Ashley MS 5071

'Poems and Ballads Second Series'. 'The Complaint of the Fair Armouress' a translation from the French of Villon by A. C. Swinburne, 1861-[1863?]. Draft, entitled 'La Belle Heaulmyère', and written on one side only of three folio leaves of white laid paper, all three watermarked 'T&FH / 1861'. The final text differs by one line and six individual words from that printed on pp. 194-199 of the first edition. In several places alternative words have been interlined, without the first version being cancelled. The ink and pen in these cases are different from those in the rest of the draft, which suggests that this revision may have been made when Swinburne was preparing the poem for Poems and Ballads Second Series. The metre and rhyme scheme of the original are followed. The words rendered by asterisks in Poems and Ballads Second Series are supplied in full. All the missing words were printed in the Bonchurch Edition, vol. xx, 1927, p. 162, but the number of asterisks which, in Poems and Ballads Second Series, represents the fourth word in stanza 7, l. 7, suggests that Wise was wrong in printing, of the three alternatives, 'strong round thighs', the correct version being 'firm round thighs'.

Folio; ff. ii+3.

Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Poem, 'The Complaint of the Fair Armouress', here entitled 'La Belle Heaulmyère', by Algernon Charles Swinburne: 1861-[1863?]: Autogr. draft.