Robert Mannyng Research Articles

The Lambeth Version of Havelok

Of the several abridgments of the Havelok story in the chronicles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, that which is interpolated in the Lambeth ms. of Robert Mannyng of Brunne's translation of Peter de Langtoft, is the longest and in many respects the most noteworthy. It has, however, not received the attention it merits. Madden attributes it to the scribe, who, he says, has made other changes in the ms. He describes it as “an abridged outline of the story itself, copied apparently from the French chronicle of Gaimar,” but presents no arguments to support his contention. Skeat simply copies Madden. Kupferschmidt, in his extremely valuable discussion of the relations of the various versions of Havelok one to another, accepts without investigation Madden's statement that the Interpolation is based on Gaimar. In view of the great interest attaching to the romance of Havelok a more careful investigation of this Interpolation may be of some service.