François Villon

François Villon (ca.1431 - ca.1474) was a French poet, thief, and general vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison. It has been claimed that the villanelle is named after him, although few scholars today defend that theory. His question, "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?", translated by Algernon Charles Swinburne as "Where are the snows of yesteryear?", is one of the most famous non-biblical lines of translated poetry in the English-speaking world.

Works

Villon was a great innovator in terms of the themes of poetry and, through these themes, a great renovator of the forms. He understood perfectly the medieval ethic, but he often chose to write against the grain of the courtly ideal, reversing the values and celebrating the lowlifes destined for the gallows, falling happily into parody or lewd jokes, and constantly innovating in his language. Still, Villon's verse is mostly about his own life, and it was not a happy life. The Grand Testament (1461), his greatest work, is in some ways a continuation of the Petit Testament (a.k.a Lais, 1456). The 2023 verses are marked by the immediate prospect of death by hanging. With a remarkable ambivalence, it mixes reflections on the passing of time, bitter derision, invective, and religious fervor. This mixed tone of pathetic sincerity stands in contrast to the other poets of the time.

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