Owen, Jan

Calendar
(excerpt)

After Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

The Duke of Berry’s hour book, now in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, opens with a calendar; in most months either the Duke or one of his castles is featured. John of France, Duke of Berry, was a shrewd rapacious man disliked by the peasants, whom he exploited. His saving grace was a love of beauty. About 1410 he commissioned the Limbourg brothers, Pol, Hermant, and Jean, to produce the illuminated miniatures of Les Très Riches Heures. In 1416 the Duke and the three brothers all died; the incomplete work was finished by Jean Colombe and others some time before 1486.

1.  
2. November           Harvesting Acorns
3.  
4. This is the moment before the wielded stick
5. is hurled to thwack the nearest oak
6. and shake a rain of acorns on the backs
7. of Wurzel and Bristlebum who’ll oink
8. as the old dog nips their rumps and hocks.
9. Then Jacques of the stick will narrow his eyes
10. at the distant blue between the trees–
11. a haze of smoke: the Companies are abroad–
12. d’ Aubrecicourt and Calveley; he’s heard
13. talk of another Crusade in Spain–pray God
14. it leech away these brigands like bad blood.
15. His pigs are a cheerful lot with turned-up snouts
16. and greedy smiles, rooting in mulch and dirt.
17. They grovel like penitents, Franciscan-brown,
18. fat with the shady-gotten gains
19. of hawking relics in market towns,
20. Moses’ burning bush (a swatch of broom)
21. and Gabriel’s feather (found in Mary’s room).
22. Just pigs in the month of acorns; down they come
23. on Jacques and Wurzel and Bristlebum.
24.  
25. December           Hunting the Boar
26.  
27. Translated from the French of Eustache Deschamps (1346-1406)
28.  
29. Each servant in the King’s Household must stay
30. four months of every year at court, they say;
31. well there are four cold ones when I won’t chance
32. my health in serving at the court of France–
33. from childhood on they’ve been too much for me:
34. November’s one, December, January,
35. and February bringing ague and rheum:
36. in such cold weather better stay at home.
37.  
38. For then come frosts and rain and driving snow,
39. icy winds and gales begin to blow;
40. and when the King goes off to hunt the boar
41. his men slap at their sides in the chilly air
42. and blow their hands and wrap their cloaks around
43. their backs and bellies, stamping on the ground.
44. Horseback boys make faces full of gloom.
45. In such cold weather better stay at home.
46.  
47. The little snivelling pages cannot hold
48. the horses’ bridles for the bitter cold;
49. God Himself would break out in cold sweat
50. at the lodgings and the meagre fuel doled out;
51. squires and servants with no cloaks at all
52. stand round stupefied in the dining hall.
53. Whoever hopes to miss this courtly game
54. in such cold weather better stay at home.
55.  
56. Prince or courtier with money enough
57. to cover these four months had best make off;
58. don’t go to court for grievance or just claim:
59. in such cold weather better stay at home.