She is spared neither hint nor
accusation, and he tells his messenger to accost her with the
vilest insults. Villon, it is thought, was out of Paris when
these amenities escaped his pen; or perhaps the strong arm of
Noe le Joly would have been again in requisition. So ends
the love story, if love story it may properly be called.
Poets are not necessarily fortunate in love; but they usually
fall among more romantic circumstances and bear their
disappointment with a better grace.
The neighbourhood of Regnier de Montigny and Colin de Cayeux
was probably more influential on his after life than the
contempt of Catherine. For a man who is greedy of all
pleasures, and provided with little money and less dignity of
character, we may prophesy a safe and speedy voyage downward.
Humble or even truckling virtue may walk unspotted in this
life. But only those who despise the pleasures can afford to
despise the opinion of the world. A man of a strong, heady
temperament, like Villon, is very differently tempted. His
eyes lay hold on all provocations greedily, and his heart
flames up at a look into imperious desire; he is snared and
broached-to by anything and everything, from a pretty face to
a piece of pastry in a cookshop window; he will drink the
rinsing of the wine cup, stay the latest at the tavern party;
tap at the lit windows, follow the sound of singing, and beat
the whole neighbourhood for another reveller, as he goes
reluctantly homeward; and grudge himself every hour of sleep
as a black empty period in which he cannot follow after
pleasure.
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