Author Description

"Eustache Deschamps, a prolific courtier-poet in the fourteenth century, is one of the best-kept secrets of medieval French literature. His work charmed many well-known writers of the time, including Guillaume de Machaut, Christine de Pizan, Jean Froissart, and Chaucer, and no writer gives us a more dynamic picture of life in medieval France. At last, Deschamps's most appealing short poems are collected here for the first time in English translation.". "This unprecedented collection presents more than seventy poems in elegant, dual-language translations, based on the fifteenth-century manuscript source at the French National Library. Rendered into English verse with great skill and care by David Curzon and Jeffrey Fiskin, Deschamps's verse sings in English with its original esprit. As revealed in these pages, Deschamps proves to be one of the most colorful satirists and comics of the Middle Ages. His witty perceptions of society offer intriguing commentary on most aspects of daily life, from women's underwear to gluttonous diners, from the delights of youth to the horrors and buffoonery of war. He also gives us a vivid impression of what it was like to be alive during the turbulent fourteenth century, the age of the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War, and the Papal Schism, all the while maintaining a refreshing skepticism and wry sense of humor. With an extensive critical introduction, notes, and bibliography by editors Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi and Ian S. Laurie, this volume offers scholars and poetry lovers alike a fascinating glimpse into the medieval world."--BOOK JACKET.