Clément Marot

The 42 chansons of Clément Marot

The full text of all chansons in French below, some with English translations (long-term project...) and some with music (don't forget to "stop" the audiofile before you "start" a new one). A number of them were translated into Dutch in the 17th century: See: Dutch translations 

Marot's chansons were an immediate succes in the 1520s, when he made the bulk of them as a young court poet. His music colleagues at court (Sermisy, Certon, Janequin) surely contributed to the succes by providing the texts with melodies and settings. And of course: the innovative music Paris printer, Pierre Attaingnant, made the story complete by incorporating these compositions in his successive anthologies of chansons published from 1528 (Chansons nouvelles en musique à quatre parties) onwards. [for more info click here] Attaingnant used a single-impression method for music printing, in which the individual notes were printed directly onto segments of staff, and so the notes, staff lines, and text could all be printed with one send through the printing press. Many of Marot's chansons (not all!) of them are set to music, some of them remaining popular far into the 17th century. An excellent tool is the searchable database of French Renaissance chansons: Ricercar, coordinated by Annie Coeurdevey (only accessible on the OLD site of CESR: http://ricercar-old.cesr.univ-tours.fr/3-programmes/basechanson/index.htm) 

Ever since Maurice Ravel composed his tribute to Marot (two musical settings of epigrams for Anne) in 1899, modern-day composers occasionally put some of his texts to music. Click here for an overview.

Spiritual contrafacta circulated as well (for this see Bordier: Le chansonnier huguenot du xvi siècle, 1870). The poets Mathieu (or Thomas) Malingre & Eustorg de Beaulieu are the main contributors to this genre. Marot revisited and revised his own chansons in 1532 publishing 32 in the Adolescence clementine; adding only 10 more in 1538 when he published his Oeuvres.
 

TEXT OF ALL CHANSONS

Chanson première
Plaisir n'ay plus, mais vy en desconfort,
Fortune m'a remis en grand douleur:
L'heur que j'avoys, est tourné en malheur,
Malheureux est, qui n'a aulcun confort.

Fort suis dolent, et regret me remord,
Mort m'a osté ma Dame de valeur,
L'heur que j'avoys, est tourné en malheur:
Malheureux est, qui n'a aulcun confort.

Valoir ne puis, en ce Monde suis mort,
Morte est m'amour, dont suis en grand langueur,
Langoreux suis plein d'amere liqueur,
Le cueur me part pour sa dolente mort.

I have no joy anymore, I live without comfort, / fate has thrown me in great sorrow / My luck has turned into disaster, unhappy is he who has no comfort
I am very sad, sorrow gnaws at me, / Death has robbed me my valued LADY / ....
Nothing has value anymore; in this world I am dead, / Dead is my love, so I completely wither away / I pine away full of bitterness / My heart breaks because of its (=amour) painful death.

Chanson II

Si par aymer, et souffrir nuictz et jours,
L'amy dessert ce, qu'il vient requerir,
Dictes, pourquoy faictes si longs sejours
A me donner ce, que tant veulx cherir?
O noble fleur, laisserez vous perir,
Vostre Servant, par faulte de lyesse?
Je croy qu'en vous n'a point tant de rudesse.

Vostre rigueur me feit plusieurs destours,
Quand au premier je vous vins requerir:
Mais Bel Acueil m'a faict d'assez bons tours,
Et me laissant maint baiser conquerir.
Las vos baisers ne me sçavent guerir,
Mais vont croissant l'ardant feu, qui me presse:
Jouyssance est ma medecine expresse.

Save me, my lady by your love, for otherwise death will come to get me. No one but you can give life to my poor heart, which is about to die. Helas, please come to rescue him who is living in great misery because of you, for you are the Mistress of his heart.
If through love and suffering night and day, the Beloved gets what he came looking for, say, why do you take so long to give me what I so much want to cherish ? Oh, precious flower, will you let your servant perish for lack of joy? I do not believe that such rudeness is inside you.
Your austerity forced me to make several detours, since I first came searching for you; But 'Welcome' showed me plenty of good ways and made me win many a kiss. Unfortunately, instead of healing me, your kisses fan the burning fire that oppresses me: Enjoyment is the proper and effective drug.

Chanson III
Dieu gard ma Maistresse, et regente,
Gente de corps, et de façon,
Son cueur tient le mien en sa tente
Tant et plus d'ung ardant frisson.
S'on m'oyt pousser sur ma chanson
Son de voix, ou harpes doulcettes,
C'est Espoir, qui sans marrisson
Songer me faict en amourettes.

La blanche Colombelle belle,
Souvent je voys priant, criant,
Mais dessoubz la cordelle d'elle
Me gette un oeil friant riant,
En me consommant, et sommant
A douleur, qui ma face efface:
Dont suis le reclamant amant,
Qui pour l'oultrepasse trespasse.

Dieu des Amans de mort me garde,
Me gardant, donne moy bon heur,
En le me donnant, prens ta Darde,
En la prenant, navre son cueur,
En le navrant, me tiendray seur,           tiendras (Defaux)
En seurté, suyvray l'accointance,
En l'accointant, ton Serviteur
En servant aura jouyssance.

Notice the clever rhymes !
May God protect my mistress and superior, noble of body and ethics. Her heart keeps my heart in constant tension, like, yes even more, than a burning thrill.
If people would hear my song expand the sound of a voice, harp or soft, it is the hope, without sadness let me dream of amour ette
The white dove, the fair one, I see her often, praying, weeping, but from below her scarf she casts a quick look, shivering, smiling; and consuming me she delivers me to sorrow, that effaces my face: of her i am the protesting lover, who trespasses for the trespassing
God of lovers, save me from death, and saving me, grant me luck, and in giving that, take your arrow, and with that pierce her heart, and wounding it I will stand secure and in security I will get in touch with her, and once in touch, your servant will have enjoyment in serving you.
 

Chanson IV

Si pour moy avez du soucy,
Pour vous n'en ay pas moins aussi,
Amour le vous doibt faire entendre.
Mais s'il vous grieve d'estre ainsi,
Appaisez vostre cueur transi:
Tout vient à point, qui peult attendre.

This chanson was immensely popular both as a song and as a dance (as "Basse Dance"; for more info see Thoinot Arbeau (or Jehan Tabourot) famous orchésographie).
I will give you pleasure, my dear, and thus fulfill your desire beyond expectation. As long as Ilive I will not let you go, even so that - when I die - (my or your) mind will still remember it.
If you worry about me (or: long for / or: concern), I no less for you! Love will make you understand. But if it breaks you down, appease your hurting heart: Everything will be allright, for who can wait.

In the editions with music (first Attaingnant: 1528), the text differs a little (2/3: ... et vous meneray / la ou pretend...  6: si vous auray  [je] en souvenance) often repeated in later settings by other composers and publishers.

One occasionally even finds a third stanza: (a 'réponse), written by ??? [That Henry VIII wrote this as a 'reponse' to Anne Boleyn when she sang this song is of course too good to be true. [In the London MS that once belonged to Anne Boleyn, a version of Jouyssance is present, with only the first stanza]

De vostre mort, mary seray
Usant ma vie en deplaisance
Souvent je vous regreteray.
Gros deuil pour vous je porteray
Autre que vous je n'aimeray
Ayant de vous la souvenance.

Upon your death, I will be contrite , living out my life without pleasure, often I will miss you.
Deeply I shall mourn you and love no other but you, filled with the memory of you.
 

Chanson V
J'attens secours de ma seulle pensée:
J'attens le jour, que l'on m'escondira,
Ou que de tout la Belle me dira,
Amy t'amour sera recompensée.
Mon alliance est fort bien commencée.
Mais je ne sçay, comment il en yra,
Car s'elle veult, ma vie perira,
Quoy qu'en Amour s'attend d'estre avancée.
Si j'ay reffus, vienne Mort insensée:
A son plaisir de mon cueur jouyra.
Si j'ay mercy, adonc s'esjouyra
Celluy, qui point n'a sa Dame offensée.

This is the one thing that will rescue me, I think: I am waiting for the day, that either I shall be send packing or that My Fair Lady will tell me: My Friend, your love will be rewarded.
My bond with her did begin very well, but I don't know how things will develop, since if she wants it, my life wil perish, for in matters of love, one expects that things avance.
If I am rejected, the insensitive Death may come and may play his game with my heart to his (her?) pleasure. If I am accepted in grace, then he will enjoy himself, who has never offended his Lady.

Chanson VI
Amour, et Mort m'ont faict oultrage.
Amour me retient en servage,
Et Mort (pour accroistre ce dueil)
A prins celluy loin de mon oeil,
Qui de pres navre mon courage.

Helas Amour, tel personnage
Te servoit en fleur de son aage,
Mais tu es ingrat à mon vueil
De souffrir Guerre, et son orgueil
Tuer ceulx, qui t'ont faict hommage.

Si est ce à mon cueur advantage,
De ce que son noble corsage
Gist envers, loing de mon acueil,
Car si j'avois veu son Sercueil,
Ma grand douleur deviendroit rage.

Love and Death violate me. Love keeps me trapped in slavery, and Death (this suffering to increase) has moved far away from my eye, the one who hurts my heart when she is near.
 

Chanson VII
Celle qui m'a tant pourmené,
A eu pitié de ma langueur:
Dedans son Jardin m'a mené,
Ou tous arbres sont en vigueur:
Adoncques ne usa de rigueur,          Gardane (1541, Sermisy) has 'Adoncques me usa sa rigueur'
Si je la baise, elle m'accolle:
Puis m'a donné son noble cueur,
Dont il m'est advis que je volle.

Quand je vei son cueur estre mien,
Je mys toute crainte dehors,
Et luy dys, Belle, ce n'est rien,
Si entre voz bras je ne dors:
La Dame respondit alors,
Ne faicte plus ceste demande:
Il est assez maistre du corps,
Qui a le cueur à sa commande.

She who led me on took pity on my misery; She led me into her garden, where all the trees were blooming; Then nothing had to be forced: when I kissed her, she embraced me; Then she gave me her noble heart, which - it seems to me - makes me take flight.
When I see that her heart is mine, I get rid of all fear and say to her: Beauty, It makes no difference now that I sleep in your arms. But my Lady answered: don't ask that; He is enough master of the body, who can command the heart.

Chanson VIII
Si de nouveau j'ay nouvelles couleurs,
Il n'en fault jà prendre esbahissement,
Car de nouveau j'ay nouvelles douleurs,
Nouvelle amour, et nouveau pensement:
Dueil, et Ennuy, c'est tout l'avancement,
Que j'ay encor de vous tant amoureuse:
Si vous supply, que mon commencement
Cause ne soit de ma fin langoreuse.

Pleust or à Dieu (pour fuyr mes malheurs)
Que je vous tinse à mon commandement:
Ou pour le moins, que voz grandes valeurs
Ne fussent point en mon entendement:
Car voz beaulx yeux me plaisent tellement,
Et vostre amour me semble tant heureuse,
Que je languis: ainsi voylà comment,
Ce qui me plaist, m'est chose doloreuse.

Chanson IX
Quand j'ay pensé en vous ma bien aymée,
Trouver n'en puis de si grande beaulté:
Et de vertu seriez plus estimée,
Qu'aultre qui soit, si n'estoit cruaulté.
Mais pour vous aymer loyaulment
J'ay recompense de tourment:
Toutefois quand il vous plaira,
Mon mal par mercy finera.

Des que mon oeil apperceut vostre face,
Ma liberté du tout m'abandonna,
Car mon las cueur esperant vostre grâce
De moy partit, et à vous se donna.
Or s'est il voulu retirer
En lieu, dont ne se peult tirer,
Et vous a trouvé sans sy,
Fors qu'estes Dame sans mercy.

Vostre rigueur veult doncques que je meure,
Puis que pitié vostre cueur ne remord,
Si n'aurez vous (de ce je vous asseure)
Loz, ny honneur de si cruelle mort:
Car on ne doibt mettre en langueur
Celluy qui ayme de bon cueur:
Trop est rude à son Ennemy,
Qui est cruel à son Amy.

Chanson X
Je suis aymé de la plus belle,
Qui soit vivant dessoubz les Cieulx:
Encontre tous faulx Envieulx
Je la soustiendray estre telle.

Si Cupido doulx, et rebelle
Avoit desbendé ses deux yeux,
Pour veoir son maintien gracieux,
Je croy qu'amoureux seroit d'elle.

Venus la Deesse immortelle
Tu as faict mon cueur bien heureux,
De l'avoir faict estre amoureux
D'une si noble Damoyselle.

(first verse only) I am loved by the most beautiful / Who is alive under the heavens: / Against all who are false & envious / I maintain: she really is such (i.e. the most beautiful...)

Chanson XI
Qui veult avoir lyesse
Seullement d'ung regard,
Vienne veoir ma Maistresse,
Que Dieu maintienne, et gard:
Elle a si bonne grâce,
Que celluy qui la voit,
Mille douleurs efface,
Et plus, s'il en avoit.

Les vertus de la Belle
Me font esmerveiller.
La souvenance d'elle
Faict mon cueur esveiller.
Sa beaulté tant exquise
Me faict la mort sentir:
Mais sa grâce requise
M'en peult bien garentir.

Whoever wishes to have joy / From merely a single glance, / Let him come see my mistress, / Whom may God sustain and protect: / She possesses such lovely grace / That anyone who beholds her / Wipes away a thousand sorrows, / And even more, if he had them. / The virtues of the fair lady / Fill me with wonder.
The memory of her / Awakens my heart. / Her beauty, so exquisite, / Makes me feel the touch of death: / But her sought-after grace / Can surely shield me from it.

Chanson XII

Quand je la veulx servir, et honnorer,
Quand par escriptz veulx son nom decorer,
Quand je la voy, et visite souvent,
Les envieulx n'en font que murmurer,
Mais nostre Amour n'en sçauroit moins durer:
Aultant ou plus en emporte le vent.
Maulgré envie
Toute ma vie
Je l'aymeray,
Et chanteray:
C'est la premiere,
C'est la derniere,
Que j'ay servie, et serviray.

As long as I live in my flourishing youth, / I will serve Love, the mighty God, / In deeds, and words, in songs, and harmonies. / For many days he kept me languishing, / But after grief he made me rejoice, / For I have the love of the fair one with the graceful body. / Her devotion / Is my trust: / Her heart is mine, / My heart is hers: / Away with sadness, / Long live joy, / Since in Love there is so much good.
When I wish to serve and honor her, / When I wish to adorn her name through my writings, / When I see her and visit her often, / Envious people do nothing but murmur, / But our Love could not last any less because of it: / The wind carries away just as much, or more. / Despite envy, / All my life / I will love her, / And I will sing: / She is the first, / She is the last, / Whom I have served, and will serve.

Chanson XIII

Je ne dy pas t'amour estre effacée,
Mais je me plainds de l'ennuy que j'acquiers,
Et loing de toy humblement te requiers
Que loing de moy, de moy ne sois faschée.

You make me pine away, without me having offended you. / You don't write me anymore, don't ask after me. / But nevertheless I don't want anyone else but you, Mylady: / I'd rather die than change my mind.
I don't say your love has dissolved, but I complain about the grief I suffer, and - being far from you - I humbly ask / that you - being far from me - are not angry with me.

Chanson XIV

Si vous laissez d'Amour le train joly,
Vostre beaulté prisonniere rendez:
Si pour aultruy m'avez mis en oubly,
Dieu vous y doint le bien, que y pretendez:
Mais si de mal en rien m'apprehendez,
Je veulx qu'aultant que vous me semblez belle,
D'aultant, ou plus vous me soyez cruelle.

Where does it come from, Fair Lady, I beg of you, / That you no longer commend yourself to me? / I will always be filled with sadness, / Until the time you tell me the truth of it: / I believe that you no longer desire a lover, / Or someone reveals bad rumors about me to you, / Or your heart has found a new love.
If you give up Love's joyful path, / You make your beauty a prisoner: / If for another you have forgotten me, / May God grant you the happiness you seek in it: / But if you suspect me of any wrong, / I wish that as much as you seem beautiful to me, / You be just as cruel to me, or even more so.

Chanson XV
Ma Dame ne m'a pas vendu,
Elle m'a seulement changé:
Mais elle a au change perdu,
Dont je me tiens pour bien vengé,
Car ung loyal a estrangé
Pour ung aultre, qui la diffame.
N'est elle pas legiere femme?

Le Noir a quicté, et rendu,
Le Blanc est d'elle defrengé,
Violet luy est deffendu,
Point n'ayme Bleu, ny Orangé:
Son cueur muable s'est rengé
Vers le Changeant, couleur infame.
N'est elle pas legiere femme?

My lady has not sold me, / She has only traded me: / But she lost in the exchange, / For which I consider myself well avenged, / For she estranged a loyal one / For another, who defames her. / Is she not a fickle woman? / She has abandoned and returned Black, / White has been discarded by her, / Violet is forbidden to her, / She loves neither Blue nor Orange: / Her fickle heart has aligned itself / Toward Changeable, an infamous color. / Is she not a fickle woman?

Excursus on the symbolic value of the 'colors':

In Renaissance French courtly poetry—popularized by works like Le Blason des couleurs—colors are a sophisticated visual code used to express specific virtues, emotions, and moral states in love.
In this rondeau, Marot uses this color heraldry to accuse a former lady of abandoning every noble virtue in favor of infidelity. ((nb: Marot is not expressing private matters, but evoking general feelings)
- Black (Le Noir): Constancy & Steadfastness
- White (Le Blanc): Purity & Truth ("Defrengé" (frayed/discarded): her innocence and moral integrity are ruined.)
- Violet (Violet): Discreet Love Meaning: ("Deffendu" (forbidden): she is no longer capable of modest or secret affection.
- Blue (Bleu): Loyalty & Fidelity ("Point n'aime" (She hates) blue, because she can't remain faithful.
- Orange (Orangé): Passion or Pride (... She cannot even stick to her desire).
- The Changeable (Le Changeant) probably refers to shot silk (or iridescent fabric), a textile that shifts color depending on the angle of the light): Inconstancy & Hypocrisy
This is the punchline. By rejecting all stable colors, her fickle heart settles on Changeable—the ultimate symbol of hypocrisy, deceit, and unfaithfulness.

Chanson XVI
J'ay contenté
Ma voulenté
Suffisamment,
Car j'ay esté
D'amours traicté
Differemment.
J'ay eu tourment,
Bon traictement,
J'ay eu doulceur, et cruaulté:
Et ne me plainds fors seulement
D'avoir aymé si loyaulment
Celle, qui est sans loyaulté.

Cueur affeté
Moins arresté
Qu'ung seul moment,
Ta lascheté
M'a dejecté
Fascheusement.
Prend hardiment
Amandement.
Et vous Dames de grand beaulté
Si l'honneur aymez cherement,
Vous n'ensuyvrez aulcunement
Celle, qui est sans loyaulté.

I have satisfied / my desire / sufficiently, / for I have been / treated by love / in varied ways. / I have had torment, / good treatment, / I have had sweetness, and cruelty: / and i complain of nothing except / having loved so loyally / her who is without loyalty.
Deceitful heart, / less steadfast / than a single moment, / your baseness / has cast me down / distressingly. / Boldly make / amends. / And you, ladies of great beauty, / if you love honor dearly, / you will in no way follow / her who is without loyalty.

Chanson XVII
Je ne fais rien que requerir
Sans acquerir
Le don d'amoureuse liesse.
Las, ma Maistresse,
Dictes, quand est ce,
Qu'il vous plaira me secourir?
Je ne fais rien que requerir.

Vostre beaulté qu'on voit flourir
Me faict mourir:
Ainsi j'ayme ce, qui me blesse.
C'est grand simplesse:
Mais grand sagesse,
Pourveu que m'en vueillez guerir.
Je ne fais rien que requerir.

I do nothing but search without finding the gift of joyous love, Helas, my mistress, tell me, when will it be that it will please you to rescue me? I do nothing but search.
Your flourishing beauty makes me die. Oh yes, I love that which hurts me. That's the simple truth; but great wisdom, if only you want to cure me. I do nothing but search (that is my only request).

Chanson XVIII
D'un nouveau dard je suis frappé,
Par Cupido cruel de soy:
De luy pensois estre eschappé,
Mais cuydant fuyr, me deçoy,
Et remede je n'apperçoy
A ma douleur secrette,
Fors de crier, allegez moy
Doulce plaisant Brunette.

Si au Monde ne fussiez point,
Belle, jamais je n'aymerois:
Vous seule avez gaigné le poinct,
Que si bien garder j'esperois:
Mais quant à mon gré vous aurois
En ma chambre seullette,
Pour me venger, je vous feroys
La couleur vermeillette.

Chanson XIX
Mauldicte soit la mondaine richesse,
Qui m'a osté m'Amye, et ma Maistresse.
Las par vertu j'ay son amytié quise,
Mais par richesse ung aultre l'a conquise:
Vertu n'a pas en amour grand prouesse.

Dieu gard de mal la Nymphe, et la Deesse:
Mauldict soit l'Or, où elle a sa liesse,
Mauldicte soit la fine Soye exquise,
Le Dyamant, et la Perle requise
Puis que par eulx il fault qu'elle me laisse.

Cursed be worldly wealth / that has taken my beloved and my mistress from me. / Alas, through virtue I sought her affection, / but through wealth another has conquered her: / virtue has no great prowess in love.
May God protect the nymph and the goddess from harm: / cursed be the gold in which she finds her joy, / cursed be the fine exquisite silk, / the diamond, and the sought-after pearl / since because of them she must leave me.

Chanson XX
Le cueur de vous ma presence desire;
Mais pour le mieulx (Belle) je me retire,
Car sans avoir aultre contentement,
Je ne pourroys servir si longuement:
Venons au poinct, au poinct qu'on n'ose dire.

Belle Brunette, à qui mon cueur souspire,
Si me donnes ce bien (sans m'escondire)
Je serviray: mais sçavez vous comment?
De Nuict, et Jour tresbien, et loyaulment.
Si ne voulez, je fuiray mon martyre.

Your heart desires my presence; / but for the best (fair lady) I withdraw, / for without receiving other satisfaction, / I could not serve for so long: / let us come to the point, to the point one does not dare to speak.
Fair Brunette, for whom my heart sighs, / if you give me this favor (without refusing me) / I will serve: but do you know how? / Night and day very well, and loyally. / If you do not wish to, I will flee my martyrdom.

COMMENT: this sounds to me like: Let's have sex, or I'm off.
("le poinct qu'on n'ose dire" / "ce bien"): Let's stop beating around the bush. We both know what we want ("desire"): physical consummation of our love . And if she grants him this favor (ce bien), he promises absolute, night-and-day loyalty (or activity). But (and this is how I understand the punchline: If she refuses, he will not endlessly suffer (as a courtly lover is supposed to do). He will simply walk away, and save himself from unrequited agony ("Si ne voulez, je fuiray mon martyre").

Chanson XXI
Amour au cueur me poinct,
Quand bien aymé je suis:
Mais aymer je ne puis
Quand on ne m'ayme poinct.

Chascun soit adverty
De faire comme moy:
Car d'aymer sans party,
C'est un trop grand esmoy.

Love pricks my heart, / when I am well loved: / but I cannot love / when I am not loved.
Let everyone be advised / to do as I do: / for loving without return, / is too great a distress.

Chanson XXII
Qui veult entrer en grâce
Des Dames bien avant,
En cautelle, et fallace
Fault estre bien sçavant.
Car tout vray Poursuyvant,
La loyaulté suyvant,
Au jourd'huy est deceu:
Et le plus decepvant
Pour loyal est receu.

Whoever wishes to enter deeply / into the favor of ladies, / must be very skilled / in cunning and deceit. / For every true suitor, / following loyalty, / today is deceived: / and the most deceitful / is accepted as loyal.

Chanson XXIII
Long temps y a, que je vys en espoir,
Et que Rigueur a dessus moy pouvoir:
Mais si jamais je rencontre Allegeance,
Je luy diray, Ma Dame venez veoir:
Rigueur me bat, faictes m'en la vengeance.

Si je ne puis allegeance esmouvoir,
Je le feray au Dieu d'Amour sçavoir,
En luy disant, ô Mondaine plaisance,
Si d'aultre bien ne me voulez pourveoir,
A tout le moins ne m'ostez Esperance.

For a long time now I have lived in hope, / and Rigor holds power over me: / but if ever I meet Relief, / I will say to her, My Lady come see: / Rigor beats me, avenge me for it.
If I cannot move Relief, / I will make it known to the God of Love, / saying to him, O worldly pleasure, / if you do not wish to provide me with any other good, / at the very least do not take Hope away from me.

COMMENT:
Using personifications (Rigueur, Allegeance, Esperance) was a literary convention (topos), rooted in the late medieval allegorical tradition (see the Roman de la Rose (Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung)). Figures like Danger (Refusal/Resistance), Bel Accueil (Fair Welcome), Peur (Fear), and Jalousie (Jealousy) became standard stock characters in French love literature. The Grands Rhétoriqueurs (late 15th and early 16th centuries—a style championed by poets like Charles d'Orléans and Marot's own father, Jean Marot) perfectioned the use of allegory. Emotions weren't abstract ideas, but personae acting out the drama inside the lover's mind.

Chanson XXIV
Quand vous vouldrez faire une Amye,
Prenez la de belle grandeur,
En son Esprit non endormie,
Et son Tetin bonne rondeur,
Doulceur
En cueur,
Langage
Bien sage,
Dansant, chantant par bons accords,
Et ferme de Cueur, et de Corps.

Si vous la prenez trop jeunette,
Vous en aurez peu d'entretien:
Pour durer prenez la brunette
En bon point, d'asseuré maintien.
Tel bien
Vault bien
Qu'on fasse
La Chasse
Du plaisant Gibier amoureux:
Qui prend telle Proye, est heureux.

When you wish to take yourself a lover, / choose her of fine stature, / quick-witted in spirit, / with a nicely rounded bust, / sweetness / in heart, / speech / most wise, / dancing and singing in good harmony, / and firm of heart and body.
If you take her too young, / you will have little converse of her: / to make it last, choose a brunette, / in good flesh, of confident bearing. / Such a treasure / is well worth / giving / chase / after the pleasant quarry of love: / whoever catches such prey is happy.

Comments:
Faire une amye is not "make a friend." In Marot's register amye is a beloved, a mistress.
Peu d'entretien carries both "little conversation" and "little to sustain you" — the substance of a companion as well as her talk. I used "converse," which preserves the older double sense better than "conversation."
En bon point means well-fleshed, in good bodily condition — not "in good order."
Ferme de cueur, et de corps — ferme is steadfast in the heart, firm in the body; one word doing both jobs, which English cannot match.
Gibier / proye: hunting terms, quarry and prey.

CURIOUS revival of this chanson in the 20th century: listen to this recording (1960)

Chanson vingtcinquiesme du jour de Noël
Une pastourelle gentille,
Et ung Bergier en ung Verger
L'autrhyer jouant à la Bille
S'entredisoient pour abreger,
Roger,
Bergier,
Legere
Bergiere,
C'est trop à la Bille joué.
Chantons Noé, Noé, Noé.

Te souvient il plus du Prophete
Qui nous dist cas de si hault faict,
Que d'une Pucelle parfaicte
Naistroit ung Enfant tout parfaict?
L'effect
Est faict:
La belle
Pucelle
A eu un Filz au Ciel voué [A ung filz du ciel advoué]
Chantons Noé, Noé, Noé

A gentle shepherdess, / and a shepherd in an orchard, / the other day, playing at bowls, / were saying to one another, to be brief: / "Roger, / shepherd, / nimble / shepherdess, / we've played at bowls too long. / Let us sing Noel, Noel, Noel."
Do you still remember the Prophet / who told us a matter of so lofty a deed — / that from a perfect Maiden / would be born a Child all perfect? / The thing / is done: / the fair / Maiden / has had a Son vowed to Heaven [variant: a Son acknowledged by Heaven]. / Let us sing Noel, Noel, Noel.

COMMENTS
L'autrhyer (= l'autrier) is the standard pastourelle opening formula, "the other day." Its presence signals the genre before anything else does — Marot is quoting a convention, then converting it to Christmas use.
Jouer à la bille is a ball or bowls game. Deliberately trivial: the pastoral idleness they then abandon.
Pour abreger — "to be brief," the narrator cutting his own preamble short, a rhetoricians' tag Marot uses lightly.
Cas de si hault faict is roughly "a matter of such exalted accomplishment."
Pucelle is virgin, with parfaicte / parfaict placed at the rhyme on successive lines — the Maiden's perfection and the Child's, the same word twice. Any English version loses that. Also of course the 'equivoque' of C'est fait and effet.
The variant reading in B: A eu un Filz au Ciel voué = a Son vowed/consecrated to Heaven. A ung filz du ciel advoué = a Son acknowledged (avowed) by Heaven. Avoué also carries a legal sense, "recognized as one's own," which would make it the Father's acknowledgment of the Son. The second is theologically the weightier reading. This is original (1530, both in l'Adolescence clementine as in the 38 chansons à 4 parties (Attaignant)). Marot himself changed it in 1538 (authorized edition of his Oeuvres).

This is the companion piece to the previous one: Chanson XXIV and XXV share the same air (in Attaignant set to music by Jean Conseil). The two-syllable ladder (Roger / Bergier / Legere / Bergiere) is the same formal device as "Doulceur / En cueur / Langage / Bien sage" in the other. In the original editions this is mentioned in the title: sur le chant de la précédente. a sacred contrafactum of a secular love-song... Not by chance that it is nr. 25, don't you agree?

Chanson XXVI
En entrant en un Jardin
Je trouvay Guillot Martin
Avec Helene,
Qui vouloit son Picotin,
Son beau petit Picotin
Non pas d'Avoyne.

Adonc Guillot luy a dit,
Vous aurez bien ce credit,
Quand je seray en alaine:
Mais n'en prenez qu'un petit.
Car par trop grand appetit
Vient souvent la Pance pleine.

Entering a garden / I found Guillot Martin / with Hélène, / who wanted her little peck, / her nice little peck / not of oats. / Then Guillot said to her, / You will surely have this credit, / when I get my breath back: / but take only a little of it. / For from too great an appetite / often comes a full belly.

A picotin was a standard measure of oats fed to horses or livestock.

Chanson XXVII
D'Amours me va tout au rebours,
Jà ne fault, que de cela mente,
J'ay reffus en lieu de secours:
M'amye rit, et je lamente.
C'est la cause pourquoy je chante,
D'Amours me va tout au rebours,
Tout au rebours me va d'Amours.

In Love everything goes backward for me, / I certainly must not lie about it, / I get refusal instead of help: / my sweetheart laughs, and I lament. / That is the reason why I sing, / in Love everything goes backward for me, / completely backward for me goes Love.

the message (tout au rebours, reversing) is illustrated in the 'syntax'

Chanson XXVIII
J'ay grand desir
D'avoir plaisir
D'amour mondaine:
Mais c'est grand peine,
Car chascun loyal amoureux
Au temps present est malheureux:
Et le plus fin
Gaigne à la fin
La grâce pleine.

I have a great desire / to have pleasure / from worldly love: / but it is a great trouble, / for every loyal lover / in present times is unhappy: / and the cleverest / wins in the end / full favor.

comments:

The Deceiver ("Le plus fin"): The "fine" lover isn't the sincere, noble courtier—it's the player who knows how to manipulate women.
"La grâce pleine"): "Grâce pleine" sounds like the Ave Maria ("Hail Mary, full of grace" / Marie, pleine de grâce). But this 'gratia plena' is not spiritual.

Chanson XXIX
O Cruaulté logée en grand beaulté,
O grand beaulté, qui loges cruaulté,
Quand ma douleur jamais ne sentiras,
Au moins ung jour pense en ma loyaulté:
Ingrate alors (peult estre) te diras.

O cruelty, housed in great beauty;
O great beauty, that houses cruelty;
While you will never feel my pain,
At least one day think of my loyalty;
Then perhaps you will term yourself ungrateful.

Chanson XXX
J'ayme le cueur de m'Amye,
Sa bonté, et sa doulceur.
Je l'ayme sans infamie,
Et comme ung Frere la Soeur.
Amytié desmesurée,
N'est jamais bien asseurée,
Et mect les cueurs en tourment:
Je veulx aymer aultrement.

Ma Mignonne debonnaire,
Ceulx, qui font tant de clamours,
Ne taschent qu'à eulx complaire
Plus, qu'à leurs belles amours.
Laissons les en leur follye,
Et en leur melancolye:
Leur amytié cessera,
Sans fin la nostre sera.

I love the heart of my beloved, / her goodness and her sweetness. / I love her without dishonor, / and as a brother a sister. / Excessive affection / is never truly secure, / and puts hearts in torment: / I wish to love differently.
My gentle sweetheart, / those who make such a clamor / seek only to please themselves / more than their fair loves. / Let us leave them in their folly, / and in their melancholy: / their affection will cease, / ours will be without end.

Chanson XXXI
Si je vy en peine, et langueur,
De bon gré je le porte,
Puis que celle, qui a mon cueur,
Languist de mesme sorte.
Tous ces maulx nous faict recepvoir
Envie decevante,
Qui ne permect nous entreveoir,
Et d'en parler se vante.

Aussi Danger faulx Blasonneur
Tient Rigueur à la Belle,
Car il menasse son honneur,
S'il me veoit aupres d'elle.
Mais plus tost loing je me tiendray,
Qu'il en vienne nuysance:
Et à son honneur entendray,
Plus tost qu'à ma plaisance.

If I live in pain and languor, / I bear it willingly, / since she who holds my heart / languishes in the same way. / All these evils are brought upon us by / deceitful Envy, / who does not allow us to see each other, / and boasts of talking about it.
Also Danger, false slanderer, / holds Rigor over the fair lady, / for he threatens her honor / if he sees me near her. / But I will rather keep my distance / than let harm come from it: / and I will attend to her honor / rather than to my pleasure.

COMMENT: The personifications are back. These are perhaps the three main 'allegories' Envie' (court gossip, rivalry); Danger (normally 'protective', a warning) acts like a 'false slanderer (blasonneur), a moral police officer threatening to ruin her reputation. Rigueur that's the cold attitude she has to display towards her lover.

Chanson XXXII  Changeons propos, c'est trop chanté d'amours:
Ce sont clamours, chantons de la Serpette:
Tous Vignerons ont à elle recours,
C'est leur secours pour tailler la Vignette.
O Serpillette, ô la Serpillonnette,
La Vignolette est par toy mise sus,
Dont les bons Vins tous les ans sont yssus.

Le Dieu Vulcain forgeron des haults Dieux,
Forgea aux Cieulx la Serpe bien taillante
De fin acier trempé en bon vin vieulx,
Pour tailler mieulx, et estre plus vaillante:
Bacchus la vante, et dit qu'elle est seante,
Et convenante à Noé le bonshom
Pour en tailler la Vigne en la saison.

Bacchus alors Chapeau de treille avoit,
Et arrivoit pour benistre la Vigne:
Avec Flascons Silenus le suivoit,
Lequel beuvoit aussi droict qu'une ligne:
Puis il trepigne, et se faict une bigne:
Comme une guigne estoit rouge son nez.
Beaucoup de gens de sa race sont nez.

Let's change the subject: we've sung too long about our loves: / much cry little wool: let's sing about the pruning knife: / Every winegrower uses it, / It is their tool to prune the vine. / Oh little pruning knife, Oh little little pruning knife, / Thanks to you, the little vine is prepared, / Which gives good wine every year.
Vulcanus, the blacksmith of the gods, in heaven did forge the sharp knife / of fine steel hardened in exquisite old wine / to cut better and make the vine healthier: / Bacchus boasts about it saying that it is proper and suitable for good old Noah / to trim the vine when it is time.
Bacchus in those days used to wear a vine-leaf hat / and he visited every Vineyard for a blessing: / with flagons Silenus would follow him, / who drank straight-forwardly: / Then he would start to dance and bump into something : Red as a cherry his nose became. / Many people descend from his race.

 

The next chansons were added in Marot's Oeuvres of 1538

Chanson XXXIII
La plus belle des troys sera
Celle, qui mourir me fera,
Ou qui me fera du tout vivre,
Car de mon mal seray delivre,
Quand à sa puissance plaira.
Pallas point ne m'aidera:
Juno point ne s'en meslera:
Mais Venus, que j'ay voulu suivre,
Me dira bien, tien je te livre
Celle, qui ravy ton cueur a.

Chanson XXXIV
Puis que de vous je n'ay aultre visage,
Je m'en vois rendre hermite en ung desert,
Pour prier dieu, si ung aultre vous sert,
Qu'aultant que moy en vostre honneur soit sage.
A dieu Amours, à dieu gentil corsage,
A dieu ce tainct, à dieu ces frians yeux:
Je n'ay pas heu de vous grand adventage:
Ung moins aymant aura, peult estre, mieulx.

When I will not be able to see you anymore / I will go and become a hermit in the desert, / in order to pray to god, that if someone else serves you, / that he will behave as honourable towards you as I did. / Farewell Love(s), farewell gentle heart, / farewell that teint (complexion), those shining eyes: / I did not gain much from you: / perhaps someone who loves you less, will have more (fare better).

Chanson XXXV
Vous perdez temps de me dire mal d'elle,
Gens qui voulez divertir mon entente:
Plus la blasmez, plus je la trouve belle.
S'esbahist on, si tant je m'en contente?
La fleur de sa jeunesse
A vostre advis rien n'est ce?
N'est ce rien que ses grâces?
Cessez voz grands audaces,
Car mon Amour vaincra vostre mesdire:
Tel en mesdict, qui pour soy la desire.

You waste your time speaking ill of her to me, / you people who wish to turn my affection away: / the more you blame her, the more beautiful I find her. / Is anyone amazed if I am so content with her? / The flower of her youth, / in your opinion is it nothing? / Are her graces nothing? / Cease your great audacity, / for my Love will overcome your slander: / he who speaks ill of her desires her for himself.

Chanson XXXVI
Pour la Brune

Pourtant si je suis Brunette,
Amy n'en prenez esmoy,
Aultant suis ferme, et jeunette,
Qu'une plus blanche que moy.
Le Blanc effacer je voy.

Couleur Noire est tousjours une:
J'ayme mieulx donc estre Brune
Avecques me fermeté,
Que Blanche comme la Lune
Tenant de legiereté.

Chanson XXXVII
Pour la Blanche

Pourtant si le Blanc s'efface,
Il n'est pas à despriser:
Comme luy le Noyr se passe,
Il a beau temporiser.
Je ne veulx point me priser,

Ne mesdire en ma revanche:
Mais j'ayme mieulx estre blanche
Vingt, ou trente ans ensuivant
En beauté nayve, et franche,
Que noire tout mon vivant.

Chanson XXXVIII
J'ay trouvé moien, et loisir
D'envoyer Monsieur à la chasse,
Mais ung aultre prend le plaisir
Qu'envers ma Dame je pourchasse.
Ainsi pour vous gros Boeufz puissans,
Ne trainez Charrue en la Plaine:
Ainsi pour vous Moutons paissans,
Ne portez sur le dos la Laine.

Ainsi pour vous Oyseaulx du Ciel,
Ne sçauriez faire une couvée:
Ainsi pour vous Mousches à miel,
Vous n'avez la Cire trouvée.

Chanson XXXIX
Si j'avoys tel credit,
Et d'Amour recompense,
Comme l'Envieux pense,
Et comme il vous a dict,
Menteur ne seroit dict,
Ne vous froide amoureuse,
Et moy pauvre interdict
Serois personne heureuse:

Quand viens à remirer
Sa belle jouyssance,
Il n'est en ma puissance
De ne la desirer:
Et pour y aspirer
N'en doy perdre louange,
Ne d'honneur empirer:
Suis je de fer, ou Ange?

Qu'est besoing de mentir?
J'ose encores vous dire,
Que plus fort vous desire,
Quand veulx m'en repentir:
Et pour aneantir
Ce desir, qui tant dure,
Il vous fauldroit sentir
La peine que j'endure.

Vostre doulx entretien,
Vostre belle jeunesse,
Vostre bonté expresse
M'ont faict vostre, et m'y tien:
Vray est, que je voy bien
Vostre amour endormie,
Mais langueur ce m'est bien
Pour vous, ma chere Amye.

Chanson XL
Ne sçay combien la hayne est dure,
Et n'ay desir de le sçavoir:
Mais je sçay qu'amour, qui peu dure,
Faict ung grand tourment recepvoir.
Amour aultre nom deust avoir,
Nommer la fault Fleur, ou Verdure,
Qui peu de temps se laisse veoir.

Nommer le donc Fleur, ou Verdure
Au cueur de mon legier Amant:
Mais en mon cueur, qui trop endure,
Nommez le Roc, ou Dyamant,
Car je vy tousjours en aymant,
En aymant celluy qui procure,
Que Mort me voyse consommant.

Chanson XLI composée par Heroet
Qui la vouldra, fault premier que je meure:
Puis s'il congnoist son grand dueil appaisé,
La serve bien: mais il est mal aysé,
(Mort son Amy) qu'elle vive demeure.

Second couplet par Marot
Je cuyde bien qu'elle mourroit à l'heure,
Que Mort viendroit tous les Amans saisir:
Mais si (toy mort) elle en trouve à choisir,
J'ay belle peur qu'à grand peine elle pleure.

Chanson XLII
Mon cueur se recommande à vous,
Tout plein d'Ennuy, et de Martire:
Au moins en despit des Jaloux
Faictes qu'à Dieu vous puisse dire.
Ma bouche, qui vous souloit rire,
Et compter propos gracieux,
Ne faict maintenant que mauldire
Ceulx, qui m'ont banny de voz yeux.

Banny j'en suis par faulx semblant:
Mais pour nous veoir encor ensemble,
Fault que me soiez ressemblant
De fermeté: car il me semble
Que quand faulx Rapport desassemble
Les Amans, qui sont assemblez,
Si ferme amour ne les r'assemble
Sans fin seront desassemblez.

[first stanza] My heart is offered still to you / Full now of woe and deep despairing! / At least, in spite of the jealous eyes / Let me say Farewell to you.  / My mouth which once could smile in gladness, / And charming stories improvise / Now can only curse in its madness / Those who banished me from your eyes.