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Line 8. D’Antan is not “Yester-year.” It is “Ante annum,” all time past before this year. Rossetti’s “Yester-year” moreover, is an absurd and affected neologism; “Antan” is an excellent and living French word.

Stanza II, line 2. Note the pronunciation of “Moyne” to rhyme (more or less) with “eine”: the oi, ai and ei sounds were very similar till the sixteenth century at earliest. They are interchangeable in many popular provincialisms and in some words, e.g., Fouet, pronounced “Foit” the same tendency survives. The transition began in the beginning of the seventeenth century as we learn from Vaugelas: and the influence towards the modern sound came from the Court.

Stanza III, line 2. Seraine=”Syren.”

Line 5. “Jehanne”, “Jehan”, in spite of the classical survival in their spelling, were monosyllables from the earliest times.

Line 7. The “elles” here would not scan but for the elided “e” in “souv’raine” at the end of the line. In some editions “ils” is found and souveraine is spelt normally. Ils and els for a feminine plural existed in the middle ages.

Envoi. The envoi needs careful translation. The “que” of the third line=”sans que” and the whole means, “Do not ask this week or this year where they are, without letting this refrain haunt you”. “Que” might possibly mean “de peur que”, did not the whole sense of the poem forbid such an interpretation.

AN EXCERPT FROM THE GRANT TESTAMENT.
Stanza 75, line 4. A charming example of those “flashes” which reveal Villon.

Stanza 76, line 2. Note the spelling of Grant in the feminine without an e. Adjectives of the third declension whose feminine was not distinguishable in Latin took no “e” in early French. A survival of this is found in grand’ rue, grand’ messe, etc.

Line 5. Grant erre, “quickly”, and the whole line reads: “Let it (my body) be delivered to it (luy=la terre) quickly,” the “erre” here is from the popular late Latin “iterare”=”iter facere”. It survives in the nautical idiom “reprendre son erre”=”to get under weigh again.”

Line 7. “Erre” here comes, on the contrary, from errare, to make a mistake, to err.

Stanza 77, line 4. Maillon. Swaddling clothes.

Line 5. Boullon, scrape. The two lines are obscure but seem to read: “He has got me out of many a scrape which gave him no joy” (esioye from esjouir = rejouir).

Line 7 and 8. These are obscure but apparently=”And beseech him on my knees not to forsake all joy on that account.”

Stanza 78, line 2. “Le Romman du Pet au Deable.” The Pet au Deable was a great stone at the door of a private house in the university. The students took it away and all Paris fought over the matter. The “Roman” was a set of verses, now lost, which Villon wrote on the quarrel.

Line 3. Guy Tabarie who grossa (wrote out), these verses was a friend of Villon’s: soon hanged.

Line 5. Soubz. The “b” is pedantic, the ou indicates of itself the loss of the b. The “z” (and the “s” in the modern sous) are due to the derivation not from sub but subtus.

THE BALLAD OF OUR LADY.
Stanza 2, line 3. Egypcienne. St. Mary of Egypt.

Line 4. Theophilus. This was that clerk who sold his soul to the Devil and whom Our Lady redeemed. You may find the whole story sculptured on the Tympanum of the exquisite northern door of Notre Dame in Paris.

Line 8. Vierge Portant=”Virgin that bore a son”.

Stanza 3, line 4. Luz=”luthus”. “S” becomes “z.”

The Envoi. Note the Acrostic “Villon” in the first letters of the first six lines. It is a trick he played more than once.

THE DEAD LORDS.
Stanza 1, line 1. Calixte. These names are of less interest. Calixte was Pope Calixtus III, Alphonso Borgia, who died in 1458–in Villon’s twenty-sixth year. Alphonse is Alphonso V of Arragon, who died in that same year. The Duc de Bourbon is Charles the First of Bourbon, who died at the end of the year 1456, “gracieux” because his son protected Villon. Artus (Arthur) of Brittany is that same Richemont who recaptured Paris from Willoughby. Charles VII is Charles VII. The Roy Scotiste is James II, who died in 1460: the Amethyst half of his face was a birthmark. The King of Cyprus is probably John III, who died in that same fatal year, 1458. Pedants will have it that the King of Spain is John II of Castille, who died in 1454–but it is a better joke if it means nobody at all. Lancelot is Vladislas of Bohemia, who died in 1457. Cloquin is Bertrand de Guesclin who led the reconquest. The Count Daulphin of Auvergne is doubtful; Alencon is presumably the Alencon of Joan of Arc’s campaign, who still survived, and is called “feu” half in ridicule, because in 1458 he had lost his title and lands for treason.

Stanza 2, line 3. Amatiste=amethyst.

Stanza 3, line 7. Tayon=Ancestor. “Etallum.” Latin “Stallio.”

THE DIRGE.
Line 1. Cil=celui-ci. The Latin “ecce illum.”

Line 3. Escuelle=bowl. “With neither bowl nor platter.”

Line 4. Note again the constant redundant negative of the populace in this scholar: “Had never, no–not a sprig of parsley.”

Line 5. Rez=ras, cropped.