I. Sir Perceval of Galles (ca. early 1300s)
An etext of this Sir Perceval edition is available here. Here's the ms. information from Flowers herself:
The unique copy of Sir Perceval of Galles is contained in the Thornton Manuscript, preserved in Lincoln Cathedral as MS 91. The 322-page manuscript contains sixty-four pieces in all, ranging from saints' lives to medical treatises, and including seven additional romances: the Alliterative Morte Arthure, The Romance of Octovyane, The Romance of Sir Ysambrace, The Romance of Dyoclicyane, Sir Degrevante, Sir Eglamour, and The Awentyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne. The contents are all written in one hand, a variable mid-fifteenth-century Anglicana Formata, and the dialect - which may not be the original - is northern, reflecting the North Riding Yorkshire district of the scribe. Decorations are confined to initials outlined in black with tinted sprays and foliage, red initials flourished in black or violet, and various touches of red, marking headings and paragraphs. The manuscript is written on paper and is in generally good condition, although certain of its pages have been damaged with loss of text. Worm holes occasionally obscure the writing; ink blots and water stains appear throughout. The original binding, probably the "thick oaken boards, covered with white leather, and fastened with a clasp," referred to by Madden, has been replaced by later oak boards covered with a pig-skin leather.In lieu of my own summary, here's the one by Flowers:
The scribe was one Robert Thornton of East Newton, Yorkshire, whose own name (and that of various family members) appears several times throughout the work. The British Library Additional Manuscript 31042, containing the unique copy of Wynnere and Wastoure, was apparently also copied by Thornton who appears to have been an educated amateur. A manor lord who died between 1456 and 1465, Thornton likely copied his texts over the years as materials became available to him. At his death, his library passed on to his family where it remained for several generations. In the late seventeenth century, Thomas Comber, husband of Alice Thornton, either gave or sold the manuscript to Daniel Brevint, Dean of Lincoln, and the work has remained in the possession of the Cathedral Library since that time.
Sir Perceval of Galles is the first (and besides Malory, the only) English rendering of the naive and bungling knight made popular in Chrétien de Troyes' twelfth-century Conte del Graal. The young Perceval, his father killed in battle, is raised in the forest by his mother, who abhors chivalry and the courtly world. He wears goatskins, hunts animals with his spear, and, after his first introduction to civilization, rides a pregnant mare that he thinks is a stallion. Encountering three knights in the woods one day, he determines to become like them, and, despite his mother's reluctance to let him go, he sets off for Arthur's court wearing his mother's ring. Coming upon a lady sleeping in a tent, he exchanges his ring for her (unknown to him) magic one, a ring which has the ability to protect its wearer from harm. He then follows adventures familiar to readers of romance where a "childe" triumphs over seemingly insurmountable odds. Young Perceval defeats successively the Red Knight, the Black Knight, the Sudan, and the giant Gollerothirame. He liberates Lady Lufamore, marries her, and becomes a king. He then decides to restore his mother. On his return to the woods of his origin he rescues the "tent lady" and restores to her her rightful ring; and he finds his mother in time to release her from the insanity she suffered at believing her son was dead. Finally, Perceval leaves for the Holy Land where he wins many cities before he is killed. And "thusgate," notes the poet, "endis hee."A few comments:
* There is no Grail in this Perceval story -- none whatsoever. Ditto no Fisher King, no Wasteland, no screaming maidens accusing Perceval of unknown crimes, no abused jester dwarves. The poet seems to have been interested only with a few episodes of his source material.II. Ywain and Gawain (ca. 1300s)
* Perceval is, if anything, more endearingly dimwitted: assuming all horses are called "mares", trying to burn knights out of their armor.
* Perceval illustrates the necessity of socialization. His mother instructs him in the rules of basic courtesy, but his general ignorance of human society leads him to observe the letter of his mother's law, while violating the spirit with unthinking enthusiasm. Example: Mother tells him to live moderately, so he only eats half the food on the table when he invades someone's home uninvited.
An etext of this Ywain and Gawain edition is available here. Again, let's leave the heavy lifting to the inestimable Prof. Braswell:
Ywain and Gawain survives in a single copy preserved in the British Library as Cotton Galba E. ix. The parchment manuscript contains 114 folios, seventeen separate pieces. Most of these - The Gospel of Nicodemus, a treatise on the Seven Deadly Sins, The Pricke of Conscience, a "Book of Penance," a Rood poem, and a Pater Noster, for example - are didactic. But others, such as notes on the points of a horse, The Prophecies of Merlin, and the satirical poem, "Sir Penny," represent a diversity of secular tastes. The hands of six individual scribes can be discerned in the collection, four of these dating from the early fifteenth century. The first hand - that of Ywain and Gawain and The Seven Sages of Rome - is a clear Anglicana Formata and the text is in a Northern dialect. Because certain North-East Midland forms are often reflected in the rhyme, the language is assumed to be that of the original author, who probably composed the work some fifty to one hundred years before this particular version was written down. A lack of topical references in the text makes it impossible to date the composition of the poem precisely.Ditto for the summary:The manuscript is in generally good condition, although its upper edges show water damage, probably from the 1731 fire in the library of Robert Bruce Cotton, the book's only identifiable owner. The top portion is often marred by shrinkage, splitting, and staining; worm holes, tearing, and ink blots occur throughout. Few of these defects present difficulties for the reader, however. The text contains little decoration. It begins with a large, ornate blue capital, picked in red, and a long, downward flourish, extending through the title and four lines of the manuscript. A number of smaller initials, alternately red and blue, are scattered throughout the text, normally coinciding with our modern practice of paragraphing. Such initials contain non-representational foliage and sport tendrils both upward and downward into the margins. The text contains numerous paragraph markings, which are generally not consistent with modern usage. There is little punctuation, and capitalization is sporadically employed.
The poem itself, a translation and adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes' Le Chevalier au Lion, is the story of Ywain, son of Urien, and a knight of King Arthur's court, whom the English poet assumed to have been a king and who is historically believed to have fought against the Angles in the sixth century. Unlike most romances, this one is a tale of married love: Ywain weds his lady, only to lose her through the breaking of a vow, whereafter he must perform many feats of valor before winning her again. The story begins at Arthur's court when Sir Colgrevance tells of his adventure along a perilous path which led him to a monster herdsman, a magic storm-producing well, and an avenging knight who some time ago had defeated Colgrevance in battle. Immediately Ywain, fired by the prospect of such an encounter and hoping to be more successful than his kinsman, sets out on the path himself, followed at some distance by Arthur and his retinue. Ywain defeats the knight, who, mortally wounded, flees to his castle. Ywain pursues him, but upon reaching the castle, he is trapped by the portcullis which crashes down upon him, killing his horse. He is rescued by Lunette, the companion of the dead knight's wife, whom he has unknowingly befriended in the past, and she gives him a ring that makes him invisible. Thus he is able to escape capture within the castle walls. He falls in love with the grieving widow, Alundyne; subsequently, he marries her and becomes the protector of her property. When Arthur and his knights arrive, Ywain defeats Sir Kay and proudly entertains them all as host and lord.Some comments:His happiness is short-lived, however, for soon Gawain, who had accompanied Arthur to the castle, persuades Ywain to "follow arms" with him to prove his manliness alongside his friend in tournaments. Alundyne agrees to the venture - but only for the space of a year. When Ywain forgets to return on the appointed day, she publicly renounces him and subsequently withdraws her magic ring which had served to protect him from harm. Having lost his love, Ywain also loses his mind, roaming the forest like a wild "beste" until the kindness of a hermit and the magic of still another lady restore him. Brought, in effect, to his senses, he now fights for justice and truth. Seeing a dragon battling a lion, he saves the lion and the beast becomes his companion. He rescues hapless maidens, defeats an oppressing giant, and overcomes an evil steward. When at last he returns to Alundyne's castle, Lunette aids him in a reconciliation with his wife. Then all live happily, the poet assures us, "Until that death haves dreven tham down" (line 4026).
* Lunette, the clever maidservant, is not at all shy about manipulating her lady, Alundyne, if she thinks it will do no harm and benefit those she loves. She is, if anything, even more brazen in the English version than in Chretien.
* I love the lion: he reminds me of Perceval, diving into fights with simpleminded zeal, heedless even of Ywain's wishes.
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