Venice masks

Saturday 4 July 2015

Confession of a Stolen Kiss - Charles d'Orleans

My ghostly fader, I me confess,
First to God and then to you,
That at a window, wot ye how,
I stale a kosse of gret swetness,
Which don was out avisiness—
But it is doon, not undoon, now.

My ghostly fader, I me confess,
First to God and then to you.

But I restore it shall, doutless,
Agein, if so be that I mow;
And that to God I make a vow,
And elles I axe foryefness.

My ghostly fader, I me confesse,
First to God and then to you.

Charles d'Orleans (1394 - 1465) France

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hi "unknown", I'll try my best to answer your question.

      1. On the surface this is a simple poem about someone who steals a kiss: "I stale a kosse of gret swetness" - in other words, kisses when he's not supposed to have done so. His cheeky remedy is to give the kiss back "But I restore it shall, doutless", but of course this means kissing again! This is rather like the joke that Romeo plays with Juliet in Shakespeare's (later) play.

      2. So the second point is the play on the idea of giving kisses because if you give a kiss or take a kiss, what's the difference - both are still kisses.

      3. The third point is rather more deep. The poem is addressed to "fader", i.e. a priest, and is a confession. So the poet is making his confession to his priest (and to God), that he has stolen a kiss - and by openly suggesting its remedy (point 1) he is blurring the distinction between confessing and forgiving in the same that that he blurs the distinction between giving and receiving (point 2).

      4. The use of the window is also of interest because the kiss was stolen through a window, and confession is also made through a window!

      5. Finally, then, we have a poem that is suggesting that the confessional is a somewhat ambiguous place since, like giving and receiving kisses, the giving and receiving of confession (and therefore forgiveness) can be equally uncertain and blurred.

      I hope this helps :-)

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