Gamelyn, The Tale Of

Related Category: English Literature to 1499

(găm´əlĭn), a romance in verse, written c.1350, containing about 900 lines. It tells of the tribulations of a young man abused by his older brothers. The tale survives in 25 manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, sometimes entitled “The Cook's Tale,” though it is not by Geoffrey Chaucer. It served as a prototype for several later works, including Shakespeare's As You Like It.