Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

CHARLES OF ORLEANS
as one of the confraternity of poets. And he would
have other grounds of intimacy with Villon. A
room looking upon Windsor gardens is a different
matter from Villon's dungeon at Meun ; yet each in
his own degree had been tried in prison. Each in
his own way also loved the good things of this life
and the service of the Muses. But the same gulf
that separated Burns from his Edinburgh patrons
would separate the singer of Bohemia from the
rhyming duke. And it is hard to imagine that
Villon's training amongst thieves, loose women, and
vagabond students had fitted him to move in a
society of any dignity and courtliness. Ballades
are very admirable things ; and a poet is doubtless
a most interesting visitor. But among the courtiers
of Charles there would be considerable regard for
the proprieties of etiquette ; and even a duke will
sometimes have an eye to his teaspoons. Moreover,
as a poet, I can conceive he may have disappointed
expectation. It need surprise nobody if ^^illon's
ballade on the theme,
' I die of thirst beside the fountain's edge,'
was but a poor performance. He would make
better verses on the lee-side of a flagon at the sign
of the Pomme du Pin than in a cushioned settle in
the halls of Blois.
Charles liked change of place. He was often not
so much travelling as making a progress ; now to
join the King for some great tournament ; now to
visit King Rene, at Tarascon, where he had a study
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