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Medieval Music Database

Riches d'amour et mendians d'amie
ballade by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 298v (2/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 456 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 296v (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 159v (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 153v (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 135v (2/1);
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Library, French MS 15, number 154 (text).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 5.
2. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, Second Part, edited by Leo Schrade, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1956. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century III, p. 76.

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 539.

Literature

1. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'études musicales, p. 22.
2. GÜNTHER, Ursula. Der musikalische Stilwandel der französischen Liedkunst in der zweiten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts, dargestelt an Virelais, Balladen und Rondeax von Machaut., Ph.D. dissertation, University of Hamburg: 1957, Chapter 4.1.
3. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Die Mensuralnotation der Ars Nova in Theorie und Praxis', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, XIX-XX (1962), p. 25.
4. SALOP, Arnold. 'The secular polyphony of Guillaume de Machaut', [chapter 2 of his] Studies on the History of Musical Style, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1971, pp. 66, 70.
5. SWARTZ, Anne. 'A new chronology of the ballades of Machaut', Acta Musicologica, XLVI (1974): 192-207.
6. HIRSHBERG, Jehoash. 'Hexachordal and modal structure in Machaut's polyphonic chansons', Studies in Musicology in Honor of Otto E. Albrecht, 1980.
7. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Contribution de la musicologie à la biographie et à la chronologie de Guillaume de Machaut', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, pp. 95-116.
8. BENT, Margaret. 'The Machaut manuscripts Vg, B and E', Musica Disciplina, XXXVII (1983), p. 81.

Recordings

Lancaster and Valois: French and English music, 1350-1420, Gothic Voices, directed by Christopher Page (1992): Hyperion CDA66588.

Text

Riches d'amour et mendians d'amie.
Povres d'espoir et garnis de desir.
Pleins de dolour et diseteus d'aye.
Loing de merci, familleus de merir.
Nulz de tout ce qui me puet resjoir
Sui pour amer et de mort en paour.
Quant ma dame me het et je l'aour.

Ni n'est confors de ma grief maladie
Qui me peust de nulle part venir.
Car une amour s'est en mon cuer nourrie
Dont je ne puis joir ne repentir
Ne vivre lie ne morir ne garir
Ne bien avoir fors languir a dolour.
Quant ma dame me het et je l'aour.

Mais le voloir de si douce anemie
Weil humblement et liement souffrir.
Car grant honnour m'est par li ottroie
Contre son gre, quant je l'aim et desir;
Et s'Amour wet que je doie fenir
Pour li amer, se cera mon millour.
Quant ma dame me het et je l'aour.

Translation

Rich in love and lacking a lover.
Poor in hope and filled with desire.
Full of pain and starved of aid.
Far from mercy, hungry for reward -
I am none of those things which may give me joy
Because of love, and in terror of death.
Since my lady hates me and I adore her.

Nor is there comfort for my grievous illness
Which might come to me from any side.
For a love has been nurtured in my heart
Which I may neither enjoy nor renounce.
Neither live happily nor die, nor be cured.
Nor have any good but to languish in pain.
Since my lady hates me and I adore her.

But the will of so sweet an enemy
I will humbly and gladly suffer.
For she grants me great honour
Against her will, since I love and desire her.
And if Love wills that I must die
For love of her, it will be best for me.
Since my lady hates me and I adore her.

Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham

Content Approved by: MMDB Director
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 March 2003

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