Is it not Clough who has remarked that,
after all, everything lies in juxtaposition? Many a man's
destiny has been settled by nothing apparently more grave
than a pretty face on the opposite side of the street and a
couple of bad companions round the corner.
Catherine de Vausselles (or de Vaucel - the change is within
the limits of Villon's licence) had plainly delighted in the
poet's conversation; near neighbours or not, they were much
together and Villon made no secret of his court, and suffered
himself to believe that his feeling was repaid in kind. This
may have been an error from the first, or he may have
estranged her by subsequent misconduct or temerity. One can
easily imagine Villon an impatient wooer. One thing, at
least, is sure: that the affair terminated in a manner
bitterly humiliating to Master Francis. In presence of his
lady-love, perhaps under her window and certainly with her
connivance, he was unmercifully thrashed by one Noe le Joly -
beaten, as he says himself, like dirty linen on the washing-
board. It is characteristic that his malice had notably
increased between the time when he wrote the SMALL TESTAMENT
immediately on the back of the occurrence, and the time when
he wrote the LARGE TESTAMENT five years after. On the latter
occasion nothing is too bad for his "damsel with the twisted
nose," as he calls her.
Pages:
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217