Bewnans Ke: The Life of St. Ke

by Graham C.G. Thomas (Editor), Nicholas Williams (Editor)

In 2000, a sixteenth-century manuscript containing a copy of a previously unknown play in Middle Cornish, probably composed in the second half of the fifteenth century, was discovered among papers bequeathed to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
 
This eagerly awaited edition of the play, published in association with the National Library of Wales, offers a conservatively edited text with a facing-page translation, and a reproduction of the original text at the foot of the page – vital for comparative purposes. Also included are a complete vocabulary, detailed linguistic notes, and a thorough introduction dealing with the language of the play, the hagiographic background of the St Kea material and the origins of other parts in the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth.
 
The theme of the play is the contention between St Kea, patron of Kea parish in Cornwall, and Teudar, a local tyrant. This is combined with a long section dealing with the dispute over tribute payments between King Arthur and the Emperor Lucius Hiberius; Queen Guinevere’s adultery with Arthur’s nephew Modred; the latter’s invitation to Cheldric and his Saxon hordes to come to Britain to assist him in his conflict with his uncle; and Arthur’s battle with Modred.

488 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jackson Cyril · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly fascinating play in 15th century Cornish which begins as a rather dull religious debate between a Saint and a Cornish chieftain and which ends up as a riveting Arthurian romance. This manuscript, discovered in 2000, allows us to study for the first time this wonderful play. Fans of the Bard will find phrases here which Shakespeare would later etch onto our own language: the lines beginning "over hill, over dale..." from Mid-Summer Night's dream for example, are here seen in the Medieval Cornish. The Arthurian tale here is also a bit different than the standard story, in that after Arthur leaves to fight Maximus the Roman Emperor, Modred and Guinevere willingly elope-- as opposed to Modred coercing or forcing her to sleep with him. Too bad that rats bit off many parts of the manuscript. Highly recommended!!

[Heather Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

The available corpus of medieval Cornish is small enough that a new addition is a cause for great rejoicing and this is the first new significant find in the last half century. Like much of the Middle Cornish corpus, this is the script of a play focusing on religious themes ... although rather delightfully, the latter part of the text then skips to an entirely different work with Arthurian themes. The presentation is given with an edited version of the original text and an English translation on facing pages, and with a transcription of the unedited original as footnotes across the bottom of both pages. There are extensive endnotes on vocabulary and grammar and the front matter discusses the historic and literary background of the subject matter. I haven't done much more than skim through it, but one of the things that caught my eye in the text are the macaronic bits -- characters interspersing lines in Cornish and English (all within a unified rhyme scheme!).