Richard Coer de Lyon

An illustration of Richard Coer de Lyon from a 12th-century codex

Richard Coer de Lyon is a Middle English romance which gives a fictionalised account of the life of Richard I of England, concentrating on his crusading exploits. It influenced Shakespeare's King John and Walter Scott's The Talisman.[1][2]

Date and authorship

Richard was written around the beginning of the 14th century, and is based on a lost Anglo-Norman romance dating from c. 1230-1250. The name of the Middle English author is unknown, but he is thought to have been from south-east England, and he may also have written the romances Of Arthour and of Merlin and King Alisaunder.[3][4]

Manuscripts and editions

Richard Coer de Lyon survives in 10 manuscripts, of which the most complete is Cambridge, Gonville and Caius MS 175.[5] The poem was printed in 1509 and 1528, both times by Wynkyn de Worde. An extended abstract of Richard appeared in George Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances (1805). The Gonville and Caius manuscript was used by Henry Weber for an edition of the poem included in his Metrical Romances of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries (1810). A 1913 edition of Richard by Karl Brunner used the same manuscript supplemented by Wynkyn de Worde's version.[6][7][8] It has also been translated into Modern English by Bradford B. Broughton in his Richard the Lion-Hearted: and Other Medieval English Romances (1966).[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Johnston, Arthur (1964). Enchanted Ground: The Study of Medieval Romance in the Eighteenth Century. London: University of London: The Athlone Press. p. 44. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  2. ↑ Mitchell, Jerome (1987). Scott, Chaucer and Medieval Romance:A Study in Sir Walter Scott's Indebtedness to the Literature of the Middle Ages. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 177–178. ISBN 0813116090. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "Richard Cœur de Lion". The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford Reference Online. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  4. ↑ "Richard Coeur de Lyon". The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  5. ↑ "Lord thou king of glory". The Digital Index of Middle English Verse. Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, Virginia Tech. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  6. ↑ Johnston, Arthur (1964). Enchanted Ground: The Study of Medieval Romance in the Eighteenth Century. London: University of London: The Athlone Press. p. 228.
  7. ↑ "Richard Coeur de Lion". Database of Middle English Romance. University of York. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  8. ↑ "Copac catalogue entry". University of Manchester. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  9. ↑ "Copac catalogue entry". University of Manchester. Retrieved 14 November 2012.

External links