"The Song of La Palice" (in French: La chanson de la Palisse) is a burlesque song attributed to Bernard de la Monnoye (1641–1728) about alleged feats of French nobleman and military leader Jacques de la Palice (1470–1525). From that song came the French term lapalissade meaning an utterly obvious truth—i.e. a truism or tautology. When you say something obvious, the interlocutor responds '"So would have said La Palice!" (in French: La Palice en aurait dit autant!).
History of the song Jacques de la Palice died in the battle of Pavia (1525), while fighting against the Spanish armies as a Marshal under Francis I. The epitaph on his tombstone readsMichel Chabanne (June 14, 2007), comment on Encyclopédie des Expressions: Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade . Accessed April 15, 2009.
Ci-gît le Seigneur de La Palice: S’il n'était pas mort, il ferait encore envie. ("Here lies Sir de la Palice: If he weren't dead, he would be still envied.")
Some sourcesFamous people from the Allier. Accessed on April 15, 2009. claim that the last two verses came from a song that his soldiers composed in his honor, which would have said something along these lines Hélas ! La Palice est mort Alas! La Palice has died Il est mort devant Pavie He died before Pavia Hélas ! S’il n'était pas mort Alas! If he wasn't dead, Il ferait encore envie. He would still be envied.
Apparently the last verse was misread, intentionally or accidentally, as il serait encore en vie ("he would be still alive"). The misreading was due perhaps to the similarity between the letter f and the long s, ſ. In any case, not many years after the battle (which was a resounding fiasco for the French), a satirical song became widely popular in France,Georges Frédéric Eugène Kastner (1855), Essai historique sur les chants militaires des français, page 26. Paris, Jules Renouard.Charles Nisard (1867), Des chansons populaires chez les anciens et chez les Français, page 281. which began like this:
Hélas ! La Palice est mort Alas! La Palice has died Il est mort devant Pavie He died before Pavia Helás ! Si il n'était pas mort Alas! If he wasn't dead Il serait encore en vie He would be still alive Quand le roy partit de France, When the king departed from France A la malheur il partit To his misfortune he went out Il en partit la Dimanche, He departed on Sunday Et le Lundy il fut pris. And on Monday he was captured. Il en partit la Dimanche, He departed on Sunday Et le Lundy il fut pris. And on Monday he was captured. Rens toy, rens toy, roy de France, "Surrender, surrender, king of France, Rens toy donc, car tu es pris. Surrender now, for you've been captured." ... ...
La Palice is not mentioned again in the song. Between the 16th and the 18th century, the first stanza of this song evolved and multiplied into a great many humorous quatrains, which attributed to Jacques several other similar feats, like his custom to always go in person when eating at his neighbors. An often-quoted example is
Monsieur d'la Palisse est mort, Sir de la Palisse is dead, Il est mort devant Pavie, He died before Pavia, Un quart d'heure avant sa mort, A quarter hour before his death, il était encore en vie. He was still quite alive.
In the early 18th century the French poet Bernard de la Monnoye collected no less than 51 variants, which he joined into a comical song.L. E. Kastner (1929), A Glossary of Colloquial and Popular French for the Use of English Readers and Travellers. 384 pages. Reprinted by Read Books (2007), . The song was a success at the time, but was then forgotten until its rediscovery in the 19th century by Edmond de Goncourt. Edmond is also credited with coining the French noun lapalissade. The word was eventually borrowed into Italian as lapalissiano (adj.), and into Portuguese as lapaliçada (n.).
However, some sources have a different version: they claim that, somewhere between the 18th and 19th centuries, an unrelated song — originally a parody of the Chanson de Roland — was rewritten to refer to La Palice.
Besides the long version attributed to de Monnoye, there is another version collected by de LincyAlbert Boone (1999), Het Vlaamse volkslied in Europa. . 2120 pages.Le Roux de Lincy, Chansons Populaires de FrancePaul S Billot, Le folk-lore de France. Tome 4, Le peuple et l'histoire. Adamant Media Corporation. ,
The de la Monnoye version
This version, allegedly compiled or composed by Bernard de la Monnoye, comes from the French Wikipedia and other sources:Thierry Klein (2009), Chansons populaires et enfantines - La Palisse. Accessed April 15, 2009.