Alain Chartier

The Quarrel of the Belle Dame Sans Mercy

Joan E. McRae, Joan McRae

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9781138988439
• eBook ISBN: 9781135888527
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Medieval & Early Modern Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Belle dame sans merci (Beautiful lady with no mercy) (1424) is not readily available in moden English translation elsewhere, making this an essential addition to any library with a medieval literature or French literature collection.

The Hospital of Love

Achilles Caulier

S’ensuit L’ospital d’amours

I Assez joyeulx, sans l’estre trop, [184v]
En la conduite de Desir,
Le jour de l’an, survins a cop
En assemblee de plaisir, 4
Ou je viz a mon beau plaisir
Le tresor d’amours desploier,
Comme en ung passé desplaisir
En ung passetemps emploier. 8

II Ce noble lieu estoit fourny
De tout, fors de mal et de deul.
L’assemblement estoit uny;
Chascun y sembloit a son veul. 12
Je y fuz plus liéz que ne seul,
Car je veiz d’onneur la montjoye,
Qui est rabaz de tout orgueil
Et mon tout ce que j’ay de joye. 16

III Illec estoit le droit tresor [185r]
De dames et de damoiselles.
Riens n’y failloit de bout encor:
Tout estoit plain d’ommes et d’elles. 20
La vëoit on dances nouvelles,
Gracïeuses et sans vanter;
Si oyoit on, des dieu scet quelles,
La doulce noyse deschanter. 24

IV La fus des dames bien veigné.
Et comme se je le valisse,
Me requerant par amitié
Q’une chançon dire voulsisse, 28
De quoy voulentiers m’escondisse,
S’excusance y puet estre belle,
Mais il couvint que j’obeïsse,
Si en diz une telle quelle. 32

The Hospital of Love

I Amply joyful, though not to excess,
and guided purely by Desire,
I happened quite unexpectedly, on New Year’s Day,
upon the gathering of a pleasant party
where I saw unveiled, to my great pleasure,
the treasure of love.
And it was as if the worry of the past dissolved away,
in this place so agreeable to pass the time.

II Complete with everything was this marvelous place,
everything, that is, except evil and grief.
The assembly was of one mind
since everyone was there of their own free will,
and I, too, was happier than normal,
for I saw there the crown of perfection:
the nemesis of all arrogance
and all that I could ever hope for.

III In this place was a veritable treasure
of ladies and maidens,
and nothing at all was missing,
since a number of men and ladies were there.
One could watch the newest dances—
they were charming and courtly, without exaggeration—
and hear the melodious singing of the ladies,
though God only knows which ones!

IV Ladies welcomed me warmly
and, as if I merited the honor,
they requested sweetly and out of friendship
that I sing a song,
an offer I would have preferred to refuse
had it been proper or seemly,
but I obliged as I ought
and sang a song for them at random.

V Et quant j’euz chanté, tout failly,
Et se tira chascun a part;
Si me tiray vers celle a qui
Entierement j’estoie sans part. 36
Quant je fuz venu celle part,
Je la salüay humblement,
Et elle redist: “Dieu vous gart,”
Bien tost, sans faire grant semblant. 40

VI Seul appart m’asseiz emprés elle,1 [185v]
Sans dire rien, car je craindy;
Mais ma doulour aspre et crüelle,
Aprés craindre, me fist hardy. 44
Et lors en soudain m’enhardy
Et lui deiz en quel point je fuz.
Sur quoy elle me respondy
En petiz de motz, grant reffuz. 48

VII Finablement tant la requis
Que de m’oÿr plus se lassa.
Grant paine y euz et poy conquis,
Car tousjours vers moy s’excusa. 52
Et tant en fin me reffusa
Que je n’y euz plus d’esperance.
Ma parolle en vain se usa
Et m’en partiz sans alïance. 56

VIII Ainsy parti d’elle en pleurant,
En grant deul qui me conduisoit,
Quictant a Dieu le demourant
De ma vie, qui m’ennuyoit. 60
La Mort malgré moy me fuyoit
Et me laissoit d’elle delivre;
Et ma voulenté me suyvoit,
Qui mieulx amoit mourir que vivre.² 64

V Even as my song was finished
and everyone left,
I went off to find the one
to whom I felt I belonged, heart and soul.
As soon as I found her,
I greeted her without delay,
and she responded in kind: “God keep you,”
but her expression did not alter.

VI I lead her off to one side to sit with me
without saying a word, for I was nervous.
But my pain, bitter and cruel,
soon after this moment of crisis, gave me courage.
Then, feeling stronger,
I revealed my state of mind,
and she gave me her response:
in a few short words, she rejected me soundly.

VII By the end, I had pled with her for so long
that she tired of listening to me.
Even though I put forth great effort, I gained no ground
for she made many excuses
and finally refused all my prayers,
so that all Hope has now left me.³
My words were spoken in vain,
and I left her there without any sort of accord.

VIII I left her with tears on my face,
now guided by profound grief,
offering to God the remainder of my days,
which overwhelmed me with too much pain.
But despite my wish, Death fled from me
and would but free me from his grip;
so my will followed suit,
even preferring death to life.

IX En ce seul vouloir de mourir [186r]
Passay je toute la nuyttie:
Rien ne me povoit secourir.
En pensant a ceste partie, 68
Entray en une fantasie
Et en ymaginacïon,
Ou j'oublïay melencolie
Et entray en avision. 72

X Ceste fantasie nouvelle
Me faisoit songier en veillant,
Qui est chose desnaturelle.
Mais ce m’avint, ce non obstant, 76
Et me fut en ce point semblant
Qu’en ung grant chemin me trouvoye
Qui estoit le plus desplaisant
Que jamaiz homme vivant voye. 80

XI Ce chemin estoit espineux
Et plain de croulieres sans fin.
Oncques si grant desplaisir n’eux,
Et enduray tant le hutain: 84
Yssir n’en poz tout le matin.
Jamais plus n’yray, je y renonce,
Car on appelle ce chemin
En françois “Trop Dure Responce.” 88

XII En ce chemin ung peu avant, [186v]
En l'abisme d'une valee,
Trouvay ung desert long et grant,
Comme une place desolee. 92
La terre y estoit desmellee
Toute de lermes et de plours.
De tous maulz y avoit meslee,
C'estoit monjoye de doulours. 96

IX In the grip of this desire to die
I passed the entire night,
believing nothing could help me.
While meditating on such thoughts
I drifted into a state of fantasy,
a hallucination of sorts,
in which I forgot my melancholy
and entered into a vision.

X This fantastic state of mind
made me dream while awake—
certainly an unnatural state!
But it happened to me nevertheless,
and so it seemed very real
when I found myself in the middle of a broad path—
the most disagreeable place
that ever a man has seen.

XI The route was overgrown with thorns,
hiding quagmires all throughout.
I have never been so uneasy,
and the commotion I endured there
prevented my escape from that place all the morning.
I will never go there again, I swear,
for this path is called
in French: Too Harsh Reply.

XII On the path, a bit farther along
in the deepest part of a valley
I came upon a wasteland, long and wide,
and completely devoid of life.
The earth was inundated
with streams of tears and sobs.
Everything bad was tangled together in this place:
it was the culmination of all grief and pain.

XIII En ce lieu desert n’avoit arbre
Qui de gens pendus ne fust plains:
Hommes et femmes froiz com marbre,
Qui se pendirent a leurs mains. 100
Une dame y veiz que moult plains:
Ce fu Philus, qui se pandy
Pour Demophon, qui valoit mains
De ce que sa foy lui menty. 104

XIV Soubz ces arbres de desconfort
Avoit fleuves, puis, et fossés
Plains de gens noiéz jusqu’au bort.
Entre les aultres trespasséz 108
Y veiz, dont j’ay de deul assez,
Lëander et Hero, s’amie,
Qui oncques ne furent lasséz
D’estre léal jour de leur vie. 112

XV La fontaine estoit la entour [187r]
Ou Narcisus son umbre ama.
Amours s’en venga de beau tour,
Qui de tel rage l’enflamma: 116
Ce fut pour ce qu’il reffusa
Echo, qui mercy lui crioit.
Trop fist pour luy a ce cop la
Quant dame estoit, et si prioit. 120

XVI D’aultre costé veiz les espees
Emmoillés de sang humain,
Dont les vies furent ostees
A ceulx qui de leur propre main 124
S’occirent; celle y veiz aplain
De quoy Piramus et Tybee
Moururent, de tristresse plain,
Par douloureuse destinee. 128

XIII In this deserted spot there was not a single tree
whose branches were not laden with hanging bodies.
Men and women, cold as marble,
had hung themselves by their own hand.
I saw a lady I felt great pity for:
it was Phyllis, who had hung herself
for Demophon, though he was hardly worth it
given his unfaithful lies to her.³

XIV Under these trees of desperation
were rivers, wells, and trenches,^a
filled to the brim with drowned bodies.
Among the other corpses
I saw—which really broke my heart—
were those of Leander and his love, Hero...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• La belle dame sans mercy
• Letters
• The Excuse of Master Alain
• Accusations against the Belle dame sans mercy
• The Lady Loyal in Love
• The Cruel Woman in Love
• The Errors of Judgment of the Belle dame sans mercy
• The Hospital of Love
• The Belle Dame Who Has Mercy
• Bibliography
• Index