I       In the first huitain Christine refers to a number of events which took place in 1418 i.e. the Burgundian Occupation of Paris on 29 May ('la traïson' 1.7), the Dauphin's escape (1.6) and her own flight to the safety of an 'abbaye close' (1.2, 1.7). In 1418 France was still faced with the twin problems of foreign invasion and civil strife between Armagnacs and Burgundians. On Sunday 29 May 1418, Perrinet Leclerc, the son of a 'marchand de fer' in Paris who kept the keys of the Porte Saint-Germain-des-Prés, opened the city gates to the Burgundians, thus securing his revenge for harsh treatment meted out to him by some Armagnac soldiers and for the failure of the prévôt de Paris, Tanneguy du Chastel, to deal with his complaint. The Dauphin's flight, which left Charles VI and the whole of northern France to Burgundian domination, is described as follows in the chronicle of Jean Juvénal des Ursins: 'Messire Tanneguy du Chastel oijyt le bruit, et s'en vint hastivement en l'hostel de monseigneur le Dauphin, lequel dormoit en son lict: et ainsi que Dieu le voulut, le prit entre ses bras, l'enveloppa de sa robbe ârelever, et le porta à la Bastille de Sainct Antoine. Là le fit habiller, et le mena jusques à Melun' (Michaud et Poujoulat, Nouvelle Collection de Mémoires relatifs ô l'Histoire de France, Paris, Didier, vol. 2, 1857, p. 540). There followed a general massacre in Paris which claimed some 2000 of the Dauphin's supporters. For some miniatures showing the Burgundians entering Paris and the consequent massacre, see Françoise du Castel, Damoiselle Christine de Pizan, Paris, Picard, 1972, p. CV and P. CVII.

1.2. abbaye close. For the possibility that this may have been the Dominican couvent at Poissy, where Christine's daughter had taken orders c. 1396, sec Introduction p.2. Among the nuns at Poissy was the Dauphin's own sister, Marie de France (see Vallet de Viriville, 'Notes sur l'état civil des princes et des princesses nés de Charles VI et d'Isabeau de Bavière', Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 19, DIV, 1858, pp. 473-482, and Y. Grandeau, 'Les Enfants de Charles VI', Bulletin philologique et historique 1967, ii, pp. 809-849). Her présence in the convent, combined with Christine's ever-alert interest in political affairs, might explain why Christine seems so well informed in the Ditié as to the day-to-day course of events in 1429.

1.5 se dire l'ose. When she 'dares' to refer to Charles as the King's son, what Christine has in mind is not the alleged illegitimacy of Charles VII but the fact that Anglo-Burgundian pressure had forced Charles VI to disinherit the Dauphin by the Treaty of Troyes, 21 May 1420, and to recognise Henry V of England as his son and rightful heir to the French throne.

1.7. enclose refers to Christine 1.1.

II.       1.10 yvernage. Misreadings (on the part of the nineteenth-century editors of the poem) of the initial letter y of yvernage as the letter p accompanied by a sign indicating an abbreviation for por/pour resulted in the word vernage appearing in Godefroy, where it is glossed as a noun meaning 'printemps'. Godefroy's one recorded example of vernage = spring must therefore be rejected. For a fuller discussion of vernage, see Angus J. Kennedy and Kenneth Varty, 'Vernage: Two Corrections to Godefroy', Medium Aevum, XLIV, 2, 1975, pp. 162-3.

IV       1.32. (la tresbelle saison) ... S'est du sec au vert temps tirée. Although the manuscript readings may be corrupt here, the general meaning seems clear: lit. 'the beautiful season ... has drawn away from the dry to the green time' i.e. 'winter bas given way to spring'. V       1.33. The Dauphin had been disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes, 21 May 1420 (sec note on 1.5) and by a decision of the Paris parlement in January 1421 (see M.G.A. Vale, Charles VII, London,Eyre Methuen, 1974, p.32).

1.34. roy de France legitime: Charles VI, who had died on 21 October 1422.

1.37. ainsi que vers prime: lit. 'as if towards prime' i.e. 'like one rising up to go to prime'. 1.39. tresgrande: In the Diti  there are more old feminine forms without -e than there are analogical forms with -e. On grant as a feminine form, see 88, 99, 117, 148, 160, 173, 202, 283, 379, 312, 409, 437; tel 113, 150, 287, 372 (contrast telement 262); fort 277 (contrast forte 406); preux 199 (contrast preuses 222).

VI       1.48. en hault huer. Although perhaps best translated into English by 'in a. loud voice', huer is the infinitive form (=to shout) and belongs to the sequence introduced by Alons in 1.44: 'A lons tres tous ... le saluer . . . en hault huer'.

VII       1.55. Et escript: soit has obviously to bc understood after escript (compare Raconté soit 1.53).

IX       1.71. repune. A scribal error in Berne 205, reproduced in the nineteenth-century editions of the poem, explains the presence of rexune in Godefroy where it is glossed as a noun meaning 'crainte' (sub. resoigne). Rexune like vernage, therefore, (sec above, 11, 1.10) is a ghostword whose appearance is based on misreadings. The correct reading (in Carpentras) is repune, 3 person singular, present tense of repugnier, repuner.

X       11.73-84 provide a clear illustration of the way in which Christine's syntax reflects the tortuous complexity of the Latin period. 1.79. mission here seems to bc close to its etymological sense: 'act of sending'. XI       1.87. adès. Although single adès is sometimes glossed as 'now', its basic meaning is 'always'. Professor T.B.W. Reid bas drawn our attention to the possibility that adès in 1.87 may have the sense of 'nevertheless' a sense derived from the basic meaning 'always'.

XII       1.96. i.e. French Kings have always been good Christians.

XIII-XIV       These two huitains illustrate the readiness with which Christine dislocates the expected verse-pattern: the two words forming the conjuriction aincois que (11.99-100) are separated at the rhyme, the expected pause at the end of huitain XIII is ignored, the adverb visiblement is split into two parts, at the rhyme. For other examples of this latter point, see Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune ed.cit. vol. 2 11.7276-7:. .. 'de savoir entiere-/Ment cognoistre les choses belles. . .'; 11.7352-3: 'Ce est disputer autentique-/ Ment contre vices et pechiez.'; and vol.3 11.17541-2: 'Riche sepulture parfaicte-/ Ment belle. . .'.

XIII-XIV       These two huitains illustrate the readiness with which Christine dislocates the expected verse-pattern: the two words forming the conjuriction aincois que (11.99-100) are separated at the rhyme, the expected pause at the end of huitain XIII is ignored, the adverb visiblement is split into two parts, at the rhyme. For other examples of this latter point, see Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune ed.cit. vol. 2 11.7276-7:. .. 'de savoir entiere-/Ment cognoistre les choses belles. . .'; 11.7352-3: 'Ce est disputer autentique-/ Ment contre vices et pechiez.'; and vol.3 11.17541-2: 'Riche sepulture parfaicte-/ Ment belle. . .'.

XV       1.119 is probably to be taken as the second que clause introduced by Si croy of 1.113. The switch to the subjunctive in 1.119 need not be taken to imply a degree of doubt, particularly when the clause is so distant from the main verb. Marie-Josèphe Pinet points out (op.cit. p.446 note 2) that E. Müller's thesis Zur Syntax der Christine de Pisan (diss. Greifswald 1885) draws attention to Christine's very frequent use of the subjunctive.

XVI       Predictions that Charles VII would go on to ever-greater victories and achievements were naturally wide-spread in 1429 - see, for example, a reference to such predictions in the letter of 10 May 1429 reported in the Chronique d' Antonio Morosoni: 'On n'a cessé de parler de beaucoup de prophéties trouvées à Paris et d'autres choses qui s'accordent pour annoncer que le dauphin doit grandement prospérer' (ed. L. Dorez et G. Lefèvre -Pontalis, Paris, Renouard, 1898-1902, 4 vols., Société de l'Histoire de France, vol. 3, pp. 39-41). The specific prophecy contained in huitain XVI that a French King would arise who would surpass all monarchs and one day become Emperor was one that was long-established and continually revived, giving expression as it did to French nationalist aspirations. It was probably given its widest currency in the works of Jean de Roque-Taillade (mid-fourteenth century) and in the so-called 'Second Charlemagne' prophecy associated with Telesphorus of Cosenza in the 1380s - a prophecy that may well have influenced the conclusion of Christine's Livre du Chemin de Long Estude (1403), where she looks forward to the transfer of Imperial power to France (Livre du Chemin de Long Estude ed. cit. 11.6251-6262 and Pinet op.cit. p. 198 note 1 and p. 301). On Jean de Roque-Taillade and Telesphorus of Cosenza, and the whole question of political prophecy, see Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages. A study in Joachimism, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969, particularly Part III, chapter III 'The Second Charlemagne', Migne, Nouvelle Encyclopédie Théologique, vol. 24: Dictionnaire des Prophéties et des Miracles, 2 tomes, Paris, 1852, tome 2, col. 690, Prophéties politiques.

1.125. 'Le Cerf Volant'. While the emblem of the Cerf Volant goes back to the reign of Charles V (see, for example, Lord Howard de Walden, Banners Standards and Badges from a Tudor Manuscript in the College of Arms, the de Walden Library, London, 1904, p.58 and Paul Delaunay, La Zoologie au seizi&323me siècle, Paris, Hermann, 1962 (Histoire de la PenséeVII), p.38), two main traditions regarding the origins of Le Cerf Volant as an emblem or symbol of the French King date to the reign of Charles VI. Jean Juvénal des Ursins, basing himself on the Chronique du Religieux de Saint Denis, relates the emblem to an encounter between Charles VI and a stag in the forest of Senlis, in 1380: 'Et de lô s'en alla ô Senlis pour chasser. Et fut trouvé un cerf qui avoit au col une chaisne de cuivre doré, et defendit qu'on ne le prit que au las, sans le tuer, et ainsi fut fait. Et trouva-on qu'il avoit au cou ladite chaisne, où avoit escrit: Caesar hoc mihi donavit. Et dès lors le Roy de son mouvement porta en devise le cerf volant couronné d'or au col, et partout où on mettoit ses armes y avoit deux cerfs tenans ses armes d'un costé et d'autre' (Michaud et Poujoulat, Nouvelle Collection de Mémoires relatifs b l'Histoire de France, vol. 2, Paris, Didier, 1857, pp.343-4. Compare Chronique du Religieux de Saint Denis 1, p.71, in Collection de Documents inédits sur l'histoire de France, vol. 6, Paris, Crepelet, 1839). Froissart, by contrast, relates the emblem to one of Charles VI's dreams. At Senlis, Charles VI dreams that he is in the city of Arras, where the Count of Flanders presents him with a magnificent falcon. Whilst out hunting, Charles loses sight of the falcon and is afraid that he will never set eyes on it again. 'En che sousi que li rois avoit, ly estoit vis que uns trop biaux chers douse, et à elles, apparoit à yaulx en yssant hors de ce fort bois, et venoit en celle lande et s'enclinoit devant le roy, et li rois dissoit au connestable qui regardoit ce cerf à mervelles et en avoit grant joie: 'Connestables, demorés ychy; je monteray sus che cerf qui se représente à moy, et sievray mon faucon'. Charles is then borne aloft by the stag and soon recovers his falcon. 'Adont s'esvilloit li rois, et avoit grant mervelle de celle vission, et trop bien li souvenoit de tout ce, et le recorda à aucuns de ceulx de sa cambre qui le plus prochain de li estoient, et tant li plaissoit li figure de che cerf que à paines en ymaginations il n'en pooit partir, et fu li une des incidenses premiers quant il descendy en Flandre combatre les Flamens, pour quoy le plus il encarga en sa devise le cerf-vollant à porter' (Oeuvres de Froissart, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, tome 10, pp. 68-71, Réimpression de l'édition de 1867-77, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, 1967). Whatever the exact origins of the emblem, it is clear that long before the date of composition of the Ditié the Cerf Volant had become a well-established representative symbol of the French King (sec, for example, Deschamps, Oeuvres Complètes ed. Marquis de Queux de Saint Hilaire et Gaston Raynaud, Paris, Firmin Didot, 1878-1903, Société des Anciens Textes Français, vol. 1, p. 164, Balade LXVII; Philippe de Mezières, Le Songe du Vieil Pèlerin, ed. G. W. Coopland, Cambridge University Press, 1962, 2 vols., where the author frequently refers to Charles VI as the Cerf Volant. The Frontispiece of vol. 2 shows a representation of the Cerf Volant, from Arsenal Ms. 2682-3, fol. 34r). It is worth pointing out too that the encounter between Charles VI and a stag with a collar bearing the inscription Caesar hoc mihi donavit (as described in Juvénal des Ursins' version) provides another reminder of the claim that the French King's saw themselves as the true heirs of the Roman Emperors.

XVII       1.136. Presumably guerre is the subject, oultrance the noun object of face, lit. 'let not war cause excess i.e. havoc, destruction'. One could perhaps consider emending face to face[s], take guerre to be the object, and oultrance to be the equivalent of Modern French à outrance i.e. 'May you never wage war to the death!' A second person singular verb (faces) certainly provides a more logical link with 1.135.

XVIII       Christine's portrait of the ideal monarch is much influenced by her admiration for Charles V (see her biography of Charles V, Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V ed. S. Solente, Paris, Champion, 2 vols., 1936 and 1941, or the chapters on 'le bon prince' in the Livre du Corps de Policie and the Livre de la Paix

. 1.143. premisse. Professor T.B.W. Reid has made the following comment on this word: 'The only attested words this could represent are premices 'first-fruits', nearly always in the plural, and premisse 'premiss' (in logic), also 'foreword, beginning'. It seems likely enough that these two words might have tended to coalesce and be confused; and the meaning here may be something like 'first sample' or 'first manifestation'.

XXII       11.172-5: In spite of the apparent parallelism between En qui 172 and en qui 173, it is probable that the second qui refers not to Pucelle 171 but to the Saint Esprit 172.

XXIII       1.179. Moyses. The allusions to the heroes and heroines of the Old testament (Moses 179, Joshua 193, Gideon 209, Esther, Judith, Deborah 217) are clearly designed to show that the 'miracle' of Joan surpasses all previous manifestations of God's grace and power.

1.179. afflus. This is a rare word, which is not recorded in Godefroy or Tobler-Lommatzsch. Some editors have taken afflus to be a noun (e.g. Fabre glosses the word as abondance). Afflus is in fact an adjective (from Latin adfluus, afluus, glossed in Du Cange under affluitas as abundans), translatable in this context by 'bountiful' or 'in His bounty'. Cp. also the Thesavrvs Lingvae Latinae (aditvs avctoritate et consilio academiarvm qvinqve Germanicarvm, Lipsiae, MDCCCC, vol. 1), under afluus, where one example is given, from Julius Valerius: 'flumen ... adfluum vident'.

XXV       11.193-7. Josué. Joshua was Moses' successor as leader of the Israelites, his main achievement being the conquest of the land of Canaan. The most celebrated miracle associated with him is the halting of the sun which allowed him to complete his victory over the Amorites (Joshua 10,12-14).

XXVI       11.203-5 provide a clear example of an elliptical, midsentence change of grammatical construction by which Christine conveys breathless excitement at Joan's achievement.

1.203. au long aler: the usual meaning of this expression in Christine's works is 'after a long time'. See, for example, Livre de la Mutatacion de Fortune ed.cit., vol.4, p.190, under aler. Its probable meaning in 1.203 i.e. 'throughout history' can be seen as an extension of its basic sense: 'after a long time', 'in the course of time', 'throughout history'.

XXVII       1.209. Gedeon: Like Joan, Gideon was entrusted with a divinely-ordained mission to deliver his country from oppression. On his conquest of the Midianites, see Judges, chapters 6-8.

11.214-6: 1.215 raises a number of problems: the exact meaning of ammonestoit, the use of the indicative after quoy que (to be understood as 'although' or 'whatever'?), the identity of il (God or Gideon?) and the fact that the C reading includes an object pronoun (quoy qu'il l' ammonestoit). We have taken the possible meanings of 214-6 to be: 'But whatever guidance He (God) did in fact give [him Gideon]' or 'Although He (God) did in fact guide [him Gideon], it is clear that He never performed so striking a miracle as He does for this woman'.

XXVIII       1.217. Hester, Judith et Delbora As female embodiments of the spirit of courage and self-sacrifice, Esther, Judith and Deborah inevitably occupy a prominent place in a number of Christine's works, notably in the Cité des Dames and in the Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune. What these three great heroines of Biblical history have in common is the fact that they, like Joan, were chosen to be the servants of God and entrusted with the special task of delivering their nation from oppression. Esther's defeat of Haman's Plot against the Jews is related in Esther, chapters 6-7, Judith's victory over Holofernes in Judith, chapters 816, Deborah's overthrow of Sisera at the Battle of Kishon in Judges, chapters 4-5. De Roche and Wissier suggest that the 'Song of Déborah' (Judges 5) may in fact have influenced the composition of the Ditié: 'Les ressemblances entre ce chant et celui de Christine nous font supposer que le premier a inspiré la conception du second. Il y a d'abord une analogie de faits dans la situation politique des deux peuples, israélite et français: affaiblissement général de l'ordre politique par la discorde intérieure, indépendance du pays menacée par les envahisseurs, là les Canaanéens, ici les Anglais; appel aux armes des prophétesses, Débora, Jeanne; confiance des chefs, Barac, Charles VII ou Dunois; intervention et secours inattendus de Dieu dans la bataille; victoire et triomphe. Dans les deux chants domine la louange de Dieu '(Fesischrift Louis Gauchat, Aarau, 1926, p.351. Cp. Fabre ed.cit. tome 2, pp.330-338). De Roche and Wissler then go on to draw attention to what they regard as a number of similarities in manner as well as in matter: Ditié LV-LVI cp. Judges 5, 2-3, for the image of the storm Ditié XX cp. Judges 5, 4-5, for the image of light Ditié LXI cp. Judges 5, 31.
Comparison between Joan and these three Biblical heroines in particular must have become commonplace at a very early date - see, for example, the note on Joan added to a manuscript of the Breviarium historiale in 1429, Fabre ed. cit. pp. 318-9, and Gerson's treatise mentioned in our introduction p.11.

1.222. Qui furent preuses, n'y ot celle. Professor T.B.W. Reid has suggested that n'y ot celle bas probably to be seen as an elliptical construction equivalent to 'there is not one who is not' and translatable by 'everyone of them'. See Tobler-Lommatzsch I, 770, and II, 90-91 and Tobler's, Vermischte Beiträge , I, 3rd ed., 137.

XXIX       11.227-8. The date of Joan's arrival at Chinon is traditionally given as 6 March, 1429. It may', however, have been earlier, possibly 22 February. See Régine Pernoud, Joan of Arc, Penguin Books, 1964, p.47.

XXX       11.233-240 (and 11.230-33 of XXIX) refer to the interrogation to which Joan was subjected at Poitiers, March-April 1429.

11.233-4: The a of 1.234 is the auxiliary in post-position(bien esté examinée a). cp. Livre du Chemin de Long Estude ed.cit.: 'Jadis Remus et Romulus/Qui à leur mere esté tollus/Orent par leur oncle crueux...' (11.3577-9), and Livre de la Mutacion de Fortune ed.cit. vol. 3, 11.18275 6:' ... tant esté menez/orent de tempeste. . .'. XXXI       1.241. Merlin et Sebile et Bede. In this huitain Christine is referring to a number of prophecies which were circulating at the time and which were applied to Joan once she had embarked on her mission. A prophecy attributed to Merlin in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae ('Ex nemore canuto puella eliminabitur ut medelae curam adhibeat') was popularly taken to refer to Joan, 'ex nemore canuto' being interpreted as 'from the Bois-Chenu' of Domrémy. Joan herself seems to have been aware of this prediction (see Quicherat, op.cit. 1, p.68). At the Trial of Rehabilitation (1450-56) Merlin's prophecy was referred to briefly by Pierre Miget (Quicherat op.cit. 3, p.133) and discussed in detail by Jean Bréhal (Quicherat op.cit. 3, pp.339-344). For allusions to Merlin's prophecies in two fifteenth-century chronicles, the Registre Delphinal and the Scotichronicon, see Quicherat op.cit., 4, p.305, p.480. Sebile requires no special comment as throughout the Middle Ages a host of predictions were given the prestige of the Sibyl's authority. Bede: Although it might at first sight appear odd to find the Venerable Bede mentioned alongside Merlin and the Sibyl, the three were in fact often associated in the Middle Ages - indeed Merlin and Bede were not only associated but often confused with each other (see Chronique d'Antonio Morosoni ed.cit. vol.4, p.319). A chronogram attributed to Bede and pointing to 1429 was circulating in Paris in that same year. One version of it appears in an Italian letter of 9 July 1429, written from Bruges to Venice (Chronique d'Antonio Morosoni ed.cit. vol.3, p.127: 'A Paris ... il a été trouvé mout prophéties qui font mention de cette damoiselle, entre lesquels il y en a une de Bède...'). At the Trial of Rehabilitation the Bede prophecy was discussed by Jean Bréhal (Quicherat op.cit. 3, pp.338-9). For a general discussion of the prophecies attributed to Bede and Merlin, See Andrew Lange The Maid of France, London, Longmans Green, 1909, pp.32-39 145, 308-311 and Chronique d' Antonio Morosoni ed.cit vol.4, Annexe xvi, pp.316-327.

XXXIII       1.258 Joan raised the siege of Orléans on 8 May 1429.

XXXIV       On the feminist theme articulated in this stanza, see our introduction pp.15-16. Ironically, at her trial Joan was to be accused of having dishonoured her sex (see Quicherat op.cit., 1, p.223).

11.267-71. The main verb for the subjects of the Quant clause (ce grant pueple chenin and les traictres) is understood i.e. [have been] mis à desert; 1.269 should be seen as a parenthesis, referring to le regne of 1.268.

XXXVI       1.287. Christine's gently ironic comment that the achievements of a mere .'fillete de XVI ans' surpass those of Hector and Achilles should of course be linked to the feminist theme running right through the poem.

XXXVII       11.291-6: a rather convoluted sentence whose structure is not immediately apparent: 'on en doit faire mention et [on doit] parler de vous'...

1.295. sur toute election lit. 'over every choice' i.e. 'in preference to everything else'. cp. The expression sur toute rien.

XLI       1.322 sans releverand 1.325 sans lever. We take sans relever and sans lever to be synonyms, meaning 'without rising up' i.e. 'well and truly dead'. (Fabre, by contrast, glsses sans lever as sans relâche ed.cit. p.323). On lever= se lever, relever= se relever, see Godefroy 4,768b and 6,764a. One of the examples given by Godefroy is rather similar to the ones in the Ditié: 'Ja peussiez veoir brisier lances et chevaliers cheoir sans relever'.

1.327.       ains les reprouver:'rather [does he wish] to condemn them'.

XLII-III       In these two huitains belief in Joan's universal mission combines with the 'Second Charlemagne' prophecy (referred to in note on XVI) which predicted not only the transfer of Imperial power to France but also the restoration of the Church, the new Emperor's liberation of the Holy Land and his eventual death there.

11.329-333. Although the Council of Constance had formally brought an end to the Great Schism (1378-1417), it did not in practice remove the divisions and tensions within Western Christendom. A clear indication of continuing strife is given in 1.332 where Christine refers to the Hussites who had embarked on a savage war of revenge after the arrest, imprisonment and burning of John Huss as a heretic on 6 July 1415. For a letter to the Hussites (wrongly) attributed to Joan, see Quicherat op.cit. 5, pp.156-9. As well as having to cope with internal strife, Christendom was still facing the continual assault of the Turks (the mescreans referred to in 1.331).

11.337-339: That Joan herself may have envisaged a Crusade is indicated in two letters, the first to the King of England, the Duke of Bediford and others, written on 22 March 1429: 'Vous, duc de Bedford, la Pucelle vous prie et vous requiert que vous ne vous faictes mie destruire. Se vous lui faictes raison, encore pourrez venir en sa compaignie, l'où que les Franchois feront le plus bel fait que oncques fu fait pour la chrestienté' (Quicherat op.cit. 1, p.241). In her letter to the Duke of Burgundy, dated 17 July 1429, she wrote: 'Hault et redoubté prince, duc de Bourgoingne, Jehanne la Pucelle vous requiert de par le Roy du ciel, mon droicturier et souverain seigneur, que le Roy de France et vous, faciez bonne paix ferme, qui dure longuement. Pardonnez l'un a l'autre de bon cuer, entièrement, ainsi que doivent faire loyaulx chrestians; et s'il vous plaist à guerroier, si alez sur les Sarrazins' (Quicherat op.cit. 5, p.126).

11.339-341: as indicated above, the prediction that a French monarch-Emperor would be present at the liberation of the Holy Land was wide-spread. 'Partout au XVe siècle', points out Maurice Chaume, 'on croit qu'un roi de France va surgir, qui ceindra la couronne impériale, réformera l'Eglise, battra le Turc, et s'en ira mourir a Jérusalem' (Revue du Moyen Age Latin, iii, 1947, p.36).

XLII-III       In these two huitains belief in Joan's universal mission combines with the 'Second Charlemagne' prophecy (referred to in note on XVI) which predicted not only the transfer of Imperial power to France but also the restoration of the Church, the new Emperor's liberation of the Holy Land and his eventual death there.

11.329-333. Although the Council of Constance had formally brought an end to the Great Schism (1378-1417), it did not in practice remove the divisions and tensions within Western Christendom. A clear indication of continuing strife is given in 1.332 where Christine refers to the Hussites who had embarked on a savage war of revenge after the arrest, imprisonment and burning of John Huss as a heretic on 6 July 1415. For a letter to the Hussites (wrongly) attributed to Joan, see Quicherat op.cit. 5, pp.156-9. As well as having to cope with internal strife, Christendom was still facing the continual assault of the Turks (the mescreans referred to in 1.331).

11.337-339: That Joan herself may have envisaged a Crusade is indicated in two letters, the first to the King of England, the Duke of Bediford and others, written on 22 March 1429: 'Vous, duc de Bedford, la Pucelle vous prie et vous requiert que vous ne vous faictes mie destruire. Se vous lui faictes raison, encore pourrez venir en sa compaignie, l'où que les Franchois feront le plus bel fait que oncques fu fait pour la chrestienté' (Quicherat op.cit. 1, p.241). In her letter to the Duke of Burgundy, dated 17 July 1429, she wrote: 'Hault et redoubté prince, duc de Bourgoingne, Jehanne la Pucelle vous requiert de par le Roy du ciel, mon droicturier et souverain seigneur, que le Roy de France et vous, faciez bonne paix ferme, qui dure longuement. Pardonnez l'un a l'autre de bon cuer, entièrement, ainsi que doivent faire loyaulx chrestians; et s'il vous plaist à guerroier, si alez sur les Sarrazins' (Quicherat op.cit. 5, p.126).

11.339-341: as indicated above, the prediction that a French monarch-Emperor would be present at the liberation of the Holy Land was wide-spread. 'Partout au XVe siècle', points out Maurice Chaume, 'on croit qu'un roi de France va surgir, qui ceindra la couronne impériale, réformera l'Eglise, battra le Turc, et s'en ira mourir a Jérusalem' (Revue du Moyen Age Latin, iii, 1947, p.36).

XLV       1.354. L'Englecherie. This word is used here by Christine to refer pejoratively to the whole English race and all that it stands for. The only example Godefroy gives of this particular usage is the one which occurs in the Ditié. Englecherie was a term which originally had a legal connotation. In Norman England the 'presentment of Englishry' (i.e. the offering of proof that a slain person was English) was a method whereby a community could escape the fine which would automatically be levied in the event of a Norman being murdered. Even in its original legal sense in Norman England, therefore the word had pejorative overtones.

1.356. Like 11.329-344, this line reflects an already firmly established belief in Joan's universal mission.

1.358. Fabre ed.cit. p.325 translates il en est sué by 'maintenant on en est débarrassé', while Buchon ed.cit. p.542 suggests 'Décrété ainsi'. The context seems to suggest that the meaning may be 'it's all up with them', although one would like additional evidence apart from the context to confirm this.

XLVI       1.361. Christine is referring here to the Burgundians in particular. XLVIII       1.379 Acre: the capture of Acre in 1191 during the Third Crusade led by Philip Augustus and Richard Lion-Heart.

XLIX       1.392. Charles and Joan arrived at Rheims on 16 July and left on 21 July 1429. Line 392 provides yet another indication of how well-informed Christine was on the day-to-day movements of Charles' army.

L       1.395. The French troops were at Vailly on 22 July, at Soissons on 23, at Châtteau-Thierry on 29 July 1429.

1.396. remaint. Remaindre/remanoir in this kind of context normally needs a phrase or complement cp. Roland 1.4 'N'i ad castel ki devant lui remaigne' and Livre du Chemin de Long Estude ed.cit 11.3674-9: 'Et comment puet-ce estre/Qu'ainsi ses bons en Alemaigne/Fait a present, qu'il ne remaigne/Ville, chastel, pais ne bourc/En la duchié de Lucembourc/Qui ne lui viengne faire hommage?' 'Devant lui' or 'devant elle' should probably therefore be understood in 1.396. Alternatively, one could adopt the following suggestion from Professor T.B.W. Reid: 'The usual construction would be with a dependent clause of the type que ne se rende; and I suspect that this is the underlying idea here, though it bas been overlaid (as happens not infrequently in Old French) by the corresponding affirmative principal clause, les habitans se rendent'. If this suggestion were adopted, one would require to repunctuate (replace full stop after remaint by a comma) and link the two clauses (395-6, 398-99) by a 'but that' construction in English (literally: 'not a city remains but that its inhabitants surrender'.).

1.400. Sa could be taken to refer either to Joan or Charles.

LIII       11.417-9. Christine's doubts as to whether Paris would resist or not suggests she was aware of the negotiations between Charles VII and the Duke of Burgundy, whose envoys had arrived in Rheims on the very day of Charles' coronation. The Duke of Burgundy was of course simply playing for time, in order to allow John, Duke of Bedford, to fortify Paris in preparation for the expected assault (see Vallet de Viriville, Histoire de Charles VII, vol.2, Paris, Renouard, 1863, pp. 101-2).

1.419. attendra. The subject of attendra could be either Paris (with Pucelle as object) or la Pucelle; both possibilities give acceptable sense: (a) 'or if it will resist the Maid' (see Tobler-Lommatzsch 1, 631-2) or (b) 'or if the Maid will delay' (cp. 1. 458). 1.422. The subject of rende and a fait is she (Joan) understood.

1.424. Son refers to Paris, though the subject of the sentence is plural ilz (i.e. the inhabitants of Paris); fait= state, condition. Fabre ed.cit. p.327 takes son to refer to Joan and translates de son fait by 'grâce à elle'. For Fabre's suggestion to be plausible, one would really require 'par son fait' cp. 1. 352.

LIV       1.425. The subject of 1.425 is Charles VII understood.

11.425-6. Neither Joan's nor Christine's optimism turned out to be well-founded: the attack on Paris on 8 September 1429 failed, Joan was captured at Compiègne on 23 May 1430, handed over to the English and burned as a heretic in Rouen on 30 May 1431. Charles VII was not to enter Paris till 12 November 1437, having eventually reconciled himself with the Duke of Burgundy by the Treaty of Arras, 20 September 1435.

1.426. Modern French would require the direct pronoun le to be stated.

1.427. Bourgoingne: i.e. Philippe le Bon, who had become Duke of Burgundy in 1419, after the assassination of his father, Jean sans Peur.

11.429-30. The subject of non fera is 'the Duke of Burgundy' understood. 'The Duke of Burgundy will not do this i.e. prevent Charles from entering Paris'. The omission of the subject pronoun produces an ambiguity in the next part of the same sentence re. he/his: 'he does not see himself as his enemy'. Whether one reads this as 'Burgundy does not see himself as Charles' enemy' or 'Charles does not see himself as Burgundy's enemy', these lines give further evidence that Christine was aware of the negotiations taking place between Charles VII and Philippe le Bon. cp. notes on 11.417-9 above.

11.430-31. 'Nobody has the power to prevent him (Charles) from doing this i.e. entering Paris'.

LVI       11.443-5: the antecedent of à qui isthey subject of n'osent.

1.446. deservie looks forward to and agrees with punition.

1.448. maint. When used as a collective noun, it may be given a plural verb as here.

LVII       1.456. don i.e. the gift of forgiveness.

LVIII       11.457-8: il is impersonal in 1.457; the subject of retarde

1.458 is Charles VII understood. In reality, Charles' delay may have had as much to do with his own irresolution as with his reluctance to shed blood.

1.461. qui rendre ne veult. This is a standard idiomatic use of qui = 'if anyone'.

LIX       1.467. Modern French would require a direct object to be stated. cp. 1.426.