William of Palerne is a lively, fantastical, and lengthy
(over 5,500 lines) 14th-century MIDDLE ENGLISH alliterative
adaptation of a French ROMANCE, Guillaume
de Palerne. The date of composition is
believed to be between 1340 and 1360, during the
reign of EDWARD III, and there are two references
in the narrative to the patron who commissioned
the poem, Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford.
William of Palerne is preserved in a single manuscript
(King’s College Cambridge 30) with a copy of
the SOUTH ENGLISH LEGENDARY. Although the two
works were originally separate manuscripts, evidence
indicates that they were probably connected
as early as the 15th century. The writing of the romance
of William of Palerne was undertaken, according
to the narrative, “in ese of Englysch men”
(l. 66), and “for hem that knowe no Frensche, ne
never understo[n]” (1. 5538), and follows the comprehensive
medieval definition of translation in
which a narrative not only is rewritten in another
language but is revised and shaped according to the
poet-translator’s interpretation.While remaining
considerably faithful to his source, the English poet
changes scenes, characters, courtly sensibility, and
political behaviors.As a production of the so-called
ALLITERATIVE REVIVAL, many narratives of which depict
world historical and social concerns, the use of
the alliterative form here could signal the ways in
which the poet represents political concerns under
cover of fashionable romance.
The fantastic plots and subplots of this romance
do not lend themselves to a brief and coherent
summary account, and much of the romance’s humorous
delight is lost in abstracting the basic story
line. Nonetheless the romance narrative of exile
and return begins when the king and queen of
Sicily have a son named William whose death is
plotted by the king’s brother. A werewolf (who is
really the son of the king of Spain bewitched by
his stepmother) saves the child William and escapes
with him to Italy, where the child is adopted
by a cowherd. One day the emperor of Rome
comes upon William and is so struck by his gentility
and beauty that he takes him back to Rome. At
the palace William is put under the care of the emperor’s
daughter, Meliors, and they fall in love.
When she is betrothed against her will to another,
Meliors and William escape dressed in bear skins
with the guidance of the faithful werewolf. They go
to Sicily, which is under siege by the king of Spain,
and dressed now as hind and hart, take refuge in
the queen’s garden. In a wonderful revelation scene
William is discovered to be the queen of Sicily’s
long-lost son; he battles the king of Spain, his inheritance
is regained, the good are rewarded, the
bad are forgiven, the werewolf regains his human
form, and all live happily under the wise rule of
William and Meliors.
William of Palerne creates a fantastic and humorously
idealized realm in which personal and
political ideals are both espoused and achieved.
The world of the romance is utterly improbable in
its presentation of unfailing courtesy and courtly
behaviors, and predicated upon an ideology in
which personal behavior becomes a political
model. Yet embedded in its fantastic improbability
are lessons of conduct and right rule that are as
realistic, morally relevant, and conventional as
those found in more conventional “mirrors for
princes.” The didacticism of William of Palerne is
particularly concerned with individual happiness
and social harmony,where exemplary personal behavior
translates into exemplary political relations.
It is worth noting that those sections of the poem
most expanded from its source are scenes in which
lessons of ideal rule and personal and political behavior
are examined.
Critical engagement with William of Palerne
has been slight, and, more often than not, the
poem is discussed only briefly in surveys of Middle
English romances. Some critics suggest that
the poem was intended for an unsophisticated
audience, while others discuss aristocratic patronage
for alliterative revival works in general,
and for this romance in particular. The amplification
(from its source) of the ideals of wise rule
and the exercise of kingship indicates a concern
with political didacticism that may be key for future
critical analyses.
Bibliography
Bunt, Gerrit Hendrik, ed.William of Palerne: an Electronic
Edition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 2002.
Calin,William. The French Tradition and the Literature
of Medieval England. Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 1994.
Crane, Susan. Insular Romance: Politics, Faith, and
Culture in Anglo-Norman and Middle English Literature.
Berkeley: University of California Press,
1969.
Dalrymple, Roger. Language and Piety in Middle English
Romance. Cambridge, U.K.: Brewer, 2000.
Diamond, Arlyn. “Loving Beasts: The Romance of
William of Palerne.” In The Spirit of Medieval English
Popular Romance, edited by Ad Putter and
Jane Gilbert, 142–156. London: Longman, 2000.
Dunn, Charles W. The Foundling and the Werewolf: A
Literary-Historical Study of Guillaume de Palerne.
Toronto and Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1960.
Mehl, Dieter. The Middle English Romances of the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969.
Ramsay, Lee C. Chivalric Romances: Popular Literature
in Medieval England. Bloomington: University of
Illinois Press, 1983.
Elisa Narin van Court