Complete poems (review)

296 Reviews Only in 1965 was the Izbornik first adequately described, itstextprinted in a careful form, and its lexicon made accessible. Thus it is only in the present generation that careful and judicious mediation can begin to occur as to the various source and authorial strands in the text, its language, or its relationshiptothe numerous manuscripts containing Slavonic parallels to it. Hence the pride of place in the scholarly introduction must be for the sections on the manuscripts and the history of the text (pp.xxvi-xl). Readers with more historical than literary interests may reflect on the fact that the homilies composed 'for the profit of die soul' are by that 'Grigorij the Philosopher . . . who came from Constantinople with the Metropolitan George in the reign of prince Izjaslav, son of Jaroslav', the Grand Prince of Kiev who had died in 1054. Izjaslav I reigned from 105473 and again from 1076-78. In this age the Russian Church was still very much dominated by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, whether these matters are very obviouslyreflectedin die texts is very doubtful. The translations are charming and must for the comparativist suggest many parallels to like missionary and proselytizing efforts in other parts of Christendom. W e can but concur witii die view expressed diat: 'these rhetorically artistic and sophisticated homilies reflect die views of an early Kievan preacher and the moral needs of his Rus' audience'. J. S. Ryan Department of English University of N e w England Villon, Francois, Complete poems, ed. Barbara N. Sargent-Baur (Toronto medievaltextsand translations, 9) Toronto/Buffalo/London, University of Toronto Press, 1994; cloth and paper; pp. ix, 346; 1 map, 2 plates; R.R.P. CAN$65.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper). As the title indicates this is an edition of the whole corpus of Francois Villon's poetry based on a reading of all the manuscripts and offering for each poem an edition from a single source considered the best. Other readings and emendations judged necessary are indicated in die footnotes. Each poem is accompanied by an English translation on the facing page. Commentaries, which are really explanatory notes, follow each of the works, helping readers to identify Villon's allusions to his own life and times as well as to scholarship. A gloss follows die Ballades en jargon. Bibliography and index complete the volume. A map of Villon's Paris and Reviews 297 two black and white reproductions of illustrations from chronicles let the reader visualizefifteenth-centuryParis. Barbara Sargent-Baur has already to her credit the Appleton Century Crofts students' edition of the Le Testament et poesies diverses (1967) as well as several articles and the book Brothers of dragons: Job dolens and Frangois Villon (1990). The introduction to this new book is a very concise summary of essential information, containing biographical details with stress on Villon's marginality, the success of his poetry, his sources and influences (for recent scholarship has shown Villon's erudition), and finally the principles applied in the edition and translation. It is stressed that while society condemned Villon to suffer dreadful experiences, he also had the freedom to express these experiences with both anger and sensitivity. This is thefirstcomplete m o d e m edition of Villon's poetry based on manuscript C (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, fr. 20041), as far as it takes us, with the Poemes varies and the Ballades en jargon from the best known sources. Lacunae of C are filled from A (Paris, Bibliotiieque de 1'Arsenal, ms. 3523), as is signalled on the right-hand side of the page. The translator's aim is to 'convey, line by line, m y understanding of the sense of the original texts while at the same time retaining their formal character' (pp. 14-15), using English four- and five-beat lines for Villon's octosyllabic and decasyllabic lines, and imitating the acrostics but not the rhyme schemes. The result is a meaningful, well-crafted translation complementing a clear edition of thetextwhich largely corresponds to that of J. Rychner and A. Henry (1974-85), but which also adds the Ballades en jargon. Comparison of the text of the two editions is to be expected. Le Lais...