Bewnans Ke

Middle Cornish play

Bewnans Ke (The Life of Saint Ke) is a Middle Cornish play on the life of Saint Kea or Ke, who was venerated in Cornwall, Brittany and elsewhere. It was written around 1500 but survives only in an incomplete manuscript from the second half of the 16th century. The play was entirely unknown until 2000, when it was identified among the private collection of J. E. Caerwyn Williams, which had been donated to the National Library of Wales after his death the previous year. The discovery proved one of the most significant finds in the study of Cornish literature and language. Bewnans Ke is one of only two known Cornish plays based on a saint's life; this and other evidence suggests some relationship with the other such work, Beunans Meriasek. The story has much correspondence with a French text, a translation of a lost medieval Latin hagiography of Kea, allowing gaps in the narrative to be tentatively filled. The play is divided into two distinct sections, which may indicate that it was intended for a two day performance. The first section deals with the deeds and miracles of Kea, including his conflicts with the tyrannical king Teudar. The second is a long Arthurian episode, describing King Arthur's wars with the Romans and with his nephew Mordred; it does not mention Kea in its current form.

Bewnans Ke survives in one manuscript, NLW MS 23849D, now held at the National Library of Wales. The play has no title in the text; the National Library gave it its modern name after consulting scholars of Cornish. Thomas publicized his discovery in the National Library of Wales Journal in 2002, and the manuscript was subsequently repaired and studied. The manuscript was evidently created in the second half of the 16th century by a scribe copying a document dating perhaps to around 1500. This and other similarities between the plays suggest that both were composed around the same time and in the same milieu, most probably at Glasney College in Penryn. If this is correct, Bewnans Ke may have been performed in the still extant "Playing Place" in the nearby village of that name, where Beunans Meriasek is known to have been performed. The second section begins as King Arthur receives a long list of nobles at his court, including names familiar from Geoffrey of Monmouth such as Duke Cador, Augelus of Scotland, Bedivere, a different Ke (Sir Kay), Mordred, and Gawain. The scene jumps to Rome, where Emperor Lucius has heard that Arthur refuses to recognize him. He sends twelve emissaries to exact tribute from Arthur. A gap occurs just after the emissaries arrive in Britain and greet the king. In the next extant section, Arthur refuses to pay tribute and sends the legates back to Lucius empty handed. Lucius confers with his advisors, and decides to raise his forces against Arthur. Leaving his nephew Mordred in charge, Arthur says his goodbyes to Guinevere and then departs for France to meet Lucius. The two armies battle, and Arthur defeats and kills Lucius, and sends his severed head back to Rome. Meanwhile, Mordred and Guinevere conspire to usurp the throne, and Mordred is crowned king in Arthur's place. Arthur hears of this treachery and assembles his counsellors, while Mordred allies with the Saxon Cheldric. Arthur returns to Britain, and the two armies clash. The text breaks off during a scene with Guinevere in the castle; the end is missing. If it followed the Life, Kea would have re entered the picture. In the Life, Kea is summoned to mediate between Arthur and Mordred, but he comes to realize that the endeavour is futile. He heads back to Brittany, stopping in Winchester where he castigates Guinevere. The remorseful queen enters a convent. Kea returns to Cléder, where he eventually dies peacefully.

Scholars have pointed out a number of similarities with Beunans Meriasek. The two are comparable in subject matter: they are the only known vernacular plays on saints' hagiographies to have been produced in Britain. The language in both works is similar and dates to the same era, leading to the conclusion that they originate around the same time and place. Both plays include the court at Goodern of the tyrannical king Teudar, who may be intended as a parody of King Henry VII after his crushing of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. As such, it is thought that Bewnans Ke, like Beunans Meriasek, was written at Glasney College at the beginning of the 16th century. It is possible that the surviving manuscripts of the two plays were brought to Wales together. It is also of vast importance to the study of the Cornish language, as it provides valuable evidence of the state of Cornish in the Tudor period, which was transitional between Middle and Late Cornish. Many words in the play are not attested in any other sources. The National Library also created a digital copy of the manuscript which was released on the Library's web page in 2006.