"Pleyng with a yerd": Folly and Madness in the Prologue and Tale of Beryn

The little-read Tale of Beryn represents a turning point in the literary use of the theme of folly at the end of the Middle Ages. This poem, which probably dates from the early fifteenth century, 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.¹ 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 representations 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 artistry than some of the tale's previous critics have led us to expect. G. L. Kittredge viewed the tale as "a poor substitute for what Chaucer would have given us if he had lived to finish his work," while later critics who praise the Prologue dismiss the tale itself as having "few points of interest."² Such negative assessments of Beryn will prevail, it seems, until the tale's formal features have been explored more thoroughly. Through an examination of the fool imagery in the Prologue and tale, I will argue that literary critics should no longer regard Beryn as a disunified or unsophisticated work.

It has long been known that fools were kept for communal amusement in medieval courts and households;³ but it is now clearer than ever that "artificial" or professional fools were a part of everyday life in medieval England. Sandra Billington has established that "fools were a part of the medieval countryside in Britain throughout the Middle Ages and were not a sixteenth-century French import."⁴ Although the society of medieval England did not grant folly the same level of prominence as that of the Renaissance, its literature contains numerous references to fools and folly. The fifteenth-century Tale of Beryn, in particular, draws on the traditional theological association between folly and sin, and it anticipates the following century's fascination with secular fools and their activities.

In the didactic literature of the Middle Ages folly and sin were closely linked. The Church placed folly in the hierarchy of vices, in accordance with Psalm 53: "Dixit insipiens in corde suo, non est Deus." This association between folly and spiritual turpitude is illustrated by two pre Beryn romances in Middle English, King Robert of Sicily and Sir Gowther. A brief analysis of these tales, both of which resemble Beryn in structure, theme, and detail, will provide an interpretative context for the discussion of sinful folly in Beryn.

King Robert of Sicily was a remarkably popular story in the Middle Ages.⁵ Robert is a proud and powerful king who oppresses his subjects and whose crimes are eventually punished by madness.⁶ In all versions of the story, he is chastened by an angel after boasting of his great might. Robert's claims to kingship are interpreted by others as the delusional ravings of a madman; his head is shaved and he becomes the angel's fool.⁷ His appearance alters so much that he becomes unrecognizable even to his own brothers and is forced to sleep every night with dogs. At his lowest point, he becomes a maniac, tearing his hair and wringing his hands. In the English version of the tale, Robert compares his plight to that of Nebuchadnezzar. Eventually, like his biblical predecessor, he acknowledges the superior might of God and is immediately restored to his senses.

A similar story is found in the fourteenth-century poem Sir Gowther, the English version of the popular Robert the Devil legend.⁸ Gowther, the duke of Austria...