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Medieval Music Database

Phyton, le merveilleus serpent
ballade by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 5203 (olim 97 BF), fol. 11v (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 473v (3/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 157 (3/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 148v (3/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds nouv. acq. français 23190 (olim Serrant Château, ducs de la Trémoïlle), fol. 18v-19 (lost), 28v-29 (lost);
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Library, French MS 15, number 160 (text).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 46.
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. 132.

Text Editions

Guillaume de Machaut: poésies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 563.

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. 52.
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. REANEY, Gilbert. '"Ars Nova" in France', [chapter 1 of] The New Oxford History of Music. III. Ars Nova and the Renaissance, edited by Dom Anselm Hughes and Gerald Abraham, London: Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 27.
4. FISCHER, Kurt von. 'On the technique, origin and evolution of Italian Trecento music', Musical Quarterly, XLVII (1961), p. 44.
5. FISCHER, Kurt von. 'Les compositions à trois voix chez les compositeurs du Trecento', L'Ars nova italiana del Trecento I: Certaldo 1959, 1962, p. 21.
6. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Chronologie und Stil der Kompositionen Guillaume de Machauts', Acta Musicologica, XXXV (1963), p. 106.
7. REANEY, Gilbert. 'Music in the late medieval entremets', Annales Musicologiques, VII (1964-1977), p. 62.
8. 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, p. 64.
9. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'Zitate in französischen Liedsätzen der Ars nova und Ars subtilior', Musica Disciplina, XXVI (1972), p. 56.
10. DÖMLING, Wolfgang. 'Aspekte der Sprachvertonung in den Balladen Guillaume de Machauts', Die Musikforschung, XXV/3 (1972), pp. 302-303.
11. SWARTZ, Anne. 'A new chronology of the ballades of Machaut', Acta Musicologica, XLVI (1974): 192-207.
12. ZIINO, Agostino. 'Guillaume de Machaut, fondateur d'école?', Guillaume de Machaut, poète et compositeur. Colloque - Table Ronde, 1978, p. 334.
13. 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.
14. Five Ballades for the House of Foix, edited by Peter M. Lefferts, with text edition and commentary by Sylvia Huot, Newton Abbott: Antico Editions, 1989.

Recordings

The Art of Courtly Love. Vol. I. Guillaume Machaut and His Age [Contemporaries], Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow (1973): HMV SLS 863(3) (GB).

Text

Phyton, le mervilleus serpent
Que Phebus de sa flesche occit.
Avoit la longeur d'un erpent.
Si com Ovides le descrit.
Mais onques hons serpent ne vit
Si fel, si crueus ne si fier
Com le serpent qui m'escondit.
Quant a ma dame merci quier.

Il a sept chies, et vraiement.
Chascuns a son tour contredit
La grace, ou mon vray desir tent.
Dont mes cuers a doleur languit:
Ce sont Refus, Desdaing, Despit.
Honte, Paour, Durte, Dangier.
Que me blecent en l'esperit.
Quant a ma dame merci quier.

Si ne puis durer longuement.
Car ma tres douce dame rit
Et prent deduit en mon tourment
Et es meschies, ou mes cuers vit.
Ce me destruit, ce me murdrit.
Ce me fait plaindre et larmoier.
Ce me partue et desconfit.
Quant a ma dame merci quier.

Translation

Python, the wondrous serpent
Whom Phoebus slew with his arrow
Was one furlong in length
As Ovid describes it.
But no man ever saw a serpent
So fierce, so cruel or so proud
As the serpent which repulses me
When I seek mercy of my lady.

He has seven heads and, truly.
Each in its turn speaks against
Grace, for which my true desire strives.
At which my heart languishes in pain.
These [heads] are Refusal, Disdain, Despite.
Shame, Fear, Harshness and Dismissal.
Which wound my spirits
When I seek mercy of my lady.

So I cannot endure long.
For my most sweet lady laughs
And takes pleasure in my torment
And in the misery in which my heart lives.
This destroys me, this murders me.
This makes me lament and weep.
This kills me and undoes me completely.
When I seek mercy of my lady.
Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham

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

Cantus

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