Anonymous, Esse bien fait dictez ma belle amye

Esse bien fait dictez ma belle amye 3v · Anonymous

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Laborde f. 50 »Esse bien fait dictez ma belle amye« 1v [3v] (S only) · Edition · Facsimile

*Wolfenbüttel ff. 7v-8 »Esse bien fait dictez m’amye« 3v · Edition · Facsimile

Edition: Gutiérrez-Denhoff 1988 no. 8 (Wolfenbüttel); Goldberg 1997, p. 450 (Laborde+Wolfenbüttel).

Text: Rondeau quatrain; full text in both sources; also found in Paris 1722 f. 22; Paris 7559 f. 72v, ed.: Bancel p. 124; Jardin 1501 f. 117; Chasse 1509 f. O6.

After Laborde:

Esse bien fait, dictez ma belle amye, 1)
d’avoir volu mectre en tel desconfort
ung pouvre cueur qui vous aymoit si fort 2)
et qui n’avoit d’aultre servir envye?

Tout esgaré, plain de melencolye,
l’avez lessé pour ung aultre a grant tort,

esse bien fait, dictez ma belle amye?

Ung chascun jour tant luy requiers et prye
qu’il pregne en soy au tant peu de confort, 3)
mes il m’a dit qu’il ne veult que la mort
pour toust finer sa tresdolente vie.

Esse bien fait, dictez ma belle amye,
d’avoir volu mectre en tel desconfort
ung pouvre cueur qui vous aymoit si fort
et qui n’avoit d’aultre servir envye?

Is it well done, tell me, my fair lady,
to have wanted to put in such discomfort
a poor heart that loved you so much
and that had no desire to serve anyone else?

Completely lost, full of melancholy,
you have very unfairly left it for someone else,

is that well done, tell me, my fair lady?

Every single day I beg and implore it
that it just as well finds some little comfort,
but it has told me that it wish for nothing but death
to end soon its very painful life.

Is it well done, tell me, my fair lady,
to have wanted to put in such discomfort
a poor heart that loved you so much
and that had no desire to serve anyone else?

1) Wolfenbüttel, line 1, “... dictez m’amye” (error)
2) Wolfenbüttel, line , “... vous ayme tant fort”
1) Wolfenbüttel, line 10 , “... en soy ung seul de confort” (error)
– some differences in spelling.

Evaluation of the sources:

In the Laborde chansonnier only the top voice of this song has been preserved, since the folio that follows has disappeared. This part is completely identical in terms of music to the version that we find in the Wolfenbüttel chansonnier. The two scribes have apparently used the same or closely related exemplars. The Laborde scribe has only been a little more careful in copying the words of the poem.

Comments on text and music:

It is a male love complaint of a no small degree of banality. It is quite effectively set to music for three voices, each in its own range and not crossing each other, a moderately high voice (d'-d''), a tenor (f-g') and a low countertenor (F-a). The song is composed with much consideration for the words of the text. It starts with the main question “Esse bien fait?” delivered with emphasis by the slow tenor voice and continues “dictez ma belle amye” after a caesura in homorhythmic declamation. The second line starts imitatively with descending motifs in all three voices and it is connected directly to the rest of the refrain, which, like in the poem, is part of the question and proceeds without any breaks. The start of the fourth line in free canonical imitation between superius and tenor “sneaks in” in bar 38 and ends in a complementary rhythmic “rush” in ascending scale runs, in which all three voices participate.

The most original feature of this rondeau quatrain is its design of the rondeau form. The normal, clearly marked, middle cadence is absent. To emphasize the coherence of the refrain's meaning, the point of repetition is marked only by a fermata above the first of two repeated semibreves in bar 27. At the end of the first couplet the resulting fermata chord can be altered by introducing a major third in the highest voice, which leads back to the opening phrase. The meaning of the poem excludes that the second couplet can be a complete repeat of the refrain’s two first lines. A short refrain is needed, and the first line alone works fine as shown in the edition. Perhaps one could even follow the literary convention and only use the poem's short rentrement “Esse bien fait?” after the first couplet as well as after the tierce.

PWCH December 2025