François Villon: The Poetic Thief and Murderer
Those who have been following me a while might already know I have a slight obsession with a certain, mysterious poet from the 1400s: François Villon. He was a French poet, many of his surviving works are in thieves jargon (Les Mis fans, remember the argot tangent?) though his greatest, fortunately, are in regular old French! I fell down a rabbit hole about him again and decided it’s finally time for me to do a good old fashioned infodump.
Okay so, remember what I said about thieves jargon? Yes, this poet was a thief with smash hits such as: robbing a chapel and murdering a priest by beating his head in with a rock (and stabbing! Love a good stabbing).
Most of what we know about Villon comes from court records and his own writing.
To start, Villon's name wasn't Villon! He was raised by Guillaume de Villon but that wasn't his father, his real name was either François de Montcorbier or François des Loges. Two names? Where did those come from? When he was exiled for that silly little murder he sought pardon from King Charles VII . . . Twice. The first time under one name and the second under the other. Apparently, the king preferred François des Loges, as he was granted the pardon but we'll get to the details of that later. We don't actually know for certain which one his real, legal name was (assuming it was one of those) but he referred to himself as Villon in all of his poetry.
We know he was born 1431-1432 and that he got his bachelor's from the University of Paris. It was there that he made friends that would later become his rag tag gang of thieves. 1455 is the first crime we have on record from Villon (to math for you: he would have been around 23).
You would think his first crime on record would be a palette cleanser, petty thieving, maybe? But no – he murdered a priest. The priest's name was Surmoise, and he was accused (after his death) of striking Villon first, basically so that Villon could say he stabbed him and bashed his head in with a rock out of self defense. Whether Surmoise did start it or not we can't ever know for sure but considering what we know about Villon and what can we can usually assume about a priest . . . Well.
Surmoise succumbed to the injuries and Villon, in turn, was banished. This banishment was short lived, the pardon that was previously mentioned occurred in 1456, the very year after the murder! One might wonder how the hell he managed to get the king's pardon, considering he killed a fucking priest, and the reason is the most 15th century, bat shit wild thing: Villon claimed in his petition that Surmoise forgave him before his death. The murderer's word was taken as truth and well, if the victim can forgive the murderer then can't the law, too? His exile was ended and Villon returned, ready to live an upright, noble life as the lyrical poet that he is.
I'm just kidding, HE ROBBED A CHURCH
Do you see a theme yet? First he murders a priest and then,,,, he robs a church. You might hope he at least waited a while after returning before he got back to business but no, he robbed the church around Christmas in 1456, the same year as his return. He was not wasting time and I like to imagine that he chose that time of year on purpose, coincidences are just adding on up when it comes to him and his issue with Christianity. After the robbery, he fled Paris and the May of next year police began tracking down his crew. One friend made the claim that Villon was the leader of their gang of thieves and after another year, Villon was arrested and then banished from the city again.
Before his banishment while he was imprisoned, he wrote one of his more famous poems Le Lais (The Legacy) (there is a book with translations of his poetry though it isn't free to access online) in which he comedically bequeathed his belongings to friends and acquaintances.
"To his barber he leaves the clippings from his hair; to three well-known local usurers, some small change; to the clerk of criminal justice, his sword (which was in pawn)." (source)
Unlike his first banishment, Villon did not get a pardon for his second. Not much is known about him during this second exile though some of his friends formed a gang of traveling thieves which seems in-character enough for him to join though that's only speculation. The next definitive thing we know of Villon is that he published what is often regarded as his greatest work Le Testament (The testament) in 1461.
Le Testament was a long series of ballades, more serious in nature than Villon's comedic Le Lais. He speaks of death, his fear of hanging, and the trials of the poor, all with his usual strict adherence to rhythm and form. He seems to have matured since Le Lais and even expounds on some of his regrets for a wasted youth.
In 1462, Villon was again arrested for the church robbery of 1456 but he was able to bail himself out (sidenote I’m not really sure why he was arrested twice for the same thing that was already settled but he was). Not long after his release, Villon found himself in a street brawl and was arrested again that very same year. This time he was not allowed to leave and was both tortured and sentenced to be hanged. It was here that he wrote several more poems, one of them about his hanging.
In 1463 his sentencing was changed to a banishment of ten years. that's the last thing we know about him, leaving the rest of his life an utter mystery. He was certainly not a good guy, being a murderer and thief and prone to rather violent fights but he was a wonderful poet. My favorite by him is Ballade of the Hanged Men. Below is Richard Wilbur's translation:
O brother men who after us remain,
Do not look coldly on the scene you view,
For if you pity wretchedness and pain,
God will the more incline to pity you.
You see us hang here, half a dozen who
Indulged the flesh in every liberty
Till it was pecked and rotted, as you see,
And these our bones to dust and ashes fall.
Let no one mock our sorry company,
But pray to God that He forgive us all.
If we have called you brothers, don’t disdain
The appellation, though alas it’s true
That not all men are equal as to brain,
And that our crimes and blunders were not few.
Commend us, now that we are dead, unto
The Virgin Mary’s son, in hopes that He
Will not be sparing of His clemency,
But save our souls, which Satan would enthrall.
We’re dead now, brothers; show your charity
And pray to God that He forgive us all.
We have been rinsed and laundered by the rain,
And by the sunlight dried and blackened too.
Magpie and crow have plucked our eyeballs twain
And cropped our eyebrows and the beards we grew.
Nor have we any rest at all, for to
And fro we sway at the wind’s fantasy,
Which has no object, yet would have us be
(Pitted like thimbles) at its beck and call.
Do not aspire to our fraternity,
But pray to God that He forgive us all.
Prince Jesus, we implore Your Majesty
To spare us Hell’s distress and obloquy;
We want no part of what may there befall.
And, mortal men, let’s have no mockery,
But pray to God that He forgive us all.
Also! Fun fact: Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story A Lodging for the Night features a main character whose name is Villon, is a poet, and finds himself involved in a murder. It’s a fun read and while not explicitly about François Villon, I think it’s obvious that he was the inspiration.
