632 Pages
by
Routledge
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First published in 1996. This lavishly illustrated study is a comprehensive literary and social history which offers a record of changing genres, manuscript/book production, and cultural, political, and religious emphases by examining one of the most long lived popular legends in England. Guy of Warwick became part of history when he was named in chronicles and heraldic rolls. The power of the Earls of Warwick, especially Richard de Beauchamp, inspired the spread of the legend, but Guy's highest fame came in the Renaissance as one of the Nine Worthies. Widely praised in texts and allusions, Guy's feats were sung in ballads and celebrated on the stage in England and France.
The first Anglo-Norman romance of Gui de Warewic, a Saxon hero of the tenth century was written in the early 13th century; the latest retellings of the legend are contemporary. Examples of Guy's legend can be found in two English translations that survived the Middle Ages, a new French prose romance, a didactic tale in the Gesta Romanorum, and late medieval versions in Celtic, German, and Catalan, as well as English. Guy remained a favorite Edwardian children's story and was featured in the Warwick Pageant, an historical extravaganza of 1906. The patriotism of World War II sparked a resurgence of interest that produced several new versions, mostly folkloric.
INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER ONE ANTECEDENTS FOR GUY'S LEGEND -- 1. The Norman World -- 2. Anglo-Saxon Athelstan -- 3. William of Malmesbury -- 4. An Anglo-Norman Legend -- 5. William Marshall -- 6. Saint Alexis -- 7. William of Orange -- 8. Chr&ien de Troyes -- CHAPTER TWO AN ANGLO-NORMAN HERO: THE FIRST GUY OF WARWICK -- CHAPTER THREE GUY: A FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH HERO -- 1. Middle English Romance in Verse -- 2. Speculum Gy de Warewyke -- 3. Gesta Romanorum -- 4. Chronicles -- Peter Langtoft, Gerard of Cornwall -- Liber Regum Anglie, Henry Knighton -- 5. Le Rommant de Guy de Warwik et de Herolt d'Ardenne -- 6. Pictorial Representations Auchinleck MS, Langtoft's Chronicle, Taymouth Hours, Smithfield Decretals, Misericords and Mazer -- CHAPTER FOUR LATE MEDIEVAL ADAPTATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL REPUTE -- 1. Fifteenth-century Middle English Romance -- 2. Richard de Beauchamp: Living Guy's Legend -- Beauchamp (Warwick) Pageants -- Guy's Statue & Beauchamp Tomb -- Manuscript Illumination -- 3. John Lydgate's Guy of Warwick -- 4. The Rous Rolls -- 5. Chronicles of Thomas Rudbome and John Hardyng -- 6. Guy &. Colebrande -- 7. Gydo und Thyrsus -- 8. A Celtic Guy of Warwick -- 9. Tirant lo Blanc -- CHAPTER FIVE RENAISSANCE DIVERSITY -- 1. The First Printed English Version -- 2. Sixteenth-century printed Le Rommant (1525 and 1550) -- 3. Jean Louvet's mystere (1537) -- 4. Renaissance Hero in History and Heraldry -- John Leland's Itinerary (1535-43), John Caius Robert Fabyan and Grafton's Chronicle (1516-59) -- Holinshed's Chronicle (1578) -- A Jesuit Historia Anglic um Ecclesiastica (1622) -- William Camden's Britain (1586-1610) -- John Speede Map (1610), Dudley's "Booke of Petegree" -- Descent of the House of Warwick (later 16C) -- 5. One of the Nine Worthies. Richard Lloyd, A brief discourse of . . the Nine Worthies (1584) -- 6. "Was ever knight"- Guy as Ballad Hero (1591/2) -- 7. Richard Johnson, The Seven Champions of Christendom (1596-1616) -- 8. Guy on the English Stage -- The Tragical History (16187/1661) -- 9. Drayton's Poly-Olbion (1598/1613) -- 10. John Lane, "Corrected Histone of Guy Earle of Warwick" (1621) -- 11. Samuel Rowlands' Famous History (1632?) -- 12. Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656) -- CHAPTER SIX PENNY HISTORIES AND EIGHTEENTHCENTURY ANTIQUARIANS -- 1. Humphrey Crouch, The Heroick History (1655) -- 2. Samuel Smithson, The Famous History of Guy Earlof Warwick (c.1680) -- 3. Abridgementsof Smithson's Chapbook -- 4. John Shurley, The Renowned History (1681) -- Bates' Abridgement, The Historyof the Famous Exploits -- 5. George Conyers, Famous History (1690s) -- 6. A Remarkable Account of Guy (1792) -- 7. "G. L.," The Noble and Renowned History (1706-19 C) -- 8. Abridgementsof G. L.'s Version -- 9. Antiquarians and Literary Historians -- Camden's Magna Britannia Revised -- Pegge's Memoir on the Story of Guy Earl of Warwick (1767/83) -- Chivalry as Philosophical Principle: Hurd, Hume, Burke -- Literary Historians: Warton, Ritson, Reeve, Ellis -- CHAPTER SEVEN A STORY FOR CHILDREN, SATIRISTS, AND VISITORS TO WARWICK -- 1. Nursery Books (1780s) -- 2. Guy in 1808: True History and Romantic Love -- Mr. Somers History -- A. St. John, Tales of Former Times -- 3. Guy's Exploits in America -- The Wonderful Exploit (1817/1830) Laurence Lovechild, Guy of Warwick (c.l850/afterl850) Peter Parley -- 4. Mid- and Late-Nineteenth-Century Literature for Children -- Felix Summerly and Ambrose Merton (c.1843) -- Merry Tales for Little Folks (c.1850) -- Cox, Popular Romances of the Middle Ages (1871) / Mabie, Legends that Every Child Should Know (1906) Sidney Lanier, The Boy's Percy (1882) -- 5. A Romance for Adults: Mid- and Late-Nineteenth Century Ellis, Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances (1802/48), Scholarly Editions (1840, 1875-91) -- A. R. Hope-Moncrieff, Stories of Old Renown (1883) / Romance and Legend of Chivalry (1919) -- John Ashton, Romances of Chivalry (1887) -- 6. Satiric Retellings o f Guy's Legend -- Guy's Porridge Pot and The Dun Cow (1808/9) -- Pantomime (1841), Sir Guy de Guy (1854) -- Grace Greenwood, Merrie England (1855/1908) -- Dr. Doran, Knights and Their Days (1856) -- 7. Local Warwickshire Hero -- An Historical and Descriptive Account (1815/17) -- Warwick Castle: A Poem (1846) -- Pickering & Courthope, Rous Roll (1845/59) -- Histories o f Noble Br itish Families (1846) -- J. Tom Burgess, Historic Warwickshire (1876/93) -- Cooke's Guides and Others -- CHAPTER EIGHT APOTHEOSIS AND DECLINE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY -- 1. Warwick Castle and Its Earls (1903) Warwick Pageant of 1906 -- 2. G.H. Gerould, Sir Guy of Warwick (1905/12) -- 3. H.E. Marshall, Stories of Guy of Warwick (1906) -- 4. Collections o f Tales and Romances -- Andrew Lang, The Red Romance Book (1905) -- E. M. Wilmot-Buxton, Britain Long Ago (1906)/ Tales of Early England (1909-1926) -- F. J. Harvey Darton, A Wonder Book of Old Romance (1907) -- Joyce Pollard, Stories from Old English Romance (1912) -- 5. Between the Wars -- A Schooltext in the Twenties Dorothy Margaret Stuart, The Book of Chivalry and Romance (1933) -- 6. Guy for the Children after World War II -- Kathleen Fidler, True Tales o f Castles (1969) -- Jessica Claridge, Folk Tales, Myths and Legends (1971) -- Margaret Hodges, Knight Prisoner (1976) -- 7. Twentieth-century Guidebooks -- 8. A Hero o f Folktale in the Late Twentieth Century -- Eric Swift, Folk Tales of the East Midlands (1954) -- Roy Palmer, The Folklore o f Warwickshire (1976) -- Merlin Price, Folktales & Legends of Warwickshire (1982) -- Guy in Restaurant and Public House
Biography
Velma Bourgeois Richmond
