Eustache Deschamps Quotes

Eustache Deschamps , was a French poet, byname Morel, in French "Nightshade" .

Deschamps was born in Vertus. He received lessons in versification from Guillaume de Machaut and later studied law at Orleans University. He then traveled through Europe as a diplomatic messenger for Charles V, being sent on missions to Bohemia, Hungary and Moravia. In 1372 he was made huissier d'armes to Charles. He received many other important offices, was bailli of Valois, and afterwards of Senlis, squire to the Dauphin, and governor of Fismes .

In 1380, Charles died, and Deschamps's estate was pillaged by the English, after which he often used the name "Brulé des Champs" . In his childhood he had been an eyewitness of the English invasion of 1358, he had been present at the siege of Reims in 1360 and seen the march on Chartres, and he had witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Brétigny . In consequence he hated the English and continuously abused them in his many poems.

Deschamps wrote as many as 1,175 ballades, and he is sometimes credited with inventing the form. All but one of his poems are short, and they are mostly satirical, attacking the English, whom he regards as the plunderers of his country, and against the wealthy oppressors of the poor. His satires were also directed at corrupt officials and clergy but his sharp wit may have cost him his job as Bailli of Senlis.

He was the author of a treatise on French verse entitled L'Art de dictier et de fere chansons, balades, virelais et rondeaulx, completed on 25 November 1392 . Besides giving rules for the composition of the kinds of verse mentioned in the title he enunciates some theories on poetry. He divides music into music proper and poetry. Music proper he calls artificial on the ground that everyone could by dint of study become a musician; poetry he calls natural because he says it is not an art that can be acquired but a gift. He stresses the harmony of verse, because, as was the fashion of his day, he practically took it for granted that all poetry was to be sung .

His one long poetic work, Le Miroir de Mariage, is a 12,103-line satirical poem on the subject of women. This work influenced Geoffrey Chaucer who used themes from the poem in his own work. Chaucer seems to be one of the few Englishmen Deschamps liked, as he composed a ballade in his honour praising Chaucer as a great philosopher, translator, ethicist, and poet . Wikipedia

✵ 1346 – 1406

Eustache Deschamps: 4 quotes 0 likes

Famous Eustache Deschamps Quotes

“If all the sky was made of gold leaf, and the air was starred with fine silver, and treasure borne on all the winds, and every drop of sea-water was a florin, and it rained down, morning and evening, riches, goods, honours, jewels, money, till all the people were filled with it, and I stood there naked in such rain and wind, never a drop of it would fall on me.”

Eustache Deschamps

Se tout le ciel estoit de feuilles d'or,
Et li airs fust estellés d'argent fin,
Et tous les vens fussent pleins de tresor,
Et les gouttes fussent toutes florin
D'eaue de mer, et pleust soir et matin
Richesses, biens, honeurs, joiaux, argent,
Tant que rempli en fust toute la gent,
La terre aussi en fust mouillee toute,
Et fusse nu, – de tel pluie et tel vent
Ja sur mon cors n'en cherroit une goutte.
"Se tout le ciel estoit de feuilles d'or", line 1; text and translation from Brian Woledge (ed.) The Penguin Book of French Verse, 1: To the Fifteenth Century (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1961] 1968) p. 236.

“High poet, pride of the English squires,
I would be just a nettle in your garden.”

Eustache Deschamps

Poete hault, loenge d'escuiye,
En ton jardin ne seroie qu'ortie.
"Grant translateur, noble Geoffroy Chaucier" line 31; text and translation from Ian S. Laurie and Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi (eds.), David Curzon and Jeffrey Fiskin (trans.) Eustache Deschamps: Selected Poems (London: Routledge, 2003) pp. 70-71.

“The snail will get to Easter just as soon.”

Eustache Deschamps

Aussi tost vient à Pasques limaçon.
"Moult se vantoit li cerfs d'estre legiers", line 10; text and translation from Brian Woledge (ed.) The Penguin Book of French Verse, 1: To the Fifteenth Century (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1961] 1968) p. 238.

“All strangers love her, will always find her fair,
Because such elegance, such happiness,
Will not be found in any town but this:
Paris is beyond compare.”

Eustache Deschamps

Tuit estrangier l'aiment et ameront,
Car pour deduit et pour estre jolis,
Jamais cité tele ne trouveront:
Riens ne se puet comparer a Paris.
"Quant j'ay la terre et mer avironnée", line 17; text and translation from Ian S. Laurie and Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi (eds.), David Curzon and Jeffrey Fiskin (trans.) Eustache Deschamps: Selected Poems (London: Routledge, 2003) pp. 62-63.