The noble literature: Guy of Warwick

Guy of Warwick a British poem between 13th and 15th century, is a typical work of literature of his time, because the protagonist, Guy that after become the knight and faced much adventures for the love Phaelice, daughter of ear of Warwick; it is the typical tale of Medieval age, where the knight must be a superman, and naturally this superman must be also noble, it is important for the literary canon that in the Middle age was asked, hence: “I shall not trouble the reader with a long genealogy of the descent of our famous Guy of Warwick; it shall therefore suffice to tell the reader, that in the sixth year of the reign of king Edgard the Great, this our famous Guy, was born in the city of Warwick. His father was a gentleman of Northumberland, in which country he had been the possessor of a fair estate…”; the canon of noble literature is respected, because Guy is now a noble, that is going to marry a noble. But after this step is necessary that Guy falls in love of Phaelice, always through a fair behavior, inasmuch: “But by being at the earl’s house, he came to have a sight of fair Phaelice, his beautiful daughter, with whom he was so extremely taken, that nothing but she could satisfy him…”; and after the potential husband also the potential wife the qualities must be considered: “She was indeed so fair, that she could not be seen, without being loved.”, and a summary description of Phaelice and hers beautiful was necessary, thence: “She was so fair, Venus herself could never boast more beauty…”; thereby also a very synthetic description, but necessary to let to reader a general and ideal image of Phaelice, that beyond noble and fair must be also beauty. And other note, about the anonymous author, that certainly was a cultured man, and we can think also a religious or a poet of court, because during the Middle age these two personages has had the sufficient culture for these comparison: “…and had she but been present at the famous contest between Juno, Pallas, and Venus, about the golden apple…”; other proof of this culture is given from the following step: “…beauty could no where but in Phaelice’s face be found in its perfection; but these perfections were so many daggers, sticking poor Guy to the heart…”; it the god of love Eros, that shot the arrows directly to the heart of lovers; and the competition among the three goddess, Juno, Pallas and Venus, that were concurrent in the beautiful and Paris chosen Venus, and the more famous was the narration, that was from the ancient Greek, of Ovid(43 b.Ch-18 a.Ch.), that during the Middle age was more diffused also in the convent and in the courts; therefore the author was may a court poet; but the pilgrimage of Guy, in Holy land, was a motive merely religious and tied to penitence, and it let to us also to hypothesize also a century for the written, because the pilgrims were very frequent also before of the first crusade, in the 1096-1099, wanted from the pope Urban 2th, that has proclaimed it in the city of Clermont, France. These are alone the hypothesis that the writer want alone set for a think of reader, since the date and the author aren’t known; anyway the material from this poem is present, and we can again think about these hypothesis and deny them or confirmed.

Alessandro Lusana