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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
Charles d'Orlians: Three Macaronic Rondeaux
Whilst the evolution of Charles d'Orleans's themes and moods, during the five decades of his writing career (1410s to 1450s), has received a good deal of comment, less attention has been paid to the duke's changing attitude towards his linguistic material, becoming much bolder with the passage of time. Words became objects of fascination for the ageing duke, even to the extent of inventing some, occasionally for rhyming purposes, or introducing others from non-literary sources, numbers appearing in the written language for the first time. Nowhere is his imaginative treatment of words more evident than in his macaronic verse. There are at least a dozen such poems, mostly mixing French and Latin as was the fashion, but two mix French and Italian, one French and English. These three poems will be our principal concern here.
Quant n'ont assez fait dodo
Cez petitz enfanchonnés,
Il portent soubz leurs bonnés
Visages plains de bobo.
C'est pitié s'il font jojo
Trop matin, les doulcinés.
Quant n'ont assez fait dodo,
Mieulx amassent a gogo
Gesir sur molz coissinés
Car il sont tant poupinés!
Helas! che gnogno, gnogno,
Quant n'ont assez fait dodo.
What more unlikely subject could there possibly be for a poem than the cries of infants who have not slept enough? The tour de force in this amusing little piece is in the rhymes: dodo:bobo:jojo:a gogo:gnogno, all found here for the first time, the last word the only time.
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