Danse Macabre: François Villon. Poetry & Murder in Medieval France

Francois Villon (1431 - ?1465) is one of the great enigmas of French medieval history: a lyric poet of beauty and depth, he was also a murderer, pimp, thief and denizen of the underworld of 15th-century Paris. This study places Villon in the context of medieval France from the death of Joan of Arc, describing the appalling condition of the country during the Hundred Years War, the time when Gilles de Rais - the original Bluebeard - was practicing his diabolical craft of child abuse and alchemy. François Villon was a career criminal and a major poet, a priest killer (for which he was banished from France) and a recidivist thief who survived death row three times to write some of the most beautiful verses in the French language, including the famous refrain, "O? sont les neiges d'antan?" This heartfelt biography, the first full-length study of the poet's life in 50 years, focuses on the discrepancy between the brief, sad but boisterous life Villon led and the technical genius of his writing (of which only 3,000 lines remain today). Born in 1431 in war-ravaged Paris, Villon attracted the benevolence of clergyman Guillaume de Villon, who exposed the precocious boy to gentlefolk and church learning. According to Burl, Villon "remained a gamin of the Paris slums," consorting with prostitutes, drunks and a particularly sinister gang of desperadoes called the Coquillards. Villon's escapades were certainly colorful, but Burl never lingers over them unduly, always returning to the question of how, despite the constant chaos of his personal life, Villon produced his astonishingly controlled poetry Acknowledgements iv A Note on the Poetry v Preface vii 1 Childhood Years, 1431-50 1 2 The Affair of the Pet-au-Deable, 1451-4 25 3 Death in Painting, in Poetry and in Practice, 1452-5 45 4 The First Exile, June 1455 to January 1456 73 5 The First "Testament", Villon's Legacies, 1456 91 6 Lust, Love and Larceny, December 1456 111 7 The Second Exile, 1457-60 131 8 Meung-sur-Loire, 1461 159 9 The Great Testament, 1462 179 Interlude. The Debate between Villon and his Heart 207 10 The Third Exile, 1463. Disappearance? 211 Notes 226 Select Bibliography 234 Further Reading 235 Index 238 FIRST BRITISH EDITION. 2000 Sutton hardcover, Aubrey Burl (The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany). Francois Villon is one of the great enigmas of French medieval history. A lyric poet of beauty and depth, he was also a murderer, pimp, thief and denizen of the underworld of 15th-century Paris. The book describes a riotous and debauched student life in medieval Paris and Villon's first steps on a life of crime when he was publicly flogged for writing a scurrilous ballad and later involved in a scuffle which ended with his killing a priest. - Amazon Francois Villon (1431-1465) is one of the great enigmas of French medieval history: a lyric poet of surpassing beauty and depth, he was also a murderer, pimp, thief and denizen of the underworld of fifteenth-century Paris. The book describes the riotous and debauched student life in medieval Paris and Villon's first steps to a life of crime when he was publicly flogged for writing a scandalous ballad. Danse Macabre recreates medieval France through the life and work of its greatest poet. A Biography Of The Great French Lyric Poet Who Was Also A Pimp, Thief And Murderer. Aubrey Burl. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [233]-235) And Index.