Everything about Fran Ois Villon totally explained
François Villon (in modern French, ; in fifteenth-century French, [fʀɑnswɛviˈlɔn]) (c.
1431 – after
5 January 1463) was a
French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his
Testaments and his
Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison. The question
"Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?", taken from the
Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis and translated by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti as "Where are the snows of yesteryear?", is one of the most famous lines of translated secular poetry in the
English-speaking world.
Life
Villon's real surname has been a matter of some dispute; he's been called
François de Montcorbier and
François Des Loges and other names, though in literature Villon is the sole name used. Villon was born in
1431, almost certainly in
Paris. The singular poems called
Testaments, which form his chief if not his only certain work, are largely autobiographical, though of course not fully trustworthy. His frequent collisions with the law have left more concrete records.
It appears that he was born in poverty and that his father died in his youth, but that his mother, for whom he wrote one of his most famous ballades, was still living when her son was thirty years old. The name "Villon" was stated by the sixteenth-century historian
Claude Fauchet to be merely a common noun, signifying " cheat " or "rascal," but this seems to be a mistake. It is, however, certain that Villon was a person of loose life, and that he continued, throughout his recorded life, a reckless way of living common among the wilder youth of the
University of Paris. He appears to have derived his surname from his uncle, a close friend and benefactor named Guillaume de Villon, chaplain in the collegiate church of
Saint-Benoît-le-Bestourne, and a professor of canon law, who took Villon into his house.
The poet became a student in arts, no doubt early, perhaps at about twelve years of age, and took the degree of bachelor in 1449 and that of master in 1452. Between this year and 1455, nothing is known of his activities. As the author of the
1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article writes, "Attempts have been made, in the usual fashion of conjectural biography, to fill up the gap with what a young graduate of
Bohemian tendencies would, could, or might have done, but they're mainly futile."
On the
June 5,
1455, the first major and recorded incident of his life occurred. In the company of a priest named Giles and a girl named Isabeau, he met, in the Rue Saint-Jacques, a Breton, Jean le Hardi, a master of arts, who was also with a priest, Philippe Chermoye (or Sermoise or Sermaise). A scuffle broke out, daggers were drawn and Sermaise, who is accused of having threatened and attacked Villon and drawn the first blood, not only received a dagger-thrust in return, but a blow from a stone, which struck him down. He died of his wounds. Villon fled, and was sentenced to banishment – a sentence which was remitted in January 1456 by a pardon from
King Charles VII after he received the second of two petitions which made the claim that Sermaise had forgiven Villon before he died. Two different versions of the formal pardon exist; in one, the culprit is identified as
"François des Loges, autrement dit Villon" ("François des Loges, otherwise called Villon"), in the other as "François de Montcorbier." He is also said to have named himself to the
barber-surgeon who dressed his wounds as Michel Mouton, adding to his list of aliases. The documents of this affair at least confirm the date of his birth, by presenting him as twenty-six years old or thereabouts. As a known murderer Villon couldn't continue his privileged life as a teacher at the
Collège de Navarre or get reputable employment so was now forced to sing in inns to survive.
By the end of 1456, he was again in trouble. In his first brawl,
"la femme Isabeau" is only generally named, and it's impossible to say whether she'd anything to do with the quarrel. In the second,
Catherine de Vaucelles, of whom we hear not a little in the poems, is the declared cause of a scuffle in which Villon was so severely beaten that, to escape ridicule, he fled to
Angers, where he'd an uncle who was a monk. Before leaving Paris, he composed what is now known as the
Petit Testament, Lais, or "Legacy," which shows little of the profound bitterness and regret for wasted life that can be found in its (in every sense) greater successor, the
Grand Testament. Indeed, Villon's serious troubles were only beginning, for hitherto he'd been rather injured than guilty.
About Christmas 1456, the chapel of the
Collège de Navarre was broken open and five hundred gold crowns stolen. The robbery wasn't discovered until March of the next year, and it wasn't until May that the police came on the track of a gang of student-robbers, owing to the indiscretion of one of them, Guy Tabarie. A year more passed, when Tabarie, after being arrested, turned king's evidence and accused the absent Villon of being the ringleader, and of having gone to Angers, partly at least, to arrange similar burglaries there. Villon, for this or some other crime, was sentenced to banishment; he didn't attempt to return to Paris. For four years, he was a wanderer. He may have been, as his friends Regnier de Montigny and Colin des Cayeux certainly were, a member of a wandering gang of thieves. It is certain that he corresponded with
Charles, duc d'Orléans at least once (in 1457) and it's likely that he resided for some period at that prince's court at
Château Blois. He had also something to do with another prince of the blood,
Jean of Bourbon, and there's evidence that he visited
Poitou,
Dauphine, and other places.
At his next certain appearance, he was again in trouble. He tells us that he'd spent the summer of 1461 in the bishop's prison at
Meung-sur-Loire. His crime isn't known, but is supposed to have been church-robbing; and his enemy, or at least judge, was
Thibault d'Aussigny, who held the
see of Orléans. Villon owed his release to a general jail-delivery at the accession of
King Louis XI and became a free man again on
October 2,
1461.
In 1461, only thirty years old, he wrote the
Grand Testament, the work which has immortalized him. Even his good intentions must have been feeble, for in the autumn of 1462, he was once more living in the
cloisters of
Saint-Benoît and in November, he was imprisoned for theft in the fortress that stood at today's
Place du Châtelet in Paris. In default of evidence, the old charge of the college of Navarre was revived, and even a royal pardon didn't bar the demand for restitution. Bail was accepted; however, Villon fell promptly into a street quarrel. He was arrested, tortured and condemned to be hanged (
"pendu et étranglé"), but the sentence was commuted to banishment by the
parlement on
January 5,
1463. The actual outcome is unknown: but from this time François Villon disappears from history.
Works
Villon was a great innovator in terms of the themes of poetry and, through these themes, a great renovator of the forms. He understood perfectly the
medieval courtly ideal, but he often chose to write against the grain, reversing the values and celebrating the lowlifes destined for the gallows, falling happily into parody or lewd jokes, and constantly innovating in his diction and vocabulary; a few minor poems make extensive use of Parisian thieves' slang. Still Villon's verse is mostly about his own life, a record of poverty, trouble, and trial which was certainly shared by his poems' intended audience.
In 1460, at the age of thirty, Villon began to compose the works which he named
Le grand testament (1461-1462). This "testament" has generally been judged Villon's greatest work, and there's evidence in the work itself that Villon felt the same.
The 2023 verses of the
Grand testament are marked by the immediate prospect of death by hanging and frequently describe other forms of misery and death. It mixes reflections on the passing of time, bitter derision, invective, and religious fervor. This mixed tone of tragic sincerity stands in contrast to the other poets of the time.
In one of these poems
"Ballade des dames du temps jadis" ("The Ballad of Yesterday's Belles"), Each stanza and the concluding
envoi asks after the fate of various celebrated women, including
Héloise and
Joan of Arc, and ends with the same semi-ironic question:
Dictes moy ou n'en quel pays
Est Flora le belle Romaine
Archipiades, ne Thaïs,
Qui fut sa cousine germaine,
Echo parlant quant ruyt ou maire
Dessus riviè ou sus estan,
Que beaultè ot trop plus qu'humaine.
Mais ou sont les neiges d'antan?"
In English,
Tell me from where
I could entice
Flora the famous Roman whore,
or Archipiada or Thaïs
who they say was just as fair;
or Echo answering everywhere
across stream and pool and mere,
whose beauty was like none before -
where are the snows of yesteryear ?
This same
"Ballade des dames du temps jadis" was famously translated into English in 1870 by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti as "Ballade of Dead Ladies." Rossetti translated the refrain as "But where are the snows of yester-year?"
A complete English translation of Villon's surviving works, with extensive notes, was published by Anthony Bonner in 1960. A translation of "The Legacy" and "The Testament" by the American poet
Galway Kinnell appeared in 1965 and was revised in 1977.
Translations of three other poems by Villon, plus translations of two into rhyming cant by
William Ernest Henley can be read on
Anthony Weir's "Beyond-the-Pale"
website
(External Link
).
Critical views
Villon, nearly unknown in his own time, was rediscovered in the
16th century when his works were published by
Clément Marot.
The most commonly featured motifs that can be found in Villon's poetry are "
carpe diem", "
ubi sunt", "
memento mori" and "
danse macabre".
In 1960, the Greek artist "
NONDA" dedicated an entire one man art show to François Villon with the support of
André Malraux. This took place under the arches of the
Pont Neuf and was dominated by a gigantic ten-meter canvas entitled
Hommage à Villon depicting the poet at a banquet table with his concubines. Sculptures, woodcuts and objects related to Villon were also displayed.
Depictions
In 1901 the playwright and Irish MP
Justin H. McCarthy wrote a play, "
If I Were King", imagining a swashbuckling Villon matching wits with
Louis XI, climaxing with Villon finding love in Louis' court and saving Paris from the Duke of Burgundy when Louis makes him
Constable of France for a week. Though largely fictitious (there is no evidence Villon and Louis even met), this proved to be a long-running success for the actor
Sir George Alexander and a perennial on stage and screen for the next several decades.
If I Were King was filmed as a straight drama twice, as a silent in 1920 with
William Farnum as Villon and
Fritz Leiber as Louis, and as a talkie in 1938 with
Ronald Colman as Francis Villon and
Basil Rathbone as Louis. In 1927,
John Barrymore also starred as Villon in
The Beloved Rogue, directed by
Alan Crosland (of
The Jazz Singer fame), opposite
Conrad Veidt as Louis. Though not officially based on the McCarthy play, it draws on the same fictitious notions of relations between Villon and Louis.
The 1925 operetta
The Vagabond King is also based on the McCarthy play, and it too has been filmed twice - in 1930, with Dennis King and
Jeanette MacDonald, and in 1956, with
Oreste Kirkop and
Kathryn Grayson. In the operetta, however, Villon is appointed king for twenty-four hours, and must solve all of Louis XI's political problems in that amount of time.
In the role-playing game Francois Villon is the Toreador Prince of Paris.
Bertolt Brecht's
Baal was written from 1918 to 1919. He based the main character Baal after Francois Villon.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fran Ois Villon'.
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