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What does a poet leave behind when his will is part joke, part confession, and part prayer?
François Villon's Paris is poor, cold, and crowded with students, beggars, priests, and thieves. In the Petit Testament, also called the Legacy, he plays a man preparing to leave the city. His farewell becomes a comic will, with odds and ends left to friends and enemies.
The Complete Works of François Villon brings together the Grand Testament, separate ballads and short poems, the Jargon in thieves' slang, and poems from his circle. Real streets, taverns, and officials share the verse with hunger, lost youth, and death. Villon's voice turns from bitter laughter to tenderness and fear.
What you’ll discover
- A farewell full of mischief Follow the Petit Testament as Villon turns settling his affairs into sharp, personal comedy.
- Confession without calm Enter the Grand Testament, where jokes, confession, and prayer sit close to hunger and death.
- Beauty that cannot stay Hear ballads of vanished beauty and lost youth, carried by refrains that return again.
- A voice beneath the gallows Meet fear and mortality in the Ballad of the Hanged, also called Villon's Epitaph.
- The language of thieves Explore the Jargon ballads and poems by writers close to Villon's rough Paris circle.
Who will love it
Readers who love voices with a swagger and a sting will enjoy this, along with anyone drawn to medieval Paris, comic wills or ballads about death.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A poor man leaves imaginary gifts
- Heartbreak becomes a comic departure
- Need changes the judgment of wrongdoing
- Death strips away every rank
- Lost beauty speaks through the body
- Mock gifts reveal a whole city
- Verse becomes an appeal for mercy
- Survival also takes a comic shape
- Laughter keeps turning toward prayer
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Complete Works of François Villon
A Paris scholar facing the gallows leaves his sword, his debts and his laughter to friends in a mock will.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“But where are the snows of yesteryear!”
In short
Picture a poor, quick-witted man in Paris who has dodged the law more than once and now sits down to make his will. He owns almost nothing.
Complete Works of François Villon at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 56,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A jilted lover jokes his way out of Paris
The collection opens with the Little Testament, dated 1456. Its speaker is Villon himself, and the reason for his will is a woman. Around Christmas, when people crowd around the fire, he decides to break free of a love that has been breaking him.
He explains it in the language of courtly love, but with a wink. The woman seems to want him dead, so he sees no way out except flight to Angers.
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Cite this edition
Villon, François. Complete Works of François Villon. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/complete-works-of-francois-villon.
Villon, F. (2026). Complete works of François Villon. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/complete-works-of-francois-villon
Villon, François. Complete Works of François Villon. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/complete-works-of-francois-villon.
@book{villon2026complete,
author = {Villon, François},
title = {Complete Works of François Villon},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/complete-works-of-francois-villon}
}
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What is the Great Testament by François Villon about?
It is a long mock will made in 1461. Villon looks back on prison, poverty and wasted youth, thanks the king, thinks about death, and leaves comic gifts to real Parisians, with ballads placed throughout.
What is the difference between the Little Testament and the Great Testament?
The Little Testament of 1456 is a short farewell as a lover leaves Paris. The Great Testament of 1461 is much larger, more bitter and more reflective, and it contains the famous ballads on the ladies of long ago.
What is the Ballad of the Hanged Men?
It is also called the Epitaph. In it, Villon speaks for himself and his companions as bodies on the gallows, asking passersby not to mock them but to pray that God pardon everyone.
The author
François Villon
1431–1463 · Medieval French poet
French poet and criminal.
“But where are the snows of yesteryear!”
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