Villon, François (1431-c. 1465)

French poet. He used satiric humour, pathos, and irony in works like Petit Testament or Louis (1456) and Grand Testament (1461) (the latter includes the ‘Ballade des dames du temps jadis/Ballad of the Ladies of Former Times’), both of which are mock wills bequeathing absurd or obscene possessions. His Ballades en jargon are written in lowlife argot.

He was born in Paris and dropped his surname (Montcorbier or de Logos) to assume that of one of his relatives, a canon, who sent him to study at the Sorbonne, where he graduated in 1449 and 1452. In 1455 he stabbed a priest in a street fight and had to flee the city. Pardoned the next year, he returned to Paris but was soon in flight again after robbing the College of Navarre. He stayed briefly at the court of the Duke of Orléans until sentenced to death for an unknown offence, from which he was saved by the amnesty of a public holiday. Theft and public brawling continued to occupy his time, in addition to the production of the Grand Testament (1461). A sentence of death in Paris, commuted to ten-year banishment in 1463, is the last that is known of his life.