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Huchoun

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Huchoun
Personal details
Birth1300 (Gregorian)
Died1376 (Gregorian)
Thrift
Thriftpoet

Huchoun (diminutive form o 'Hugh', i.e. 'wee Hughie') or Huchown 'of the Awle Ryale' (fl. 14t-centurie) wis a poet jaloused tae hae been screivin sometime in the 14t-centurie. Some academics, in the steid o Scots antiquarian George Neilson (1858–1923), identified him wi a Scots knicht, Hugh of Eglinton, an advanced his authorship o mony significant pieces o alliterative verse, housomiver; there isnae muckle evidence tae support this.

Evidence

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The sma amoont whilk is kent anent Huchoun is fae the Chronicle o Andrew o Wyntoun, wha says:

Hucheon, þat cunnande was in littratur. He made a gret Gest of Arthure And þe Awntyr of Gawane, Þe Pistil als of Suet Susane. He was curyousse in his stille, Fayr of facunde and subtile, And ay to pleyssance hade delyte, Mad in metyr meit his dyte Litil or noucht neuir þe lesse Wauerande fra þe suythfastnes.(Cotton Manuscript Buik V. II, 4308-4318).

Interest in Huchoun wis spurred maistlins bi the wirk o George Neilson, an advocate (lawyer) an antiquarian, wha gied a few lectures at Glesga Varsity in 1902 on the subject, an furthset a buik anent Huchoun the selfsame year.[1][2]

O the wirks Wyntoun mentions, the easiest tae identify wis Þe Pistil als of Suet Susane; this is likelie The Pistel of Swete Susan, an alliterative poem survivin in 5 manuscripts.[3]

Pictur fae Cotton Nero A.x., the ainlie manuscript wi the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Neilson an ithers attribute this poem, likelie wrangly, tae Huchoun.[4]

Identity

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Wha Huchoun wis hissel isnae certain; muckle poems ascribed bi Neilson tae Huchoun are in divers byleids, nane o thaim Scots. Even the poem maist likelie tae be Huchoun's ain wirk, the Pistel of Swete Susan, seems tae be in a nor'-Yorkshire byleid overlayin a Midland Inglis soorce.[3]

  1. George Neilson Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine, Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society
  2. Neilson, G. Huchoun of the Awle Ryale, the Alliterative Poet, Glasgow, 1902.
  3. a b Peck, R. A. Epistle of Sweet Susan in Heroic Women for the Old Testament in Middle English Verse, Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1991
  4. Echard, Sian; Rouse, Robert (2017). The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain, 4 Volume Set (in Inglis). John Wiley & Sons. p. 832. ISBN 978-1-118-39698-8.

References

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  •  "Huchown" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. Cite has empty unkent parameters: |HIDE_PARAMETER15=, |HIDE_PARAMETER13=, |HIDE_PARAMETER14c=, |HIDE_PARAMETER14=, |HIDE_PARAMETER9=, |HIDE_PARAMETER3=, |HIDE_PARAMETER1=, |HIDE_PARAMETER4=, |HIDE_PARAMETER2=, |HIDE_PARAMETER8=, |HIDE_PARAMETER20=, |HIDE_PARAMETER5=, |HIDE_PARAMETER7=, |HIDE_PARAMETER10=, |separator=, |HIDE_PARAMETER14b=, |HIDE_PARAMETER6=, |HIDE_PARAMETER11=, and |HIDE_PARAMETER12= (help)