The Squire of Low Degree

Author Anonymous (c.1475), authored by Kline, A. S. (contact-email)

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The Squire of Low Degree, is an anonymous late Middle English, or early Modern English, verse romance. Its date of creation is unknown, possibly c.1475. There are three surviving texts of the poem: Wynkyn de Worde’s printed text of c.1520, entitled Undo Youre Dore, of which 180 lines survive; William Copeland’s edition of c.1560 of 1132 lines; and a condensed eighteenth-century version in Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript (Thomas Percy was chaplain to George III). A final flourish of the English Middle Ages, the poem achieved popularity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, while elements of its plot were employed in later literature.

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Kline, A. S.

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