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The Vogue of Guy of Warwick from the Close of the Middle Ages to the Romantic Revival

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Extract

Among the questions which still await investigation in the literary history of sixteenth and seventeenth century England, not the least important is that of the survival of the vernacular writings of the Middle Ages. No one can have studied the records of publishing activities during the Tudor and Stuart periods without becoming aware that a considerable number of the romances, tales, poems, chronicles, lives of saints of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries still continued to circulate, and to find, though probably in ever smaller numbers, appreciative readers. Nor can anyone who has noted this persistence of medieval literature beyond the Middle Ages fail to draw from it inferences not a little damaging to our current conceptions of sixteenth and seventeenth century taste. As yet, however, no historian of literature has dealt with the problem in a systematic or detailed way—no one has tried to set clearly before us precisely which works, out of the total body of medieval writings, remained in vogue, how long the popularity of each of them lasted, how far they were modified in form or content to suit the taste of successive generations, by what sort of “public” they were read, and of what nature was the influence which they exercised upon the newer writers. Some day perhaps we shall have such a history of the survival of medieval literature in early modern England. In the meantime, as a preliminary treatment of a single phase of the subject, the present study of Guy of Warwick may not be without its interest. It proposes to trace from the days of the early printers to the close of the eighteenth century the fortunes of but one—though perhaps the most typical one—of the many romances whose popularity survived the Middle Ages.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1915

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References

page 126 note 1 The later history of the legend of Guy of Warwick has received comparatively little attention from scholars. Zupitza (“ Zur Literaturgeschichte des Guy von Warwick,” in Sitzsungsberichte der philhist. Classe der kais. Akademie, Bd. 74, Vienna, 1873, pp. 623–668) discusses a few of the more important texts, but without exhausting the subject. Some details are also to be found in Bishop Percy's Folio Mánuscript, ii (1867), pp. 511, 514, 515, 517; in The Dictionary of National Biography, art. “Guy of Warwick”; and in A. C. L. Brown, “The Source of a Guy of Warwick Chap-Book” (The Journal of Germanic Philology, iii, 1900, pp. 14–23). A bibliography of the prose versions of the story is given by Arundell Esdaile, A List of English Tales and Prose Romances printed before 1740 (1912), pp. 233–234.

page 126 note 2 The Inventory off Englysshe Boks off John Paston, in The Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, iii (1910), p. 300. On the date see Gairdner's note, ibid.

page 127 note 3 Zupitza, The Romance of Guy of Warwick, E. E. T. S., E. S., xxvi (1876), pp. v-vii. The poem entitled Guy & Colebrande in Bishop Percy's folio manuscript (ed. Hales and Furnivall, ii, 1867, pp. 527–549) may not improbably be of this period. See, on its relations to other versions of the story, Kölbing, in Germania, xxxiv (1889), pp. 191–194, and Weyrauch, Die mittelenglischen fassungen der sage von Guy of Warwick (1901), pp. 61–65.

page 127 note 4 Girardus Cornubiensis, De Gestis Regum Westsaxonum (cited in Liber Monasterii de Hyda, ed. Edwards, Rolls Series, 1866, pp. 118–123); Knighton, Chronicon de Eventibus Angliae, b. 1366 (quoted in Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, pp. 512–513); Rudborne, Historia Major Wintoniensis, c. 1454 (ibid., p. 514); Hardyng, Chronicle, c. 1465 (ed. Ellis, 1812, pp. 210–211); Rous, notes on the Earls of Warwick, b. 1491 (Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, pp. 515–516).

page 128 note 5 “Her nowe begynnyth an abstracte owte the cronycles in latyn made by Gyrade Cornubyence the worthy the cronyculer of Westsexse & translatid into Englishe be lydegate Daun Iohan at the request of Margret Countasse of Shrowesbury lady Talbot ffournyvale & lysle of the lyffe of that moste worthy knyght Guy of Warrewyk of whos blode she is lenyally descendid” (Shirley's rubric, Harvard MS., printed by F. N. Robinson in Harvard Studies and Notes, v, 1896, p. 197). The facts set forth in this rubric serve to fix the date of composition of Lydgate's poem between 1442 and 1468 (Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, 1883, pp. 494–495). Of the six known manuscripts of the work, two only have been printed: Bodl. ms., Laud 683, by Zupitza, Zur Literaturgeschichte des Guy von Warwick, pp. 649–665, and Harvard ms., by Robinson, l. c., pp. 197–220 (with variants from Leyden ms.).

page 128 note 6 See the list of his publications in Hand-lists of Early English Printers (Bibliographical Society, 1896).

page 129 note 7 Of Pynson's edition, a fragment consisting of sig. L. i and two following leaves (not “preceding,” as they are catalogued) is in the British Museum (IA. 55533). One page is reproduced in Duff, Early English Printing (1896), Plate xxv, 1. The fragment has no date, but from the type in which it is printed may be placed between about 1496 and 1500. Cf. Duff, l. c., pp. 19, 39. Changes in spelling apart, the text is identical with that of the edition printed by William Copland (see below, p. 129, note 9); the three leaves of the fragment corresponding to sigs. U. [4], 1. 25—X. j. 1. 24; Y. ii, 1. 25—Y. iii, 1. 24; Y. iii, 1. 25—Y [4], 1. 24 of the later impression. The source must therefore have been the same. Now, as Zupitza has shown (Zur Literaturgeschichte, pp. 635–640), Copland's version is a modernization of a version closely resembling that in B. M., Addit. ms. 14408, dating from the fourteenth century. Cf. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, pp. 490–491.

page 129 note 8 The only sample of this edition which has survived is a fragment of one leaf preserved among the Douce fragments in the Bodleian (e 14). It belongs to the portion of the romance describing the conflict between Guy and Colbrond, a circumstance which has led E. Gordon Duff, in the Bibliographical Society's Hand-lists, Part i (1895), “Wynkyn de Worde,” Part i, p. 3, to catalogue it under the misleading title of “Guy and Colbrond.” It is, strictly speaking, not a fragment of a real edition at all, but merely an “offprint.” This becomes clear on comparison with Copland's edition, which has, except for a few changes in spelling, exactly the same text. Thus the recto of the fragment, as bound, corresponds to sig. Ii. iij. of Copland's reprint; the verso, to sig. Ii. ii.; so that between the recto and the verso of the leaf a full page of thirty lines of text is wanting. The value of the fragment as evidence that a real edition was printed is not, of course, destroyed by this circumstance. The printer is identified as De Worde by the character of the type. See the manuscript note in the Bodleian copy.

page 126 note 9 An imperfect copy of this edition, wanting everything before sig. F. i., is in the British Museum (C. 21. c. 68). It is a black letter quarto, poorly printed, and containing a number of woodcuts. The colophon reads: “Here endeth the Booke of themoste victoryous Prynce, Guy of Warwick. Imprynted at London in Lothbury, ouer agaynst Margarita Church by wylliam Copland.” The address furnishes an approximate date for the edition; for it is known that Copland printed here between 1562 and his death in 1568 or 1569. See Duff, A Century of the English Book Trade (1905), p. 33. Henry Morley's unsupported statement (Early Prose Romances, 1889, p. 27) that “the earliest edition [of Guy] in English prose was printed by William Copland” has caused a good deal of confusion. See in particular W. P. Reeves, “The So-Called Prose Version of Guy of Warwick” (Modern Language Notes, xi, 1896, cols. 404–408); Alexis F. Lange, The Gentle Craft. By Thomas Deloney (1903), pp. x, xxxiv-xxxv (Dr. Lange is so far deceived by Morley's words as to quote passages from a chapbook account of Guy first published in 1706 as the probable source of an episode in Deloney's Gentle Craft, 1597–1598!); W. L. Cross, The Development of the English Novel (1906), p. 4. No such edition, however, has ever been shown to exist.

page 130 note 10 Ames-Herbert, Typographical Antiquities, ii, p. 798. Cawood printed from 1546 to 1572 (Duff, l. c., p. 23).

page 130 note 11 There are four of these in the British Museum copy. Some of them did duty also in contemporary and later editions of other works. Cf. Jusserand, The English Novel in the time of Shakespeare, Eng. tr. (1899), p. 67 (who reproduces the cut of Guy and Phelis in the garden), and Beuis of Hampton (B. M., C. 57.e.7), sig. E.

page 130 note 12 In a list of books which Richard Pynson agreed to furnish to John Russhe, an itinerant merchant, sometime before 1498, single copies of “bevys off hampton” (a romance resembling Guy of Warwick in type and format) were valued at 10d; this was one of the cheapest books in the lot, which included besides, “bocas off the falle of prynces” (2s), “canterbery Talys” (5s), and “Isoppys fabullys” (3s. 4d). See The Library, N. S., x (1909), pp. 126–128.

page 131 note 13 See Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser (ed. 1807), ii, pp. 9–12.

page 131 note 14 Ralph Roister Doister, Actus i, Scæna ii, ed. C. G. Child (1912), p. 65.

page 131 note 15 The Arte of English Poesie (ed. Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, 1904, pp. 43–44).

page 131 note 16 Poly-olbion, Cantos xii and xiii (Spenser Society reprint, ii, 1890, pp. 198–202, 220–221).

page 131 note 17 Anders, Shakespeare's Books (1904), p. 160.

page 131 note 18 See, for example, Robert Ashley's account of his early reading in his autobiography, B. M., Sloane ms. 2131, fol. 18 (printed by the present writer in Modern Philology, xi, 1913, p. 271). Ashley was born in 1565.

page 131 note 19 … in winter nights [in the country] we vse certaine Christmas games very propper, & of much agilitie; wee want not also pleasant mad headed knaues, yt bee properly learned, and will reade in diuerse pleasant bookes and good Authors: As Sir Guy of Warwicke, ye foure Sonnes of Amon, the Ship of Fooles, the Budget of Demaundes, the Hundreth merry Tales, the Booke of Ryddles, and many other excellent writers both witty and pleasaunt“ (The English Courtier and the Cūtrey-gentleman, 1579, in Hazlitt, Inedited Tracts, 1868, p. 56).

page 132 note 20 On the general character of the early English Renaissance see A. Feuillerat, John Lyly (1910), pp. 45–49, and G. L. Hamilton, in Modern Language Votes, xx (1905), pp. 57–58.

page 133 note 21 The present paragraph and the pages which follow on the survival of the medieval romances in the sixteenth century are a summary of material gathered for my doctorate thesis at the University of Pennsylvania in 1911. The full results of my study I hope to publish shortly.

page 133 note 22 See Caxton's statement in the Prologue of Book i, ed. Sommer, i (1894), p. 4.

page 135 note 23 Fabyan, The New Chronicles of England and France, 1516, and many later editions (repr. Henry Ellis, 1811), pp. 183–185 (Fabyan's account is admittedly based upon Lydgate's poem, one stanza of which is quoted); Grafton, A Chronicle at Large, 1569 (repr. 1809), i, pp. 118–119 (Grafton's narrative is taken word for word from Fabyan); Holinshed, The Historie of England, 1577, Book vi, ch. xx (repr. 1807), i, p. 688; Stow, A Summarie of the Chronicles of England … vnto this present yeare of Christ 1575 (London, Richard Tottle and Henry Binneman, n. d.), pp. 75–76.

page 135 note 24 On August 12, 1572, in an oration before Elizabeth, the recorder of Warwick made the following reference to Guy: “But to returne to the auncient estate of this towne of Warwik, wee reade in olde writings and autenticall cronycles the same to have bene a citie or wallid towne in the tyme of the Brytayns, callid then Carwar; and afterwards, in the tyme of the Saxons, that name was chaungid into Warwik. We reade also of noble earles of the same, namely of one Guido or Guye, who being baron of Wallingford, became earle of Warwik by mariage of the ladie Felixe, the sole doughter and heyre of that house in the tyme of king Athelston, who rayned over this lande about the yere of our Lorde God 933.” “The Black Book of Warwick,” in Nichols's Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, No. xvii (1783), pp. 17–18.

page 135 note 25 William Hoggeson, yeoman of the buttery of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed, on 20 June 1509, “keeper of Guy of Warwick's sword in Warwick Castle,” in place of William Lowman (Brewer, Letters and Papers, i, No. 202). In May 1531 John Thoroughgood was associated with Hoggeson in the keepership (Ibid., v, No. 278/19). On 14 March 1542, after Thoroughgood's death, the office passed to Edward Cresswell, to be held during his life (Rymer, Foedera, 2nd ed., xiv, London, 1728, p. 745).

page 136 note 26 Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, p. 482; Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, p. 515.

page 136 note 27 Leland, Itinerary, c. 1535–1543 (ed. Lucy Toulmin Smith, ii, 1908, pp. 45–46); Johannes Caius, De Rariorum Animalium … Historia, 1570 (in The Works of John Caius, M. D., Cambridge, 1912, p. 42); Camden, Britannia, 1586 (tr. Edmund Gibson, London, 1695, cols. 502, 506).

page 136 note 28 For examples of these three kinds of criticism of the romances see, besides the passages cited in the text, Ascham, The Scholemaster, 1570, English Works, ed. Wright (1904), pp. 230–231; Gosson, Playes Confuted in fiue Actions, 1582, ed. Hazlitt, The English Drama and Stage (1869), pp. 188–189; Jonson, An Execration upon Vulcan, c. 1619–1629, Works, ed. Gifford-Cunningham, iii (1872), p. 320.

page 137 note 29 “Hoc ergo curare leges & magistratus congruit. Turn et de pestiferis libris, cuiusmodi sunt in Hispania Amadisus, Splandianus, Florisandus, Tirantus, Tristranus: quarum ineptiarum nullus est finis, quotidie prodeun t nouae: Cœlestina laena, nequitiarum parens, career amorum. In Gallia Lancilotus a lacu, Paris et Vienna, Ponthus & Sydonia, Petrus Prouincialis & Maguelona, Melusina, domina inexorabilis: in hac Belgica Florius, & Albus flos, Leonella, & Cana morus, Curias & Floretta, Pyramuś & Thisbe. …” Opera (Basle, 1555), ii, p. 658. The preface of De Institutione bears the date “Brvgis, nonis Aprilis. 1523” (ibid., ii, p. 650).

page 137 note 30 On Vives's stay in England see Foster Watson, Vives on Education (1913), pp. lxxiii-lxxxii.

page 137 note 31 See the documents analysed in Letters and Papers, iii, Nos. 838, 2052; iv, No. 941.

page 137 note 32 Ibid., iv, No. 4990.

page 137 note 33 A very frutefull and pleasant boke called the Instructiō of a Christen wornā. … London, Thomas Berthelet, n. d. (B. M., G. 11884). The translation seems to have been completed before the death of Sir Thomas More in 1535. See Watson, l. c., p. lxxvi.

page 138 note 34 “And this [the singing of ribald songs] the lawes ought to take hede of; and of those vngracious bokes, suche as be in my coun tre in Spayn Amadise, Florisande, Triante, Tristane, and Celestina ye baude mother of noughtynes. In Fran ce Laneilot du Lake, Paris and Vienna, Ponthus and Sidonia, & Melucyne. In Flan ders, Flori and Whit flowre, Leonel and Canamour, Curias and Floret, Pyramus and Thysbe. In Englande, Parthenope, Genarides, Hippomadon, William and Melyour, Libius and Arthur, Guye, Beuis, and many other … what delyte can be in those thyn ges. … (The Instructiō of a Christen womā, sig. E. iiij—F).

page 138 note 35 Bonilla y San Martin, Luis Vives y la Filosofia del Renacimiento (Madrid, 1903), pp. 766–767.

page 138 note 36 Watson, l. c., pp. xxx-xlii.

page 138 note 37 Mullinger in D. N. B., art, “Dering.”

page 139 note 38 Dering's preface is printed in Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, xl. (1904), pp. 228–229. It is dated 22 April 1572.

page 139 note 39 See Catalogue of Books in the Library of the British Museum … to the year 1640, i (1884), pp. 458, 470.

page 139 note 40 In Discours Politiques et Militaires, 1587; translated into English by E. A., 1587. The passage to which Meres refers is on pages 87–95 of the English edition.

page 139 note 41 Palladia Tamia, Wits Treasury, ed. Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, pp. 308–309.

page 140 note 42 See the reprint by Grosart (1878), pp. 102–103.

page 140 note 43 Dodsley's Old English Plays, ed. Hazlitt, ix (1874), pp. 365–366. Lingua was first printed in 1607; three other editions appeared before 1632 (Greg, A List of English Plays, 1900, p. 134). For other contemporary expressions of skepticism regarding the truth of the story of Guy, see Camden, Britannia, 1586 (tr. Gibson, 1695), col. 507; Robert Ashley's autobiography (Modern Philology, xi, p. 271); and John Lane, The corrected historie of Sir Guy, Earle of Warwick, 1621, Prologue to the Reader (In Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, p. 524).

page 141 note 44 Cf. Melbancke, Philotimus (1583), sig. L2: “This followes as well as that in Beuis of Hampton: Some lost a nose, and some their lip, and the King of Scots hath a ship.”

page 141 note 45 The Works of Thomas Nashe, ed. McKerrow, i, (1904), p. 26. Cf. ibid., iv (1908), p. 26.

page 141 note 46 See below, pp. 151, 153, 158–160, 164–165.

page 142 note 47 See below, p. 145.

page 143 note 1 The Anatomie of Absurditie (1589), in Works, ed. McKerrow, i, p. 11.

page 143 note 2 The Arte of English Poesie, in Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, p. 44. Cf. ibid., p. 166.

page 143 note 3 An Apologie for Poetrie, in Smith, l. c., i, pp. 173, 188, 198. See also Brunhuher, Sir Philip Sidneys Arcadia und ihre Nachläufer (1903), pp. 13–19.

page 143 note 4 Ben Jonson's Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden, ed. D. Laing, Shakespeare Society (1842), p. 10.

page 143 note 5 Archœologica Scotica, iv, i (1831), pp. 73–74.

page 144 note 6 Conversations with Drummond, p. 10.

page 144 note 7 See on Spenser's knowledge and use of the medieval romances Warton, Observations on the Fairy Queen of Spenser (ed. 1807), i, pp. 27–75, ii, pp. 144–145, 205; J. B. Fletcher, “Huon of Burdeux and the Fairie Queene” (in The Journal of Germanic Philology, ii, 1898, pp. 203–212); J. R. Macarthur, “The Influence of Huon of Burdeux upon the Fairie Queene” (ibid., iv, 1902, pp. 215–238); Marie Walther, Malorys Einfluss auf Spensers Faerie Queene (1898); Howard Maynadier, The Arthur of the English Poets, (1907), pp. 257–277; Edgar A. Hall, “Spenser and Two Old French Grail Romances” (in P. M. L. A., xxviii, 1913, pp. 539–554).

page 145 note 8 Ed. Schelling (Belles Lettres Series, 1903), pp. 112–113. Cf. also the texts cited by Koeppel, “Reflexe der Ritter-Romane im Drama” (in his Ben Jonson's Wirkung auf zeitgenössische Dramatiker, 1906, pp. 195–222).

page 145 note 9 See Esdaile, A List of English Tales and Prose Romances printed before 1740 (1912), under the titles of the romances named in the text.

page 146 note 10 E. g., The Auncient Historie, of the destruction of Troy (1596), Huon of Bordeaux (1601), and The Seven Wise Masters (1633).

page 146 note 11 E. g., Appollonius of Tyre (c. 1594), Blanchardine and Eglantine (1595), and Paris and Vienna (1621).

page 146 note 12 The British Museum possesses the manuscript (Lansdowne 766) of a translation of the first chapter and a half of Amadis, made in 1571 by Charles Stewart (afterwards Earl of Lennox), at the request of his mother. Cf. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, pp. 787–788.

page 147 note 13 For a complete bibliography of these translations, see Esdaile, l. c., under the various titles.

page 147 note 14 The Mirror of Knighthood.

page 147 note 15 Puttenham, The Arfe of English Poesie, in Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, p. 87.

page 147 note 16 F. E. Bryant, A History of English Balladry and Other Studies (1913), pp. 141–145, 163–172.

page 147 note 17 A ballad entitled “a pleasaunte history of an adventurus knyghte of kynges Arthurs Couurte” was licensed to Richard Jones between July 1565 and July 1566 (Stationers' Registers, i, p. 297).

page 148 note 18 Deloney, “The Noble Acts of Arthur of the round Table” (in The Garland of Good Will, ed. F. D. Mann, The Works of Thomas Deloney, 1912, pp. 323–326). Cf. E. Sievers, Thomas Deloney (1904), pp. 96–98.

page 148 note 19 Courage Crowned with Conquest; or, A brief Relation, how … Sir Eglamore bravely fought with … a Dragon. The British Museum has an edition of 1672 (C. 40. m. 10/18); but the ballad itself is much older. It was quoted in 1615 in Rowlands's The Melancholie Knight (The Complete Works of Samuel Rowlands, ii, 1880, pp. 33–34).

page 148 note 20 See on this general subject, Schelling, Elizabethan Drama (1908), i, pp. 198–205; and Creizenach, Geschichte des neueren Dramas, iv, i (1909), pp. 228–230.

page 148 note 21 Henslowe's Diary, ed. W. W. Greg (1904), Part i, p. 16.

page 148 note 22 Ibid., pp. 52–53.

page 148 note 23 Ibid., pp. 86, 87.

page 148 note 24 Ibid., p. 90.

page 148 note 25 Ibid., p. 112.

page 148 note 26 Ibid., pp. 173, 176. Cf. Part ii (1908), p. 227.

page 148 note 27 Ibid., Part ii, p. 227.

page 148 note 28 The Famous, true and historicall life of Robert second Duke of Normandy, surnamed for his monstrous birth and behauiour, Robin the Diuell … 1591 (reprinted in The Complete Works of Thomas Lodge, Hunterian Club, ii, 1883).

page 149 note 29 First published in 1601; reprinted by Grosart, 1878. See pp. 34–37. On tie sources of Chester's poem, cf. Journal of English and Germanic Philology, xiv (1915), pp. 75–88.

page 149 note 30 In addition to the independent versions described in the text, there were at least two others which formed part of longer works. One was in Puttenham's lost Romance or historical dittyof the Isle of great Britaine (before 1589). Such at least seems to me to be the correct interpretation of the following passage in The Arte of English Poesie (Smith, Elizabethan Critical Essays, ii, pp. 43–44): “And we our selues who compiled this treatise haue written for pleasure a litle brief Romance or historicall ditty in the English tong, of the Isle of great Britaine, in short and long meetres, and by breaches or diuisions to be more commodiously song to the harpe in places of assembly, where the company shalbe desirous to heare of old aduentures & valiaunces of noble knights in times past, as are those of king Arthur and his knights of the round table, Sir Beuys of Southampton, Guy of Warwicke, and others like.” The other was in Drayton's Poly-olbion (1613), Canto xii of which contained an account of the fight with Colbrond, and Canto xiii, a summary of the leading incidents in the whole legend. See the Spenser Society reprint, Part ii, pp. 198–202, 220–221. The sources of Drayton's versions cannot be determined with exactness; but he seems to have known, besides the Middle English romance, Lydgate's poem (probably in the prose rendering of Fabyan or Grafton) and the ballad of 1592.

page 150 note 31 Stationers' Registers, ii, p. 601. On Jones see McKerrow, A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers … 1557–1640 (1910), p. 159.

page 150 note 32 No bibliography of these editions exists, and probably the greater part of them have disappeared. The British Museum has a few, chiefly of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. See especially B. M., C. 40. m. 10/19, and Rox. iii., 50, 51, and 708. All these have the same woodcut below the title—Guy on horseback in full armor, carrying a boar's head on his lance, and followed by a lion. This design is identical with that on the title-page of the 1632 edition of Rowlands's The Famous History of Guy Earle of Warwicke (B. M., G. 11467). For other broadside editions of the ballad, see Stat. Reg., iv, pp. 131–132; Hazlitt, Collections and Notes, p. 194; The Bagford Ballads, i, p. lxiii; Harvard Catalogue of Chapbooks, No. 881. In addition to the numerous independent editions, the ballad was regularly printed in the eighteenth century as a sort of appendix to the prose chapbook The Noble and Renowned History of Guy Earl of Warwick (1706). Cf. below, p. 184. It also appeared in Percy's Reliques (1765).

page 150 note 33 See The London Chanticleers (1637), in Hazlitt's Dodsley, xii (1875), p. 330.

page 150 note 34 Evidences of the vogue of the ballad in the early seventeenth century may be found in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, 1607–08 (The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, ed. Waller, vi, 1908, p. 193); The Little French Lawyer, 1619 (ibid., iii, 1906, p. 398); Cal. of State Papers, Dom., Addenda, 1580–1625, p. 679; Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, pp. 201–202.

page 151 note 35 My quotations from the ballad are from an edition in the British Museum (C. 40. m. 10/19), dated by the compilers of the Catalogue about 1670.

page 152 note 36 See the evidence set forth by Professor A. C. L. Brown in The Journal of Germanic Philology, iii, p. 21.

page 152 note 37 De Rariorum Animalium … Historia (1570) in The Works of John Caius, M. D., p. 42.

page 152 note 38 On Rowlands see Gosse's memoir in The Complete Works of Samuel Rowlands, Hunterian Club, i (1880), pp. 3–24.

page 153 note 39 Reprinted ibid., iii. Neither the date nor the publisher of the first edition can be established with certainty. The known facts are these: (1) On 23 June 1608, a book called “the famous history of Guy Erle of Warwick” was entered at Stationers' Hall to William Ferbrand (Stat. Reg. iii, p. 382). That this was Rowlands's poem there can be little doubt. No trace, however, of any edition by Ferbrand has survived. (2) The British Museum (C. 39. c. 21) has a copy of The Famous History bearing the imprint “Printed at London by Elizabeth All-de. 1607.” This was long regarded as a copy of the first edition, and as such was reproduced by the editors of The Complete Works. More critical examination showed, however, that the title-page, the lower half of the next two leaves, and the last leaf were in reality manuscript facsimiles, while the text itself belonged to some edition of the late seventeenth century (Complete Works, i, p. 44). Furthermore, as Elizabeth Allde did not begin to publish until 1628 (McKerrow, Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, p. 6), there is no ground for the assumption that the person who supplied the missing leaves may have copied from an edition of 1607 subsequently lost. We are therefore thrown back on the entry in the Registers for 1608 as our only source of information regarding the date of appearance of Rowlands's poem. (3). The earliest edition of which a copy is known dates from 1632 (B. M., G. 11467). It was printed for Elizabeth Allde.

page 153 note 40 Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 2, 3.

page 154 note 41 Canto xii.

page 154 note 42 The possibility that Rowlands had among his sources Lydgate's Guy was suggested by Professor Brown (The Journal of Germanic Philology, iii, p. 19, note 4). It must be remembered, however, that Lydgate's poem had never been printed, and was, therefore, if not entirely unknown in the sixteenth century (see Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, p. 496), at least not very easily accessible. Lydgate, moreover, was not, as Professor Brown seems to imply, the only authority for the location of the fight with Colbrond in Hide-Mead. The fact was also attested by a rather long line of chroniclers, from Girardus Cornubiensis (Lydgate's source), probably in the fourteenth century (ibid., i, p. 480), through Thomas Rudborne in the fifteenth (Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, p. 514), to Fabyan (The New Chronicles of England, 1516; ed. Ellis, 1811, p. 184), Grafton (A Chronicle at Large, 1569; repr. 1809, p. 118), and Stow (A Summarie of the Chronicles of England … vnto … 1575; p. 76), in the sixteenth. The last three of these chronicles at least were still well known when Rowlands wrote. That it was from one of them rather than from Lydgate that he learned of Hide-Mead seems to me highly probable.

page 154 note 43 As, for example, the narrative of Guy's relations with the daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople and of the intrigues of Morgadour, the steward (Copland's edition, sigs. O. ijv—S. ij, passim); the incident of King Valentine (ibid., sig. Bb. iij); and the story of the birth and early life of Raynburne (ibid., sigs. Dd. i, Ff. iiv—Ff. [4]v, Kk. i—end).

page 155 note 44 Copland's edition, sig. Hh. [4]v.

page 155 note 45 Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 76–77. Changes were also made in the circumstances of Guy's rescue of the lion (Canto vii, and cf. Copland's edition, sig. R. ijv); in the whole course of the Terry-Osile-Duke Otton episode (Cantos vii and viii; cf. Copland, sigs. S. iijv—Aa. iijv); in the incident of Amarant, the giant (Canto x; cf. Copland, sigs. Dd. iij—Ff. ijv). These changes, unlike the one noted in the text, seem to have been made merely in the interest of brevity and simplicity. For another change, which appeared in some of the later editions of The Famous History, Rowlands cannot be held responsible. Following his source, the Middle English romance as printed in the sixteenth century, he gave to Guy's chief opponent in the fight outside Constantinople (Canto vi) the name of “Coldran.” It so appears in the edition of 1632 (sig. G3). But in all of the impressions of the later seventeenth century and in at least four of the prose ehapbooks founded on Rowlands's poem, the warrior in question is called “Colbrond” or “Colbron”; with the result that, as Professor Brown notes (l. c., p. 19, note I), “we have … the strange phenomenon of Colbrond's being killed twice, once, as here, in the East, and later in England.”

page 156 note 46 Canto ii; Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 13–16.

page 156 note 47 Canto xi; pp. 66–67.

page 156 note 48 The passage occurs in Athelstone's speech to Guy after the slaying of Colbrond (Canto xii; p. 80).

page 156 note 49 He used it, for example, in the following pieces: The Betraying of Christ (1598), Tis Merrie when Gossips meete (1602), Aue Caesar. God sane the King (1603), Looke to it: For, Ile Stabbe ye (1604), Hell's Broke Loose (1605), A Terrible Battell betweene … Time, and Death (n. d.). In some of the later editions of The Famous History the stanza divisions are disregarded; they appear, however, in the edition of 1632.

page 157 note 50 Hazlitt (Handbook, p. 523) records editions in 1632, 1635, 1649, 1654, 1667, 1679, 1682, 1699, and c. 1700. These represent probably by no means all of the impressions actually printed. See Arber, Term Catalogues, iii, p. 114, and Turnbull, The Romance of Sir Guy of Warwich, Abbotsford Club (1840), p. xxv. Four copies of “Guy of Warwick” (Rowlands's?) were in the stock of John Foster, a York stationer, in 1616 (Davies, A Memoir of the York Press, 1868, pp. 362, 366).

page 157 note 51 On Lane see Furnivall, John Lane's Continuation of Chaucer's ‘Squire's Tale,‘ Chaucer Society (1888–1890).

page 157 note 52 Ed. Furnivall, ibid.

page 157 note 53 See the Prologue to the Reader in his poem on Guy (printed in Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii), passim, and Zupitza, Zur Literaturgeschichte, pp. 646–647.

page 158 note 54 Prologue, l. c., ii, p. 523.

page 158 note 55 “Now, for my own part (vnder correction) I endevour to call a general muster of all our noblest Guions whole historie, in the same kind also, as beinge most proper for it, and him; but without derogatinge from the desert of our ancient English poets first plott: the whi ch … was written allmost three hundred yeeres gonn, by Don Lidgate. …” (Ibid., pp. 522–523). In spite of this apparently plain statement, it seems to me likely that Lane had in view here, not Lydgate's actual poem, which treated only an episode in Guy's career, but the metrical romance, with which, as it contained the “whole historie,” it would be more natural for him to compare his own work. This hypothesis harmonizes with the considerations set forth below, page 159.

page 158 note 56 “And him (Guy) have they sunge in deed into the fabrick of sownd poetrie, although in terms obsolete …” Ibid., p. 522.

page 158 note 57 Ibid., p. 523.

page 158 note 58 Ibid., p. 522. The following passage may perhaps contain an allusion to Rowlands's altered version of the fight with Colbrond (cf. above, p. 155): “… som of oures … woold faine decline the credite of all ye ancientes, concerninge the conditions of Guyes fightinge the Duello for this kingdom, when hee slewe Colbrond the Affrican giant challenginge for the Danes: as yf Sir Guy, beinge then a man retired to obscuritie, and besides overtaken of old age; shoold, or woold runn at a masterie so daungerous for glorie, whic h hee contemned: and not vppon the necessitie of that occasion, but this presumptuous kind of novitious writinge, maie rest assured, that onlie one of yonder ancientes livinge neerer the time of the famous Guy by some hundreds of yeeres will carrie more credite! then one thowsand such news, offringe so forwardly, whic h must needes bee ignorantlie, sith not havinge seene anie of the manuscriptes before mentioned” (Ibid., p. 523).

page 159 note 59 Ibid., p. 525. Cf. the sonnet by John Milton the elder, prefixed to the manuscript of Lane's completed poem:

Heralds' records and each sound antiquary

For Guy's true being, life, death, eke hast sought,

To satisfy those which praevaricari;

Manuscript, chronicle, if might be bought;

Coventry's, Winton's, Warwick's monuments,

Trophies, traditions delivered of Guy,

With care, cost, pain, as sweetly thou presents,

To exemplify the flower of chivalry:

From cradle to the saddle and the bier,

For Christian imitation, all are here.

(Masson, The Life of John Milton, i, 1881, pp. 57–58).

page 159 note 60 Cf. Zupitza, Zur Literaturgeschichte, p. 646: “Ich selbst hatte, wie ich aufrichtig gestehen muss, nicht Zeit und Lust, mich durch die gesammten 26 Cantos auf mehr denn einem halben Tausend Spalten von über 30 Zeilen durchzuwinden. Ich begnügte mich mit einer Lectüre derjenigen Stellen, an denen sich eine Benützung von Lydgate's Gedicht, wenn sie vorhanden wäre, zeigen. müsste: indessen ich konnte nicht die geringste Spur einer solchen entdecken.” In my own examination of the poem I failed to note any matter not to be found in the romance as printed by Copland.

page 160 note 61 Thus, though he spoke of his indebtedness to “tradicion,” he quite ignored the tradition of the Dun Cow.

page 160 note 62 It was licensed for publication on July 13 of that year (Ward, Catalogue of Romances, i, p. 497).

page 160 note 63 Ibid., p. 497. The exact number was 12,180.

page 160 note 64 17,450 (ibid., p. 497). The manuscript in this revised form is in the British Museum (Harl. ms. 5243). The only portions that have been printed are the long prose preface and the sonnet by Milton. The manuscript is described by Ward, l. c., i, pp. 497–499.

page 161 note 65 Stationers' Registers, iv, p. 366. No copies of this edition are known.

page 161 note 66 Ibid., iv, pp. 356, 364.

page 161 note 67 John Taylor, The Pennyles Pilgrimage (in The Workes of John Taylor, 1630. Spenser Society reprint, p. 150). For the date, cf. ibid., p. 132.

page 161 note 68 Stationers' Registers, iii, p. 662. The stationer to whom the license was granted was John Trundle. On December 13, 1620, he assigned his rights in the play to Thomas Langley (ibid., iv, p. 44).

page 161 note 69 The fact is alluded to in Thomas Nabbes's Covent Garden, 1632 (The Works of Thomas Nabbes, ed. Bullen, 1887, i, pp. 8–9). It was perhaps this production that suggested to Jonson some of the details of his description of popular plays in The Magnetic Lady (1632): “So if a child could be born in a play, and grow up to a man, in the first scene, before he went off the stage: and then after to come forth a squire, and be made a knight: and that knight to travel between the acts, and do wonders in the Holy Land or elsewhere; kill Paynims, wild boars, dun cows, and other monsters; beget him a reputation, and marry an emperor's daughter for his mistress: convert her father's country; and at last come back home lame, and all-to-be-laden with miracles.” Act i, sc. i (The Works of Ben Jonson, ed. Gifford-Cunningham, ii, 1872, p. 402).

page 162 note 70 Two copies of a quarto edition of this play “printed for Thomas Vere and William Gilbertson without Newgate, 1661” are among the Dyce books at South Kensington. Both are imperfect. There is also a copy in the British Museum (643. c. 18). The leaf preceding the title-page contains what must have been the original imprimatur: “Imprimatur. April. 6. 1639. Math. Clay.” No copy of this first edition, however, seems to have survived. I am indebted to Mr. G. H. Palmer, of the Victoria and Albert Museum, for information regarding the copies at Kensington, and to Professor W. Bang, of Louvain, for the loan of a transcript of the play made for an edition, now shortly forthcoming, in Materialien zur Kunde.

page 162 note 71 Title-page of the edition of 1661.

page 162 note 72 In the Epilogue the author is described as a young man: “he's but young that writes of this Old Time” (1. 1597).

page 164 note 73 The Tragical History, 11. 1574–1580. There are several other allusions to the episode of the Dun Cow. See 11. 23–26, 71–72, 292–294, 328–329.

page 164 note 74 Ed. Sidney Lee, E. E. T. S., E. 8., xl, pp. 60–109. The hero of this story, sent by Charlemagne on a dangerous mission to the Admiral of Babylon, happened to encounter on his way an aged hermit, who warned him against taking the shortest road to his destination lest he should fall under the power of Oberon, the dwarf king of fairy-land. Huon's curiosity, however, was aroused by the hermit's description of Oberon, and he made light of the prophecy of danger. Accordingly, he continued his journey by the shorter path, and presently caught a glimpse of the fairy king riding by with his bow and magic horn. Several other encounters followed, until finally Huon, though he had been expressly commanded by the hermit not to speak to Oberon, could contain himself no longer, and saluted him kindly. Thereupon Oberon gave him as a reward his ivory horn, one blast of which would suffice to summon the dwarf to his side with a hundred thousand men. Huon then proceeded upon his way, and after a number of adventures came to the tower of Dunother, the abode of the giant Angolafer. Against the advice of Oberon and the entreaties of his own companions, he entered the tower, and fought and overcame the giant. In Act ii of The Tragical History this narrative is clearly alluded to. After the departure of the hermit, Guy beholds the tower of Donather. “This,” he says to Sparrow,

“This is the stately Tower of Donather,

wher Huon of Burdeaux a couragious Knight

slew Angolofar in a single Fight:

375 go Sparrow, seek find me an entrance in.“

And again, after delivering Guy from the spells of the enchanter, Oberon tells him:

“I am the Fairy King that keeps these Groves,

455 for Huon of Burdeaux sake, thy Warlike friend,

the dear loved Minion of the Fairy King,

will I make Guy of Warwicks name be fear'd;

for conquest of the Tower of Donather.“

On the vogue of Lord Berners's translation of Huon in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, see Lee, l. c., xl, pp. xxxviii-lvii; l. p. 791.

page 165 note 76 The number of details which could have come from the romance and from no other extant version is considerable. They include, in Act i, Guy's charge to Phillis respecting the upbringing of her child (cf. Copland's edition, sig. Dd. j); in Act iv, King Athelstone's vision, his interview with Guy at Winchester gate, and Guy's prayer before the battle (Copland, sigs. Hh. [4]v, i i. j); in Act v, Guy's interview with Phillis and the visit of the angel (Copland, sig. i i. iijv); and, throughout the play, the story of Rainborn (simplified somewhat from the account given in the romance).

page 166 note 1 Cf. Charles the Grete, 1485 (E. E. T. S., E. S., xxxvi), pp. 2–3; Blanchardyn and Eglantine, c. 1489 (ibid., lviii), p. 1; The Four Sons of Aymon, c. 1489 (ibid., xliv), p. 4; Eneydos, c. 1490 (ibid., lvii), p. 3.

page 166 note 2 Ed. Sommer, i (1889), p. 4.

page 166 note 3 See, for example, the “Prologue of the Translatour,” in his edition of Helyas, Knight of the Swan (Thorns, Early English Prose Romances, iii, pp. 15–16).

page 166 note 4 On Berners see Lee, Huon of Burdeux (E. E. T. S., E. S., xl), pp. xl-xlvi.

page 166 note 5 See Friedrich Brie, “Die erste übersetzung einer italienischen Novelle ins Englische,” in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, cxxiv (1910), pp. 46–57.

page 167 note 6 See above, pp. 136–141.

page 167 note 7 The facts upon which this generalization rests are of three sorts: (1) the lack of any evidence of a general interest in the medieval romances on the part of seventeenth-century men of letters; (2) the monopoly of the surviving stories by the lower class of booksellers, including many who made a specialty of publishing for the country chapmen; and (3) the existence in the plays and other literary works of the time of numerous passages in which a taste for the chivalric romances is treated as especially characteristic of old women, servants, country squires, the sons and daughters of citizens, and children. I hope to treat the question in detail in a forthcoming study of the survival of the romances after 1500.

page 167 note 8 Above, p. 162, note 70.

page 168 note 9 Above, pp. 157, note 50.

page 168 note 10 Diary, 6 March 1067. The Plesante Song was not the only ballad on Guy known in the seventeenth century. “May all the ballads be call'd in and dye,” wrote Richard Corbet in Iter Boreale (b. 1635), “Which sing the warrs of Colebrand and Sir Guy” (quoted in Roxburghe Ballads, vi, 1889, p. 732). Among the Roxburghe Ballads in the British Museum (iii, 218, 219), is a fragment entitled “THF [sic] HEROICK HISTORY OF GVY, Earle of Warwick. WRITTEN By HUMPHREY CROVCH. LONDON. Printed for Jane Bell at the East end of Christ-Church. 1655.” This fragment is apparently a proof of portions of the ballad taken off on a waste copy of the ballad of Mock-Beggers Hall. It is reprinted in Roxburghe Ballads, vi, p. 737.

page 168 note 11 This was the manuscript which afterwards belonged to Percy. See the edition by Hales and Furnivall, ii, pp. 136–143, 201–202, 527–549; and, on the date, i, pp. xii-xiii. The copyist seems to have been a North of England man, perhaps from Lancashire or Cheshire.

page 169 note 12 Cal. of State Papers, Dom., 1641–43, p. 392.

page 169 note 13 Diary, 3 August 1654. See also Celia Fiennes's account of her visit to Warwick between 1689 and 1694 (quoted in Dobson's edition of The Diary of John Evelyn, ii, 1906, p. 86 n.).

page 169 note 14 The Antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated … (1656), 299a-301a. His sources he enumerated as follows: “Hist. ms. Tho. Rudburn in bibl. c. c. c. Cantab, p. 35. Hist. ms. Gerardi Cornub. in bibl. Coll. S. M. Magd. Oxon. f. 227. a. Chron. ms. H. Knighton, f. 6b.”

page 170 note 15 See, for example, the advertisement of W. Thackeray (1685), in which Guy of Warwick is included among “Small Books, Ballads and Histories” ready to be furnished to “any Chapman … at Reasonable Rates” (The Bagford Ballads, ed. Ebsworth, i, 1878, pp. liv, lv).

page 170 note 16 On Parker, see Seccombe in D. N. B.

page 170 note 17 Stat. Reg. ms.: “24 Novembris 1640 Master Oulton Entred for his copies under the hands of Master Stansby and Master Man Warden a book called The true story of Guy Earle of Warwick in prose by Martyn Parker vjd.” Cf. Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 439. As Oulton had but recently (April 22, 1640; see Stat. Reg., iv, p. 507) acquired the copyright of Rowlands's Famous History from his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Allde, it is not an unreasonable conjecture that this was the source of Parker's narrative. I owe thanks to the Clerk of Stationers' Hall for a transcript of the original entry, which occurs in a portion of the Registers not printed by Arber. No copy of Parker's work is known.

page 171 note 18 “The Famous HISTORY OF GUY Earl of WARWICK. By Samuel Smithson. Licensed and Entered according to Order. London, Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke.” 8°. The only copy I have seen is in the Bodleian (Wood, 254/2); it bears a note in Anthony à Wood's hand, “Bought at Oxon. 1687.” The date of this edition, which was apparently the first, could hardly have been later than 1681, as Coles died in that year (Plomer, A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, 1907, p. 49).

page 172 note 19 Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 75–77.

page 173 note 20 I quote from a Newcastle reprint of about 1785 (B. M., 11621. c. 8/8, pp. 22–23), which gives the text substantially unaltered from the first edition. Other examples of Smithson's fidelity to the phrasing of his source may be found in Guy's speech to Phillis on his return from the continent (ibid., p. 11; cf. Rowlands, p. 24), in the account of his fight with the pagan warriors (pp. 13–14; Rowlands, pp. 37–39), and in his soliloquy on the skull (pp. 19–20; Rowlands, pp. 66–68).

page 173 note 21 Esdaile, A List of English Tales and Prose Romances printed before 1740, p. 233. The publishers were J. Clark, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger. An edition of Guy of Warwick was advertised among “Small Merry Books” in Thackeray's list of 1685 (Bagford Ballads, i, p. lv).

page 174 note 22 The British Museum has a copy of a Newcastle edition of about 1785 (11621. c. 8/8). This has the same title and virtually the game text as the Bodleian copy of c. 1680; but the name of the author does not occur.

page 174 note 23 There seem, indeed, to have been two abridgments: one represented by a Newcastle edition of c. 1800 (B.M., 1078. i. 19/7), in which a few paragraphs only are omitted; the other represented by a London edition of c. 1750 (B.M., 1079. i. 14/3; the date is that of the British Museum Catalogue, and must not be taken too seriously). Of this version, which is considerably shortened from the original, the Museum has a Derby reprint of 1796 (12331. aaaa. 56/1), a Nottingham reprint of the same date (12331. aaaa. 56/7), and a London reprint of about the end of the century (12804. de. 53/2). The title in all cases is The History of Guy, Earl of Warwick. For the text see Ashton, Chap-books of the Eighteenth Century (1882), pp. 140–153.

page 174 note 24 “The Renowned HISTORY, or the LIFE and DEATH of GUY Earl of WARWICK, Containing His Noble exploits and VICTORIES. LONDON. Printed by H. Brugis for P. Brooksby at the Golden Ball near the Hospital-Gate in west-Smithfield. mdclxxxi. 4°. B. L. There is a copy in the British Museum (12403. aa. 35). It contains 78 unnumbered pages, with sixteen large cuts. The text is divided into sixteen chapters with headings. This edition was advertised in Hilary Term, 1680/81, among new books (Term Catalogues, I, p. 428).

page 175 note 25 Cf. D. N. B., art. “Shirley, John,” and Esdaile, l. c., p. 306.

page 175 note 26 “Epistle to the Reader.”

page 175 note 27 Of the modifications made by Rowlands in the story as told in the romance (see pp. 154–156, above), all but one—the dialogue with the skull—reappear in Shurley. The character of the latter's borrowing, which was material rather than verbal, and involved considerable amplification, may be seen in the following passage from the narrative of the fight with Colbrond, (chapter xv): “. … the King being much perplexed turned to his Nobles, demanding if any of them would adventure on the Noble Enterprize: Remember said he how great Goliah fell by David's hand; and shall this Pagan outbrave us thus, for shame my Lords let it not be known … So said the King but all around stood mute, looking on each other who should first Reply, which Guy (who had stood all that while undiscovered) observing, with anger groaned, and coming to the King most humbly besought his Majesty to confer on him the Honour of the Combate, to which the King (not dreaming who it was, for all supposed Guy then dead, by reason he had not been heard of in so long a time) made answer, Alas poor Pilgrim, for so thou seemest to be, thou art not able to contend with one so mighty, I had a Champion once, whom Death has now snatch'd from me, on whose head I would have ventured my Life and Crown, Oh … Renowned Guy, for ever lost, thou wouldst not have seen thy Soveraign thus affronted and abused, with that he turn'd and wept, whose Royal Tears grieved Guy for to behold, still with supplications, pressing him that he would give consent: Saying, Dread Lord, though I'm now unknown to you, yet trust my Courage for this once, and by Heaven, I vow before the Sun descends beneath the Western deep, he that has braved you now shall pay his Life for the affront, at which Heroick speech the King stood amazed, and wondered at the greatness of his saying, I have accepted thee, thou shalt be the man on whom I'l venture England … Go thou worthy man and Heaven direct thy hand to quell thy Foe; at which Guy returning humble thanks departed.” Compare with this the extract from Rowlands cited on page 155, above.

page 176 note 28 Chapter i.

page 176 note 29 Chapters iv, v.

page 176 note 30 Chapter vii.

page 176 note 31 Chapter ix.

page 177 note 32 Pierces Supererogation, in Works, ed. Grosart, ii (1884), p. 223.

page 177 note 33 Roxburghe Ballads, vi, p. 781.

page 177 note 34 Canto xiii, Spenser Society reprint, Part ii, p. 221.

page 177 note 35 The passage occurs in the scene in which Guy, just married to Phillis, hints at his intention of leaving her. Rohon, his father-in-law, speaks:

Live then in peace, my fair high-hearted Sonne

since all men muse to think what thou hast done,

the Calledonian savage Bore is dead,

and by thy hand the wild Cow slaughtered,

that Kept such Revels upon Dunsmore Heath;

and many adventures hath thou past beside

to make my Daughter Phillis thy fair Bride.

Quarto of 1661, 11. 68–74. For other allusions to the Dun Cow in the play see above, p. 164, note 73.

page 178 note 38 Ed. A. R. Waller (1905), p. 36.

page 179 note 37 The Renowned History (1681), sig. D.

page 179 note 38 Esdaile, l. c., p. 233.

page 180 note 39 Ibid., p. 233 and Harvard Catalogue of Chapbooks, No. 484.

page 180 note 40 “The HISTORY of the FAMOUS EXPLOITS of Guy Earl of Warwick. His Encountring and Overcoming of Monstrous Gyants and Champions, and his killing the Dun Cow of Dunsmore-heath, with many other Gallant Atchievements performed by him in his life, and the manner of his death. Printed for Charles Bates, at the Sun and Bible in Pye-Corner.” 4°. B. M. (12450. f. 8).

page 180 note 41 The episode of Guy's service with the Duke of Lovain (Shurley, Chap, vii) was omitted altogether, and the narrative throughout greatly condensed. The following extracts will serve to illustrate the relation of the two tests:

Shurley, Chap. VII.

… the terrour of her [the Dun Cow's] fierceness had spread it self in such a dreadful shape, that none durst undertake the enterprize, but each one wishing for Guy whom all supposed by this time in France; glad of this opportunity, he leaves the ship, and having changed his Armour to avoid being known, he takes a strong battle Ax his Bow and Quiver with him, and so incognito riding to the place where this Monster used to lodge, which was among a great thicket of trees that grew upon the Plain, near to a Poole or standing water finding as he had passed along all the Shepherds Cottages deserted and the Carcasses of men and beasts ly scattered round about; he no sooner came within bow shot of the place but the Monster espyed him, and putting out her head through the thicket, with dreadful eyes glared on him, and began to roar horribly, at which Guy who was one of the expertest Archers England then had, bent his Bow of Steel, and drawing an Arrow to the head let fly, the which as swift as Lightning, striking on the Monster's hide rebounded as from a wall of Adamant, not making the least impression. …

The History of the Famous Exploits, Chap. V.

Guy, who was by all thought to be far beyond sea, privately arming himself with a strong Battle-Ax, and his Bow and Quiver, made his way towards the Place where this Monster was, and approaching near the Den, he beheld upon the Heath, the sad Objects of Desolation, the Carcasses of Men and Beasts she had destroyed: Guy no whit daunted at that, pursued on his way, till such time she espyed Guy, staring with her dreadful Eyes upon him, and roaring most hediously, he bent his Bow of Steel, and let fly an Arrow, which rebounded from her Hide, as if it had been shot against a Brazen Wall. …

page 181 note 42 “The HISTORY of the FAMOUS EXPLOITS of Guy Earl of Warwick. … Printed for Sarah Bates, at the Sun and Bible in Guilt-spurr-street.” B. M. (12403 d. l). The succession of Sarah Bates to the business formerly belonging to Charles Bates took place between 1728 and 1735. See Esdaile, l. c., pp. 318–319.

page 181 note 43 B. M. (G. 18792/1). The imprint gives Conyers's place of business as “the Gold-Ring in Little Britain.” He began to publish at this address in Michaelmas Term, 1690 (Term Catalogues, ii, p. 333). A peculiar feature of this edition of Rowlands was the interpolation, at the end of the canto describing Guy's marriage (pp. 52–54), of an account of the Dun Cow, versified apparently from the narrative in Shurley.

page 182 note 44 “The FAMOUS HISTORY of GUY of Warwick. Written by Samuel Rowland. LONDON, Printed for G. Conyers, at the Golden-Ring in Little-Britain.” 8°, 30 pp. B.M. (G. 18792/2). The text is divided into two chapters of very unequal length (pp. 3–5, 5–30).

page 182 note 45 As, for example, in his account of Guy's victory over the Sultan (p. 12): “With that at each other they ran, their Launces broke, and each forsook his Horse, and betook them to their Swords: Guy struck such forcible blows, that he cut through the Souldain's Armour, and by loss of Blood the Souldain fell to ground, casting handfuls of his Blood at Guy.” Rowlands had described the event as follows (Hunterian Club reprint, p. 39):

With that at Guy he ran with all his force,

Their Launces brake, and each forsook his Horse.

Then by the Sword the Victor must prevail,

Which manly force makes deadly wounds withal,

Cutting through Armour, mangling shirts of Mail,

That at the last down did the Souldan fall,

Sending blasphemous curses to the skye,

And casting handfulls of his blood at Guy.

In general, however, the chapbook departed rather widely from the style of the original.

page 182 note 46 Canto iii.

page 182 note 47 Pp. 12–15.

page 182 note 48 Canto vii.

page 182 note 49 Pp. 8–9.

page 183 note 50 P. 3.

page 183 note 51 Pp. 3–5.

page 183 note 52 Pp. 7–10.

page 183 note 53 “Guyraldus Cacibylanius.”

page 183 note 54 The narrative begins as follows: “One of his Atchievements was, the destroying of a monstrous Dun-Cow upon Dunsmore-heath, that destroy'd both Man and Beast: She is said by some to be six Yards in length, and about four in breadth; her Head was proportionable, and her Horns large and sharp, her Eyes was fiery and sparkling, her Colour, as I said before, Dun; and in short, she was so strong and swift in Motion, that no Humane Force could prevail against her; for she destroy'd Man and Beast, and put all her keepers to flight.

“The King hearing of this monstrous Beast, and the great slaughters that was made by her, offer'd Knighthood and a great Reward to any that would undertake to destroy her; whereupon Guy, after many others had attempted in vain, privately goes and engages this Curst-Cow, with a strong Battle-Ax, and his Bow and Quiver. The Plain the Cow used to lodge in, was a great Thicket of Trees near a Pool of Water, and above it laid the Carcases of Men and Beasts. …

“ Being at last come within Bow-shot, the cow espy'd him, who began to make a horrid roaring, but Guy quickly bent his Bow, and let an Arrow fly, which could not penetrate nor make the least Impression.” A comparison of this passage with the accounts in Shurley, in The Famous Exploits, and in The Noble and Renowned History (see above, pp. 178 ff. and p. 180, note 41, and below p. 187, note 69) leaves little doubt that the direct source was Shurley.

page 184 note 55 Cf. The Romance of Sir Beues of Hampton, ed. Kölbing, E. E. T. S., E. S., xliv (1885), 11. 2506–2802.

page 184 note 56 “The Noble and Renowned HISTORY OF GUY Earl of Warwick: CONTAINING A Full and True Account of his many Famous and Valiant Actions, Remarkable and Brave Exploits, and Noble and Renowned Victories. Also his Courtship to fair Phaelice, Earl Roband's Daughter and Heiress, and the many Difficulties and Hazards he went thorow, to obtain her Love. Extracted from Authentick Records; and the whole Illustrated with Cuts suitable to the History. LONDON: Printed by W. O. for E. B [rewster] and sold by A. Bettesworth, at the Sign of the Red Lion on London-bridge. 1706.” 12°. Pp. 157. B. M. (12450. b. 16). The work is divided into fourteen chapters. It was dedicated by G. L. to “his Honour'd and Worthy Friend, Mr. Zachariah Hayward, Citizen of London.” For a modern reprint see Morley, Early Prose Romances, Carisbrooke Library (1889), pp. 331–408. Edward Brewster, the publisher, also issued editions of Rowlands's Famous History. See Term Catalogues, iii, p. 114 and Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 523.

page 184 note 57 Esdaile, l. c., p. 234.

page 184 note 58 A. C. L. Brown, in The Journal of Germanic Philology, iii, p. 14. The British Museum owns copies of the “twelfth edition,” published about 1785 (12403. aaaa. 12, and 12410. aaa. 18), and of an edition of 1821, printed by C. Whittingham of Chiswick for booksellers in Warwick, Coventry, London, and Edinburgh (12410. aaa. 9).

Fair Foe (quoth Guy), I come to challenge thee,

For there's no man that I can meet will fight;

I have been where a Crew of Cowards be,

Not one that dares maintain a Ladies right:

Good proper fellows of their tongues, and tall,

That let me win a Princess from them all.

Phaelice, this sword hath won an Emp'rors Daughter,

As sweet a Wench as lives in Europe's space:

At price of blows, and bloody wounds I bought her,

Well worth my bargain; but thy better face

Hath made me leave her to some others Lot;

For, I protest by Heaven, I love her not.

This stately Steed, this Faulcon and these Hounds,

I took, as in full payment of the rest:

page 185 note 59 “Advertisement” in The Noble and Renowned History of Guy Earl of Warwick, 1821 (B. M., 12410. aaa. 9). Percy alluded to it in 1765 as “the common story book” (Reliques, ed. Wheatley, 1886, iii, p. 114); and Ellis in 1805 declared that it was to be found “at almost every stall in the metropolis” (Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, ii, p. 3).

page 185 note 60 The first writer to note the character of G. L.'s indebtedness to Rowlands seems to have been Thomas Percy (Reliques, ed. cit., iii, p. 114). Professor Brown has treated the question with fullness in The Journal of Germanic Philology, iii, pp. 14–21.

page 186 note 61 Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 24–25.

page 186 note 62 Morley's reprint, pp. 349–350.

page 186 note 63 For further parallels see the article, previously cited, of Professor Brown.

page 187 note 64 G. L., The Noble and Renowned History, Morley's reprint, pp. 331–332; cf. Shurley, The Renowned History, 1681, A2 and verso.

page 187 note 65 G. L., 340–345; Shurley, B2v–C.

page 187 note 66 G. L., 352–354; Shurley, D and verso.

page 187 note 67 G. L., 360–362; Shurley, E–E3.

page 187 note 68 G. L. 399–400; Shurley, I2v–I3.

page 187 note 69 Compare, for example, G. L.'s narrative of the Dun Cow episode (Morley's reprint, pp. 352–353) with the corresponding passage from Shurley, quoted above, pp. 178–179, and p. 180, note 41.

page 188 note 1 Observations on the Fairy Queen (1807), ii, p. 323; the passage appeared first in the second edition. The full story of this phase of the medieval revival of the eighteenth century remains to be told. Professors Beers and Phelps in their works on the English Romantic Movement give to it but the merest passing notice; while Professor Ker in his chapter on “The Literary Influence of the Middle Ages” in The Cambridge History of English Literature (vol. x, 1913, pp. 245–273) leaves it out of account altogether.

page 189 note 2 Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, ii, pp. 136–143, 201–202, 527–549.

page 189 note 3 Reliques, ed. Wheatley, iii, p. 114.

page 189 note 4 Percy to Dr. Ducarel, quoted in Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, iii (1812), p. 753.

page 189 note 5 Reliques, ed. cit., iii, p. 107.

page 189 note 6 Ibid., iii, pp. 364–365.

page 189 note 7 Ibid., iii, pp. 109–113.

page 189 note 8 Ibid., iii, pp. 115–121.

page 189 note 9 Ibid., iii, p. 108.

page 190 note 10 Ibid., ii, pp. 182–183; iii, pp. 107–108, 114, 364–365.

page 190 note 11 Printed in Nichols's Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, No. xvii (1783), pp. 29–39.

page 190 note 12 Above, pp. 127, 134.

page 190 note 13 Above, p. 140, note 43.

page 191 note 14 Quoted by Pegge, l. c., p. 31.

page 191 note 15 Ibid., p. 30, note.

page 191 note 16 Reliques, ed. cit., iii, p. 108.

page 191 note 17 He cites Girardus Cornubiensis, Knighton, Hardyng, and Rous. See his “Memoir,” passim. He appears to have known the metrical romance only through Percy. Ibid., p. 32.

page 191 note 18 Ibid., p. 29.

page 191 note 19 Ibid., p. 38.

page 192 note 20 Pp. 144–145 and 170–175 of the edition of 1840.

page 193 note 21 See above, pp. 150, note 32, 173–174, 184.

page 193 note 22 The Tatler, No. 95, November 17, 1709.

page 194 note 23 Reliques, ed. cit., iii, p. 107.

page 194 note 24 Hazlitt, Conversations of James Northcote, Esq., R.A., in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, ed. Waller and, Glover, vi (1903), pp. 412–413.