Tres doulz amis, tout ce que proumis t'ay; Ma dame, ce que vous m'avez proumis; Cent mille fois, ma douce dame chere
rondeau by Johannes Vaillant
Sources
Chantilly: Bibliothèque du Musèe Condè 564, fol. 17v (3/3).
Editions
1. French Secular Music of the Late Fourteenth Century, edited by Willi Apel, Cambridge/Massachusetts: Medieval Academy of America, 1950, no. 76.
2. French Secular Compositions of the Fourteenth Century, music edited by Willi Apel, texts
edited by Samuel N. Rosenberg, Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1970. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 53/I, p. 229.
3. French Secular Music. Manuscript Chantilly, Musèe Condè 564, First Part, edited by Gordon K. Greene,
Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1981. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century XVIII, p. 31.
Literature
1. BESSELER, Heinrich. 'Studien zur Musik des Mittelalters. I. Neue Quellen des 14. und beginnenden 15. Jahrhunderts', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, VII (1925): 167-252.
2. NEWES, Virginia E. 'Imitation in the Ars nova and Ars subtilior',
Revue belge de musicologie, XXXI (1977): 38-59.
3. LECLERCQ, F. 'Questions à propos d'un fragment rècemment dècouvert d'une chanson du XIV siècle: une autre version de "Par maintes fois"' Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit
des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1984, p. 201.
Recordings
The Late 14th Century Avant Garde, Early Music Consort of London, directed by David Munrow (1973): EMI/HMV ASD 3621 (GB).
Text
CANTUS
Tres doulz amis, tout ce que proumis t'ay
est tout certain, ne t'en iray faillant,
mais sans fausser entierement tendray,
tres doulz amis, tout ce que proumis t'ay.
C'est que toudis loyalment
t'ameray
pour ce que t'es en tout noumé vaillant.
Tres doulz amis, [tout ce que proumis t'ay
est tout certain, ne t'en iray faillant].
CONTRATENOR
(A) Ma dame, ce que vous m'avez proumis
a vous amer et desirer m'a
mort,
c'est que de vous seray noumé amis
ma dame, [ce que vous m'avez proumis].
Si vous supli qu'en oubli ne soye mis,
car pour vray trop avanceroyt ma mort.
Ma dame, [ce que vous m'avez proumis
a vous amer et
desirer m'a mort].
TENOR
Cent mille fois, ma douce dame chere,
de vostre humble response vous mercy,
coume celle que j'ay plus qu'autre chiere,
cent mille fois, ma douce dame chere.
Vueilliés dont
fayre a mon cuer bone chiere,
quar chascun jour se met en vo mercy.
Cent mille [fois, ma douce dame chere,
de vostre humble response vous mercy]
Translation
CANTUS
Very sweet love, everything that I have promised you,
you can be sure of; I will not fail you,
but, without treachery, I will give you entirely,
very sweet love, everything that I have promised
you.
Always will I love you loyally,
because you are declared worthy in everything.
Very sweet love, [everything that I have promised you,
you can be sure of; I will not fail you].
CONTRATENOR
My lady, what
you have promised me
(loving and desiring you have killed me)
is that I shall be declared by you your beloved.
My lady, [what you have promised me].
Indeed I beg of you that I be not accused,
for in truth it would greatly
speed my death.
My lady, [what you have promised me,
(loving and desiring you have killed me)].
TENOR
A hundred thousand times, my sweet, dear lady,
I thank you for your humble response,
as one whom I hold dear
more than any other,
a hundred thousand times, my sweet, dear lady.
Thus please look favourably on my heart,
for each day it places itself in your mercy.
A hundred thousand [times, my sweet, dear lady,
I thank you for your
humble response].Text revision and translation © Robyn Smith