William Caxton’s “Paris and Vienne” and “Blanchardyn and Eglantine”

Paris and Vienne, published in 1485, and Blanchardyn and Eglantine, published in 1489, are unique among the romances printed for English audiences by William Caxton, the printer responsible for many of the earliest print versions of major canonical works in England. The only independent tales of adventure that Caxton did not draw from the epic cycles of England, France, Greece, and Rome, these romances enjoyed widespread popularity throughout medieval Europe in multiple languages and in both verse and prose prior to Caxton's translations. Presenting lively characters, distinctive treatments of familiar plots, and differing but complementary accounts of chivalry and courtly love, these romances were both edifying and entertaining for medieval English audiences; as two of the first knightly romances ever printed in England, they also provide important witnesses to the development of English prose style, the evolution of the romance genre, and late medieval precursors to the novel.