Villon, François

(ca. 1431-ca. 1463)

   poet

   François Villon, whose works reflect his controversial life and who is often considered France's outstanding lyric poet, was born in or near Paris. His original name was probably either de Montcorbier or des Loges, but he assumed the name Villon in honor of his professor Guillaume de Villon. While earning a bachelor of arts (1449) and a master of arts (1452) at the sorbonne, Villon was involved in the boisterous academic life of the age and, in 1455, killed a priest in a street brawl. A year later, he was involved in a theft and consequently was banished. During the next four years (1456-60), he wandered throughout France and was arrested but pardoned because of the influence of charles d'orléans and King louis xi. Villon's poems, often octosyllabic, like Les Lais (or Petit Testament, 1456) and Le Testament (or Grand Testament, 1461), sometimes in decasylla-bles, as in L'Épitaphe Villon (called also Ballad des perdus, 1463), express the originality, beauty, and evocativeness of his verse. Moving between sensual aspirations and poignant pessimism, between immorality and profound religious faith (Le Débat du corps et du Cœur, 1461), between irony and a sense of the tragic, and between realism and lyricism, Villon's writings reveal him to be a master of language and, as some have described him, "the first modern poet."