Ascopard, the Saracen giant sent to retrieve Josian and kill Bevis, appears more than half-way through the Middle English Sir Bevis of Hampton and is an intermittent presence for only about one-third of the whole. But as Bevis's ungainly page he is one of the memorable features of Bevis's story: it is he whose painting was paired with Bevis's at Southampton's Bargate. Whether he was remembered as an amusing marvel (like the horse Arundel) or a sinister threat (like Guy of Warwick's long-remembered giant opponent Colbrand) is unclear but would in large part have depended on the slant given the story by particular tellers. Ascopard commits a terrible crime, a betrayal of trust, when he abandons his allegiance to Bevis, returns to the service of Josian's first husband, King Yvor of Mombraunt, and arranges to kidnap Josian just after she has given birth. Yet he is also an engaging comic foil to the hero, and he captures Bevis's murderous stepfather when Bevis himself has been unable to do so. Escopart's betrayal of Boeve is a shocking dissonance in the source text, the Anglo-Norman Boeve de Haumtone, and the Middle English versions use several strategies to try to cope with that dissonance.

The betrayal creates a problem of consistency for the Middle English versions that is frankly unresolved in Boeve as we have it. The change in behaviour is so unprepared for that it produces the impression not of psychological complexity, but merely of incomprehensibility. Cut the poem in two after the restoration of Boeve's lands and his marriage to Josiane, and we have two utterly different conceptions of Escopart. Judith Weiss, in her doctoral dissertation, makes a persuasive case on stylistic grounds that the original Anglo-Norman poem did end with Boeve's reclaiming of Haumtone and his marriage to Josiane, and that the rest of the poem as we have it is an addition by a different author. If we accept this argument, as I believe we should, the original conception of Escopart is a happy one: he enters Boeve’s service, converts to Christianity and serves Boeve well despite his animallike features and hideous appearance, and his story culminates in his triumphant capture of Boeve's stepfather, the Emperor Doun. The continuation, however, disposes of Escopart with shocking abruptness, and the betrayal is not adequately motivated. Boeve is exiled from England and leaves his lands to his mestre, Sabaoth.