Pure speculation, but I wonder if the bishop was a feast-of-fools-style
satirical figure, and if, to a fifteenth-century English audience,
episcopus Francie could be equivalent to episcopus fatuorum. The
end of June was the wrong time of year for a proper feast of fools, but
some such entertainment would at least explain why he's budgeted
with the minstrels. Of course, it would be nice to have a text to back
this up. Du Cange has a lot of feast of fools references under
Kalendae, but at a quick scan I didn't find any instances of national
stereotypes playing a role. Have you asked George Rigg? If anyone
would know about such a text, he would.
Peter Binkley
>
> Both John and Patrick have suggested that my bishop could be from
> France rather than of France. This would simplify my life considerably but
> I am not sure I think it would work, just because it seems like an odd
> construction to use in Anglo-Latin to indicate that.... I'd expect a
> bishop FROM France to be 'a Francia' or 'ex Francia' rather than
> 'Franciae'. Let me quote the whole account entry:
>
> Et [m] in septimana Natiuitatis sancti Iohannis in expensis pro vino
> dato Episcopo ffrancie et menstrellis domini Warrici & pro bere
> allocatur in summa xiij s. iiij d.!
>
> A.
>
> Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English Drama/
> Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada Phone (416)
> 585-4504/ FAX (416) 585-4594/ [log in to unmask] List-owner of REED-L
> <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html>
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html => REED's home page
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/stage.html => our theatre resource page
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young => my home page
>
>
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