VILLON, FRANCOIS

Additional reading Editions and translations. Important among early editions were Antoine Vrard (ed.), Jardin de plaisance (1501, reprinted in 2 vol., 191025); C. Marot, Les Oeuvres de Franoys Villon . . . (1533), the first critical edition; J.H.R. Prompsault, Oeuvres (1832), the first complete edition; and P. Lacroix, Oeuvres compltes, new ed. (1854). The standard edition of Villon's poems is by Auguste Longnon (1892), revised for Les Classiques franais du moyen ge by Lucien Foulet (1914; 4th ed., 1932). See also the critical edition, with commentary, by L. Thuasne, Oeuvres, 3 vol. (1923, reprinted 1967); and by A. Mary, Oeuvres potiques (1965). A. Lanley, Franois Villon, Oeuvres (1969), is useful for those unfamiliar with medieval French, and the notes clarify many textual difficulties. Individual poems have been translated into English by D.G. Rossetti, A.C. Swinburne, W.E. Henley, and J.M. Synge, among others; the most useful translation is the Complete Works of Franois Villon, ed., with parallel translations, by A. Bonner (1960). Bibliographies. L. de Cons, tat prsent des tudes sur Villon (1936), a fine study, especially in conjunction with J. Dufournet, Villon et sa fortune littraire (1970), which gives an up-to-date account of Villon studies. Biography and criticism. A. Longnon, tude biographique sur Franois Villon (1877), a work of admirable scholarship, which also reproduces the historical documentary material relating to the poet; P. Champion, Franois Villon, sa vie et son temps, 2 vol. (1913), an excellent study of the poet's life and times; D.B. Wyndham Lewis, Franois Villon: A Documented Survey (1928), with preface by Hilaire Belloc, and selected poems with translations, an imaginative reconstruction of Villon's life and times; I. Siciliano, Franois Villon et les thmes potiques du moyen ge (1934), a well-documented study; E.F. Chaney, Franois Villon in His Environment (1946); J.H. Fox, The Poetry of Villon (1962); F. Habeck, Franois Villon, oder die Legende eines Rebellen (1969; French trans. 1970), a romantic view of Villon; S. Nagel, Franois Villon: Versuch einer kritischen Darstellung seines Lebens nach seinen Gedichten (1856), which unravels very skillfully the acrostic puzzles in Villon's poetry; A. Ziwes, and A. de Bercy, Le Jargon de M. Franois Villon, 2 vol. (1954), an interesting study of the argot of the 15th century; A. Burger, Lexique de la langue de Villon: prcd de notes critiques pour l'tablissement du texte (1957), very useful from the linguistic point of view; D. Kuhn, La Potique de Franois Villon (1967), full of interesting insights, but not all his conclusions are acceptable; P. Guiraud, Le Testament de Villon, ou le Gai Savoir de la Basoche (1970), a rejection of the historical approach to Villon's work; J. Dufournet, Recherches sur le Testament de Franois Villon, 3 vol. (1967); and Odette Petit-Morphy, Franois Villon et la Scolastique, 2 vol. (1977).