THE HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIE OF GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH V. Gesta Regum Britannie Neil Wright s Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2022 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/historiaregumbri0000geof THE HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIE OF GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH V Gesta Regum Britannie The Gesta Regum Britannie, a Latin poem comprising nearly five thousand hexameters, is a vital but little known witness to the reception of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britannie. Written shortly before the middle of the thirteenth century, the poem is dedicated to Cadioc, bishop of Vannes in Brittany, and so testifies to the Breton reaction to and enthusiasm for Geoffrey's immensely popular pseudo-history. The poem also provides im- portant evidence for the literary culture of thirteenth-century Brit- tany, for its author was widely read in Latin verse and was particularly influenced by Walter of Chátillon's Alexandreid, one of the best known of all medieval epic poems. The author's fusion of Geoffrey's narrative with the conventions of hexameter poetry results in a reworking of the Historia which is more than a simple verse paraphrase, laying as it does a special emphasis on the tragic side of Britain's decline. Much in the poem is original and this new edition will bring it before a wider audience so that it may be read in conjunction with the more familiar vernacular verse ver- sions of Geoffrey's Historia. The poem has previously been available only in a faulty and unreliable edition published over a hundred years ago; until now, it has never been translated. The present volume offers a compre- hensive critical edition based on all three known manuscript wit- nesses; it also contains a complete conspectus fontium cataloguing the poet's sources, and a modern English translation. The edition will be standard for future work on the text. NEIL WRIGHT is a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cam- bridge, and editor of the Geoffrey of Monmouth project; his pub- lished work includes numerous articles on mediaeval Latin. THE HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIE OF GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH ISSN 0267-2529 I Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568 Edited by Neil Wright II The First Variant Version: a critical edition Edited by Neil Wright III A Summary Catalogue of the Manuscripts Julia C. Crick IV Dissemination and Reception in the Later Middle Ages Julia C. Crick LEE HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIE OF GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH V Gesta Regum Britannie Edited and translated by Neil Wright From the library of Marion Archibald D. S. BREWER Introduction, translation and editorial matter © Neil Wright 1991 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 1991 by D. S. Brewer, Cambridge D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604, USA ISBN 0 85991 2140 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data The “Historia Regum Britannie” of Geoffrey of Monmouth: Vol V. Gesta Regum Britannie. — (The “Historia Regum Britannie” of Geoffrey of Monmouth) I. Wright, Neil II. Series 871 ISBN 0-85991-214—0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Revised for vol. 5) Geoffrey, of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph, 11007-1154. The Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Text in Latin; editorial matter in English. Vol. 5: Latin text, parallel English translation. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents: 1. Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS. 568 — — 5. Gesta regum Britannie. 1. Great Britain - History - To 1066. 2. Arthurian romances — Sources. 3. Legends - Great Britain. 4. Britons — History. I. Wright, Neil. II. Burgerbibliothek Bern. Manuscript. 568. III. Title. DA140.G353 1985 941.01 84—24170 ISBN 0—85991-211-6 (v. 1) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984 Printed in Great Britain by Woolnough Bookbinding Ltd, Irthlingborough, Northants CONTENTS vii EDITOR’S PREFACE INTRODUCTION Date and Authorship The Poem and its Sources Prosody and Metrics Manuscripts «aBEdHiti"on s and Text BIBLIOGRAPHY GESTA REGUM BRITANNIE: TEXT AND TRANSLATION Book I Book II Book III Book IV Book V Book VI Book VII Book VIII Book IX Book X CONSPECTUS FONTIUM INDEX NOMINUM INDEX LOCORUM INDEX FONTIUM