La Trobe University - Library: Medieval Music Database - Annual cycle of feasts of liturgical chant, liturgical polyphony and secular music of the late middle ages.

Quant j'ay l'espart

rondeau by Guillaume de Machaut

Sources

New York: Wildenstein Collection, fol. 317v (2/1);
Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 843 (text); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (MachA), fol. 477 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1585 (MachB), fol. 316v (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1586 (MachC), fol. 202 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 9221 (MachE), fol. 136 (2/1); Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 22546 (MachG), fol. 150v (2/1);
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Library, French MS 15, number 116 (text).

Editions

1. Guillaume de Machaut: Musikalische Werke. Erster Band: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais, edited by Friedrich Ludwig, Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1926, p. 54.
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. 145.
3. Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), p. 6.
4. FULLER, Sarah. The European Musical Heritage 800-1750, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Text Editions
Guillaume de Machaut: poèsies lyriques, 2 vols., edited by V. Chichmaref, Paris: 1909, p. 570.
Literature
1. MACHABEY, Armand. Guillaume de Machault, 130?-1377: La vie et l'oeuvre musicale, 2 vols, Paris: Richard-Masse-Editeur, 1955. Bibliothèque d'ètudes musicales, pp. 155-156.
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 4.2.
3. HIRSHBERG, Jehoash. 'Hexachordal and modal structure in Machaut's polyphonic chansons', Studies in Musicology in Honor of Otto E. Albrecht, 1980.
4. 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.
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
Quant j'ay l'espart
De vo regart,
Dame d'onnour,
Son doulz espart
En moy espart
Toute doucour.

Car main et tart
M'esprent son dart
De fine amour,
Quant j'ay l'espart
De vo regart,
Dame d'onnour;

Et me repart
D'un ris que m'art,
Mais celle ardour
Par son dous art
De moy depart
Toute doulour.

Quant j'ay l'espart
De vo regart,
Dame d'onnour.
Son doulz espart
En moy espart
Toute doucour
Translation
When I see the flash
Of your glance,
Most noble lady,
Its sweet flame
Spreads out in me
Every delight.

For morning and night
Its dart pierces me
With tender love,
When I see the flash
Of your glance,
Most noble lady;

And it rewards me
With a smile that burns me.
But this ardour
By its sweet art
Drives from me
Every pain.

When I see the flash
Of your glance,
Most noble lady.
Its sweet flame
Spreads out in me
Every delight.
Text revision and translation © Jennifer Garnham