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Record Number:
46842
Author(s)/Creator(s):
Bower , Hannah,
Contributor(s):
Title:
Josian: Extracts from the Middle English Romance
Bevis of Hampton
(c. 1300 CE)
Source:
Women in the History of Science: A Sourcebook. Edited by Hannah Wills, Sadie Harrison and Erika Jones. UCL Press, 2023. Pages 66 - 70. The text extracts are from
The Romance of Sir Beues of Hamtoun
, EETS es 46, 48, 65. Edited by Eugen Kölbing. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1885–1894. The translations are by the author. Available open access from JSTOR:
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2w61bc7.18
Description:
Article Type:
Translation
Subject
(See Also)
:
Beves of Hampton, Middle English Romance
Herbs
Josian (Literary Figure)
Medicine
Race and Racism
Saracens in Literature
Award Note:
Geographic Area:
British Isles
Century:
14
Primary Evidence:
Illustrations:
Table:
Abstract:
The excerpts below come from the Middle English romance
Bevis of Hampton
(c. 1300), a tale which narrates the global exploits of a fictional disinherited English hero who eventually regains his father’s lands. Bevis is based on the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman romance
Boeuve de Hamtoun
and it survives, in part or whole, in nine manuscripts which differ greatly from one another. The first extract comes from the Auchinleck manuscript, a compendium of Middle English romances, saints’ lives, and other miscellaneous materials, which was copied in London in the 1330s. The passage describes Josian, a fictional Muslim princess who marries Bevis after converting to Christianity. Within the passage, Josian uses herbs to transform herself into a leper to prevent one of Bevis’s enemies from abducting her. The second extract, from a different, fifteenth-century manuscript copy of the poem, depicts a similar scene but in that version Josian’s skin colour is altered for her by one of Bevis’s male relations. [Reproduced from the chapter page on the JSTOR website:
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2w61bc7.18
]
Related Resources:
Author's Affiliation:
Churchill College, University of Cambridge
Conference Info:
- , -
Year of Publication:
2023.
Language:
English; Middle English
ISSN/ISBN:
9781800084162 (print); 9781800084155 (online)