Oublie oublie oublie oublie oublie

Oublie oublie oublie oublie oublie 3v · Anonymous (unique)

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Leuven ff. 22v-23 »Oublie oublie oublie oublie oublie« 3v · Edition · Facsimile

Text: Rondeau quatrain, full text in Leuven:

Oublie oublie oublie oublie oublie,
oublie oublie oublie tes dolours, 1)
leal amant, car venus sont les jours
que de dangier ne donnent une oublie. 2)

Si tu as dueil ou as merancolie 3)
que tes desirs venoient au rebours,

oublie oublie oublie oublie oublie,
oublie oublie oublie tes dolours.

Pour tant donques lesse celle follie,
tu n’as besoing de ces dolens labours,
ainsi vivras doulcement en amours
et au plaisir de ta dame et amye.

Oublie oublie oublie oublie oublie,
oublie oublie oublie tes dolours,
leal amant, car venus sont les jours
que de dangier ne donnes une oublie.

Forget, forget, forget, forget, forget,
forget, forget, forget your sufferings,
loyal lover, for the days have arrived
that do not bring a bit of danger.

If you feel grief or is depressed
because your desires were rejected,

forget, forget, forget, forget, forget,
forget, forget, forget your sufferings.

Therefore now take leave of this folly,
you have no need for these painful labours,
and then you will live nicely in love
and at the pleasure of your lady and beloved.

Forget, forget, forget, forget, forget,
forget, forget, forget your sufferings,
loyal lover, for the days have arrived
that do not bring a bit of danger.

1) line 2 is missing four syllables or two word repeats.
2) line 4, “...ne donne une oublie”
3) line 5 is missing a syllable.

Comments:

The unique rondeau was entered into the Leuven chansonnier without any errors in the music. The point of the poem is the repeated call to a male lover about forgetting all past worries. All this shouting may be inspired by the cries of street vendors who offered small pressed waffles, oublies, a delicacy that was sold on the street and in front of churches, especially around the holidays and on saints' days, demand was high. (1) This possible allusion may lend the poem a tinge of irony, which goes well with the light nature of the music.

The structure of the poem demands that the word “oublie” is said eight times in order to supply the needed number of syllables. The scribe only found space for six times “oublie” below the first staff of the superius, and also the first line of the couplets is missing a syllable (line 5). Funnily enough, this reduced number of syllables fits the shorter musical lines of the lower voices much better than the superius.

The speaker is female and fittingly the setting is in a quite high tessitura with the upper voices an octave apart and a contratenor, which mostly keeps below the tenor. With its staggered entries and a stretch in octave canon between superius and tenor in the rondeau’s second section, the song seems to have been quite recent when it was entered into the chansonnier. It was probably a local product made with much reliance on hexachordal and cadential standard figures.

PWCH December 2023, revised March 2024

1) Cf. Pierre Larousse, Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle : français, historique, géographique, mythologique, bibliographique...., Paris 1874, T. 11, p. 1562; see also the remarks by Adam Knight Gilbert in Gilbert 2020, pp. 241-242.