Romance

Robert of Cisyle

Date of compositionLate fourteenth century
Place of compositionSoutheast Midlands
Form

Rhyming couplets: aa4bb4 etc

IMEV
2780
Keywords Marriage Siege Supernatural

King Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urban and of Valemounde the emperor of Germany, is a noble knight, but very proud and more interested in worldly honour than in Christ. One night at evensong he asks what the Magnificat means. When a clerk explains that God has the power to bring the mighty low, Robert boasts that he is invulnerable. While he sleeps through the service, an angel takes on Robert's appearance and replaces him in the court. Awakening, Robert is furious, but neither the sexton of the church, nor the porters at his palace recognise him, and they will not believe that he is their king. He scuffles with the porters and is brought before the angel, who asks 'what art thou?' When Robert insists that he is the king, the angel responds by making him his fool. For three years he lives among the court's dogs, while the kingdom becomes harmonious and joyful under the angel's rule.

The angel goes to Rome to meet Urban and Valemounde, taking his fool with him. Men marvel at his beauty, and he is welcomed as a king. Robert cries out to his brothers, but they do not recognise him. He recalls the story of Nebuchadnezzar, another king brought low, and repents of his pride, calling himself 'God's fool'. When they return to the court, the angel summons Robert and asks him again, 'what art thou?'. This time Robert answers that he is a fool. The angel explains that he was sent by God to teach Robert humility, then restores him to his previous form and disappears. Robert reigns well and devoutly for two years. On his deathbed, he has his story written down and sent to his brothers, and the poet tells us that his story is taken from the version kept in St Peter's in Rome.

Edition used for plot summary: Foster, Amis and Amiloun, Robert of Cisyle, and Sir Amadace (1997).

Manuscripts

Manuscript Date Folio
Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 174/95 1475-1500 pp. 456-68
Contents
Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.2.38 Middle of the 15th century 254r-257v
Contents
Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.4.9 15th century 87v-93v
Contents
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 432 1461 60r-61r
Contents
London, British Library, MS Additional 22283 (Simeon) 1390-1400 90v-91v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Additional 34801 Early fifteenth century 2r-v
Contents
London, British Library, MS Harley 1701 1380-1450 92r-95r
Contents
London, British Library, MS Harley 525 1450-75 35r-43v
Contents
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Poet. A.1. (Vernon) Late fourteenth or early fifteenth century 300r-301r
Contents
Oxford, Trinity College, MS D. 57 End of the fourteenth century 165r-167r
Contents

Modern editions

E.V. Utterson, Kyng Roberd of Cysylle (London, 1839).

Edition of Harley 525 with variants from Harley 1701.

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W. Carew Hazlitt, ed., Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, 4 vols (London: John Russell Smith, 1864-66).

Vol. 1. Pp. 264-288. Based on MS Ff.2.38.

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Carl Horstmann, ed., Sammlung Altenglischer Legenden (Heilbronn: Henninger, 1878).

Pp. 209-19. Vernon MS and Oxford Trinity with variants in notes.

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C. Horstmann, 'Nachträge zu den legenden', Archiv, 62 (1879)

Edition of MS Ii.4.9

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Robert Nuck, ed., Roberd of Cisyle (Berlin: Bernstein, 1887).

Based on Vernon MS and Horstmann's edition.

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

Vol. 2. Pp. 931-46. Edited from Vernon MS.

R. Brotanek, ed., Mittelenglische Dichtungen aus der Handschrift 432 des Trinity College in Dublin (Halle, 1940).

Pp. 36-47. Based on Trinity MS.

Boris Ford, ed., The Age of Chaucer, The Pelican Guide to English Literature I (Baltimore: Penguin, 1955).

Pp. 287-299. Base text not specified.

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Edward E. Foster, ed., Amis and Amiloun, Robert of Cisyle, and Sir Amadace (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997).

Pp. 89-110. Edited from the Vernon MS with variants from other versions.

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