Walter of Bibbesworth (1235–1270) was an
English knight and
Anglo-Norman poet. Documents confirm that he held land in the parish of
Kimpton,
Hertfordshire at the farm now called Bibbsworth Hall ("Bibbs Hall" on some maps). About 1250 he served in
Gascony under the
seneschal Nicholas de Molis in the army of the English king
Henry III.[1] In 1270/1271 he is believed to have taken part in the
Ninth Crusade on the evidence of a tençon or poetic argument between himself and
Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln. In the poem Walter, about to depart for Palestine, teases Henry for staying at home for the love of a certain woman. In fact the young Henry de Lacy, "recently married and with heavy responsibilities at home",[2] did not take part in the Ninth Crusade. Walter went and returned.[3] He was buried early in
Edward I's reign at
Little Dunmow in
Essex.[3][4]
Apart from the tençon Walter is best known for a longer poem which in early manuscripts is called Le Tretiz ("The Treatise"), written in medieval French verse and supplied with
Middle Englishglosses between the lines. It is known in two early
recensions, one of which has a preface stating that the Treatise was written for madame Dyonise de Mountechensi (Denise or
Dionisie de Munchensi) to help her teach her children French. The Treatise gained popularity and was afterwards incorporated in a late medieval textbook of French, Femina Nova.[5] Bibbesworth has also been credited with two other short poems in medieval French, one in praise of
beauty, a second on the
Virgin Mary, though the first of these is more likely to be the work of
Nicole Bozon.[6]
^Hinton, Thomas (2019). "Language, Morality and Wordplay in Thirteenth-Century Anglo-French: The Poetry of Walter de Bibbesworth". New Medieval Literatures. 19: 106–107.
"
Parishes: Kimpton" in A History of the County of Hertfordshire, Victoria County History, pp. 29–33
Thomas Hinton, "Anglo-French in the Thirteenth Century: A Re-Appraisal of Walter de Bibbesworth's Tretiz" in Modern Language Review vol. 112 (2017), pp. 848-874
Thomas Hinton, "Language, Morality and Wordplay in Anglo-French: The Poetry of Walter de Bibbesworth" in New Medieval Literatures 19 (2019), pp. 89-120
Karen K. Jambeck, "The "Tretiz" of Walter of Bibbesworth: cultivating the vernacular" in Albrecht Classen, ed., Childhood in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Berolini: Walter De Gruyter, 2005) pp. 159–184 Preview at
Google Books
Annie Owen, ed., Le Traité de Walter de Bibbesworth sur la langue française. Paris: PUF, 1929. Preview at
Google Books
William Rothwell, "A Mis-Judged Author and a Mis-Used Text: Walter de Bibbesworth and His "Tretiz"" in Modern Language Review vol. 77 (1982) pp. 282-293
William Rothwell, "Anglo-French in Rural England in the Later Thirteenth Century: Walter of Bibbesworth's Tretiz and the Agricultural Treatises" in Vox Romanica vol. 67 (2008) pp. 100–132