Anonymous, Ce que ma bouche n’ose dire

Ce que ma bouche n’ose dire 3v · Anonymus

Appearance in the group of related chansonniers:

*Leuven ff. 57v-59 »Ce que ma bouche n’ouse dire« 3v · Edition · Facsimile

Other musical sources:

Paris 15123 ff. 96v-97 »Che que ma bouche n’ose dire« 3v · Facsimile
*Uppsala 76a ff. 14v-15 »Ce que ma bouche n’ose dire« 3v · Edition · Facsimile

This page with editions as a PDF

Text: Rondeau cinquain; full text in Leuven and Uppsala 76a; also found in Berlin 78.B.17 f. 101 (no. 218), ed. Löpelmann 1927, p. 165.

After Leuven:

Ce que ma bouche n’ouse dire
ne ma plume ne soit escrire
vueillez, las, ma dame penser, 1)
car, sur ma foy, par trop amer
ma vie va fort a l’empire. 2)

En ce monde rien ne desire,
fors que facez le grief martire
qu’a mon las cueur fault endurer.

Ce que ma bouche n’ouse dire
ne ma plume ne soit escrire
vueillez, las, ma dame penser.

Je suis des malheureux le pire,
helas, qu’a vous, mon tout seul mire, 3)
ne pourroye mon mal compter, 4)
craignant que plaindre lamenter
me facent dormir a l’empire. 5)

Ce que ma bouche n’ouse dire
ne ma plume ne soit escrire
vueillez, las, ma dame penser,
car, sur ma foy, par trop amer
ma vie va fort a l’empire.

What my mouth does not dare to say
or my pen may not write
please consider it, alas, my lady,
because, by my faith, by loving too much
my life is fast growing worse.

In this world I wish for nothing
but that you dress the deep wounds,
which my poor heart must endure.

What my mouth does not dare to say
or my pen may not write
please consider it, alas, my lady.

I am of the unhappy the worst,
alas, so that you, my sole doctor,
will not be able to count my pains,
and I fear that complaining and lamenting
will make me sleep forever.

What my mouth does not dare to say
or my pen may not write
please consider it, alas, my lady,
because, by my faith, by loving too much
my life is fast growing worse.

1) Uppsala 76a, line 3, “... le mal dame panser”
2) Uppsala 76a, line 5, “ma vie en va pire” (error).
3) Uppsala 76a, line 13, “... que vous tout seul mire” (error)
4) Uppsala 76a, line 14, “n’oseroye ...”
5) Uppsala 76a, line 16, “ne le face devenir pire”

Evaluation of the sources:

Among the ‘Loire Valley’ chansonniers only the Leuven chansonnier contains this rondeau, which was entered by the main scribe with very few errors. In the Pixérécourt chansonnier, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. f.fr. 15123, created in Florence in the early 1480s, it is found with only the refrain as text and some errors towards its end, while it has complete text in the French chansonnier preserved in the Uppsala University Library (Musik i Handskrift 76a), which can be dated to the decade following 1500.

The poem probably does not appear in its original wording in any of the sources. Especially the third line in the refrain and the last line in the tierce are problematic. Line three is in the Rohan MS, a French collection of poetry from around 1470, “vueilles le en vostre cueur panser” according to the edition by Martin Löpelmann, while the words in Leuven are “vueillez las ma dame penser” and almost homonymous in Pixérécourt “veilliez, lamadame penser”; and Uppsala 76a has the words “veillez le mal dame panser”. I would guess that none of the scribes of the musical sources were quite sure of the meaning of this line.

The last line of the poem is in Leuven “me facent dormir a l’empire”, which repeats the last words of the refrain, but in a slightly different meaning. Uppsala 76a has similar to the Rohan MS “ne le face devenir pire”, which repeats the rime word of the first line in the tierce, and expresses possibly the opposite meaning of the Leuven version: “will not make it worse”. David Fallows proposes that the poem might be by Alain Chartier, because of its placement in the Rohan MS (Fallows 1999, p. 109). In view of its rimes suffisantes and shaky structure, this does not seem probable.

The song in Pixérécourt and Uppsala 76a clearly belongs to a tradition of transmission different from that in Leuven. They show differences in the start of the lowest voice, which descends by a fifth instead of a third and has a rest in bar 5; they have differences in cadential decorations (bb. 11, 33, 48 and 64-65), and they employ a much smaller number of ligatures (see the edition). Leuven only has one flat signatures in the lower voices where they are most needed, in the tenor at the start of the second section, and in the contratenor only where the note B occurs. In Pixérécourt the same is indicated by a one flat signature all the way through the contratenor and an accidental flat in the tenor before bar 43. Uppsala 76a has one lat signatures in both the lower voices (hints, probably erronously, at a two flat signature at the start of the “Basis”). As the hexachordal disposition of the voices is very clear, the difference in hexachordal signatures does not influence the sound very much in comparison with the version in Leuven. Probably caused by the sudden flat turn in bar 43, Leuven introduces a flat before e in the contratenor in order to avoid the diminished fifth. The other souces do not agree, and I do not think that anyone would comply with this accidental in a performance.

Comments on text and music:

A male love complaint sung by three voices of quite narrow ranges (c’-c’’, c-e’ and G-a). Even if the voices occupy distinct different ranges, the lowest voice often crosses above the tenor. The setting is euphonious with a few moments of imitation at the start of the second and third lines. Its most interesting feature is its use of upbeat beginnings in the contratenor (bb. 12-13, 34-35 and 49-50) to energize the flow. Otherwise it is modest and quite repetitive.

The striking moment in the Uppsala 76a version, where the second section starts with the sound of the third e'-g' alone in the upper voices, may simply be caused by lack of space on the page. The scribe realized that he had only one staff left for the remainder of the “Basis” voice and replaced the brevis note in bar 39 with a rest (a stroke) at the end of the staff.

PWCH September 2023