Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six CenturiesMain MenuOrientation to ProjectPath One: 1122-1235Path Two: 1236-1310 ADPath Three : 1311-1460 ADPath Four : 1461-1520 ADPath Five: 1521-1699 ADPath Six: 1700-1800 ADChristopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f Global Middle Ages
Tom a Lincoln
1media/Screen Shot 2021-05-31 at 12.50.22 PM.png2021-05-31T11:45:42-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f528113image_header2022-03-01T13:46:19-08:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6fTwo texts from the early seventeenth century use the title and figure called Tom a Lincoln. The first, The Most Pleasant History of Tom a Lincoln, an unremarkable chivalric romance written by Richard Johnson around 1607, relates the adventures of Tom and his fellow Knights of the Round Table. The second, a shorter dramatized version tentatively attributed to Thomas Heywood and written somewhat later than the prose romance is simply called Tom a Lincoln and follows much of the same basic romance plot. Interestingly, both texts feature a scene with Prester John. In the play, Tom and his fellow knights reach the realm of Prester John. After Tom defeats a dragon, Prester John refuses to allow his daughter Anglitora to marry Tom, and the two abscond together, leaving John and his grieving queen Bellamy to commit suicide.
A Niayesh (p. 55) points out, in the play Prester John has become emptied of any of the significations that marked his identity for the previous five centuries:
Nothing in the play lends any specificity to his realm, where the character and his daughter simply appear as types of the angry father and disobedient daughter. No reference is made here to Prester John's being a Christian; in fact, he actually swears by 'the gods' (l. 2529) like a true pagan. The geographical whereabouts of his land are in no way detailed, leaving us only to infer that he is neither Indian... nor Ethiopian.
Brewer (p. 233) includes an excerpt from a 1631 prose edition of Tom a Lincoln, published in London.
12016-07-10T16:01:58-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6fPrester John in Literature3plain2017-01-04T15:12:52-08:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f
12021-05-31T11:47:30-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6fPrester John & Arthuriana1plain2021-05-31T11:47:30-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f
12021-06-20T11:59:36-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6fNeo-Chivalric Revival1plain2021-06-20T11:59:36-07:00Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com946e2cf6115688379f338b70e5b6f6c039f8ba6f
