Encyclopedia of medieval literature

TESTAMENT

Testament: translation

byFrançois Villon
(1461)
The major work on which the reputation of the great French poet François VILLON chiefly rests is his 2,000-line poemTestament. The poem, written (we are told in its first lines) in 1461 when the poet was 30 years old, comprises 186 eight-line stanzas, into which Villon has inserted several short fixedform lyrics including 16BALLADES, two RONDEAUX, and a chanson. Essentially the poem purports to be a last will and testament, in which Villon’s primary purpose is to bequeath his possessions to his friends and acquaintances before what he suggests may be his imminent death.
Immediately prior to his composition of theTestament, Villon had been arrested and imprisoned at Meung on the orders of Thibaud d’Aussigny, bishop of Orléans. He was released from imprisonment by order of King Louis XI in 1461. Accordingly, Villon begins the poem with a bitter invective against the bishop, praying that God will do to the bishop what the bishop has done to Villon. This is followed by praise for the king who freed him, and from here moves to a consideration of what he has learned through his suffering. Although he is a sinner,Villon tells us, God desires his conversion and reformation, not his death. In several stanzas, Villon laments his lost youth and blames his poverty for forcing him into a life of crime.He includes an anecdote about Alexander and a Pirate, in which the Pirate tells Alexander that he is a criminal because he has only one ship—if he had a fleet, he would be an emperor. From here,Villon moves to a lament on the impermanence of worldly things—in particular Villon bemoans the transience of beauty, particularly in the deaths of beautiful women, and inserts his famous “Ballade des dames du temps jadis” (“Ballade of the Ladies of Bygone Days”), which includes the famous refrain most often translated “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”
Villon goes on to consider the ravages of age on both men and women, and includes anotherballadein the voice of an old woman advising young ones to make the most of their youth.But Villon continues to focus on women in general, and then on women’s love, inserting a doubleballadeon the unfortunate consequences of love. Ultimately he repudiates love itself, giving it up forever. Now considering his own broken body, Villon returns to his tirade against the bishop of Orléans, and curses the bishop as he describes the tortures to which he was subjected in Meung. Finally,Villon moves on to the bequests that make up the testament. He begins by bequeathing his soul to God and his body to the earth, then moves on to his father, to whom he leaves his books. He has nothing to give his mother except a prayer for her to recite to the Virgin, which he includes as aballade. He follows these with a variety of other bequests, some somewhat serious in the form of individual lyric poems, some outlandish, some apparently based on topical or private references that are incomprehensible to us.
Villon moves on to a discussion of Parisian women, and includes a well-known and graphically ribaldballadeabout “Fat Margot” and her sexual appetite. Ultimately, he makes some requests about his burial; forgoing any appeal for a tomb, he writes a verse for his own epitaph, asking for eternal rest after a life of hard knocks. He then names his executors—rich men with whom he was never acquainted—and adds aballadein which he pardons everyone he can think of, including whores and swindlers and fools, but denies his pardon to those who made his life difficult—for them, he wishes a hammer would crush their ribs. Overall, theTestamentshows a technical mastery of form and meter. However, its overall structure seems formless: As the above summary shows, the poem is organized around an association of ideas and images rather than by any logical progression. Villon focuses repeatedly on the transience of earthly things, and employs the traditionalubi sunt(“Where are they?”) topos of classical literature: Where are the years of my youth, he asks? Where are the beautiful women gone? Where are my old companions? Where, indeed, are the snows of yesteryear? But Villon, a master of many styles, also includes mocking satire in his repeated attacks on those who he believes have wronged him in life.What makes theTestamenta classic of medieval French poetry is its variety of language, style, and tone, moving from the somber to the satirical, from the moving to the mocking, sometimes within the same stanza. The poem has made Villon one of the most admired poets in the French language.
Bibliography
■ Burl, Aubrey.Danse Macabre: François Villon, Poetry, &Murder in Medieval France. Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton, 2000.
■ Fein, David.François Villon Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1997.
■ Sargent-Baur, Barbara N.Brothers of Dragons: Job Dolens and François Villon. New York: Garland, 1990.
■ Taylor, Jane H. M.The Poetry of François Villon: Text and Context. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
■ Villon, François.Complete Poems. Edited with English translations and commentary by Barbara N. Sargent- Baur. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1994.

  1. testament—testament translation nounADJECTIVE fitting esp. BrE good great true powerful remarkable living Adams is a living testamentu to the power of following ones dreams....Collocations dictionary
  2. testament—Testament translation Testament n will testament...Deutsch-Englisch Worterbuch gesetz
  3. testament—testament bersetzung RELu Testament nlAncien testament das Alte Testament nle Nouveau testament das Neue Testament n testament [tstam] Substantif masculin juridique T...Dictionnaire Francais-Allemand
  4. testament—Testament translation Occurs twelve times in the New Testament Heb. etc. as the rendering of the Gr. diatheke which is twenty times rendered covenant in the Authorized V...Easton's Bible Dictionary
  5. testament—testament bersetzung testament Testament n letztwillige Verfgung f...Englisch-Deutsch Worterbuch gesetz
  6. testament—testament translation testamentstrong testament [testmnt] noun [countable] LAW a em will testament UKu USu testmnt nounu [Cu or Uu] proof that something exists or ...Financial and business terms
  7. testament—Testament bersetzung I letztwillige Verordnung testamentum. tabulae testamentii im Zshg. auch bl. tabulaei die Tafeln das Material samt dem darauf Geschriebenen. ultima...Kleines deutsch-lateinisches Handworterbuch
  8. testament—[testmnt]свидетельство доказательствопозиция убеждение кредозавещаниеЗавет...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  9. testament—завещание Testament rel. завет...Англо-русский дополнительный словарь
  10. testament—завещание...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  11. testament—завещание...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  12. testament—n завет завещание изложение убеждений и принципов кредо проявление распоряжение на случай смерти свидетельство...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  13. testament—testament [testmnt] nu юр.u завещание T. рел.u завет обыкн.u Новый Завет Евангелие тж.u New T.Old T. Ветхий Завет...Англо-русский словарь Мюллера
  14. testament—сущ. свидетельство доказательство His quick recovery is a testament to the doctors skill. Его скорое выздоровление свидетельствует о высокой квалификации врача Syn proo...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  15. testament—Завещание...Англо-русский словарь по экономике
  16. testament—nзавещание рел.u завет...Англо-русский словарь политической терминологии
  17. testament—n. завещание завет...Англо-русский словарь редакция bed
  18. testament—сущ. юр. завещание документ с инструкциями владельца о распоряжении собственностью после его смертиem testatrix testator общ. свидетельство доказательствоhis success was ...Англо-русский экономический словарь
  19. testament—завещание holographic testament olographic testament inofficious testament military testament sea testament...Англо-русский юридический словарь
  20. testament—n юр. заповт церк. завт звич. Новий завт вангел тж New TestamentemOld Testament Старий Ветхий завт...Англо-украинский словарь
  21. testament—заповт заповдальний...Англо-український словник
  22. testament—n юр. заповт розпорядження на випадок смерт Т. рел. завт the Old T. Старий Ветхий завт the New T. Новий завт вангел....Англо-український словник Балла М.І.
  23. testament—n es e сокр. Test. завещаниеeigenhndiges Testament собственноручное холографическое завещаниеgemeinschaftliches Testament общее завещание супруговffentliches Testamen...Большой немецко-русский и русско-немецкий словарь
  24. testament—Testamentstrong n es e .strong завещаstrongние sein Testamentu mastrongchen сдеstrongлать состаstrongвить завещаstrongние . das Astronglte das Nestrongue Testamentu рел....Большой немецко-русский словарь
  25. testament—m завещание testament olographe собственноручно написанное завещаниеtestament authentique [par acte public] нотариальное завещаниеcoucher sur son testament упомянуть в...Большой французско-русский и русско-французский словарь
  26. testament—завещание Ветхий завет...Голландско-русский словарь
  27. testament—ndas Alte Testament библ.u Ветхий Заветdas Neue Testament библ.u Новый Завет...Немецко-русский словарь по искусству
  28. testament—Завет...Нидерландско-русский словарь
  29. testament—[testmnt] n. юр. завещание распоряжение на случай смерти обыкн. last will and testament. Testament рел. заветthe Old Testament Ветхий заветthe New Testament Новый заве...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  30. testament—testament [testmnt] ni . юр. iзавещание распоряжение на случай смерти обыкн. ilast will and . Testament рел. i завет the Old Testament Ветхий завет the New Testament ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  31. testament—testmnt n . юр. emзавещание распоряжение на случай смерти обыкн. emlast will and . Testament рел. завет the Old Testament Ветхий завет the New Testament Новый заве...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна
  32. testament—m завещание testament olographe собственноручно написанное завещание testament authentique par acte public нотариальное завещание coucher sur son testament упомянуть ...Новый французско-русский словарь
  33. testament—et er завещание тж. перен. gjre skrive sitt testament написать завещание рел. det gamle nye Testament Ветхий Новый завет...Норвежско-русский словарь
  34. testament—Завт заповт...Норвезько-український словник
  35. testament—Р.em u завещание em obali добиться отмены завещания otworzy вскрыть завещание Nowy Stary Testament церк.em Новый Ветхий заветblockquote...Польско-русский словарь
  36. testament—[тестамент]заповт тестамент...Польсько-український словник
  37. testament—u m заповт завт Nowy Testament Новий Завт Заповт Stary Testament Старий Ветхий Завт Заповт...Польсько-український словник (М. Юрковський, В. Назарук)
  38. testament—te s.n. . завещание п.a lsa prin testament оставить по завещанию. . rel. n expr. Vechiul Testament Ветхий завет Noul Testament Новый завет....Румынско-русский словарь
  39. testament—te s.n. . завещание п.a lsa prin testament оставить по завещанию. . rel. n expr. Vechiul Testament Ветхий завет Noul Testament Новый завет....Румынско-русский словарь
  40. testament—завещание...Сборный англо-русский словарь
  41. testament—Rzeczownik testament m завещание n Przenony воля f Przenony завет m Przenony наставление n...Универсальный польско-русский словарь
  42. testament—Rzeczownik testament m завещание n Przenony воля f Przenony завет m Przenony наставление n Testament Religijny завет m...Универсальный польско-русский словарь
  43. testament—m coucher qn sur son testament il peut faire son testament grande chre petit testament...Французско-русский фразеологический словарь
  44. testament—m завещание завещательное распоряжение attaquer un testament оспаривать завещание tablir faire un testament составлять завещание recevoir par testament получать наслед...Французско-русский юридический словарь
  45. testament—Заповiт...Французько-український словник
  46. testament—завещание...Чешско-русский словарь
  47. testament—Завещание...Эстонско-русский словарь