Le Testament

It mixes reflections on the passing of time, bitter derision, invective, and religious fervor.

This mixed tone of tragic sincerity stands in contrast to the other poets of the time.

In one of these poems, Ballade des dames du temps jadis ("Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past"), each stanza and the concluding envoi asks after the fate of various celebrated women, including Héloise and Joan of Arc, and ends with the same semi-ironic question:

Dictes moy ou n'en quel pays Est Flora le belle Romaine Archipiades, ne Thaïs, Qui fut sa cousine germaine, Echo parlant quant bruyt on maine Dessus riviere ou sus estan, Qui beaulté ot trop plus qu'humaine.

), and Thaïs Who was her cousin; Echo, speaking when one makes noise Over river or on pond, Who had a beauty too much more than human?