Analysis of The Ballad of Villon and Fat Madge
‘'Tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.' -Falstaff
‘The night cometh, when no man can work.'
What though the beauty I love and serve be cheap,
Ought you to take me for a beast or fool?
All things a man could wish are in her keep;
For her I turn swashbuckler in love's school.
When folk dropp in, I take my pot and stool
And fall to drinking with no more ado.
I fetch them bread, fruit, cheese, and water, too;
I say all's right so long as I'm well paid;
‘Look in again when your flesh troubles you,
Inside this brothel where we drive our trade.'
But soon the devil's among us flesh and fell,
When penniless to bed comes Madge my whore;
I loathe the very sight of her like hell.
I snatch gown, girdle, surcoat, all she wore,
And tell her, these shall stand against her score.
She grips her hips with both hands, cursing God,
Swearing by Jesus' body, bones, and blood,
That they shall not. Then I, no whit dismayed,
Cross her cracked nose with some stray shiver of wood
Inside this brothel where we drive our trade.
When all's made up she drops me a windy word,
Bloat like a beetle puffed and poisonous:
Grins, thumps my pate, and calls me dickey-bird,
And cuffs me with a fist that's ponderous.
We sleep like logs, being drunken both of us;
Then when we wake her womb begins to stir;
To save her seed she gets me under her
Wheezing and whining, flat as planks are laid:
And thus she spoils me for a whoremonger
Inside this brothel where we drive our trade.
Blow, hail or freeze, I've bread here baked rent free!
Whoring's my trade, and my whore pleases me;
Bad cat, bad rat; we're just the same if weighed.
We that love filth, filth follows us, you see;
Honour flies from us, as from her we flee
Inside this brothel where we drive our trade.
I bequeath likewise to fat Madge
This little song to learn and study;
By god's head she's a sweet fat fadge,
Devout and soft of flesh and ruddy;
I love her with my soul and body,
So doth she me, sweet dainty thing.
If you fall in with such a lady,
Read it, and give it her to sing.
Scheme | xx ababbccdcD efeffxxdxD ghghhiidfD jjdjjD kjkjjljl |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110111010101 011011111 11010110111 1111110111 1101111001 10111011 1110111101 0111011101 1111110101 1111111111 1001111101 01110111101 11010011101 1100111111 1101011011 111101111 0101110101 1101111101 1011010101 1111111101 10111111011 01110111101 11111110101 1101010100 1111011101 0111011100 11111010111 1111010111 1101111100 1001011111 01111101 01110111101 1111111111 111011101 1111110111 1111110111 111111011 01110111101 1011111 110111010 11110111 010111010 110111010 11111101 111011010 11011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,205 |
Words | 399 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 10, 10, 10, 6, 8 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 258 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 2:02 min read
- 70 Views
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"The Ballad of Villon and Fat Madge" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13678/the-ballad-of-villon-and-fat-madge>.
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