Georges BRASSENS (1921-1981). Autograph manuscript, [Le Moyenâgeux, etc., 1974]; very large (65.5x49.5cm) spiral-bound drawing book, strong brown cardboard covers, 17 autograph pages, plus blank sheets (2 with pasted documents). Exceptional notebook with lyrics to 8 songs produced for the TV program Le Grand Échiquier. Brassens produced this notebook for Jacques Chancel's TV program Le Grand Échiquier, broadcast live from the Buttes-Chaumont studio on March 6, 1974 (scheduled for February 13, but postponed due to a strike), because he feared he would misremember some of the lyrics. He copied the lyrics of several songs in large ink or blue felt-tip pen. His friend and secretary Pierre Onteniente, positioned between the cameras, held the notebook and turned the pages. The notebook contains the lyrics to the following songs (without titles): * Le Moyenâgeux, complete with 8 verses (p.1 to 8): "Le seul reproche au demeurant / Qu'aient pu mériter mes parents"... [it was never sung]; * Stances à un cambrioleur, 1st line of each of 10 couplets (p.10-11): "Prince des monte-en-l'air"...; * À l'ombre des mari, 1st line of each of the 12 verses, the first two lines for stanzas 9, 10 and 12 (p.10-11): "Les dragons de vertu n'en prennent pas"....; * Le Temps passé, the first two lines of the 1st and 3rd verses, and the entire last verse (p.12): "Dans les comptes d'apothicaire / Vingt ans c'est un' somme de bonheur"...: * La Non-demande en mariage, beginning (2 lines) of each of the 6 couplets (p.14); * La Mauvaise Herbe, beginning and end of 3 verses: "Quand l'jour de gloire est arrivé / La mort faucha les autres / Ça vous dérange que j'vive un peu"... (p.15); * Mourir pour des idées, start of 6 verses, 2 verses for the last two (p.16): "Mourir pour des idées"...; * Le Roi des cons, beginning of 8 verses (p.17): "Non certes".... Press clippings announcing or commenting on the show were pasted on afterwards, along with a pass for access to the studios. Reference: Le Grand Échiquier Georges Brassens (DVD, INA LCJ Éditions 2021).