The Canterbury Tales

In a manuscript of The Canterbury Tales (Royal College of Physicians 388) in the tale of Sir Thopas, the scribe has written:

‘Men speken of romances of prys,

Of Horn child and of Ypolys,

Of Robynhoode and sir Gy,

Of sir Lybeaux and Pleyndamour,

But sir Thopas he bereth the flour,

Of roial chivalry.’ 

_{See Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw, Stephen Knight, 1994, pp. 50, 265.}

^{The scribe of Royal College of Physicians 388 (previously 13) has been named as John Multon (see The Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, Charles A. Owen Jr, 1991).} 

Compare this to Chaucer’s Sir Thopas in his Canterbury Tales c. 1387:

‘Men speken of romances of prys,

Of Horn child and of Ypotys,

Of Beves and sir Gy,

Of sir Lybeux and Pleyndamour –

But sir Thopas, he bereth the flour

Of roial chivalry    (VII 897-902)