Guy of Warwick

DESCRIPTION: "Was ever knight, for lady's sake, So todd's in love as I, sir Guy?" Guy is enamored of Phyllis. He fights the infidels. He travels to many distant lands. He returns home, then leaves as a pilgrim. He fights giants. Etc. Now he's finally ready to die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1592 (broadside registered)
KEYWORDS: knight travel courting death battle
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (23 citations):
Percy/Wheatley-ReliquesOfAncientEnglishPoetry III, pp. 107-113, "The Legend of Sir Guy" (1 text; this might be the Percy Folio's "Guy and Phyllis," part of which Percy tore out)
Rimbault-Musical IllustrationsOfBishopPercysReliques LII, pp. 96-97, "The Legend of Sir Guy" (1 partial text, 1 tune)
Ritson-AncientSongsBalladsFromHenrySecondToTheRevolution, pp. 314-318, "Sir Guy of Warwick" (1 text)
Chappell-PopularMusicOfTheOldenTime, pp. 171-172, "The Legend of Sir Guy" (1 excerpt, 1 tune)
RELATED: Versions of the Romance "Guy of Warwick" --
Julius Zupitza, _The Romance of Guy of Warwick: Edited from the Auchinleck MS in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh and from MS. 107 in Caius College, Cambridge_, originally published as Early English Text Society, Extra Series, numbers 42 (1883), 49 (1887), 59 (1891); reprinted in a single volume 1966 (2 texts, of the Auchinleck and Caius versions in parallel but no introduction or bibliography and only a few marginal notes; there is no attempt to establish the original text)
Alison Wiggins, editor, _Stanzaic Guy of Warwick_, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2004 (1 text, containing only the "Stanzaic" section of the romance, i.e. the second of the two sections about Guy)
Maldywn Mills and Daniel Huws, _Fragments of an Early Fourteenth-Century Guy of Warwick_, Medium Ævum Monographs, New Series IV, Blackwell/Oxford, 1974 (this contains only the manuscript fragments which the DIMEV numbers #6734, which Mills/Huws, p. 12, suggest is an attempt to reduce the tale to a more reasonable length; on p. 12 they note its rough edges, implying that this is either the original manuscript of the abridgment or is copied from a draft that wasn't finished)
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3145
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4907+1557; also 6734
MANUSCRIPT: {MSAuchinleck}, The Auchinleck Manuscript, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS. Advocates 19.2.1, folios 108r-146v, "Guy of Warwick"
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS. 107/176, pp. 1-271
MANUSCRIPT: London, British Library, MS. Sloane 1044, folio 248 (fragment)
RELATED: Versions of the (alternate) Romance "Guy of Warwick" (fifteenth century) --
Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #3146
DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #4908
MANUSCRIPT: Cambridge, University Library MS. Ff.2.38, folios 161-231
RELATED: The Percy Folio Text "Guy and Phillis" (probably related to the broadside) --
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 201-203, 608, "Guy and Phillis" (1 text, with supplement from Ritson)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 254 (incomplete)
RELATED: The Percy Folio Text "Guy and Colbrande" --
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 509-558, "Guy and Colbrande" (1 text)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSPercyFolio}, The Percy Folio, London, British Library MS. Additional 27879, page 349
Roud #V4091
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Wood 402(6, 7), "A pleasant song of the valiant deeds of chivalry, atchieved by the noble knight Sir Guy of Warwick," John Wright (London) c. 1667; also Douce Ballads 1(92b), "A pleasant song of the valiant deeds of chivalry, atchieved by that noble knight, Sir Guy of Warwick," F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright (London), 1663-1674 (despite the different printer names, this seems to be from the same pritnter, if not the same print, as Wood 402(6, 7)); also Wood 401(3), "A pleasant song of the valiant deeds of chivalry, atchieved by noble knight, Sir Guy of Warwick," F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson (London), 1658-1664 (again, same printer/printing); also Douce Ballads 3(83b), "A pleasant and renowned song of sir Guy, earl of Warwick," unknown (n.d.)
NOTES [2700 words]: The story of Guy of Warwick presents a significant conundrum. Individually, no part of it can be clearly shown to be traditional. Yet the surviving components are so widespread and varied that they clearly imply some sort of survival. These survivals include:
••• A romance (sometimes called Guy of Warwick A) so popular that parts of it survive in eight copies and inspired a sequel ("Reinbrun") about Guy's son
••• A second, less common romance ("Guy of Warwick B"), created probably in the fifteenth century and consisting of 11,976 lines in couplets (Bennett, p. 313)
••• The "Speculum Gyde Warewyke" or "Speculum of Guy of Warwick," a sort of religious meditation on the story (Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #1101, DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1782), popular enough to be found in ten medieval manuscripts
••• A broadside ballad summary which was popular enough to be quoted in two plays, one of them, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," well-known for all the folk pieces it contains (for this see below)
••• Two pieces in the Percy Folio
••• A mention in Chaucer: "Men speken of romances of prys, of Horn child and Ypotys, Of Beves and sir Gy, Of sir Lybeux and Pleyndamour -- But sir Thopas, he bereth fhe flour Of roial chivalry!" ("Men speak of romances of excellence/prize, of Horn Child and Ypotis, of Bevis [of Hampton] and Sir Guy [of Warwick], of Sir Lybeaus Desconus [the fair unknown] and Pleyndamour, But Sir Thopas, he bears the flower of royal chivalry") (from "Sir Thopas," the first tale placed in the mouth of Chaucer the Pilgrim; Canterbury Tales Fragment VII, lines 897-902; Chaucer/Benson, p. 216). Horn Child, Bevis of Hampton, and the Lybeaus Desconus were romance heroes (for the first of them, see the notes to "Hind Horn" [Child 17]), and Ypotes was subject of a pious legend; Pleyndamour is unknown (Chaucer/Benson, p. 922; Laura Hibbard Loomis thinks it is the "Playn de Amours" who later figured in Malory; Bryan/Dempster, o, 487). The mention in "Sir Thopas" is interesting but perhaps not complimentary -- Chaucer's list does not include any of the best romances, such as "Sir Orfeo" or the works of Gower; while Bevis and Guy were famous, their romances were far below Chaucer's standards, as was the Lybeaus. According to Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Guy of Warwick and, to a lesser extent, Libeaus Desconus, were... [Chaucer's] chief 'sources,' as from these he culled much of the phraseology and several of the narrative motifs used in Thopas." So what does it say that Chaucer invokes them, and especially "Guy," in "Sir Thopas," which is a parody on romances and deliberately wordy and silly?
••• A poem by John Lydgate, opening "From Christs birth complete nine hundred year"; Brown/Robbins-IndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse, #875; DigitalIndexOfMiddleEnglishVerse #1464; according to DIMEV, it is 592 lines in 8-line stanzas (i.e. 74 stanzas); there are seven manuscripts, but printed editions are few and hard to obtain. I must admit that the idea of Lydgate, a formidably dull poet, dealing with the history of Guy, a formidably dull story, was more than I wanted to research; "There is a tradition that regards Guy of Warwick as Lydgate's worst poem" (Pearsall, p. 167. On p. 58, Pearsall says "it is difficult to imagine an English sentence which contains neither subject nor predicate, but if there is one, it can probably be found at the opening of Guy of Warwick.) It appears the poem was made at the request of relatives of a later Earl of Warwick (Pearsall, p. 71, 291). According to Pearsall, p. 167, it deals with the last part of Guy's story: his return to England, his fight with the giant Colbrand, and his death, which for some reason was regarded as more historical than the rest. It was probably written around 1425. It is based not on the English romances but on the Latin of Gerardus Cornubiensis. (For more on Lydgate, see the notes to "The London Lackpenny.")
*** Paston/Davis-I, #316, pp. 516-518, is an inventory of the books belonging to Sir John Paston (John Paston II), which Paston compiled between 1475 (the date when one of the books had been printed by Caxton) and 1479 (when Paston died). The list is damaged in the right edge, meaning that much of the text has been lost, but the contents are enough to make medieval scholars drool: one or another romance on the Death of King Arthur. The romance of "Ri Cure delyon" (Richard Coeur de Lion, quite popular). Two of Chaucer's works, the "Parlement off Byrdys" and the "Troylus" (The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus and Criseide), plus "The Legende of Lad..." (The Legend of Good Women?). "The Greene Knyght." "Þe Lamentacion off Chylde Ypotis" (Ipotis/Ypotis, a famous dialog between a child and the Emperor Hadrian; note the mention by Chaucer listed above). The list shows that Paston clearly liked folk literature. And book #1, right before the mention of Richard Coeur de Lion, refers to "...Warwyck." and book 5, right after "Þe Parlement off Byrdys," has "Balade ... off Guy (and) Colbronde." So Paston, in a collection of popular literature, had one of the Guy romances, even though we can't tell which one.
••• There is a lot of folklore about Guy that is still remembered in Warwickshire -- there are even some alleged artifacts -- even though both are false (some examples in Palmer, pp. 131-133).
••• Several later chapbook pieces, most of them derived from a 1608 rewrite of the story by Samuel Rowlands, which dropped many of the pointless incidents and boiled down the rest to a less exhausting length (Simons, p. 20) although Rowlands did add a scene in which Guy picks up a skull and talks about the vanity of earthly life (Simons, p. 23. Had he been watching "Hamlet" or something?). From his derived the first chapbook published in 1680 and attributed to Samuel Smithson (Simons, p. 22), and most of the later chapbooks probably descended from that.
After some thought, I decided to index the broadside (it's the item that ends up in all the folk anthologies, after all) and dump everything else in this entry along with it. Those who want to see the chapbook texts can find them in Simons; pp. 53-68 has a prose version printed in 1796 by James Drewry of Derby; pp. 70-77, a 1793 poetic version printed by George J. Osborne of Newburyport, Rhode Island (which even Simons, p. 25, calls "quirky").
Presumably it all started with the Romance, so here is how Wells, pp. 16-17, summarized the plot:
Guy, son of Siward, steward of Rohand, Earl of Warwick, is cupbearer to the Earl. He falls in love with the daughter of Rohand, Felice [hence Phyllis as Guy's lover], who scorns the steward's son. Finally impressed with his love, the lady agrees that if he were knighted she would grant him favor. Roland (sic.) knights Guy. Felice declares Guy must prove his prowess. The Knight goes oversea, and wins great glory in various lands. On his return, Felice refuses to marry him, for marriage might prevent him from adding to his glory; when he is peerless she will wed him. Guy goes back to the Continent. After proving his supremacy in various enterprises, among which are his relations with the Emperor of Germany, his saving of Constantinople, and his association with Sir Tirri, he returns again, to be received with honor by King Æthelstan, and to kill a dragon that has been infesting Northumberland.
Here the couplets end, and the strophic version (a) begins. Felice is wedded to Guy. There is much joy for fifteen days. Then Guy is suddenly struck with remorse for his undevout life. Abandoning his wife and unborn child, he becomes a pilgrim. Journeying in the East, he fights a Saracen giant, Amorant, in Germany, he again aids Sir Tirri. An old man, he returns to England, were near Winchester he champions England against the African giant Colbrand, representative of the Danes under Anlaf. He kills the giant, in disguise visits his wife, becomes a hermit, and later dies in his wife's arms.
Which wouldn't be too bad a plot if it were told in, say, 1500 lines. Unfortunately, it's told in 11,000+. Unfortunately, as Wells says on p. 18, "The romance is a long-winded narrative of insignificant incidence, many of which might be omitted without detriment to the plot. The first episode of Sir Tirri, for example, is purely gratuitous yet occupies over twenty-five hundred lines. Triteness of matter, overlapping of phrases, and sheer wordiness, add to the tediousness of the piece." Similarly Bennett/Gray, p. 128, says it is "distinctly prolix." Which is probably why the only real edition is still Zupitza's, from the nineteenth century, and it more a transcript than a true edition.
It is also didactic and intended to teach moral lessons; Bennett/Gray, p. 134: "Guy of Warwick enjoins readers to
"Take ensawmpull be wyse men [Take example by wise men]
That have before thys tyme ben [That have before this time been]." (This is actually a reference to the fifteenth century version; it is lines 7-8 of the Cambridge University Ff.2.38 text.)
Nonetheless it is among the most popular of Middle English romance. The Digital Index of Middle English Verse counts three manuscript copies (including the Auchinleck Manuscript, the most important), and three or four early printings -- the first, of which only a fragment survives, probably by Richard Pynson, a second perhaps by Wynkyn de Worde (Duff, p. 46) and so short that no one seems to cite it (it might be a different work), and the others by William Copland. There are also a couple of fragments of a recension.
Making this all the more curious is the fact that the form of the romance changes in mid-stream -- something which causes many editors to consider it two romances even though it's a continuous text in the Auchinleck Manuscript. WIggins, for instance, says unequivocally on p. 4 that the "couplet" and "stanzaic" romances are independent, and backs it up by printing only the latter. Barron, p. 76, summarizes the three sections of the Auchinleck text: "Guy's career before marriage ([lines] 1-6898 - octosyllabic couplets); after marriage ([lines] 6899-10479); and the career of his son Reinbrunn ([lines] 10480-1200 -- twelve-line stanzas with a complicated rhyme-scheme, like the second section)." What Wiggins prints is the second of the three, ignoring the first and the third
We should note that "Reibrunn" is found only in the Auchinleck version. The couplet romance, about Guy himself, is found in both the Auchinleck and Caius manuscripts. Wiggins says that the second part, "Stanzaic" Guy, is found only in Auchinleck, yet Zupitza manages to print many lines from Caius in parallel to Auchinleck. Looking at the facsimile of the Auchinleck manuscript, the transition between the parts is obvious -- the two are in different handwriting, and the stanzaic section has paraph marks (⊄) at the start of each stanza, but there is no break whatsoever between the two; the stanzaic section starts with an enlarged initial with penwork, but such penwork initials are found throughout both sections.
Auchinleck and Caius have enough text in common that it is clear they derive from a common original -- but they have diverged dramatically; it must have been an incredibly hard task for Zupitza to put them in parallel. Checking pages at random, I rarely found it possible to exactly compare more than about four lines in a row. For example, on pp. 100-101, there are seven more lines in Auchinleck than Caius; on pp. 200-201, Auchinleck has about 16 more lines than in Caius; on pp. 300-301 the number of lines seems to be the same but it does not appear that any of the lines start with the same two words; on pp. 400-401 Auchinleck has about twice as many lines as Caius. (To be sure, there are also sections where Caius is longer than Auchinleck.) On the whole, the language of Caius seems more modern than Auchinleck's -- to give an obvious example, Auchinleck's text regularly uses the letters thorn and yogh (þ and ȝ); Caius does not.
Chappell says that the citation of the broadside in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle" is in Act ii, scene 8. This is an error, at least based on the edition I have of the "Knight"; Wine (p. 336) numbers the scene II.ix and makes it lines 89-96. KnightOfBurningPestle/Zitner does not mark scenes; he makes it Act II, lines 522-529 (pp. 102-103). KnightOfBurningPestle/Hattaway, pp. 56-57, makes it lines 513-520. It is the last poem/song in Act II:
Was never man for lady's sake,
Down, down,
Tormented as I, poor Sir Guy,
De derry down,
For Lucy's sake, that lady bright,
Down, down,
As eve men beheld with eye,
De derry down.
Compare this to Ritson's first four lines:
Was ever knight, for lady's sake,
So toss'd in love, as I, sir Guy,
For Phillis fair, that lady bright,
As ever man beheld with eye?
It's pretty clearly the same song, but dramatically changed -- and the "Knight" text cannot be sung to Chappell's tune. This seems strong evidence of folk processing. For more on "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," see the notes to "Three Merry Men."
Curiously, although you'd think a story about a man from Warwick would be English, it is thought to derive from French sources. The earliest version extant is in Anglo-Norman (Palmer, p. 132) -- which, to be sure, was French as spoken in England; this romance of 'Gui" likely dates from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century (cf. Fewster, p. 105, for the date of the manuscript. Barron, p. 75, and others suggest a date of c. 1232-1242 for the French text and mentions that it might be by a "canon of Osney Abbey"; Wiggins, p. 3, dates Gui de Warewic to c. 1220. WIggins, p. 7, follows Maldwyn Mills in seeing a link in the translation to the romance of Amis and Amiloun. For a bit more about that romance, see the notes to "Bewick and Graham" [Child 211] -- though the links Mills observed were more a matter of style than plot).
The history behind this is muddled. For one thing, the king is called Athelstan/Athelston -- but King Athelstan was a Saxon king who died in 939. There would not have been an Earl of Warwick named "Guy" then (it's a French name, and the English title was Ealdorman anyway, and Warwickshire was not then an Earldom, not achieving that status until 1088! -- Fewster, p. 104 n. 3). I have to wonder if the name derives from the completely unhistorical romance of "Athelston," which features a king of that name.
There was a Guy, Earl of Warwick (of the Beauchamp line) -- he was the tenth earl and died in 1315. But he patently wasn't this Guy -- in fact, he was reputedly named after Guy the Hero (Hicks, p. 44. Fewster, p. 111, tells us that his younger brother was named "Reynbrun," which is the name of the hero's son; clearly Guy's legend was being invoked). It is not unreasonable to assume that the support of the Earls of Warwick helps explain how this otherwise banal story survived.
As Fewster says on p. 104, "From the viewpoint of modern evidence, it is doubtful that this figure Guy ever existed; certainly he was not an earl of Warwick."
Several sources, including Barron, p. 75, report a suggestion that Guy's name "may derive from that of Wigod of Wallingford, a famous cupbearer of Edward the Confessor, one of whose daughters married Robert d'Oilli, a member of the family to which the Earl of Warwick's mother belonged; another daughter married Brian Fitzcount, some of whose exploits may have contributed to what is otherwise a tissue of romance commonplaces." I can't see any genuine basis from this.
Spence, p. 162, goes so far as to say of Guy's death soon after his revelation to his wife of who he is, "The old tale of Odysseus and Penelope is repeated, save for a sprinkling of Christian sentiment. His bride follows him shortly to the tomb. He is the sun-hero, and she the sunset which cannot linger long when the sun has gone to his rest." To be sure, there probably wasn't a single copy of the Odyssey in England at the time "Guy" was written -- no one there could understand Greek! -- but that the plot is more folkloric than historical is surely true.
Rimbault's tune was "discovered in the Ballad Opera of 'Robin Hood,' performed at Lee and Harper's Booth in 1730." I strongly doubt its authenticity.- RBW
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