Romance

Gamelyn

Date of compositionc. 1350-70
Place of compositionNortheast Midlands
Form

Rhyming couplets: aa4bb4 etc

IMEV
1913
Keywords Bedchamber Disguise Education Ekphrasis Familial Discord Friendship Garden Marriage Merchants Quest Religious Spaces Secular Spaces Sexual Encounters Supernatural The Orient The Third Estate Tokens of Recognition Travel

On his deathbed, Sir John of Boundis divides his land between his three sons: Johan, Ote and Gamelyn. Although his knights suggest that he split it between the oldest two, he insists that the youngest has his share. As soon as he is dead, however, the eldest son Johan appropriates Gamelyn's land and takes the child into his castle, treating him poorly and letting his property fall into disrepair. Years pass and Gamelyn grows into a strong young man. When he realises that his inheritance has been wasted he curses his brother, beating off the men that Johan sets on him. Claiming that he was simply 'testing' Gamelyn, the scheming Johan apologises and seals his false promise with a kiss.

Gamelyn wins a wrestling match, but when he returns to Johan's castle with the crowd, he finds the doors bolted. He breaks them down, throws the porter into a well and holds a week-long feast. Johan hides in a tower and plots his revenge. When the guests finally depart, Gamelyn is captured. He observes that fifteen years of wasted rent should pay for the feast and Johan pretends to relent, promising to make Gamelyn his heir. He then tricks his brother into fetters and, telling the court that he is mad, binds him to a post in the hall. The spencer, Adam, helps Gamelyn escape and the two plan his revenge. The following Sunday Johan holds a feast for wealthy churchmen. Gamelyn stands at his post but when the churchmen ignore his pleas for help he casts off his fetters and, taking a staff from Adam, beats them while joking about religious rituals. Johan is bound and when the sheriff sends men to investigate they are beaten too. Reinforcements arrive and Gamelyn and Adam flee into the forest. There they meet a troop of outlaws who recognise Gamelyn and eventually appoint him as their king.

Meanwhile, Johan becomes sheriff and declares his brother an outlaw. When Gamelyn hears how badly his tenants are being treated, he returns to the court to confront Johan and is imprisoned. The middle brother Ote rebukes Johan and releases Gamelyn, pledging himself as surety. Gamelyn returns to the forest, promising to attend his trial, and Johan sets about bribing the justice and jury to hang him. When he arrives on the appointed day and finds Ote in chains, Gamelyn beats the corrupt judge and takes his place at the bench. With his outlaws acting as jury he tries the justice, jurors and sherriff, sentencing them all to be hanged. This done, Ote and Gamelyn travel to the king, who makes Ote a justice and Gamelyn chief justice of the forest. Ote and Gamelyn share their inheritance, Gamelyn marries and lives happily.

Edition used for plot summary: Sands, Middle English Verse Romances (1986).

Manuscripts

Manuscript Date Folio
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 181 Third quarter of the 15th century 65r-77r
Contents
Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.3.26 Second quarter of the 15th century 52r-62v
Contents
Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.2.5 Mid-15th century 48v-58v
Contents
Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 197 1476 24r-25r
Contents
Lichfield, Cathedral Library, MS 29 Second quarter of the fifteenth century 57v-69r
Contents
London, British Library, MS Egerton 2726 Second quarter of the fifteenth century 56r-63v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Egerton 2863 Second quarter of the fifteenth century 37r-49r
Contents
London, British Library, MS Harley 1758 Third quarter of the fifteenth century 46r-55r
Contents
London, British Library, MS Harley 7334 c.1410 59r-70v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 851 Early fifteenth century 54v-65r
Contents
London, British Library, MS Royal 17.D.XV 1450-1500 66v-79v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Royal 18.C.II The second quarter of the fifteenth century 56v-67v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Sloane 1685 Fifteenth century, before 1460 51v-62v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Sloane 1686 Late fifteenth century 71r-86v
Contents
New Haven, Beinecke Library, Takamiya Deposit, MS 32 1425-60 45r- 51r
Contents
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M 249 1450-60 62r-74r
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 45 15th-17th century Part C, 2v-18r
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Barlow 20 Third quarter of the fifteenth century 51v-62v
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton Donat. I 1450-60 65r-75v
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 600 Mid fifteenth-century 62v-75v
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 739 The last quarter of the fifteenth century 67v-81v
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Poet. 149 Mid fifteenth century 53r-58r
Contents
Oxford, Christ Church, MS 152 Third quarter of the fifteenth century 58v-71v
Contents
Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 198 Early fifteenth century 62r-73v
Contents
Oxford, Trinity College, MS 49 1461-83 60v-73r
Contents
Philadelphia, Rosenbach Foundation, MS 1084/1 Second quarter of the fifteenth century 5r-15v
Contents
West Sussex, National Trust, Petworth House and Park, NT 3242251 1420-30 62r-74r
Contents

Modern editions

John Urry, T. Thomas, J. Dart and W. Thomas, eds., The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Compared with the former editions, and many valuable mss, out of which, three tales are added which were never before printed (London: Bernard Lintot, 1721).

Includes readings from 9 MSS, though base text is uncertain.

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John Bell, ed., The Poets of Great Britain Complete From Chaucer to Churchill (London, 1782).

Taken from Urry's 1721 edition.

Robert Anderson, ed., The Works of the British Poets (London, 1785).

Taken from Urry's 1721 edition.

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Alexander Chalmers, ed., The Works of the English Poets from Chaucer to Cowper (London: J. Johnson, 1810).

Taken from Urry's 1721 edition.

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Thomas Wright, ed., The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer: A New Text with Illustrative Notes, 3 vols. (London: Richards for the Percy Society, 1847-51).

Uses British Library MS Harley 7334 as base text.

Robert Bell, ed., Annotated Edition of English Poets (London, J.W. Parker & Son, 1854-56).

Based on Wright's 1847-51 edition.

Richard Morris, ed., The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 6 vols. (London: George Bell & Sons, 1866).

Based on Wright's 1847-51 edition.

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F.J. Furnivall, ed., The Harlean MS of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. for The Chaucer Society, 1868).

Based on Harley 7334.

F.J. Furnivall, ed., A Six-Text Print of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. for The Chaucer Society, 1868).

Uses Royal 18.C.II, Harley 1758, Sloane 1685, Corpus, Petworth and Lansdowne 851.

W. W. Skeat, ed., The Tale of Gamelyn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884).

Uses Harley 7334 as base text.

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Frederick J. Furnivall, ed., The Petworth MS of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (London: N. Trubner & Co. for the Chaucer Society, 1868-79).

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John M. Manly and Edith Rickert, ed., The Text of the Canterbury Tales Studied on the Basis of All Known Manuscripts, 8 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940).

All MSS.

Walter Hoyt French and Charles Brockway Hale, eds., The Middle English Metrical Romances, 2 vols (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1930; rpt. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964).

Vol 1, pp. 207-35. Based on Harley 7334.

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D. B. Sands, ed., Middle English Verse Romances (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 1986)

Pp. 154-81. Base-text not specified.

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Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren, ed., Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997).

Uses Petworth MS as base text.

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Nila Vazquez, The Tale of Gamelyn of the Canterbury Tales: An Annotated Edition (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2009).

Uses Corpus Christi College Oxford MS 198 as base text for critical edition. Contains diplomatic transcriptions of 9 other MSS (Harley 7734, Lansdowne 851, Petworth, CUL Mm.2.5, Lichfield, Royal 18.C.II, Fitzwilliam McClean 181, Christ Church 152, Ha