Famous French Poet - François Villon

François Villon (c. 1431 – after 5 January 1463) was a French poet, thief, and vagabond. He is perhaps best known for his Testamentsand his Ballade des Pendus, written while in prison. The question "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?", taken from the Ballade des dames du temps jadis and translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti as "Where are the snows of yesteryear?", is one of the most famous lines of translated secular poetry in the English-speaking world.

Villon's real surname has been a matter of some dispute; he has been called François de Montcorbier and François Des Loges and other names, though in literature Villon is the sole name used. Villon was a person of loose life, and that he continued, throughout his recorded life, a reckless way of living among the wilder youth of the University of Paris. 

In 1460, at the age of thirty, Villon composed the works which he named Le grand testament (1461-1462). This "testament" has generally been judged Villon's greatest work, and there is evidence in the work itself that Villon felt the same.

The verses of the Grand testament are marked by the immediate prospect of death by hanging and frequently describe other forms of misery and death. 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 1462, he was living in the cloisters of Saint-Benoît and in November, he was imprisoned for theft in the fortress that stood at today's Place du Châtelet in Paris. In default of evidence, the old charges of previous thefts were revived, and even a royal pardon did not bar the demand for restitution. Bail was accepted,however, Villon fell promptly into a street quarrel. He was arrested, tortured and condemned to be hanged but the sentence was commuted to banishment by the parlement on January 5,1463. The actual outcome is unknown. But from this time François Villon disappears from history.