GUY OF WARWICK, an old English metrical romance which is known to have existed in French as early as the end of the 13th century. Its authorship has been assigned to Walter of Exeter, a Franciscan monk of the 13th century, and, although this supposition has been generally disputed, Tanner regards it as probable. The romance has been retouched by some French or Anglo-Norman minstrel, but is evidently of Saxon origin, and is allied to the story of Guido Tyrius in the Gesta Romanorum, and probably to the romance Sir Guy, quoted by Chaucer in his Rime of Sir Topas. The hero of the story is Sir Guy of Warwick, who is said to have been the son of Siward, baron of Wallingford, to have married Felicia, the only daughter of Rohand, a famous Saxon warrior, to have become earl of Warwick in his wife’s right, and after conquering Colbrond the Dane to have lived as a hermit till his death in 929. The earliest English chronicler who mentions the story as historical is John Harding. Tanner is of opinion that the first germ of the romance dates from the battle of Brunanburgh, the “Vinheide” of the Egilssaga, but though the story has some basis in tradition, the chief events of the hero’s life are plainly mythical. Although the romance had once great popularity, it now appears dull and tedious, and has no other than an antiquarian interest...
An edition of the romance in French prose appeared at Paris in 1525 printed by Anthoine Couteau, and it is also referred to in the Old Spanish romance, Terente el Blαncο, written about 1430. The earliest English edition is that without date printed at London by William Copland, who died in 1568 or 1569. There exist also an edition printed at London by John Cawood without date, another by Samuel Rowlands in 1667, and three by C. Bates in 1700. The earliest English manuscript of the romance is that contained in the Auchinleck MS. in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, which is, however, imperfect at the commencement and in the middle. It was printed for the Abbotsford Club in 1840. There is a perfect copy in the library of Caius College, Cambridge, and another in the Cambridge University Library. A fragment of the romance, from a MS. in the British Museum, was privately printed by Sir Thomas Philipps, 1838, and the same fragment was reprinted in the Abbotsford edition. The manuscript in the University Library, Cambridge, was printed for the first time in the Romance of Guy of Warwick, edited for the early English Text Society by Zupitza, 1875. All these English versions appear to have been translated from the Anglo-French version. There are, according to Zupitza, at least eight French MSS. in existence,—three in London, one at Oxford, two at Cambridge, one at Cheltenham, and one at Wolfenbüttel. There is also a copy in the Imperial Library of Paris; and there was one at Bruges in 1467, and one at Brussels in 1487. A portion of the Wolfenbüttel MS. has been edited by G. A. Herbing in the Programm der grossen Stadtschule zu Wismar als Einladung zur Michaelisprufung, 1872. See also Zupitza, Zur Literaturgeschichte von Guy von Warwick, 1813; The Percy Folio MS., edited by Hales and Furnivall, vol. ii.; and A. Tanner, Die Sage von Guy von Warwick, 1877.
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