Anonymous, Bevis of Hampton

Lynn Forest-Hill (University of Southampton)

Ed. by Jamie McKinstry, University of Durham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1300 - c. 1300

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

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Recommended Reading

The Middle English verse romance

Sir Bevis of Hampton

enjoyed extraordinary popularity during the medieval and early modern periods. It is found in nine manuscripts, and in nineteen printed versions from the early sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, the earliest being that printed by Wynkyn de Worde in c.1500 (Jackson, Ferguson and Pantzer, 1976-91). Some early seventeenth-century versions include woodcut illustrations, but the story had already been finely illustrated in the second quarter of the fourteenth century in the

Taymouth Hours

(Brownrigg, 1989).

The source of the story is the very late twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Boeve de Haumtone (Martin 2014). This is variously described as a chanson de geste or a romance (Ailes, 2008). Between the original composition of this poem

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3518 words

Citation: Forest-Hill, Lynn. "Bevis of Hampton". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 December 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38765, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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Anonymous, Bevis of Hampton

Dates

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