Stanzas IX–XVI

IX
First, in the name of God the Lord,
The Son and eke the Holy Spright,
And in her name by whose accord
No creature perisheth outright,
To Master Villon, Guillaume hight,
My fame I leave, that still doth swell
In his name's honour day and night,
And eke my tents and pennoncel.

X
Item, to her, who, as I've said,
So dourly banished me her sight
That all my gladness she forbade
And ousted me of all delight,
I leave my heart in deposite,
Piteous and pale and numb and dead.
She brought me to this sorry plight :
May God not wreak it on her head !

XI
Item, my trenchant sword of steel
I leave to Master Ythier
Marchant — to whom myself I feel
No little bounden — that he may,
According to my will, defray
The scot for which in pawn it lies
(Six sols), and then the sword convey
To Jehan le Cornu, free of price.

XII
Item, I leave to Saint Amand
The Mule and eke the Charger White ;
And to Blaru, my Diamond
And Jibbing Ass with stripes bedight ;
And the Decretal, too, that hight
Omnis utrius — that, to wit,
Known as the counter-Carmelite —
Unto the priests I do commit.

XIII
To Jehan Tronne, butcher, I devise
The Wether lusty and unpolled
And Gad to whisk away the flies,
With the Crowned Ox, that's to be sold,
And Cow, whereon the churl hath hold,
To hoist it on his back. If he
To keep the beast himself make bold,
Trussed up and strangled let him be.

XIV
To Master Robert Vallee (who,
Poor clerkling to the Parliament,
Owns valley neither hill,) I do
Will first, by this my Testament,
My hose be giv'n incontinent,
Which on the clothes-pegs hang, that he
May tire withal, 'tis my intent,
His mistress Jehanne more decently.

XV
But since he is of good extract,
Needs must he better guerdoned be
(For God His Law doth so enact)
Though featherbrained withal is he ;
They shall, I have bethoughten me,
Since in his pate he hath no sense,
Give him the Art of Memory,
To be ta'en up from Misprepense.

XVI
And thirdly, for the livelihood
Of Master Robert aforesaid
(My kin, for God's sake, hold it good !)
Be money of my hauberk made
And (or most part thereof) outlaid,
Ere Easter pass, in purchasing
(Hard by St. Jacques) a shop and trade
For the poor witless lawyerling.