1391-1465.
Father of Louis XII, was taken prisoner in the battle of Agincourt
(1415) and passed the next twenty-five years of his life in captivity
in England. In this long leisure he developed his talent for poetry,
and on his return to France he made his residence at Blois a
gathering-point for men of letters. His poetical work marks the
utmost attainment in outward grace of expression in the treatment of
conventional subjects in the traditional fixed forms. Now and then
there is a more personal strain which suggests the more distinctly
modern lyric of Villon; but he is not to be compared with Villon in
originality of view, sincerity of feeling, or directness and intensity
of utterance.
His works were not published till the eighteenth century. The
best edition is that of Ch. d'Héricault, 2 vols., 1874 (_Nouvelle
collection Jannet-Picard_). Charles d'Orléans also wrote some of his
poems in English; these were published by G. W. Taylor in 1827 for the
Roxburghe Club.
For reference : Constant Beaufils, _Étude sur la vie et les poésies de
Charles d'Orléans_, 1861; Robert Louis Stevenson, _Familiar Studies of
Men and Books_, London, 1882.
1. BALLADE. For the form of the _ballade_ see the remarks on
versification, p. xxi. 2. ESTOYE, _étais_; for initial _e_ from
_es_cf. _esveillera_, l. 14, _Esté_, 3, 8. 3. AVOIENT, _avaient_; in
the imperfect and conditional _oi_, from an earlier _ei_, continued
to be written till late in the eighteenth century, long after in
pronunciation it had come to have the value of _ai_. 4. HAYENT,
_haïssent_, _y_ is found frequently in the older spelling for _i_,
especially when final. 5. DESCONFORT= _découragement_. 8. SI FAIS =
_ainsi je fais_; the omission of the pronoun is common at this time;
cf. 8, 24, _direz_. 10. NE ... NE = _ni ... ni_. GREVANCE = _dommage,
malheur_. 14. ACCORT,_accord_. 16. SOYENT, _soient_; here of two
syllables, in modern verse of one. 17. VEOIR, _voir_; here of two
syllables. 22. SORT, _evil spell_. 24. LOING, _loin_.
2. I. VUEIL, _veux_, HOIR = _héritier_. 5. NUL NE PORTE=_ que nul ne
porte_. 6. VENT, _vend_. MARCHIÉ, _marché_. 7. TIENGNE = _tienne_.
POUR TOUT VOIR = _vraiment_; _let every one consider it a certain
fact_. RONDEL. For the form of the _rondel_ see the remarks on
versification, p. xxi. II. AVECQUES, _avec_. 12. COMBIEN QUE = _bien
que_. 17. RAPAISE = _s'apaise_. 19. TANTOST = _bientôt_; _s_ before
_l, m, n_, and _t_ has regularly disappeared; cf. _vestu_, 24,
_beste_, 26, _bruslerent_, 4, 26, _mesme_, 5, 22, _maistre_, 6,1.
RONDEL. _"Le Temps a laissié son manteau._" 22. LAISSIÉ, _laissé_. 24.
BROUDERYE, _broderie_. 25. LUYANT, _luisant_, CLER, _clair_.
3. 4. LIVRÉE could be used now in the body of the line only before
a word beginning with a vowel. 6. ABILLE, _habille_. RONDEL. _"Les
Fourriers d'Esté sont venus._" 13. VERT, feminine ; in adjectives of
two endings of the Latin third declension, like _grandis, fortis,
viridis_, the feminine ending _e_is due to the influence of adjectives
of three endings, and does not appear in Old French. 16. PIEÇA =
naguère._ 18. PRENEZ PAÏS, _take to the country_, i.e. depart. 19.
YVER, _hiver_.
4. RONDEL. _"Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder_." 2. SÇAY, _sais_; _c_
was introduced into the forms of _savoir_ under the mistaken notion
that it was connected with _scire_. 4. UNG, _un_.