SOURCE: Cavanaugh, Susan H. “The Identification of a Lost English Analogue of the ‘Death of Begon’ Episode from the Old French Epic Garin le Loherain.” Medium Ævum 57, no. 1 (1988): 64-67.

In the following essay, Cavanaugh suggests that a fourteenth-century text once owned by Sir Simon Burly is likely an English translation of the “Death of Begon” episode from Garin le Loherain.

Of the relatively few inventories of privately owned books that survive from the Middle Ages, one of the better known is that of Sir Simon Burley, a favourite of Richard II who was executed by order of the Merciless Parliament in 1388.¹ Burley's inventory is of particular interest, not only because of his intimate association with the king (he served as Richard's tutor from 1380, helped promote the marriage of Richard with Anne of Bohemia and held a lasting place of honour at their court), but also because it contains...