DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61385#0079
Chapter VI.—Relation of Specuhu/in to Guy Romances. Ixxiii
heightened by the revelations of Warwick Castle through the dis-
play,1 in hall and oratory, of trophies testifying to the prowess of
some scion of the house of Warwick,2 nominally the “mightie earle,”
and through the statue3 itself at Guy’s cliff.
Early literature of the hero ascribes a most realistic actuality
to Guy, for example, the ancient ballad,4 Bagford Ballads, vol. ii.
p. 19. It describes Guy as one, “Who (for the love of fair Phillis)
became a hermit, and died in a Cave of a craggy Rock, a Mile distant
from Warwick.”
“And then I lived a hermit’s life
A mile or more out of the town.”
The ballad claims:
“My body in Warwick yet doth lye,
though now it is consumed to Mould.
My statue5 was engraven in stone.”
The work is commended in the preface as a theme of wonder for
ages long anterior to our own, as portraying the very “locality of
the spot” where Guy lived and died. Epitaphs6 of Guy and Felice
record the burial of a knight:
“Whose great achievments oft perform'd
Has through Earth’s Globe immortalized his Name,
And given him a never-dying fame.”
1 It will be recalled that the exhibition comprises shield, breast-plate, helmet,
walking-staff, tilting-pole, and porridge-pot belonging to Guy, the slipper of
swete ]>ing, Felice, and various trophies of contest in tusks of slaughtered
boar, ribs of the Dun cow, diagram of the green dragon, et cetera, monuments
“of lasting Fame of the noble Heroic Champion."
2 Confusion will not arise between the house of Guy and that of the present
representative of the name and title Warwick, whose descent is traced to the
biographer of Sidney (Life of the renowned Sir Philip Sidney, London, 1652),
Elizabeth’s favourite, Fulke Greville.
3 The figure of Guy in the Magdalen chapel is at least in stature worthy the
“defender of distressed innocence,” comments The Tourist’s Guide to Warwick,
p. 46. In this statue, diabolicoe staturce, Guy is, non homo ! immo potius spiritus
diaboli, says one.
4 “A pleasant song of the Valiant Deeds of Chivalry achieved by that Noble
Knight, Sir Guy of Warwick,” “printed at the Angel in Duck-lane, London:
where any chapman may be furnished with them, or any other books at reason-
able rates.” Compare Roxburghe Ballads, press mark III. 50, 708.
5 This statue, according to Dugdale, was erected in honour of Guy of
Beauchamp.
6 Effete philistinism alone would doubt the authenticity of the following
noble epitaph, honouring the hero of the Dun cow and the green dragon:
“ Under this marble lies a pair,
Scarce such another in the world there are,
Like him so valiant, or like her so fair.
His actions thro’ the world have spread his fame,
And to the highest honours raised his name ;
For conjugal affection and chaste love
She’s only equalled by the blest above.
Below they all perfections did possess,
And now enjoy consummate happiness.”
Finis.
heightened by the revelations of Warwick Castle through the dis-
play,1 in hall and oratory, of trophies testifying to the prowess of
some scion of the house of Warwick,2 nominally the “mightie earle,”
and through the statue3 itself at Guy’s cliff.
Early literature of the hero ascribes a most realistic actuality
to Guy, for example, the ancient ballad,4 Bagford Ballads, vol. ii.
p. 19. It describes Guy as one, “Who (for the love of fair Phillis)
became a hermit, and died in a Cave of a craggy Rock, a Mile distant
from Warwick.”
“And then I lived a hermit’s life
A mile or more out of the town.”
The ballad claims:
“My body in Warwick yet doth lye,
though now it is consumed to Mould.
My statue5 was engraven in stone.”
The work is commended in the preface as a theme of wonder for
ages long anterior to our own, as portraying the very “locality of
the spot” where Guy lived and died. Epitaphs6 of Guy and Felice
record the burial of a knight:
“Whose great achievments oft perform'd
Has through Earth’s Globe immortalized his Name,
And given him a never-dying fame.”
1 It will be recalled that the exhibition comprises shield, breast-plate, helmet,
walking-staff, tilting-pole, and porridge-pot belonging to Guy, the slipper of
swete ]>ing, Felice, and various trophies of contest in tusks of slaughtered
boar, ribs of the Dun cow, diagram of the green dragon, et cetera, monuments
“of lasting Fame of the noble Heroic Champion."
2 Confusion will not arise between the house of Guy and that of the present
representative of the name and title Warwick, whose descent is traced to the
biographer of Sidney (Life of the renowned Sir Philip Sidney, London, 1652),
Elizabeth’s favourite, Fulke Greville.
3 The figure of Guy in the Magdalen chapel is at least in stature worthy the
“defender of distressed innocence,” comments The Tourist’s Guide to Warwick,
p. 46. In this statue, diabolicoe staturce, Guy is, non homo ! immo potius spiritus
diaboli, says one.
4 “A pleasant song of the Valiant Deeds of Chivalry achieved by that Noble
Knight, Sir Guy of Warwick,” “printed at the Angel in Duck-lane, London:
where any chapman may be furnished with them, or any other books at reason-
able rates.” Compare Roxburghe Ballads, press mark III. 50, 708.
5 This statue, according to Dugdale, was erected in honour of Guy of
Beauchamp.
6 Effete philistinism alone would doubt the authenticity of the following
noble epitaph, honouring the hero of the Dun cow and the green dragon:
“ Under this marble lies a pair,
Scarce such another in the world there are,
Like him so valiant, or like her so fair.
His actions thro’ the world have spread his fame,
And to the highest honours raised his name ;
For conjugal affection and chaste love
She’s only equalled by the blest above.
Below they all perfections did possess,
And now enjoy consummate happiness.”
Finis.