Wynnere and Wastoure

Bot I schall tell yow a tale   that me bytyde ones Als I went in the weste,   wandrynge myn one, Bi a bonke of a bourne;   bryghte was the sone Undir a worthiliche wodde   by a wale medewe: Fele floures gan folde   ther my fote steppede.

I laid my head on a bank   beside a hawthorn The thrushes vigorously   competed in song Woodpeckers hopped   between the hazels Barnacles with their bills   on bark struck, The jay jangled on high,   the birds chirped.

[5] Wandering by himself, the poet lies down by a hawthorn tree and has a dream vision, a "sweven" (46), in which he sees two opposing armies, and a gold and red pavilion raised on top of a hill (rather in the manner of a tournament).

He appears to endorse elements of both Wynnere's sparing and Wastoure's spending, though ultimately the poem seems to condemn both viewpoints as unbalanced, selfish, and leading to inequality and social abuses.

[6] It seems likely that the poem forms a sophisticated comment on the pressures facing the king and on the principles of good governance, with additional satire directed against the rising merchant class in the person of Wynnere.

The modern opinion identifies the dialect, and therefore the author, as originating from the north-west Midlands, possibly as far north as southern Lancashire (the poem may refer to a rebellion that occurred in Chester, so a north-western provenance is likely).

[11] The author laments at the start of Wynnere and Wastoure that poetic standards and appreciation have degenerated alongside society; where once lords gave a place to skilled "makers of myrthes" (21), the serious poets have been supplanted by beardless youths who "japes telle" (26), having "neuer wroghte thurgh witt three wordes togidere" (25).

Edward III (left) and the Black Prince , a 14th-century depiction. Edward is portrayed in Wynnere and Wastoure , while it has been suggested (by Israel Gollancz ) that his herald in the poem can be identified with the Black Prince.
A 14th-century banquet, from the Luttrell Psalter ; it has been theorized that Wynnere and Wastoure was written for a banquet held at Chester Castle. The poem describes Wastoure's banquets in some detail: " Venyson with the frumentee , and fesanttes full riche / Baken mete therby one the burde sett" (334-5)