At the accession of Louis XI. to the crown of France, he was so mortified by the dissimulation of that monarch, that he retired in disgust from the He died on the first of January, 1466, in his 75th year.

court.

Besides his poems and the speech delivered in favour of the Duke of Alençon, there are remaining some of his letters, addressed to the "good cities" of France, or to the king. They are dated from Gergeau sur Loire, July 14, 1411, and are thus described by Juvenal des Ursins, who refers to them in the History of Charles VI. "Lettres longues et assez prolixes, et faites en bel et doux langage."*

The writer of a memoir, prefixed to his poems, adds that his tomb, which was in a chapel of the Celestines, at Paris, has escaped the ravages of time and of the revolution, and is to be found in the depository of French monuments, in the Rue des Petits Augustins.

See the paper by the Abbé Sallier. Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions, t. xvii. Mars. 1742.

FRANCOIS VILLON.

THE praise bestowed by Boileau on Villon, and still more the pains taken by Clement Marot, at the instance of Francis the First, to edit his poems, would lead us to expect great things from them; but in this expectation most English readers will probably be disappointed. For while Alain Chartier is full as intelligible as Chaucer, and Charles Duke of Orleans more so, Villon (who wrote after both) can scarcely be made out by the help of a glossary. Even his editor, Marot, who, as he tells us in the preface, had corrected a vast number of passages in his poems, partly from the old editions, partly from the recital of old people who had got them by heart, and partly from his own conjectures, was forced to leave several others untouched, which he could neither correct nor explain. One cause of the difficulty, which we find in reading Villon, is assigned by Marot, in a sentence that shows his knowledge of the true principles of criticism. "Quant à l'industrie des lays qu'il feit en ses testamens pour suffisamment la congnoistre et entendre, il faudroit avoir esté de son temps à Paris, et avoir congneu les lieux, les choses et les hommes

dont il parle; la memoire desquelz tant plus se passera, tant moins se congnoistra icelle industrie des ses lays dictz. Pour ceste cause qui voudra faire une œuvre de lougue durée, ne preigne son soubject, sur telles choses basses et particulieres." Les ŒŒuvres de François Villon, à Paris, 1723, small 8vo. "As to the address with which he has distributed his legacies, in the poems called his Wills, to understand it sufficiently one should have been at Paris in his time, and have been acquainted with the places, the things, and the persons of whom he speaks; for by how much more the memory of these shall have been lost, so much less shall we be able to discover his dexterity in the distribution of these bequests. He who would compose a work that shall last, ought not to choose his subject in circumstances thus mean and particular."

The truth is, that Villon appears to have been one of the first French writers who excelled in what they call Badinage, for which I do not know any adequate term in our language. It is something between wit and buffoonery. Less intellectual and refined than the one, and not so gross and personal as the other, in reconciling, it in some degree neutralizes both. To an Englishman it is apt to appear either ridiculous or insipid; to a Frenchman it is almost enough to make the charm of life.

One of the chief causes of Villon's popularity

must however have arisen in the great number of French families whom he has mentioned in his two Wills, generally for the purpose of ridiculing certain individuals who belonged to them. A list of these, containing upwards of eighty names, is prefixed to these two poems.

His "Petit Testament," which was written in 1456, he supposes to have been made on the following occasion. Being heartily tired of love, and thinking there was no other cure for it but death, he represents himself as determined on leaving this world, and accordingly draws up his will.

His "Grand Testament" was framed in a more serious conjuncture. In 1461 he was committed to prison at Melun, together with five accomplices, for a crime, the nature of which is not known. But whatever it were, he intimates that he was tempted into it by his mistress, who afterwards deserted him. He remained in a dungeon and in chains, on an allowance of bread and water, during a whole summer, and was condemed to be hung; but Louis XI. (who had then newly succeeded to the throne), in consideration, as it is said, of his poetical abilities, mercifully commuted his punishment into exile. He is, perhaps, the only man whom the muse has rescued from the gallows. The hardships he had suffered during his confinement brought on a premature old age; but they taught him, he says, more

wisdom than he could have learned from a com

mentary on Aristotle's ethics.

Travail mes lubres sentimens

Aguisa (ronds comme pelote)

Me monstrant plus que les commens

Sur le sens moral d'Aristote.-Ib. p. 14.

"Trouble has sharpened my lubberly thoughts (before as round as a bullet); shewing me more than the comments on Aristotle's Ethics could have done."

The first place at which he found a refuge was St. Genou, near St. Julien, on the road leading from Poitou into Bretagne. Here he was reduced to such extremity, that he was forced to beg his bread; and if the fear of his Maker had not restrained him, he declares he should have put an end to himself.

There is little known of what happened to him afterwards. He probably met with some lucky turn of fortune; for Rabelais mentions his having been in favour with Edward V. of England, and his dying at an advanced age.

From what has been said of the peculiar vein of his genius, the reader will perceive, that it is scarcely capable of being fairly represented in another language. His happy turns of expression, smart personalities, and witty inuendoes, would tell very indifferently at second hand. A short ballad out of the