Originally published 1887 | ||
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Torrent of Portyngale is a Middle English romance, composed around 1400, probably in the north Midlands. It is written in 12-line tail-rhyme stanzas, with the rhyme-scheme aabccbddbeeb, and is number 983 in the Index of Middle English Verse. It is possible that it draws some inspiration from the Middle English Eglamour of Artois. The romance survives only in the fifteenth-century East-Midland manuscript Manchester, Chetham's Library, MS 8009 (folios 76r-119v). The romance describes the tortuous efforts of the young earl's son Torrent to win the hand of Desonell, daughter of King Colomond of Portugal, against her father's wishes. Amongst other feats, Torrent fight five giants on different occasions and travels to Jerusalem. The romance ends with Torrent and Desonell's marriage and the uniting of their family. It has been characterised as 'perhaps the most critically neglected member of the Middle English verse romances'.