French term (edited): Que celui aime peu, qui aime à la mesure

Not only has the line been mangled, as Phil pointed out, but in addition it has to be understood as line 2 in a couplet at the end of a sonnet:

"Toi qui oys mes soupirs, ne me soys rigoureux
Si mes larmes à part toutes miennes je verse,
Si mon amour ne suit en sa douleur diverse
Du Florentin transi les regrets langoureux,
Ni de Catulle aussi, le folatre amoureux,
Qui le cœur de sa dame en chatouillant lui perce,
Ni le savant amour du demi-Grec Properce,
Ils n’aiment pas pour moi, je n’aime pas pour eux,
Qui pourra sur autrui ses douleurs limiter,
Celui pourra d’autrui les plaintes imiter :
Chacun sent son tourment et sait ce qu’il endure
Chacun parla d’amour ainsi qu’il l’entendit.
Je dis ce que mon cœur, ce que mon mal me dit.
Que celui aime peu, qui aime à la mesure."

This throws a more specific light on what the second line is getting at, although the link between the 2 lines is not straightforward.

However, if you read through the sonnet a few times the gist becomes clear: he's comparing his feelings to those expressed by various writers. Although Petrarch wasn't in fact a resident of Florence, I think Florentin transi probably refers to him rather than Dante, partly because Petrarch basically invented the idea of obsessive unfulfilled love, but also because Montaigne and La Boëtie had a "thing" about Petrarch: check this out: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6Z6npg_ks6UC&pg=PA122&lp...

I think, on reading this, I come to the conclusion that, more than anything, à la mesure refers to an idea of "convention", rejecting it in favour of individualism regarding sentiment, an appropriately humanist attitude.

As the main body of the poem suggests, particularly by the line in the past historic immediately preceding the couplet, these poets of old loved above all in their own way.

My first thought was "He who loves by the book hardly loves at all", but I think it is more general than that: an appeal to unconstrained feelings.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2022-06-28 12:55:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

A note on the metre: these old French poems do in fact scan perfectly, according to rigid rules, right up until the 20th century, including for example every poem Baudelaire ever wrote. But you have to be aware that the e muet is **voiced**, according to the rules: in particular it is **not** pronounced when elided due to a following vowel.

The final line therefore scans thus:

Que celui aim-euh peu (stressed, caesura), qui aim-a la mesure

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 hrs (2022-06-28 13:46:58 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

It might be helpful to read the two "mon"s in the penultimate line as being in italic: "I talk about **my** feelings", with reference to no-one else's...