La part maudite dans l'oeuvre de François Villon

Poet and thug, such was Francois Villon, whose work in verse has sometimes overshadowed his belonging to the Companions of the Shell, a gang raging in France in the XV th century. Dangerous adventures he lived with them, he removed a set of ballads written in jargon or jobelin, the ancestor of slang. Addressed in coded form to his comrades, they have been the subject of many attempts to interpret, often fanciful. This "exquisite language", made of advice always valid for young people of bad life, is here deciphered, highlighting the damned part of the poet.--L'Échappée.