What if the Gest was in fact, the original tale from which all others came? It's not impossible when you look at the lenghty Tale of Gamelyn, which is
regarded as the oldest surviving outlaw tale written in English. It's generally agreed that it's about 1350. While it is technically a metrical
romance, with a somewhat varying mitre it does have a rhyming pattern; not the ABAB of the early RH ballads, which could suggest that Gamelyn was originally a
prose romance. I still believe firmly in the immortal words of Clawson:
"That the Gest was originally a Middle English document and has dropped many of its Middle English forms in its transmission by copyist and printer to the editions of 1500 seems a more likely theory than that it was composed in the fifteenth century from ballads which retained a few final -e's"
Clawson has suggested that the author of the Gest was 14th century, it is possible.
What if the Gest is made up of not other RH ballads but a combination of other tales. If this were the scenario then the most likely man behind the myth is in my opinion, Fulk fitz Warin.
This rarely gets a mention, but some situations in the Gest regarding Richard at the Lee are close to those of Gamelyn:
Both are deprived of their land by the scheming of evil men; Both attend a wrestling match, and both have a similar prize.Gamelyn attends court to stick up for his servants/bondman, and while this is a different story from Richard at the Lee and the Abbot of St Mary's, the atmosphere is similar. In both cases the Justice and the Sheriff are present and in Gamelyn "The justice sat stille and roos nought anon" and in the Gest "The abbot sat styll and ete no more".
Robert F
"That the Gest was originally a Middle English document and has dropped many of its Middle English forms in its transmission by copyist and printer to the editions of 1500 seems a more likely theory than that it was composed in the fifteenth century from ballads which retained a few final -e's"
Clawson has suggested that the author of the Gest was 14th century, it is possible.
What if the Gest is made up of not other RH ballads but a combination of other tales. If this were the scenario then the most likely man behind the myth is in my opinion, Fulk fitz Warin.
This rarely gets a mention, but some situations in the Gest regarding Richard at the Lee are close to those of Gamelyn:
Both are deprived of their land by the scheming of evil men; Both attend a wrestling match, and both have a similar prize.Gamelyn attends court to stick up for his servants/bondman, and while this is a different story from Richard at the Lee and the Abbot of St Mary's, the atmosphere is similar. In both cases the Justice and the Sheriff are present and in Gamelyn "The justice sat stille and roos nought anon" and in the Gest "The abbot sat styll and ete no more".
Robert F
