Chapter I: Front Matter

BALLADS AND LYRICS
OF OLD FRANCE:

_WITH OTHER POEMS_.

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BY

A. LANG.

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LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1872.

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TO

E. M. S.

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CONTENTS.

_TRANSLATIONS_. PAGE List of Poets translated 2 CHARLES D’ORLEANS: Spring 5 Rondel 6 FRANÇOIS VILLON: Rondel 7 Arbor Amoris 8 Ballad of the Gibbet 11 DU BELLAY: Hymn to the Winds 14 A Vow to Heavenly Venus 16 To his Friend in Elysium 17 A Sonnet to Heavenly Beauty 18 REMY BELLEAU: April 19 RONSARD: Roses 24 The Rose 25 To the Moon 27 To his Young Mistress 29 Deadly Kisses 30 Of his Lady’s Old Age 31 On his Lady’s Waking 32 His Lady’s Death 33 His Lady’s Tomb 34 JACQUES TAHUREAU: Shadows of his Lady 35 Moonlight 36 PASSERAT: Love in May 37 VICTOR HUGO: The Grave and the Rose 40 The Genesis of Butterflies 42 More Strong than Time 44 GÉRARD DE NERVAL: An Old Tune 46 ALFRED DE MUSSET: Juana 48 HENRI MURGER: Spring in the Student’s Quarter 51 Old Loves 53 Musette 55 BALLADS: The Three Captains 58 The Bridge of Death 63 Le Père Sévère 65 The Milk White Doe 68 A Lady of High Degree 72 Lost for a Rose’s Sake 75 BALLADS OF MODERN GREECE: The Brigand’s Grave 77 The Sudden Bridal 79 GREEK FOLK SONGS: Iannoula 85 The Tell-Tales 87 _AVE_. Twilight on Tweed 91 One Flower 93 Metempsychosis 94 Lost in Hades 95 A Star in the Night 96 A Sunset on Yarrow 97 _HESPEROTHEN_. The Seekers for Phæacia 101 A Song of Phæacia 104 The Departure from Phæacia 107 A Ballad of Departure 110 They hear the Sirens for the Second Time 111 Circe’s Isle revisited 114 The Limit of Lands 116 _VERSES ON PICTURES_. Colinette 121 A Sunset of Watteau 124 A Nativity of Sandro Botticelli 127 _SONGS AND SONNETS_. Two Homes 131 Summer’s Ending 133 Nightingale Weather 134 Love and Wisdom 136 Good-bye 138 An Old Prayer 140 Love’s Miracle 141 Dreams 142 Fairy Land 143 Two Sonnets of the Sirens 146 À la Belle Hélène 148 Sylvie et Aurélie 150 A Lost Path 152 The Shade of Helen 154 _SONNETS TO POETS_. Jacques Tahureau 159 François Villon 160 Pierre Ronsard 161 Gérard de Nerval 162 The Death of Mirandola 163

TRANSLATIONS.

LIST OF POETS TRANSLATED.

I. CHARLES D’ORLEANS, who has sometimes, for no very obvious reason, been styled the father of French lyric poetry, was born in May, 1391. He was the son of Louis D’Orleans, the grandson of Charles V., and the father of Louis XII. Captured at Agincourt, he was kept in England as a prisoner from 1415 to 1440, when he returned to France, where he died in 1465. His verses, for the most part roundels on two rhymes, are songs of love and spring, and retain the allegorical forms of the Roman de la Rose.