The Ballad of Dead Ladies (Francois Villon, 1450)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1869
Rhyme: a4b4a4b4b 4c4b4c4
Meter: trochaic
Genre: ballad

Bibliography

◦ Sharp, DGR: A Record and a Study, 304-305.

◦ Gregory, “Life and Works of DGR” vol. 2, 124.

◦ Baum, Poems, Ballads and Sonnets, 177.

◦ Lange, “Swinburne und Rossetti”.

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the 1881 Poems first edition text.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This poem—one of DGR's three translations from Villon—opens the important last part of the opening section of the 1870 volume This section of the book, titled simply Poems, establishes the centrality of the interrelated themes of love, death, and art. The final part of the opening section of the book contains a series of translations that are meant to underscore the transcultural foundation of DGR's poetic focus.

DGR's ballad is the best (and most celebrated) of his translations from Villon. Sharp praised it extravagantly ( DGR: A Record and a Study, 304-305 ), but Baum is more measured: “The difficulties of the ballade form obliged him to greater liberties [than in his translation of Villon's rondeau]. For the substitution of Hipparchia he cannot of course be blamed; but his omission of cousin german in l. 4 and his change of l. 3 of the envoi are less excusable; and his ‘yester-year’ is too poetical for antan” ( Baum, Poems, Ballads and Sonnets, 177n ). See the general commentary for all three translations.

Textual History: Composition

According to WMR (1911) the translation was made in 1869; if so, it must have been executed by August, since it appears in the Penkill Proofs, the first of the prepublication texts DGR prepared for the eventual publication of his 1870 Poems.

Printing History

First printed in August 1869 in the Penkill Proofs, the first of the prepublication texts DGR prepared for the eventual publication of his 1870 Poems. It appeared in the latter and was reprinted in his “New Edition” of 1881 and collected thereafter

Translation

DGR is translating Villon's Le Testament lines 329-356.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 38-1869.raw.xml