Selected Poems (review)

The work of Eustache Deschamps (c.1340-1404), a public administrator in posts near Paris and the royal court, constitutes a turning point in medieval French poetry, for, besides composing in the courtly tradition, he wrote personal poetry based on his own experience and traditional moral principles. With reason, the editors of this collection consider him to be an 'embryonic sociologist' (p. 26). A prolific writer, he amassed some 1500 pieces, mostly in verse, making 11 volumes in the SATF edition (1878-1903; repr. 1966).

This selection of 72 poems, with facing English verse translations, presents work with literary quality and modern appeal, contributing to the renewal of interest in Deschamps. Only two of the poems appear in a recent anthology of 64 poems, arranged thematically, with SATF edition texts (Jean-Patrice Boudet, Hélène Millet, Eustache Deschamps en son temps, Paris, 1998). Laurie and Sinnreich-Levi have based their edition on Paris, BNF., fr. 840, the only manuscript containing Deschamps' complete works. It was copied soon after 1404 by Raoul Tainguy on the basis of Deschamps' own material which has not survived.

The carefully documented Introduction presents some of the biographical material contained in Laurie's essay in Eustache Deschamps, French Courtier-Poet: His Work and His World (ed. D. Sinnreich-Levi, New York, 1998, pp. 1-77). The editors have refrained from drawing conclusions about obscure aspects of Deschamps' life where evidence seems inadequate, but speculate and leave questions, for example on Machaut's relationship with the poet. The Introduction also covers selection and editorial principles, metrical forms, language and performance.

In the Poets' Introduction the translators have explained their approach and practice of finding phrase by phrase or line by line equivalents in English, starting in the balades with as accurate a translation as feasible of the refrain, using iambic meter and full rhymes for most. In rondeaux and virelais they tried to follow line lengths and rhyme schemes of the original.

The poems follow the manuscript order, each poem beginning on a new page. The refrain line forms the title accompanied by a superscript number for reference to the Notes. This is the only numbering added by the editors who cite beside the text the folio number and in the Notes the poem's number in the manuscript and its volume and page number in the SATF edition. It is an effective and economical system. Emendations, which usually correct grammar, eliminate spelling inconsistencies, or clarify sense, are explained in the Notes, together with departures from SATF readings. The use of diacritics does not always conform to scholarly principles for editing medieval texts. In some instances confusion might arise (e.g. absence of accent on the second syllable of 'james' (1, line 4; p. 55), and of diaeresis on 'pais' (15, line 5; p. 88) The selection of poems is representative, including some well known (1, 5, 16, 68), some addressed to contemporary writers (9, 13, 55), and many expressing the poet's observations and concerns, with different tones of seriousness, wit and satire.

The translations complement the texts and read smoothly, some with particular felicity, where the translator-poets have successfully matched the metrical technique, sense and wit of the original. Meaning is sometimes augmented: 'char enfumée, noire et dure' becomes 'smoked meat as hard and black as coal' (62, line 5; pp. 194-95), or slightly altered: '… le vin tout prest / Pour boire et verser sanz arrest', 'some wine has been poured out for me / or, if not poured, about to be' (64, lines 2-3; pp. 198-99). Translation of the refrain 'Il n'est doleur que fors le mal des dens' by 'there is no pain like a toothache's pain' (29, line 7; pp. 120-21) substitutes repetition for variation of terms in the original.

The Notes (pp. 217-34) have a uniform format: cross-referencing numbers; metre and rhyme scheme; remarks on manuscript readings...