Helen
Fulton s. xx–xxi
2022
Sir John Prise (1501/2–55) was a Welsh lawyer and book collector who was one of the royal commissioners responsible for closing down the monasteries at the Dissolution of the 1530s. Operating mainly in the March of Wales, Prise was able to save around 100 medieval manuscripts which would otherwise have been destroyed. As a Welsh speaker, Prise was keenly interested in medieval Welsh writing and some of the most famous medieval Welsh manuscripts passed through his hands. He was particularly interested in the British history of Geoffrey of Monmouth and in his Latin prose treatise, Historiae Britannicae Defensio, published in 1573 after his death, Prise put forward a spirited defence of the 'British history' related by Geoffrey, based almost entirely on his reading of manuscripts that he owned. This article examines the significance of Sir John Prise, his writing and his book collection in relation to the transmission of medieval texts into the Tudor age.
Sir John Prise (1501/2–55) was a Welsh lawyer and book collector who was one of the royal commissioners responsible for closing down the monasteries at the Dissolution of the 1530s. Operating mainly in the March of Wales, Prise was able to save around 100 medieval manuscripts which would otherwise have been destroyed. As a Welsh speaker, Prise was keenly interested in medieval Welsh writing and some of the most famous medieval Welsh manuscripts passed through his hands. He was particularly interested in the British history of Geoffrey of Monmouth and in his Latin prose treatise, Historiae Britannicae Defensio, published in 1573 after his death, Prise put forward a spirited defence of the 'British history' related by Geoffrey, based almost entirely on his reading of manuscripts that he owned. This article examines the significance of Sir John Prise, his writing and his book collection in relation to the transmission of medieval texts into the Tudor age.
2020
The chapter compares different uses of the legend of Troy as a ‘Trojan preface’ to historical and literary texts in medieval England, Wales, and Ireland. Typically used to introduce narratives of nationalist significance, the ‘Trojan preface’ forms a distinctive genre that functioned to establish or confirm myths of national origin. The work of early historians such as Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth provides examples of the uses of Troy to construct a particular kind of English identity. In Welsh and Irish texts, the Trojan legend was inserted as a chronological milestone which aligned the ethnic histories of Wales (or Britain) and Ireland with world events. The legacy of Rome was another source of English identity which worked to exclude the early British people and their descendants, the Welsh. Rome was also an important point of reference for the Welsh and Irish, who established their claim to ancient lineage through literary references to Britain under the Romans and through adaptations of Latin epic. The ambiguity of Troy, represented by Aeneas as a figure of both heroic endeavour and treacherous betrayal, is addressed in different ways by English, Welsh, and Irish writers. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Trojan prefaces in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer’s House of Fame, suggesting that these prefaces are motivated comments on the questionable historical construction of English identity.
The chapter compares different uses of the legend of Troy as a ‘Trojan preface’ to historical and literary texts in medieval England, Wales, and Ireland. Typically used to introduce narratives of nationalist significance, the ‘Trojan preface’ forms a distinctive genre that functioned to establish or confirm myths of national origin. The work of early historians such as Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth provides examples of the uses of Troy to construct a particular kind of English identity. In Welsh and Irish texts, the Trojan legend was inserted as a chronological milestone which aligned the ethnic histories of Wales (or Britain) and Ireland with world events. The legacy of Rome was another source of English identity which worked to exclude the early British people and their descendants, the Welsh. Rome was also an important point of reference for the Welsh and Irish, who established their claim to ancient lineage through literary references to Britain under the Romans and through adaptations of Latin epic. The ambiguity of Troy, represented by Aeneas as a figure of both heroic endeavour and treacherous betrayal, is addressed in different ways by English, Welsh, and Irish writers. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Trojan prefaces in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer’s House of Fame, suggesting that these prefaces are motivated comments on the questionable historical construction of English identity.
2019
Though the early medieval advice manual known as ‘Secretum Secretorum’, ‘The Secret of Secrets’, has been fairly well discussed by modern critics, including its numerous Latin and vernacular versions, there has been relatively little consideration of the ways in which the contents of the manual have been remediated into fictional literary texts of the Middle Ages, especially in Welsh. This article provides a new examination of the reception of Latin and vernacular versions of ‘Secretum Secretorum’ in medieval Welsh and English literatures. It is the first attempt to list the Middle Welsh versions of the ‘Secretum’ and to discuss them together with the Middle English versions. The article argues that the medieval ‘Secretum’, styled as a speculum principum, functioned not so much as a “mirror of princes” addressed to actual kings and princes but as an advice manual for professional and bourgeois readerships. The dominant function of the treatise, especially in its vernacular versions, was therefore as what we might call a “mirror of the gentry”, educating emergent shire and urban leaders about individual responsibility and how to follow a noble way of life. Both vernaculars, English and Welsh, transfer the ethical precepts popularised by ‘Secretum Secretorum’ and other didactic texts into fictional worlds where the moral message is wrapped in a more attractive package of fantasy and allegory addressed to a diverse readership.
Though the early medieval advice manual known as ‘Secretum Secretorum’, ‘The Secret of Secrets’, has been fairly well discussed by modern critics, including its numerous Latin and vernacular versions, there has been relatively little consideration of the ways in which the contents of the manual have been remediated into fictional literary texts of the Middle Ages, especially in Welsh. This article provides a new examination of the reception of Latin and vernacular versions of ‘Secretum Secretorum’ in medieval Welsh and English literatures. It is the first attempt to list the Middle Welsh versions of the ‘Secretum’ and to discuss them together with the Middle English versions. The article argues that the medieval ‘Secretum’, styled as a speculum principum, functioned not so much as a “mirror of princes” addressed to actual kings and princes but as an advice manual for professional and bourgeois readerships. The dominant function of the treatise, especially in its vernacular versions, was therefore as what we might call a “mirror of the gentry”, educating emergent shire and urban leaders about individual responsibility and how to follow a noble way of life. Both vernaculars, English and Welsh, transfer the ethical precepts popularised by ‘Secretum Secretorum’ and other didactic texts into fictional worlds where the moral message is wrapped in a more attractive package of fantasy and allegory addressed to a diverse readership.
