| EXILE KINGS |
| Productions |
| Francois Villon (1431 - ?1463?) |
| It seems that the legend about poet and thief Francois Villon gets more complex with every new generation of readers. This would be a variant of his biography. |
| THE BALLAD OF THE HANGED MAN Men my brothers who after us live, have your hearts against us not hardened. For -- if of poor us you take pity, God of you sooner will show mercy. You see us here, attached. As for the flesh we too well have fed, long since it's been devoured or has rotted. And we the bones are becoming ash and dust. Of our pain let nobody laugh, but pray God would us all absolve. If you my brothers I call, do not scoff at us in disdain, though killed we were by justice. Yet þþ you know all men are not of good sound sense. Plead our behalf since we are dead naked with the Son of Mary the Virgin that His grace be not for us dried up preserving us from hell's fulminations. We're dead after all. Let no soul revile us, but pray God would us all absolve. Rain has washed us, laundered us, and the sun has dried us black. Worse -- ravens plucked our eyes hollow and picked our beards and brows. Never ever have we sat down, but this way, and that way, at the wind's good pleasure ceaselessly we swing 'n swivel, more nibbled at than sewing thimbles. Therefore, think not of joining our guild, but pray God would us all absolve. Prince Jesus, who over all has lordship, care that hell not gain of us dominion. With it we have no business, fast or loose. People, here be no mocking, but pray God would us all absolve. 1462 THE BALLAD OF THE PROVERBS So rough the goat will scratch, it cannot sleep. So often goes the pot to the well that it breaks. So long you heat iron, it will glow; so heavily you hammer it, it shatters. So good is the man as his praise; so far he will go, and he's forgotten; so bad he behaves, and he's despised. So loud you cry Christmas, it comes. So glib you talk, you end up in contradictions. So good is your credit as the favors you got. So much you promise that you will back out. So doggedly you beg that your wish is granted; so high climbs the price when you want a thing; so much you want it that you pay the price; so familiar it gets to you, you want it no more. So loud you cry Christmas, it comes. So, you love a dog. Then feed it! So long a song will run that people learn it. So long you keep the fruit, it will rot. So hot the struggle for a spot that it is won; so cool you keep your act that your spirit freezes; so hurriedly you act that you run into bad luck; so tight you embrace that your catch slips away. So loud you cry Christmas, it comes. So you scoff and laugh, and the fun is gone. So you crave and spend, and lose your shirt. So candid you are, no blow can be too low. So good as a gift should a promise be. So, if you love God, you obey the Church. So, when you give much, you borrow much. So, shifting winds turn to storm. So loud you cry Christmas, it comes. Prince, so long as a fool persists, he grows wiser; so, round the world he goes, but return he will, so humbled and beaten back into servility. So loud you cry Christmas þþ it is here. |