Charles d’Orléans is known particularly for his use of allegory and the introspective
nature of his poetry. Recurring themes in his ballades and rondeaux include exile, the
passage of time, the flight of love, life as a prison, old age, the decomposition of the
human body, and melancholy. He may be one of the best known and least appreciated
French poets. Nearly every anthology of French poetry includes a few of his ballades and
rondeaux, especially the ubiquitous Le temps a laissié son manteau. Many literary
historians refer patronizingly to the charm and superficiality of his poetry and the
seeming ineffectiveness of his life, echoing Gaston Paris’s assessment that Charles was
merely a child with a gift for polished verse, who never understood his role in life.
Scholars long considered Charles the last courtly poet, using outmoded medieval
conventions to express traditional clichés, while they lionized Villon as a fresh and
original forerunner of modern poetry. In addition, because so much biographical
information is available, scholarship has often been stifled by the attempt to tie Charles’s
creative work to his life. Recently, however, scholars have taken a closer look at his
poetry, have become aware of the libraries to which he had access in both England and
France, and consequently have begun to discover in many of his poems a new depth and
complexity never before suspected. He is now often classed as a precursor of some of the
19th-century romantic and symbolist poets, especially Baudelaire. His nonchaloir has
been likened to the “spleen” of later times.
Charles’s poems have been translated into English, Dutch, Italian, and Romanian. In
addition, scholarly books about his life and works have been published in Japanese,
Polish, and Russian.
Deborah H.Nelson
[See also: ARMAGNACS; CHARTIER, ALAIN; JARDIN DE PLAISANCE ET
FLEUR DE RÉTHORIQUE; RÉGNIER, JEAN]
Charles d’Orléans. Charles d’Orléans, Poésies, ed. Pierre Champion. 2 vols. Paris: Champion,
1923–27, Vol. 1: La retenue d’amours, ballades, chansons, complaintes et caroles; Vol. 2:
Rondeaux.
——. Le manuscrit autographe des poésies de Charles d’Orléans, ed. Pierre Champion. Paris:
Champion, 1907.
——. The French Chansons of Charles d’Orléans with the Corresponding Middle English
Chansons, ed. and trans. Sarah Spence. New York: Garland, 1986.
Champion, Pierre. La vie de Charles d’Orléans. Paris: Champion, 1911.
Fox, John. The Lyric Poetry of Charles d’Orléans. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969.
Nelson, Deborah H. Charles d’Orléans: An Analytical Bibliography. London: Grant and Cutler,
1990.
Planche, Alice. Charles d’Orléans, ou la recherche d’un langage. Paris: Champion, 1975.
Steele, Robert, and Mabel Day. The English Poems of Charles d’Orléans. London: Oxford
University Press, 1941.
Yenal, Edith. Charles d’Orléans: A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources. New York:
AMS, 1984.
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