Ian Short

Anglo-Norman Anniversary Essays

An edition with facing annotated translation of the 12th-century Medieval French popular romance Guillaume d’Angleterre. The claim to fame of this verse narrative is to have had its authorship attributed (falsely) to Chrétien de Troyes, the most famous of all 12th-century Medieval French narrative poets. This prototypical adventure romance and is representative of a literary genre that has recently seen a renewal of interest among medieval literary critics. An amusing tale of late twelfth-century social mobility, the romance tells of a bewildering series of adventures that befall a fictitious king who deliberately abandons his royal status to enter the ‘real’ world of knights, wolves, pirates and merchants. He and his family, dispersed by events between Bristol, Galway and Caithness, are finally re-united at Yarmouth thanks to a climactic stag hunt. The book is designed for students of French, Medieval Studies, Comparative Literature and English, and for all medieval scholars interested in having an English version of a typical medieval adventure romance. It is the first authoritative English translation of this text, and all of its critical material is new. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47788/TXVU9029

An Edition and Annotated Translation

Crestiens Guillaume DAngleterre / William of England

Nigel J. Morgan

Teresa Webber

Accompanying CD-ROM includes the texts, glosses and translations or versions.

(Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.16.2)

The Trinity Apocalypse

There is something fitting about linking the Savoy operas with limericks. Both are likely to appeal to people with a certain type of sense of humour. Why are the Savoy operas funny? Because they were written by a couple of geniuses who knew how to be funny ... never fall into the trap of assuming that Gilbert was the funny one. Gilbert himself discovered that his words didn’t work half so well when set by other composers. Why are limericks funny? That’s a much more difficult question. Suffice it to say that, if The Lady of Shalot or the Mort d’ Arthur were written to a metre of 8,8,5,5,8, people would have roared their ribs out. The really surprising thing, given that Gilbert used every trick in the book to make his verses funny, is that in the whole canon I can only find one example of a limerick written by Gilbert (double limerick, shameless man)

Odd Odes concerning the Savoy Operas

NIN’S LIMERICKS

There is something fitting about linking the Savoy operas with limericks. Both are likely to appeal to people with a certain type of sense of humour. Why are the Savoy operas funny? Because they were written by a couple of geniuses who knew how to be funny ... never fall into the trap of assuming that Gilbert was the funny one. Gilbert himself discovered that his words didn't work half so well when set by other composers. Why are limericks funny? That's a much more difficult question. Suffice it to say that, if The Lady of Shalot or the Mort d' Arthur were written to a metre of 8,8,5,5,8, people would have roared their ribs out. The really surprising thing, given that Gilbert used every trick in the book to make his verses funny, is that in the whole canon I can only find one example of a limerick written by Gilbert (double limerick, shameless man)

Ian Short

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