Squire of Low Degree, The

(The Squyr of Lowe Degre)

(ca. 1450–1500)

   A late MIDDLE ENGLISH verse ROMANCE of 1,130 lines in octosyllabic (eight-syllable) couplets, The Squire of Low Degree was written in the East Midlands late in the 15th century. There is no extant manuscript of the entire poem, which is preserved in a 1560 printed text and fragments of a 1520 printed edition by the famous early printer Wynkyn de Worde. The 1520 text bears the title “Undo Your Door,” a phrase drawn from one of the poem’s episodes.

   The romance tells the story of a poor young squire’s love for the daughter of the king of Hungary. The princess agrees to accept the squire’s suit, but insists that before she can marry him he must distinguish himself as a knight. A slanderous steward sees the squire and princess together, and reports the tryst to the king. When the king still trusts the squire, the steward sets a trap to ambush the squire on his way to see the princess. The squire manages to kill the steward in the ambush, but is taken prisoner. The princess, believing her lover dead, is beside herself with grief. Her father attempts to console her by reminding her of all there is to enjoy in the world, describing courtly feasts, music, and sports. But it is to no avail; the princess is inconsolable.At last the king relents and sets the squire free from his imprisonment, but the young man still must leave the court to prove himself a knight worthy of the princess. He rides out on his quest, and has his share of knightly adventure. When he returns after seven years, the princess is about to take vows as an anchoress. But he claims his beloved, her father gives them his blessing, and the two are wed.

   The Squire of Low Degree is a late romance that seems to be made up of a number of motifs from earlier romances. Its theme of an inborn nobility even in someone of a lower social status, and its vivid descriptions of courtly life and manners, make this poem one of the more accessible of English verse romances.

   Bibliography

   ■ Hudson, Harriet E. “Construction of Class, Family, and Gender in Some Middle English Popular Romances,” in Class and Gender in Early English Literature: Intersections, edited by Britton J.Harwood and Gillian R. Overing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994, 76–94.

   ■ Sands, Donald B., ed.Middle English Verse Romances. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.

   ■ Seaman, Myra J. “The Waning of Middle English Chivalric Romance in ‘The Squyr of Lowe Degre,’ ” Fifteenth-Century Studies 29 (2004): 174–199.

   ■ Spearing, A. C. “Secrecy, Listening, and Telling in The Squyr of Lowe Degre,” Journal ofMedieval and Renaissance Studies 20 (1990): 273–292.

   ■ Wright, Glenn.“‘Other Wyse Then Must We Do’: Parody and Popular Narrative in the Squyr of Lowe Degre,” Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 27 (1996): 14–41.