Olivier Basselin (; ; was a French

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Life

He was born in the Val-de-Vire in

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

about the end of the 14th century. He was by occupation a fuller, and tradition still points out the site of his

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

. His drinking songs became famous under the name of Vaux-de-Vire, corrupted in modern times into "

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

." From various traditions, it may be gathered that Basselin was killed in the English wars about the middle of the century, possibly at the

Battle of Formigny The Battle of Formigny, fought on 15 April 1450, was a major battle of the Hundred Years' War between the kingdom of England and the kingdom of France. The destruction of England's last army in Normandy in the battle and the decisive French vi ...

(1450). At the beginning of the 17th century a collection of songs was published by a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

lawyer, Jean Le Houx, purporting to be the work of Olivier Basselin. There seems to be very little doubt that Le Houx was himself the author of the songs attributed to Basselin, as well as of those he acknowledged as his own. It has been suggested that Basselin's name may be safely connected with some songs preserved in the

Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and published at Caen in 1866 by M. Armand Gasté. The question is discussed in M.V. Patard's ''La Vérité dans la question Olivier Basselin et Jean le Houx à propos du Vau-de-Vire'' (1897). Gasté's edition (1875) of the ''Vaux-de-Vire'' was translated (1885) by

James Patrick Muirhead James Patrick Muirhead FRSE (26 July 1813 – 15 October 1898) was a Scottish advocate and author, best known as the biographer of James Watt. Life Born at The Grove, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, he was son of Lockhart Muirhead; George Muirhead was hi ...

. A poem by

Henry Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

entitled "Oliver Basselin", first published in 1858 along with "The Courtship of Miles Standish", memorializes Basselin and his songs as outliving the baron, knights and abbot of his time since, quoting from the poem, "the poets memory here, of the landscape makes a part: Like the river swift and clear flows through many a heart:..."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basselin, Olivier 1400 births 1450 deaths French poets People from Manche 15th-century French writers 15th-century French poets French male poets