Beunans Ke

This material is held atNational Library of Wales / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

Reference
- GB 210 NLW MS 23849D [RESTRICTED ACCESS].
Alternative Id.
Dates of Creation
- [16 cent., second ½]
Language of Material
- Cornish Cornish.
Physical Description
- ii, 22 ff. (original foliation [6], 7, [8, 9], 10-13, 16-19, 22-9; ff. i-ii, 21-22 are modern fly-leaves) ; 305 x 200 mm.
  Bound at NLW in dark maroon pigskin.
Location
- ARCH/MSS (GB0210)

Scope and Content

A volume containing a copy, in a hand of the second half of the sixteenth-century, of a verse play in Middle Cornish, based upon the life of St Kea, a Celtic saint venerated in Cornwall and Brittany (see Albert le Grand (de Morlaix), Les vies des saints de la Bretagne Armorique (Quimper, 5th edition, 1901), pp. 561-567) (ff. 1-8 verso).
The second part of the text (ff. 9-20 verso) derives from the accounts given in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniæ (Books ix.15, x.1-13, xi. 1-2) of King Arthur's quarrel with the Roman emperor Lucius Hiberius over the tribute which the Britons were required to pay to Rome, and of the clandestine relationship of Arthur's nephew, Modred, with Queen Guenevere.

Access Information

Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only. Readers are directed to use surrogate copies;

Acquisition Information

Mrs Gwen Caerwyn Williams, widow of J. E. Caerwyn Williams; Aberystwyth; Donation; November 1999; 006155368.

Note

Title based on contents.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 23849D.

Alternative Form Available

Online version available on the Library’s website https://www.llgc.org.uk/discover/digital-gallery/manuscripts/early-modern-period/beunans-ke/ (viewed June 2016)
Available on microfilm at the Library (NLW Film 1050).

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

The text is imperfect owing to the loss of at least five folios at both the beginning and end and two folios each between ff. 8 and 9 and ff. 12 and 13; the words 'Secundo', 'Tertio' and 'Quarto' at the top of ff. 9, 10 and 11 verso respectively would imply that only one folio is missing at the beginning of the Arthurian play and by inference only one folio before the Arthurian sequence; several folios damaged, and repaired with some loss of text.