French
François Villon
François Villon (born in Paris in 1431) took his master's degree at the University of Paris in 1452 and then lived by his wits on the margins of the city. In 1455 he killed a priest in a street quarrel and fled; he was later imprisoned at Meung-sur-Loire and released in 1461, and in 1462–63 he was condemned to be hanged in Paris and had the sentence commuted to banishment. After January 1463 nothing certain is known of him.
His reputation rests on two mock wills: the Lesser Testament (Le Lais), written at Christmas 1456, and the Greater Testament (Le Testament), begun about 1461, into which he set ballads such as the Ballad of Old-Time Ladies with its refrain about last year's snow, together with the Epitaph in Ballad Form, usually known as the Ballad of the Hanged. These texts are John Payne's English verse translation of 1878, as reprinted by Thomas Bird Mosher of Portland, Maine, in 1909; the Payne volume leaves out a few ballads, which the book itself marks as omitted.
Major Works (2)
- The Greater Testament — translated by John Payne (1878; Mosher edition, 1909)
- The Lesser Testament — translated by John Payne (1878; Mosher edition, 1909)
Poems (15)
- Ballad of Villon in Prison
- The Quatrain that Villon Made when He Was Doomed to Die
- Variant of the Foregoing Epitaph
- The Epitaph in Ballad Form that Villon Made for Himself and His Companions, Expecting No Better than to Be Hanged in Their Company
- The Request of Villon, Presented to the High Court of Parliament in Ballad Form
- Ballad of Villon’s Appeal
- Ballad of Proverbs
- Ballad of Things Known and Unknown
- Ballad of Poor Chimneysweeps
- Ballad of Fortune
- Ballad against Those Who Missay of France
- Ballad of the Debate of the Heart and Body of Villon
- Ballad Written by Villon upon a Subject Proposed by Charles, Duc d’Orléans
- Ballad of Villon’s Request to the Duc de Bourbon
- The Ballad of Dead Ladies