DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61385#0089
Chapter VII.—Concerning Guy, Earl of Warwick. Ixxxiii
the saga places it in the 12th century; cf. Gesta Romanorum. To
transfer Guy to the battlefield of Brunanburh, there is only the
voice of the romancer in authority. The four hundred years between
Liber and romance are not explained in Guy’s history.
The MSS. do not aid in the annihilation of time and distance.1
The oldest of these is Norman, the Wolfenbiittel Codex, 87. 4,
Augusteorum Guelferbyt. of the late 13th century. To this century
belong the French MSS. 24, 32 in the Bodleian Library. Remaining
French MSS. and all the English transcripts are the work of later
centuries, the Auchinleck version (No. 23, 24), contemporary with
the Speculum, being followed by the Caius, Ff. 2. 38 (of. Zupitza),
the Lydgate and the Lane-Lydgate texts. Further, over date see
Chronology of the Speculum, chap. xv.
That Guy is English and not French, united testimony from all
sources evidences, and the poems and tales, the authority most largely
quoted, confirm. Generally the scenes of the romance are located in
Winchester. Different versions name the exact locality under various
names. Winchester is the town of Lydgate and the ballads. Cop-
land places Guy in Wallingford : “ To Wallinford Guy him drew
if he were to be located in the Brunanburh fight, then Guy was an
Englishman of Lincoln.
A will o’ the wisp ever to be pursued, never to be grasped, the
investigation2 of the Guy saga finds only probabilities, never a
certainty of relationship. Not one of the lesser of these is the
coincidence between the history of Guido and that of Guy. But the
investigation has failed to provide historical certainty for the facts
proffered by the Speculum.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONCERNING GUIDO, COUNT OF TOURS.
“ whose fame
Is couching now with pantherized intent.”3
Count Guido was a brilliant light in the local history of Tours,
but his splendid deeds seem to have cast no glorifying rays beyond
1 For lists of Guy of Warwick MSS. see Winneberger, Ueber d. Hss.-Verhoilt.
des Altfr. Guy de W., pp. 2, 3, A. Tanner, Die, Sage, etc., pp. 49—54, and
Zupitza, pp. 1, 2 of Introduction.
2 In the study see Day and Decker’s play, 1618—1619, Pepys I. 522, and
the Spanish romance Tirante el bianco.
3 Lines to R. J. Tennant, from the authorship of Hallam, immortalized in
Tennyson’s In Memoriam.
the saga places it in the 12th century; cf. Gesta Romanorum. To
transfer Guy to the battlefield of Brunanburh, there is only the
voice of the romancer in authority. The four hundred years between
Liber and romance are not explained in Guy’s history.
The MSS. do not aid in the annihilation of time and distance.1
The oldest of these is Norman, the Wolfenbiittel Codex, 87. 4,
Augusteorum Guelferbyt. of the late 13th century. To this century
belong the French MSS. 24, 32 in the Bodleian Library. Remaining
French MSS. and all the English transcripts are the work of later
centuries, the Auchinleck version (No. 23, 24), contemporary with
the Speculum, being followed by the Caius, Ff. 2. 38 (of. Zupitza),
the Lydgate and the Lane-Lydgate texts. Further, over date see
Chronology of the Speculum, chap. xv.
That Guy is English and not French, united testimony from all
sources evidences, and the poems and tales, the authority most largely
quoted, confirm. Generally the scenes of the romance are located in
Winchester. Different versions name the exact locality under various
names. Winchester is the town of Lydgate and the ballads. Cop-
land places Guy in Wallingford : “ To Wallinford Guy him drew
if he were to be located in the Brunanburh fight, then Guy was an
Englishman of Lincoln.
A will o’ the wisp ever to be pursued, never to be grasped, the
investigation2 of the Guy saga finds only probabilities, never a
certainty of relationship. Not one of the lesser of these is the
coincidence between the history of Guido and that of Guy. But the
investigation has failed to provide historical certainty for the facts
proffered by the Speculum.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONCERNING GUIDO, COUNT OF TOURS.
“ whose fame
Is couching now with pantherized intent.”3
Count Guido was a brilliant light in the local history of Tours,
but his splendid deeds seem to have cast no glorifying rays beyond
1 For lists of Guy of Warwick MSS. see Winneberger, Ueber d. Hss.-Verhoilt.
des Altfr. Guy de W., pp. 2, 3, A. Tanner, Die, Sage, etc., pp. 49—54, and
Zupitza, pp. 1, 2 of Introduction.
2 In the study see Day and Decker’s play, 1618—1619, Pepys I. 522, and
the Spanish romance Tirante el bianco.
3 Lines to R. J. Tennant, from the authorship of Hallam, immortalized in
Tennyson’s In Memoriam.