"BESIDE that of his contemporaries, Villon's writing, so full of color, so eloquent, so picturesque, stands out in almost miraculous isolation. This gallows-bird was the one great writer of his age and country and initiated modern literature for France. Out of him flows much of Rabelais, and through Rabelais, directly and indirectly, a deep, permanent and growing inspiration. It is in itself a memorable fact that before 1542, in the very dawn of printing, the works of Villon ran through seven different editions."

R. L. STEVENSON