Harflancner, L. Rev.
of François Villon: Ambigüité et Carnaval ,
by Jean Dufournet.
Le
Moyen Age 100, No. 2 (1994): 306-307.
Hausmann,
Frank-Rutger. Rev. of François Villon et Charles
d'Orléans (1456 à 1461);d'après les
poésies diverses de Villon , by Gert Pinkernell. Revue
belge dephilologie et
d'histoire 71 (1993): 794-96.
---- . Rev, of François
Villon.
Poésies Complètes , ed. Claude Thiry. Revue
belge dephilologie et d'histoire
71 (1993): 796-99.
---- . Rev, of Villov:
OEuvres. Texte et traduction [1991 edition],
by André Lanly.
Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire
71 (1993): 789-90.
Heimsath, Dominik. "Das
falsch Gedicht! 'Ich bin so
wild nach deinem
Erdbeermund...'. Süddeutsche Zeitung
98 (29.4.93): 30-31.
Joukovsky, Françoise. Rev. of
Villon: Ambiguïté et carnaval , by Jean
Dufournet.
Revue des Langues Romanes
97, No. 2 (1993): 454-56.
Mühlethaler, Jean-Claude. Rev. of François
Villon. Poésies Complètes , ed. Claude
Thiry.
Perspectives
Médiévales 18 (1992): 145-46.
Roellenbleck,
Georg. Rev. of Formen productiver Rezeption François
Villon imdeutschen Sprachraum
, by Wolfgang Pöckl. Romanisches Jahrbuch
43 (1992): 222- 24.
Roth, Oskar. Rev. of François
Villon et Charles d'Orléans (1456 à 1461); d'après les poésies
diverses de Villon , by Gert Pinkernell. Archiv
für des Studium der neueren Sprachen
und Literaturen Band 231 (1994): 220-21.
Thiry,
Claude. Rev. of François Villon et Charles d'Orléans
(1456 à 1461); d'aprèsles poésies
diverses de Villon , by Gert Pinkernell. Lettres
Romanes
47 (1993): 133-35.
Vitz, Evelyn Birge. Rev. of Lecture
du Testament: Huitains I et LXXVII à LXXXIV ,
by
Jacques T. E. Thomas Speculum
69, No. 4 (July 1994): 903.
Verhuyck, Paul. Rev. of François
Villon et Charles d'Orléans (1456 à 1461); d'aprèsles
poésies diverses de Villon , by Gert
Pinkernell. Modern
Language Review 89,
No. 2 (April 1994): 474.
----
. Rev. of François Villon. Poésies
, ed. by Claude Thiry. Le Moyen Age
100, No. 2
(1994): 304-305.
Studi
Francesi (Rassegna Bibliografica: Quatrocento)
Giachino,
Luca. Rev. of Bibliographie und Materialien
1489-1988
, Band I:
Bibliographie , by Rudolf Sturm,
in 110 (maggio-ogosto 1993): 359.
Paola Cifarelli. Rev. of "La
Génération de Louis XI: Quelques Aspects.", by Jean
Dufournet, in
111 (settembre-dicembre 1993): 583 [cited in SFVB 9 (1993):
4].
Cifereli, Paola. Rev. of "The (Un)naming Process in Villon's
'Grand Testament'." by
Rouben C. Cholakian, in 111 (settembre-dicembre
1993): 581 [cited in SFVB
9 (1993): 3].
Wilde, Peter de. Rev. of Formen
productiver Rezeption François Villon im deutschen Sprachraum
, by Wolfgang
Pöckl, in 111 (settembre-dicembre 1993): 581.
Mombello, Gianni. Rev. of
L'Esprit de Villon, étude de style, 2e
édition, by Pierre
Demarolle, in 112 (gennaio-aprile 1994): 117.
Mombello,
Gianni. Rev. of Lecture
du Testament: Huitains I et LXXVII à LXXXIV ,
by
Jacques T. E. Thomas, in 112 (gennaio-aprile 1994): 117-18.
Mombello,
Gianni. Rev. of Villon: Ambiguïté et carnaval
, by Jean Dufournet, in 113
(maggio-agosto): 311-12.
Becker,
Karen. Rev. of "François Villon, Eustache Deschamps und Paris:
Zur
ästhetischen Innovation im 'Testament'." by Peter Brockmeier, in
114 (settembre-
dicembre 1994):
520 [cited in SFVB 10 (1994): 3].
Mombello,
Gianni. Rev. of François Villon et Charles d'Orléans (1456
à 1461);d'après les poésies diverses
de Villon , by Gert Pinkernell, in 114 (settembre-dicembre
1994):
520-21.
Significant Citations
Booth,
Bradford A. and Ernest Mehew, eds. [Letter
1775, to Gleeson White] TheLetters
of Robert Louis
Stevenson. Vol. 5: July 1884-August
1887. 370. New Heven:
Yale Univ. Press, 1995 [on
Stevenson's interest in Villon].
Booth, Bradford A. and Ernest Mehew,
eds. [Letters 1928, to George Iles, and1939, to
John Paul Bocock]. The
Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. Vol.
6: August 1887-September
1890.
47-48, 56. New Heven: Yale Univ. Press, 1995 [on Stevenson's story,
"A
Lodging for the Night, and his essay, "François Villon: Student, Poet
and
Housebreaker-].
De Jong, Diederik C D. "Guide to records
: Honegger's 'Semiramis' ; 'Largo'; Interlude
from 'La Mort de Sainte Almeenne';
'Vivace'; 'Fantasi"o; Suite from 'The Tempest';
'La Rédemption
de François Villon', and others
by the Luxembourg Radio under
Leopold Hager and featuring Mariette
Kemmer." American Record Guide
56 No. 5
(September 1993): 139.
Lemaire, Jacques. In his Les
Visions de la vie de cour dans la littérature françaisedu
moyen âge. [Mémoire présenté
au concours de l'Académie Royale de Langues et
de Littérature Françaises
- octobre 1990]. 422-23, 4 56-58.
Académie Royale de Langue
et de Littérature Française. Bruxelles: Palais
des Académies, 1994 [smaller citations
indicated in the Index, p. 555].
James
J. Wilhelm. Ezra Pound. The Tragic Yeats: 1925-1972.
6, 16-19, 226.
University Park, Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania State University Press, [©1994]
[about his opera, Le
Testament de Villon ].
Book
Review
Villon,
François. Complete Poems.
Ed. and tr. Barbara N. Sargent-Baur. Toronto
Medieval Texts and Translations,
9. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994
(346 pp.).
More
than a quest for equivalence, literary translations are positive signs of
an
author's entrance or potential to enter into a foreign culture. The entry
on "villon" as
a common noun in Randle Cotgrave in his A
Dictionarie of the
French and EnglishTongue
(London, 1611) reads "A cousener, conycatcher, cunning or wittie rogue;
a nimble
knave; a pleasant theefe; (for such a one was François Villon,
whose death a halter
suited to his life)." This and many other lines
rendered from maistre François in
Cotgrave's work tell us that Villon had been
a subject for translation sometime before
Louisa Costello's annotated rendition
of the "Ballade des
dames" inSpecimen ofthe
Early Poetry of France (London: Pickering, 1835),
158-62. There have been dozens
of Englishtranslations of Villon's poetry,
and a number of American translations of the
completeworks since the first
by J. U. Nicholson in The Works of François Villon
(New York: Covici, Friede,1928).
In reaction to the
publication of Professor Barbara
N. Sargent's (hereafter S)
recent translation. one may well ask the question
"why one more?". The two most
recent are by Anthony Bonner,
The Complete Works of François Villon
(New York:
Bantam Books, 1960) and Galway Kinnell, The Poems
of François Villon , New
Edition (Hanover, New Hampshire:
University Press of New England, 1982). Both
have similar features
in theifacing text and translation
and in their end notes. The
latest edition of Kinnell is still in print.
The answer to this question should come in two parts. First, effective
new
translations can spawn new interest in a poet who's works present
great difficulties
for readers, more especially in the United States, where
the interest in French seems
to be waning and the number of appropriately
educated readers also.
Second, since variety of presentation is important
to anglophone cultural
and
individual diversity, we will compare the new translation with the two
cited above.
S's work presents a new edition founded on the choice of a single
base manuscript for
each poem, controlled for "texte intégrale"or
edited where appropriate by judicious
and philologically sound principles.
The Kinnell and Bonner translations present
the eclectic, critically complex
tradition of the Longnon-Foulet edition, but without
critical toilette.
Kinnell's text is also without
line-end punctuation. S's text is a
new edition, resembling somewhat
that of Rychner-Henry (1974-1977), with a varialectio
at the foot of the page, when the base text reading
is rejected, and with
interpretive punctuation, except in the case of the "Ballades
en Jargon". She has
also indicated with asterisks the presence
of endnotes, numbered according to line
discussed. Here, it is important
to note that S brings the reputation
and skill of a
scholar who has dealt as philologist and literary
critic with Villon and other
French medieval writers throughout her career.
S has made her text and translation
easy to cite, by giving line numbers every
four lines, instead of the eight in the Bonner
translation and the ten
in the Kinnell translation. She has also chosen to use Arabic
numerals for
her stanzas, placing them above the stanza to avoid confusion with the
line
numbers. This choice is more legible
than the Roman numerals of the Bonner
translation or the lack of any
in Kinnell.
Completeness of canon is another issue for comparison.
The 1960 Bonner
translation includes all poems from the Longnon-Foulet tradition,
but adds in the six
"Poèmes en Jargon" present in the 1489
Pierre Levet edition. Kinnell does not include
these, saying only that the
are "unintelligible" (xxiii). He omits the rondeau, which
he deems
non authorial. S, on the other
hand has accepted the canon new canon
(including order of poems) presented
in the Rychner-Henry edition. I might add that
she had the wisdom to include
in her notes poems by Fradet and Charles d'Orléans,
essential for the comprehension
of PV iii ("Ballade franco-latine"). In the matter
of
the "Ballades en jargon", or thieves' jargon, S's text lives up to
her book title,
because she includes the five from the Stockholm manuscript
(MS F) as well as the
six from
the Levet edition. I believe that in spite of the difficulties in translating
these,
one cannot pinpoint why they have been so frequently omitted. Marot
must
have put a curse on all future editors and translators by saying that
he would leave
the translation of these poems to those who who have a professional
reason to be
familiar with their lexical base.
Of the
translation itself, Bonner chose moderately idiomatic English in blank
verse
form. Kinnell's quest for equivalence
lead him to more colorful, bold and modern
idiomatic forms also in
blank verse. He yields to rhyme only in two stanzas. It is not
surprising
to see Kinnel's affinity for the critical theory of fellow American poet,
David
Kuhn (alias David Mus), praised and acknowledged in the translation's
introduction
(xiii). S does not seem to be directed by a single critical work.
While
she does not attempt rhyme, she systematically mirrors Villon's line
length with its
parallel in
English prosody (four-beat lines for octosyllabic verse and five-beat lines
for
decasyllabic verse). Though she does not specifically, she has managed a
rhyme
here and there, and for one whole poem, PV.xiv (273). If she is more
conservative
semantically than Kinnell, we must remember two important things,
she is not working
as a poet. Her own edition, with its interpretive punctuation
has dictated the sense,
which she chooses to follow line-by-line.
Certainly part of this is also
a by-product
of her choice to mirror the rhythm of Villon's lines. The resulting
effect is a smooth
readable and recitable text with little or no anachronism.
The lines themselves are
studied and balanced. Within S's constraints
of having the lines deliver their own
sense in their own metric frame,
there are some surprisingly poetic moments. Readers
who are looking for boldness
and passionate licensed departures from frame during
Villon's rough humorous
moments may be disappointed.
While capturing the
different facets of Villon's irony or anger, S is
more of a photographer than a painter.
I would be quick to point out that
this style comes not from a desire to play it safe,
but from a passion for the
text of the poetry, a passion born of knowledge and study,
not of some pompous
post modern paradigm.
To make some final points in this general
comparison, the "Introduction" includes
a short biography, which
almost always distinguishes between
documented and
undocumented events, a discussion of the works with unprecedented
attention to the
"Poèmes Variés", and a critical introduction
to the edition and translation. This
introduction deals with the dozen
Medieval and Renaissance sources S used, makes
a distinction between those
which she consulted directly and those which she
consulted in photocopy
or facsimile form. It is considerably more densely informa-
tional than that
of the other two translations.
The bibliography which S presents
(331-37)is the richest and most up to
date I have seen in similar situations. The
helpful andcomplete Index of Proper
Names ([339]-46) is a feature lacking in in bot
Bonner andKinnell. Another
helpful and unique feature is the "Plan of Villon'
Paris", on
thetwo pages immediately following the "Table of Contents". Bonner's
numbered
endnotes at the end of his volume are sometimes difficult to locate.
S's
notes, marked with
asterisks and more numerous that Bonner's, are set out
immediately after their
respective sections. Kinnell has nothing in the text or
ranslation to alert
readers of an explanatory note. Another unique feature about S's
edition/translation
is the varia lectio at the foot of of
the page.
I took the care to look in some detail at the presentation
of the Lais. First,
there is an important
stanza order difference
in L between S, and Bonner, and Kinnell,
which I will summarize for you numerically
(S's L145-76 = L169-76 followed by
L145-68 in the other translations).
Though S has chosen a single base text in MS C,
in order to have a "texte
intégrale", she had to chose a controller source for L25-72 and
281-312.
Rychner and Henry, the closest parallel to her text, chose MS A to
control the
first lacuna and MS. F for the second. As one might expect, L281-312,
the very strange
"entroublie"
has provided the greatest number of variants. S has enhanced
these
differences by making this passage decidedly differently allegorical.
To be precise,
"l'Extimative" (L289), "La Perspective"
(L290), "Similative, Formative" (L291),
and "Le Sensitif"
(L297) are given the status of allegorical figures, while "le sense"
(L304)
is transformed from allegorical figure to common noun. S' version
of the
"entroublie"
also differs because of MS A. The simple variant "Mais" for "Dont"
in
L297, signals that the waking "Sensitif" (an allegorical
figure by S's hand) is a kind
of turning point in the action, where
one power (Dame Memoir) stops waning and
another (Imagination) takes over.
The common noun "sensitif" coupled with "Dont"
only sequences
the this action with the last in the previous stanza.
I found
that my reading of the manuscripts
corresponded quite closely with that
of S. I would disagree with her
on her interpretation of L225-32, where she joins
Rychner and Henry in making
the whole stanza a bequest to the "pigons qui sont en
l'essoyne".
This first in a series of anonymous legatees is too insignificant to receive
such
a complex bequest. Also, there is strong evidence that L225 attempts
to add to
a bequest already in progress. However, this debate has been going
on since its
invention
in the nineteenth century, and both sides of the argument have their merit.
Biographers have made much out of what Villon actually did that night
"vers
le noel". It has always surprised me at how little the variations
in this story have
caught a critical eye. MS A portrays a poet who's
"entroublie" clearly changes
direction at one point, and when, in
the midst of that change (perhaps rim sleep),
the poet returns to his senses,
he completes his work:
C'estoit
assés tartevelé
Pourtant, il me convint finerL311-12
whereas
in MS F the poet claims that, unable to finish all he had intended
to do,
he went to sleep:
Si m'endormis, tout enmouflé,
Et
ne peuz autrement finerL311-12
Richer in text and critical resources
than other currently available translations,
Englished in appropriately
idiomatic, though not anachronistically colloquial
language, motored by
anglophone rhythm patterns,
S's book may well be seminal in
renewing interest in the most famous of French
medieval poets.
Robert D. Peckham , Editor
Department of Modern Foreign Languages
University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, TN 38238 USA
E-mail: bobp@utm.edu
Disclaimer: This document in no way represents the University of Tennessee
at Martin. All opinions and errors are mine alone.
davagatw@mars.utm.edu
bobp@utm.edu