Four Middle English Romances

This volume highlights essential examples of Middle English family romance, which typically involves aristocratic families sundered and reunited by a combination of valor, divine favor, and happy chance. Sir Isumbras develops the classic riches-to-rags-to-riches trope, while its counterparts-Octavian, Sir Eglamour of Artois, and Sir Tryamour-all present some variant on the problematic trope of the calumniated queen. Composed in northeast Midlands of England between 1325 and 1375, these romances all exhibit tail-rhyme verse form, at the height of its popularity. This edition provides readers with a helpful introduction to the flowering of unique romances in fourteenth-century England since-with the lone exception of Octavian-these poems each find their origin in England. As a targeted survey of a romance sub-genre, Four Middle English Romances immerses readers in the development of Middle English romance during the middle of the fourteenth century.