Guiscard or Guiehard De Beaulieu

Guiscard Or Guiehard De Beaulieu, an Anglo-Norman poet, who flourished probably in the reign of Stephen, and died in the beginning of the reign of Henry II of England. He is known by a poem of some length bearing the title of Sermon of Guiscard de Beaulieu (le serraun Guischart de Beauliu in the Har-leian MS.), which is a satire against the vices of his day. According to this poem, Guiscard, disgusted with the follies and vanities in which he had passed his youth, retired to a monastery, Walter Mapes, a contemporary, or nearly contemporary writer, states (De Nugis Curial. dist. i, c. 13) that Guiscard was a man distinguished for his wealth and valor who in his old age surrendered his estates to his son, and, entcring a Cluniac monastery, became so eminent a poet in his vernacular (Anglo-Norman) as to be styled the "Homer of the laity" (laicorum Homerus). Of the Sermon, which is all now known of his writings, there is a MS. of the 12th century in the British Museum (MS. Harl. No. 4388), and an imperfect one in the Bibliotheque Im-periale of France (No. 1856 — given by De la Rue as No. 2560). From this last MS. an edition of the Sermon was published by Jubinal (Paris, 1834, 8vo). This poem is written in the versification of the earlier metrical romances, and exhibits considerable poetical talent, and frequently elegance and energy of expression. — Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. Anglo-Norman Period, p. 131; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 22:771. (J. W. M.)