‘Bad Boy Poet’ Francois Villon in Medieval and Modern Paris

by Alysa Salzberg
The first time I read Francois Villon's works, I discovered a world I had yet to unearth, however, knew by heart.  One of France's greatest medieval poets, Villon, writes in an old form of French.  His poems include countless references to people, places, and events of his time.   Sometimes it appears even more complicated than that: Villon occasionally wrote in the obscure jargon of the Coquillards, a gang of criminals.
As a young American expatriot in the twenty-first century, a multitude of things separate me from Villon. But there is richness in his words--a passion and e...