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‘‘Pleyng with a erd’’: Folly and Madness in the Prologue and Tale of Beryn by Stephen Harper HE little-read Tale of Beryn represents a turning point in the lit- erary use of the theme of folly at the end of the Middle Ages. T This poem, which probably dates from the early fifteenth cen- tury, is a Chaucerian imitation comprising a fabliau Prologue and a long tale based on the first part of a fourteenth-century French romance in which the theme of folly is also prominent. Two concepts of folly may be identified in Beryn: one traditional, didactic, and religious, the other humanist and satirical. In this article I shall consider Beryn as an ‘‘All Fool’’ poem in which the sinful follies of the Prologue and first part of the tale are redeemed by the deus ex machina of a satirical fool. I shall also consider some of the interrelations among the various representa- tions of fools in the tale and its Prologue, suggesting that folly may be regarded as the governing theme of both. Finally, I shall argue that the Beryn-writer’s treatment of this theme displays a greater degree of art- istry than some of the tale’s previous
Studies in Philology – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Jul 9, 2004
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