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Robert Mannyng of Brunne: A New Biography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Ruth Crosby
Ruth Crosby*
Affiliation:
University of Maine
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Extract

A New study of the life of Robert Mannyng of Brunne finds its justification in the belief that one of Chaucer's most interesting predecessors in the art of story telling deserves to be better known than he is. Since all accounts of the life of Robert Mannyng are based upon his own statements about himself, the present attempt at a reinterpretation may be clarified by quoting the pertinent passages to begin with.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , March 1942 , pp. 15 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1942

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References

Note 1 in page 15 Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall. E.E.T.S. Original Series 119, 123 (London, 1901–03), ll. 57–76.

Note 2 in page 15 So the Dulwich MS. Harley and Bodley have Brymwake.

Note 3 in page 15 Ed. by Frederick J. Furnivall. Rolls Series (London, 1887), ll. 1–10, 135–144.

Note 4 in page 16 Ed. by Thomas Hearne, M.A. (Oxford, 1725) ii, 336–337.

Note 5 in page 16 Hearne notes that the dominical letter should be D. In his preface, p. xxxiii, he quotes the Colophon: “Expliciunt gesta Britonum & Anglorum in lingua materna per Robertum Mannyng transumpta anno Christi millesimo CCCmo. tricesimo VIII. Idus Maij, littera dominicali D. prima IX. tempore Regis Edwardi tercii a conquestu. XIo.” J. A. Herbert in Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1910), iii, 306, notes: “The scribe has made two mistakes: not only has he put B in one place and D in another for the Dominical letter, but he has made May, 1338 fall in the 11th instead of the 12th year of Edward III. However, we need have no doubt as to which year he meant, when we remember that the Ides of May fell on Friday in 1338, and not for six years before nor for eleven years after.”

Note 6 in page 17 Op. cit., ii, 243.—Max Thummig has commented on this passage. See “Ueber die altenglische Übersetzung der Reimchronik Peter Langtoft's durch Robert Manning von Brunne.” Anglia, xiv (1891–92), 75. See also Herbert, op. cit., p. 306.

Note 7 in page 17 Op. cit. Preface, p. xxxii. “The true Sirname of this great Man was Mannyng, but being (as I believe at present) born at Malton in Yorkshire, he was from thence frequently call'd Robert of Malton.”

Note 8 in page 18 Ibid.

Note 9 in page 18 Pp. 10–11. G. G. Coulton in his recent Mediaeval Panorama (New York: Macmillan, 1938), p. 527, refers to Mannyng as an Austin Canon, thus assuming that he was connected with Bourne Abbey.

Note 10 in page 18 Eavelok the Dane. ed. by Sir Frederic Madden. Roxburghe Club (London, 1828), Introduction, p. xiii, note.

Note 11 in page 18 John W. Hales “Robert of Brunne,” Academy, xxxi (Jan. 8, 1887), 27.

Note 12 in page 19 Victoria History of the County of Lincoln. ed. by William Page, F.S.A. (London, 1906), ii, 178.

Note 13 in page 19 See among others Frederick J. Furnivall, Introd. to The Story of England. Rolls Series (London, 1887), p. v; C. L. Kingsford, “Mannyng, Robert,” D.N.B., p. 80; George F. Warner Catalogue of the Manuscripts and Muniments of Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich (London, 1881), p. 348; Aemilius William Zetsche, lieber den I Teil der Bearbeitung des “roman de Brut” durch Robert Mannyng of Brunne (Leipzig, 1887), p. 1.

Note 14 in page 19 Op. cit., p. 27.

Note 15 in page 19 Hazel E. Fosgate, Studies in Robert Mannyng's “Handlyng Synne” with an edition of his thirteen original stories. Master's Thesis, Mount Holyoke College, 1916. Miss Fosgate (now Mrs. Lew H. Morse) has given me permission to quote from her thesis.

Note 16 in page 20 Ibid. p. 10.

Note 17 in page 20 Op. cit., iii, 304–305.

Note 18 in page 20 Vic. Hist., ii, 186.

Note 19 in page 20 Vic. Hist., ii, 186. This Roger was, according to Herbert (op. cit., p. 305) the same as the Roger de Bolingbroke elected Master of the Order in 1283, on the death of John de Hamerton.

Note 20 in page 20 Herbert, op. cit., p. 305, quotes mention from charter (Add. Ch. 20652) of “venerabilis vir frater Johannes de Cameltone, Prior de Sempingham.”

Note 21 in page 20 Le Li-aere de Reis de Brittanie e Le Livere de Reis de Engleterre. ed. by John Glover, M.A. Rolls Series (London, 1865), p. 326.

Note 22 in page 20 Herbert, op. cit., p. 305, quotes mention from charter (Add. Ch. 20964) of “domine Johanne priore de Sempingham,” and adds, “This last John is no doubt our author's John of Clyntone or Clattone, and he may probably be identified with John de Glynton named above.” Since John of Camelton was still prior as late as 1312, however, Herbert must be mistaken in his identification.

Note 23 in page 20 Le Livere de Reis, p. 328.

Note 24 in page 21 Calendar of the Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office. Edward II, iv, 513. “John de Glenton, prior de Sempringham ...” For the years 1317 (Ibid., ii, 498), 1324 (Ibid, iv, 321), 1326 (Ibid. p. 635), and 1329 (Ibid. Edw. III, i, p. 580) there are references to John or Brother John, Prior of Sempringham, without specification of surname.

Note 25 in page 21 Ibid., Edw. III, ii, p. 328. “Brother John de Glynton, Prior of Sempyngham....”

Note 26 in page 21 Vic. Hist., ii, 186. See list on p. 20.

Note 27 in page 21 Close Rolls Edw. III, iii, p. 513. This reference, dated after John de Glynton had become Master of the Order, contains the names of “John, Master of the Order of Sempyngham” and “Philip de Barton, formerly master of the said order.”

Note 28 in page 21 Op. cit., iii, 305. Also Vic. Hist., ii, 186.

Note 29 in page 21 The Story of England, Introd., p. v.

Note 30 in page 21 Oskar Preussner, Robert Mannyng of Brunne's Uebersetzung von Pierre de Langtofl's Chronicle und ihr Verhältnis zum Originale (Breslau, 1891), p. 53.

Note 31 in page 21 Oskar Boerner, Die Sprache Roberd Mannyngs of Brunne und ihr Verhältnis zur Neuenglischen Mundart (Halle, 1904), p. 4.

Note 32 in page 21 Alfred Kunz, Robert Mannyng of Brunne's Handlyng Synne verglichen mit der anglonormanischen Vorlage, William of Wadington's Manuel des Pechiez (Königsberg, 1913), p. 54.

Note 33 in page 21 Rose Graham, S. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines (London, 1901), p. 14. Also Fosgate, op. cit., p. 11.

Note 34 in page 22 The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft. ed. by Thomas Wright (London, 1866) ii, 374.

Note 35 in page 22 Op. cit., Introd., p. xii.

Note 36 in page 22 P. 80.

Note 37 in page 22 Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. ed. by W. H. Bliss (London, 1893), i, 514.

Note 38 in page 23 Op. cit., p. 159.

Note 39 in page 23 Op. cit., pp. 13–14.

Note 40 in page 23 Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. New edition by F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden (Oxford, 1936), ii, 352.

Note 41 in page 23 Robert Bruce, King of Scots (New York: Macmillan, 1935), p. 74.

Note 42 in page 23 See Mannyng's translation of Langtoft's Chronicle pp. 336–337; Mackenzie, op. cit., pp. 187–188; Andrew Lang, A History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation. Third Ed. (Edinburgh, London, 1903), i, 209–210; Fosgate, op. cit., p. 14.

Note 43 in page 24 Graham, op. cit., p. 159; St. Gilbert of Sempringham. The “Notre Dame” Series of Lives of the Saints (London, 1913), p. 226.

Note 44 in page 24 D.N.B. p. 80.

Note 45 in page 24 See Vic. Eist., iii, 184; Fosgate, op. cit., p. 13.

Note 46 in page 24 Herbert, op. cit., iii, 305–306.

Note 47 in page 24 Op. cit., pp. 54–56.

Note 48 in page 25 Graham, op. cit., pp. 73, 159.

Note 49 in page 25 Ibid., p. 159.

Note 50 in page 25 Ibid., p. 72.

Note 51 in page 25 Op. cit., p. 11.

Note 52 in page 25 Op. cit., p. vi.

Note 53 in page 25 Op. cit., p. 14.

Note 54 in page 25 Op. cit., pp. 72–73.

Note 55 in page 25 Op. cit., pp. 20–21.

Note 56 in page 25 Ibid., pp. 25–26.

Note 57 in page 25 Ibid., p. 26.

Note 58 in page 25 Ibid., pp. 29–30.

Note 59 in page 26 Ibid., p. 53.

Note 60 in page 26 Op. cit., p. 18.

Note 61 in page 26 See my article “Oral Delivery in the Middle Ages,” Speculum, xi (1936), 88–110.

Note 62 in page 27 Medytacyuns of þe soper of our lord Ihesu. E.E.T.S. Original Series 60 (London, 1875), Introd., pp. xiii-xvii.

Note 63 in page 27 The Old and Middle English (London: Macmillan, 1878), p. 464.

Note 64 in page 27 Op. cit., Introd., p. xiv, n.

Note 65 in page 28 Charlton G. Laird, “Manuscripts of the ‘Manuel des Peschiez’,” in Stanford Studies in Language and Literature (1941), p. 100.