Thomas Chestre
Encyclopedia
Thomas Chestre was the author of a 14th century Middle English romance Sir Launfal
, a verse romance of 1045 lines based ultimately on Marie de France's Breton lay Lanval
. He was possibly also the author of the 2200-line Libeaus Desconus
, a story of Sir Gawain's son Gingalain
based upon similar traditions to those that inspired Renaut de Beaujeu's late-12th-century or early-13th-century Old French
romance Le Bel Inconnu, and also possibly of a Middle English retelling of the mid-13th century Old French romance Octavian
. Geoffrey Chaucer
parodied Libeaus Desconus
, among other Middle English romances, in his Canterbury Tale of Sir Thopas.
. It is found in British Library MS Cotton Caligula A.ii, fols 35v-42v, dating from the first half of the 15th century
, fols 42va-57rb, and an 1800-line verse romance known as the Southern Octavian
, fols 22va-35rb. On stylistic evidence, there has always been some question whether these two flanking poems in Cotton Caligula A.ii might be attributed to Thomas Chester as well, with arguments on both sides. Libeaus Desconus
is found in five other medieval manuscripts. A 14th century Middle English Octavian
occurs in two other manuscripts in a version that is definitely not by Thomas Chestre, the story is arranged in a different way and it is known as the Northern Octavian
.
, Libeaus Desconus
and the Southern Octavian
have been written. The underlying dialect of all three works is best interpreted as being of the southeast English Midlands
, although the scribe of British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii. might have been from Kent. All three works display the same eclectic style of composition. The difficulty in assigning a more precise indication of the region of England that Thomas Chestre may have hailed from lies in the readiness of all three works to borrow lines and phrases directly from other Middle English romances. Thomas Chestre was prepared to go to any lengths to secure a rhyme. In addition, he was willing to “endow words with new or at least strained meanings, and introduce notions that are either quite at odds with the immediate context of the rhyme-word embodying them, or conflict with statements made a very short time earlier.” All three of these romances show this idiosyncrasy and produce narrative that is both “terse in its statements and disjointed in its continuity.
In both Sir Launfal
and Libeaus Desconus
, story elements from more than one romance have been stitched together to make the tale as a whole, and some allusions to his sources are very condensed.” Like many Middle English poets working with older material, he shows a preference to reduce moral ambiguity and to avoid any great agonising over love.
Octavian
is a tale of a young prince who is taken as a baby by an animal and reared as the son of a merchant, before displaying his noble qualities, fighting with a giant, winning great martial acclaim and finally being reunited with his real family again. It has many of the traits of folk-tale or Breton lai
. Following this in the manuscript, Sir Launfal
is an Arthurian tale in which King Arthur's steward is reduced to dire poverty, meets with an Otherworld
fay
in a woodland whom he falls in love with and is magically restored to great wealth again. It is based ultimately upon one of the 12th century Breton lai
s recorded by Marie de France
, the lay Lanval
, via a Middle English romance Sir Landevale, an Old French
lay of Graelent and a lost romance that might have included a giant named Sir Valentyne. Following this, Libeaus Desconus
is another Arthurian tale., in which a young man who does not know his own name journeys from King Arthur's court to a city in which a lady is kept prisoner. She is finally rescued by him with a kiss, upon which she changes from a snake into a beautiful maiden. On the way to her city, the hero has already encountered another lady of enchantments, an elf-queen, and defeated a giant who was guarding her. The ultimate sources for this tale might be a lost 12th century Old French romance upon which Le Bel Inconnu was based, and Chrétien de Troyes
' Erec and Enide.
Geoffrey Chaucer
's parody of tail-line romance in his Canterbury Tale of Sir Thopas, has the hero Sir Thopas begin a fight with a giant in order to try to reach an elf-queen with whom he wishes to fall in love. It mentions Libeaus Desconus
in its list of excellent romances, or “romances of prys” Perhaps in repost, Thomas Chestre names in Sir Launfal
an invisible squire, a gift to the hero from his elf-queen and in her own words: "Gyfre, my owen knave."
Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
, a verse romance of 1045 lines based ultimately on Marie de France's Breton lay Lanval
Lanval
"Lanval" is one of the Lais of Marie de France. Written in Anglo-Norman, it tells the story of a knight at King Arthur's court who is overlooked by the king, wooed by a fairy lady, given all manner of gifts by her, and subsequently refuses the advances of Queen Guinevere...
. He was possibly also the author of the 2200-line Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
, a story of Sir Gawain's son Gingalain
Gingalain
Sir Gingalain , also known as Le Bel Inconnu, or The Fair Unknown, is a character from Arthurian legend whose exploits are recorded in numerous versions of a popular medieval romance. His nickname differs depending on the version and language; he is known in English as Libeaus Desconus...
based upon similar traditions to those that inspired Renaut de Beaujeu's late-12th-century or early-13th-century Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
romance Le Bel Inconnu, and also possibly of a Middle English retelling of the mid-13th century Old French romance Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
. Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
parodied Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
, among other Middle English romances, in his Canterbury Tale of Sir Thopas.
Sir Launfal
The name Thomas Chestre occurs only once in medieval writings, in the single manuscript copy that remains of the late-14th century Middle English verse romance Sir LaunfalSir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
. It is found in British Library MS Cotton Caligula A.ii, fols 35v-42v, dating from the first half of the 15th century
- ”Thomas Chestre made thys tale
- Of the noble knyght Syr Launfale,
- Good of chyvalrye.”
Libeaus Desconus and the Southern Octavian
Lying to either side of this tale of Sir Launfal in British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii, are an Arthurian tale of the Fair Unknown, Libeaus DesconusLibeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
, fols 42va-57rb, and an 1800-line verse romance known as the Southern Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
, fols 22va-35rb. On stylistic evidence, there has always been some question whether these two flanking poems in Cotton Caligula A.ii might be attributed to Thomas Chester as well, with arguments on both sides. Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
is found in five other medieval manuscripts. A 14th century Middle English Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
occurs in two other manuscripts in a version that is definitely not by Thomas Chestre, the story is arranged in a different way and it is known as the Northern Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
.
Style
Many similarities have been noted in the way the poems Sir LaunfalSir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
, Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
and the Southern Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
have been written. The underlying dialect of all three works is best interpreted as being of the southeast English Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
, although the scribe of British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii. might have been from Kent. All three works display the same eclectic style of composition. The difficulty in assigning a more precise indication of the region of England that Thomas Chestre may have hailed from lies in the readiness of all three works to borrow lines and phrases directly from other Middle English romances. Thomas Chestre was prepared to go to any lengths to secure a rhyme. In addition, he was willing to “endow words with new or at least strained meanings, and introduce notions that are either quite at odds with the immediate context of the rhyme-word embodying them, or conflict with statements made a very short time earlier.” All three of these romances show this idiosyncrasy and produce narrative that is both “terse in its statements and disjointed in its continuity.
In both Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
and Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
, story elements from more than one romance have been stitched together to make the tale as a whole, and some allusions to his sources are very condensed.” Like many Middle English poets working with older material, he shows a preference to reduce moral ambiguity and to avoid any great agonising over love.
Chestre's subject matter and inspiration
Nothing is known of Thomas Chester outside of the one verse romance he is known to have penned and the two that lie either side of it in British Museum MS Cotton Caligula A.ii.Octavian
Octavian (Middle English verse romance)
Octavian is a 14th-century Middle English verse translation and abridgement of a mid-13th century Old French romance of the same name. This Middle English version exists in three manuscript copies and in two separate compositions, one of which may have been written by the 14th century poet Thomas...
is a tale of a young prince who is taken as a baby by an animal and reared as the son of a merchant, before displaying his noble qualities, fighting with a giant, winning great martial acclaim and finally being reunited with his real family again. It has many of the traits of folk-tale or Breton lai
Breton lai
A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short , rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs...
. Following this in the manuscript, Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
is an Arthurian tale in which King Arthur's steward is reduced to dire poverty, meets with an Otherworld
Otherworld
Otherworld, or the Celtic Otherworld, is a concept in Celtic mythology that refers to the home of the deities or spirits, or a realm of the dead.Otherworld may also refer to:In film and television:...
fay
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
in a woodland whom he falls in love with and is magically restored to great wealth again. It is based ultimately upon one of the 12th century Breton lai
Breton lai
A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short , rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs...
s recorded by Marie de France
Marie de France
Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...
, the lay Lanval
Lanval
"Lanval" is one of the Lais of Marie de France. Written in Anglo-Norman, it tells the story of a knight at King Arthur's court who is overlooked by the king, wooed by a fairy lady, given all manner of gifts by her, and subsequently refuses the advances of Queen Guinevere...
, via a Middle English romance Sir Landevale, an Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
lay of Graelent and a lost romance that might have included a giant named Sir Valentyne. Following this, Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
is another Arthurian tale., in which a young man who does not know his own name journeys from King Arthur's court to a city in which a lady is kept prisoner. She is finally rescued by him with a kiss, upon which she changes from a snake into a beautiful maiden. On the way to her city, the hero has already encountered another lady of enchantments, an elf-queen, and defeated a giant who was guarding her. The ultimate sources for this tale might be a lost 12th century Old French romance upon which Le Bel Inconnu was based, and Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
' Erec and Enide.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
's parody of tail-line romance in his Canterbury Tale of Sir Thopas, has the hero Sir Thopas begin a fight with a giant in order to try to reach an elf-queen with whom he wishes to fall in love. It mentions Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus
Libeaus Desconus is a 14th century Middle English version of the popular "Fair Unknown" story. Its author is thought to be Thomas Chestre. The story matter displays strong parallels to that of Renaut de Beaujeu's Le Bel Inconnu; both versions describe the adventures of Gingalain, the son of King...
in its list of excellent romances, or “romances of prys” Perhaps in repost, Thomas Chestre names in Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal
Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late-14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in...
an invisible squire, a gift to the hero from his elf-queen and in her own words: "Gyfre, my owen knave."