Anonymous, D’une belle jeune fille / Coquille bobille 4v

D’une belle jeune fille / Coquille bobille 4v · Anonymous

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Dijon ff. 184v-185 »D’une belle josne fille / Coquille bobille« 4v · Edition · Facsimile

*Nivelle ff. 38v-39 »D’une belle jeune fille / Coquille bobille« 4v · Edition · Facsimile

Other musical source:

Bologna Q16 ff. 152v-153 »Cochilie« 4v · Facsimile (312)

Edition: Maniates 1989 no. 33 (Dijon).

Text: Rondeau quatrain in the upper voice combined with a popular song in the lower voices; full text in Dijon and Nivelle.
After Dijon and Nivelle:

Superius:

D’une belle jeune fille,
qui se dormoit soubz ung pin,
tins naqueres le tetin,
ront et dur comme une bille.

Et par voie assez soubtille
baisay le doulx musequin

d’une belle jeune fille,
qui se dormoit soubz ung pin.

Lors se dressa ma coquille
preste d’avoir le hutin 1)
et n’appetoit ce matin 2)
qu’a ce frocter de l’estrille. 3)

D’une belle jeune fille,
qui se dormoit soubz ung pin,
tins naqueres le tetin,
ront et dur comme une bille.

Tenor:

Coquille, bobille,
faucille, bourdon.

Et berger, berger
comment t’apellon? 4)
Par ma foy, ma dame,
j’ay nom tapperon. 5)

Coquille, bobille,
faucille, bourdon.

Contratenor altus:

Coquille, bobille,
faucille, bourdon.

Et d’ou vient, d’ou vient
la nostre servante?
Elle vient de no jardin
cueillir de la mante. 6)

Coquille, bobille,
faucille, bourdon.

Of a fair young girl
who had fallen asleep under a pine
I recently held the breast,
round and hard as a bullet.

And little by little, quite delicately
I kissed the sweet little mouse

of a fair young girl
who had fallen asleep under a pine.

Then my cockle arose
ready for fight
and this morning desired only
to rub the currycomb.

Of a fair young girl
who had fallen asleep under a pine
I recently held the breast,
round and hard as a bullet.

Cockle, bockle,
sickle, baton.

Hey shepherd,
what is your name?
By my faith, my lady,
my name is Smasher.

Cockle, bockle,
sickle, baton.

Where does she come from,
our maid?
She comes from our garden,
from picking mint.

Cockle, bockle,
sickle, baton.

1) Nivelle, “preste attrapper au hutin”
2) Nivelle, “et n’a pete au matin”
3) Nivelle, “que ce frotez …”
4) Nivelle, “comment a tu nom”
5) Nivelle, “j’ay nom taste con” (my name is Touch Cunt)
6) Dijon, “de cueillir de la mente”

Evaluation of the sources:

The main scribes of Dijon and Nivelle chansonniers used different but closely related exemplars when they copied this four-part combinative chanson. In both chansonniers the mensuration is indicated by the sign for tempus imperfectum followed by “2”. This means that the song is in imperfect minor modus consisting of longa bars containing two imperfect breves and all values are diminished. The longa bars are in the transcription marked by ticks on the bottom lines of the staves. We find this notation of diminished double time in the music of Du Fay’s generation (and by Busnoys), and in many younger sources scribes have tacitly replaced it with the more common tempus imperfectum diminutum and thereby deleted the subtle phrasing in double bars. This is exactly what happened in the Italian chansonnier of the late 1480s in Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, MS Q16, in which “D’une belle jeune fille” appears without text – with the incipit “Cochilie” only.

The textless version uses many more ligatures than the earlier ones and differs in some details, otherwise it is quite similar to the Dijon version. Like Nivelle it prescribes hexachordal signatures of one flat in all four voices. Dijon only has flat signatures in the tenor and the high contratenor, the two voices that carry the popular tune. This disposition only causes small differences in the sound of the song compared to Nivelle. Moreover, Dijon differs from Nivelle by a much more extensive use of coloration and in some decorative details, most clearly in the upper voice at the final cadence, bars 37-38. The effective ending in the contratenor bassus bars 39-40 with pause, semibrevis and octave sound, inviting a repetition of the last word, is found only in Dijon. It may be the Dijon scribe's own contribution to the song. The three highest voices are fully texted in Dijon and Nivelle. In Nivelle the low contratenor has only the words of the popular refrain, while in Dijon the remainder is provided with a partial rendition of the rondeau refrain.

There can be no doubt that the song had been in circulation for some time before it was introduced into the two chansonniers, so that along the way small divergences in the written exemplars had arisen. The Dijon version reached the Italian repertory.

Comments on text and music:

Two different bawdy poems are set to music for four voices, a rondeau is sung by the highest voice, while the tenor presents a tune and lyrics taken from a popular song with a refrain “Coquille bobille” that comes before and after the four-line stanzas. The high countertenor builds on the same tune and sings a different stanza from the song. There is nothing courtly about the rondeau in the upper voice. It gleefully describes a sexual assault on a sleeping young girl, while the popular song more down-to-earthly portrays frivolous banter between rural people. For at least part of the audience, the song was probably a tickling change from the interminable love laments.

The popular refrain, which begins and ends the song, is set in canonic imitation in the three low voices, contratenor bassus and the late entering tenor brings it loco, while the high contratenor sings at the fifth above and proceeds in a free rendering of the tenor tune. The rather long sections of canon lend the song a touch of learned music that serves to enhance its comic effect.

Dijon chansonnier does not indicate a precise spot where to repeat the music in the rondeau’s couplets. It seems natural to stop at the three-part cadence to G in bar 14, in the second half of a double bar, maybe appropriate for a fast-paced comic song. In Nivelle the scribe has placed a corona in the superius in bar 17, at the start of a double bar. Could this be a hint that the first section should end here? To work in practice, the instruction would have to apply only to the three low voices, which then end on an open fifth with the question “D’ou vient nostre servante?” Maybe that could work too.

This song seems to be related to a song by Busnoys, which appears immediately after it in the Dijon chansonnier, "Vous marchez du bout de pie" (no. 155, ff. 185v-186). The same ideas underlie the construction of the anonymous song, but Busnoys exploits them in a far more virtuoso manner.

PWCH November 2025