Encyclopedia of medieval literature

BALLADE

ballade: translation

Theballadewas one of the major fixed forms of late medieval French lyric poetry. The name seems to have come from the Old Provençalballada, which was a dance song. Guillaume de MACHAUT is generally credited with inventing and developing the form, which became popular in the 14th and 15th centuries in France as well as England. Typically the ballade consisted of three stanzas of the same rhyme scheme, usually with three rhymes. Each stanza ends with an identical line, which acts as a refrain. For Machaut, theballadewas not only a poetic but also a musical form (seeLaidlaw 54–57). Machaut’s ballades had seven or eight lines, and each stanza was divided into three parts. A two-line opening (theouvert) was answered by a two-line close (theclos), both sung to the same short musical phrase, so that the first four lines of each stanza rhymedabab. The rhyme scheme shifted with the continuation of the stanza (theoutrepassé), which was also sung to a different musical phrase and might be two or three lines long. A concluding refrain provided a general focal point for the poem and the individual stanza. Thus the final lines of the ballade might rhymecbc, or perhapscbcb. After Machaut, the ballade became more exclusively a poetic rather than a musical form, but the stanzas kept their three-part structure, although theoutrepassésections of many French ballades became longer. Eustache DESCHAMPS generally used at least a four-lineoutrepassé, but at times he used anoutrepasséup to 10 lines. Another later development in theballadewas the use of anenvoi, a concluding address that summed up the poem or dedicated it to someone. Theenvoiwas usually a truncated final stanza appended to the three stanzas of theballadeproper, and usually addressed directly to a “prince” or “princes.” This seems to have been a development that occurred during literary competitions (calledpuy) at which the presiding judge was addressed as “Prince.” Someenvoismight be addressed to a literal prince, the poet’s patron.
Deschamps and Jean FROISSART popularized theballadeform in the late 14th century, and CHRISTINE DE PIZAN and CHARLES D’ORLÉANS perfected the form in the early 15th.It reached its culmination in French poetry with the lyrics of François VILLON later in the 15th century. Ultimately the most commonballadesin French poetry consisted of octasyllabic lines arranged in three eight-line stanzas with a four-line envoi, rhymingababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC, where the capitalCrepresents the refrain.
The ballade also became a popular verse form in late 14th-century courtly poetry in England, and was used by both GOWER and CHAUCER. Many of Chaucer’s lyric poems areballades, though he does change the lines to decasyllabic and often uses a complete final stanza as anenvoi. Chaucer’s philosophical poemLak of Stedfastnessemight serve as an example of an English ballade.The first stanza reads
Somtyme the world was so stedfast and stable
That mannes word was obligacioun,
And now it is so fals and deceivable
That word and deed, as in conclusion,
Ben nothing lyk, for turned up-so-doun
Is al this world for mede and wilfulnesse,
That al is lost for lak of stedfastnesse.
(Benson 1987, 654)
Theababbccrhyme scheme is clear (the same scheme that Chaucer uses for his RHYME ROYAL stanza), and one can see three basic parts to the stanza: the two-lineouverttalks about how people used to be faithful and reliable, and theclos, which spills over into the fifth line, contrasts those times with the contemporary world, where there is no relation between word and deed. Theoutrepasségeneralizes that the world is now turned upside down, and the refrain, which reappears at the end of the following two stanzas, declares that all is lost through lack of steadfastness.
The poem’s envoi is addressed to a real prince— in this case, to King Richard II:
O prince, desire to be honourable,
Cherish thy folk and hate extorcioun.
Sufre nothing that may be reprievable
To thyn estat don in thy regioun.
Shew forth thy swerd of castigacioun,
Dred God, do law, love trouthe and worthinesse,
And we thy folk agein to stedfastnesse.
(Benson 1987, 654)
Chaucer’senvoiuses the sameababbccpattern as the rest of theballade, but serves as a tool to assert the kinds of values that Chaucer sees as necessary to return the world to “steadfastness,” and the final line echoes the refrain but alters it to express hope. Thus, in the hands of a master like Chaucer, or Villon or Christine de Pizan, theballadecould be a very effective vehicle for lyric expression.
Bibliography
■ Benson, Larry, et al., eds.The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
■ Laidlaw, James C. “TheCent balades: The Marriage of Content and Form.” InChristine de Pizan and Medieval French Lyric, edited by Earl Jeffrey Richards, 53–82. Gainesville:University Press of Florida, 1998.

  1. ballade—Ballade bersetzung die oder Romanze gehrt zu den epischen oder historischen Dichtungsarten. Das Wort Ballade stammt aus dem Italienischen und bezeichnet eigentlich ein Li...Damen Conversations Lexikon
  2. ballade—ballade bersetzungen littratureem Ballade f ballade [balad] Substantif fminin Ballade fmininem...Dictionnaire Francais-Allemand
  3. ballade—Ballade bersetzung [balad] die nlngeres Gedicht mit einer dramatischen oft tragisch endenden HandlungGoethes Ballade Der Erlknig lesen. Ballaudestrong f. . strongursp...Universal-Lexicon
  4. ballade—[bld]баллада...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  5. ballade—баллада...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  6. ballade—баллада...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  7. ballade—n баллада...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  8. ballade—ballade [bld] nu стих.u баллада лирическое стихотворение из трх строф с рефреном и посылкойem...Англо-русский словарь Мюллера
  9. ballade—сущ. лит. баллада а форма лирического стихотворения классическая французская баллада состоит из трех строф с рефреном и посылкой б в музыке вокальное произведение или ин...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  10. ballade—f n...Большой немецко-русский и русско-немецкий словарь
  11. ballade—Balladestrong f n баллаstrongда...Большой немецко-русский словарь
  12. ballade—f...Большой французско-русский и русско-французский словарь
  13. ballade—баллада...Голландско-русский словарь
  14. ballade—балада...Дансько-український словник
  15. ballade—Балада...Датсько-український словник
  16. ballade—[bld] n стих. баллада лирическое стихотворение из трх строф с рефренами и с посылкой ballad муз. баллада вокальное произведение или инструментальная пьеса...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  17. ballade—ballade [bld] ni стих. iбаллада лирическое стихотворение из трх строф с рефренами и с посылкойi ballad муз. iбаллада вокальное произведение или инструментальная пьес...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  18. ballade—bld n стих. emбаллада лирическое стихотворение из трх строф с рефренами и с посылкойem ballad муз. emбаллада вокальное произведение или инструментальная пьесаem...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна
  19. ballade—f баллада...Новый французско-русский словарь
  20. ballade—Istrong n r IIstrong n r разг.u скандал шум гам lage ballade скандалить...Норвежско-русский словарь
  21. ballade—Балада...Норвезько-український словник
  22. ballade—f cest le refrain de la ballade...Французско-русский фразеологический словарь