Emaré is a Middle English Breton lai, a form of mediaeval romance poem, told in 1035 lines.
The author of Emaré is unknown and it exists in only one manuscript, Cotton Caligula A. ii, which contains ten metrical narratives.
[1] Emaré seems to date from the late fourteenth century, possibly written in the North East Midlands.
[3] The text begins with a standard invocation to Christ, but one of uncommon length; it may be the longest one in English romance.
The daughter, Emaré, is sent to live with a lady named Abro who raises her and teaches her manners and sewing.
Some years later, the King of Sicily comes to see the Emperor, bringing with him a beautiful cloth set with precious stones, woven by the daughter of the heathen Emir as a wedding gift to her betrothed.
When the Papal Bull arrives, he has the elaborate cloth tailored into a garment, a kirtle (kyrtle), for Emaré.
He tells the King that she is an Earl's daughter from a distant land, and that he sent for her to teach his children courtesy, as well as how to sew, as she is the finest embroiderer he has ever seen.
His mother thinks that she is the most beautiful woman in the world, but tells her son that she must be a fiend in a noble robe, and forbids him to marry Emaré.
She gives birth to a beautiful son she calls Segramour, and Sir Kadore writes a letter to the King telling him of the event.
When Sir Kadore explains, she decides that the King has ordered this because she is not a worthy Queen for him, being a simple lady, and agrees to go into exile.
Meanwhile, Emaré's father, the Emperor, now an old man, decides to come to Rome to seek penance in order to get to Heaven.
[5] The king who wishes to marry his own daughter is a common motif in both fairy tales and chivalric romances.
[12] Other romances that use the plotline of this fairy tale include Mai and Beaflor, and La Belle Helene de Constantinople.
[3] While Le Bone Florence of Rome suffers because of her wicked brother-in-law who tries to seduce her and abandons her in the forest while she frees him, her tale has many common points with Florence's: both women are noted for their beauty and magnificent clothing, both are taken as evil for it, and both suffer not for their own instruction, being models of virtue, but to demonstrate God's providence.
[4] It also resembles the marvelous gowns obtained by the heroines of the fairy tale variants, as in Allerleirauh, Donkeyskin, Catskin, The King Who Wished to Marry His Daughter or The Princess That Wore a Rabbit-skin Dress.