News

We have added new rhymed translations of Alain Chartier's 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' and a few of his other short poems to the site here. John Keats famously utilised the title for his own disimilar poem, and it is easy to see why Keats, in love with Fanny Brawne, was attracted to Chartier's work, which portrays a verbal 'duel' or 'chess game' between a lover and his lady.  Alain Chartier (c.1385-c.1430) was a royal clerk, notary and financial secretary to Charles VII of France, and a contemporary of both Christine de Pisan and Charles D'Orléans, though unlike the latter he was not involved at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.