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The Cloak of Anonymity and "The Prophecy of John of Bridlington"
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Curley, Michael J. |
| Copyright Year | 1980 |
| Abstract | The Prophecy of John of Bridlington consists of an anonymous Latin poem of some 600 lines in leonine hexameters and a prolix Latin prose commentary dedicated to the young Humphrey of Bohun and introducing the poem as the work of a certain canon regular. Internal evidence suggests that the commentary was written shortly after the poetry, between November 1362 and April 1364. The composite work is a good example of the belligerent jingoism and moral frustration prevalent among certain learned Englishmen during the waning rule of the aged Edward III. Pretending to antedate the events foreseen, The Prophecy of John of Bridlington is for the most part simply a historical retrospect of English affairs beginning during the reign of Edward II. Approximately the last eight of twenty-nine chapters, however, are truly "prophetic," envisioning future events down to the year 1405 and slightly thereafter. Although the existence of some thirty-seven manuscripts of our prophecy attests to its popularity, scribes, chroniclers, bibliophiles, and bibliographers have long disagreed on the identity of its author; so inflammatory were its contents that at least one friar of supposed conspiratorial disposition was hanged for quoting its libelous stanzas, and one English king was provoked by it sufficiently to brand its interpreters "fatui et idiotae."1 It is no wonder, therefore, that the true author of The Prophecy of John of Bridlington chose to remain unknown and that scholars of political prophecy have attempted to discern his identity.2 With the sole exception of University of Chicago MS 697, whose colophon dating the manuscript in the year 1377 is to be seriously doubted,3 the earliest surviving manuscripts of The Prophecy of John of Bridlington are silent on the question of authorship. In what are probably the four earliest copies of the work, all dating from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century-British Museum MS Cotton Domitian A IX and Bodleian MSS Digby 89, Bodley 851, and Ashmolean |
| Starting Page | 361 |
| Ending Page | 369 |
| Page Count | 9 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1086/390975 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3704&context=faculty_pubs |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1086/390975 |
| Volume Number | 77 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
