My poore hert bicomen is hermyte

November 24, 2016 3:17 AM

"Today's poem is very simple and is studied by French middle school students as an introduction to Old French." The author is "an unlikely poet" who was born on November 24, 1394, and whose words form the text of Claude Debussy's Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans. But he also wrote in Middle English (selections; full text).
posted by Wobbuffet (3 comments total)

I thoroughly enjoyed the little poem in the first link and the Middle English selections: many thanks Wobbuffet - I don’t recall even having heard of this poet before. It’s such flavoursome language: I love welwilleris for well-wishers; and pusshaunce (i.e. puissance?) for power; and mi bestbilovyd and praty word of yowre benygne bounté and the dowbill turnys of thi juparty, etc.!
posted by misteraitch at 4:39 AM on November 24, 2016 [1 favorite]

Charles d'Orléans is pretty well-known in France. French kids get a much more thorough background of their language in their formative years than we do in the States (can't speak for other English-speaking countries though they seem similar). Middle English was only introduced in my own education – with a level of depth beyond mere curiosity and a historic nod, that is – once I was taking a grad-level comparative literature course in which we were studying the picaresque and its predecessors. I'd already studied French for 9 years by then, so read through the short book in Middle English we were assigned (sorry I don't know which one!) with delight. In class the day we were to discuss it, all the grad students looked sheepish until the prof finally broke the silence: "did anyone read it?" I answered, "yes! It's wonderful!" at which all the other students said variations on "oh my god why did you do that now we all look bad oh my god what is this weird thing" and I was like, "it's a mashup of English and French!"

O thou Fortune, that causist pepill playne
Upon thi chaunge and mutabilité,
Did Y thee so, Y blamyd wrong, certayne,
For stabill yet herto as fynde Y thee
Withouten chaunge for to prevaylen me,
But whereas first thou fond me in symplesse,
Thou holdist me in myn adversité
So that Y may biwayle thi stabilnes.

Mutabilité is still a word, simplesse as well (though not often on its own; it's generally used as "simple d'esprit" which translates to our "simple-mindedness", also the meaning meant in the poem), and adversité is also still around and used quite often.
posted by fraula at 5:01 AM on November 24, 2016 [10 favorites]

I somehow missed studying the poem "Le temps a laissé son manteau" when I was in school, but I had to learn by rote his other best-known poem, "En regardant vers le pays de France" about longing for home and for peace. It was 25 years ago, and I still remember large swathes of it. I didn't know he had written in English, though, that's delightful!
posted by snakeling at 12:55 AM on November 25, 2016 [1 favorite]