Bewnans Meriasek

{{Short description|1504 Cornish play}}
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{{More citations needed|date=November 2009}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Beunans Meriasek (The life of St Meriasek) (f.56v.) Middle Cornish Saint's Play.jpg|thumb|Beunans Meriasek (f. 56 v.)]]

'''{{lang|kw|Bewnans Meriasek}}''' ([[English language|English]]: ''The Life of Saint Meriasek'') is a [[Cornwall|Cornish]] play completed in 1504. Its subject is the legends of the life of Saint [[Meriasek]] or Meriadoc, patron saint of [[Camborne]],{{cite journal |author1=D. Simon Evans |title=The Story of Cornish |journal=[[Studies (journal)|Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review]] |date=Autumn 1969 |volume=58 |issue=231 |pages=293–308 |jstor=30087876 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30087876 |access-date=11 August 2021}} whose veneration was popular in Cornwall, [[Brittany]], and elsewhere. It was written in the [[Cornish language]], probably written around the same time and in the same place as {{lang|kw|[[Bewnans Ke]]}}, the only other extant Cornish play taking a saint's life as its subject.

The manuscript of {{lang|kw|Beunans Meriasek}} was completed in 1504 by Dominus Radulphus Ton (known from a note in the [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]]), who was probably a canon of [[Glasney College]]. It is now held in the [[Peniarth Manuscripts|Peniarth Collection]] at the [[National Library of Wales]].{{cite book|last1=Kent|first1=Alan M.|title=The literature of Cornwall: continuity, identity, difference, 1000-2000|date=2000|publisher=Redcliffe Press|location=Bristol|isbn=1900178281|pages=285}}

==Outline==
The legend of [[Meriasek]], son of a [[Duke of Brittany]], who, for love of the [[priest]]ly profession, refused marriage with a wealthy princess and led the life of a miracle-working [[hermit]], first in [[Cornwall]] and afterwards in [[Brittany|his native land]]; the legend of [[Pope Sylvester I|Saint Sylvester]], who healed the emperor [[Constantine the Great]] of [[leprosy]] by a dip in the [[baptismal font]], and then aided him in establishing [[Christianity]] throughout his broad dominion; and the curious legend of a mother who, on the [[Virgin Mary|Virgin]]'s continued disregard of her [[prayer]] for the deliverance of a son in [[Hostage|captivity]], carried off the [[Christ Child]] from the arms of the Virgin's statue, and refused to yield up the baby to the Madonna until her own son was restored to her.[[Katharine Lee Bates|Bates, K. L.]] (1893) ''The English Religious Drama''. New York: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan and Co.]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
*[[Ordinalia]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Doble, G. H.]] (1960) ''The Saints of Cornwall; part 1: Saints of the Land's End district''. Truro: Dean & Chapter; pp. 111–45
* Koch, John T. ''Celtic Culture''. {{ISBN|1-85109-440-7}}; p. 205

{{Cornish language}}
{{Culture of Cornwall}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beunans Meriasek}}
[[Category:1504 plays]]
[[Category:Christian plays]]
[[Category:Christian hagiography]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Constantine the Great]]
[[Category:Culture of Cornwall]]
[[Category:Cornish folklore]]
[[Category:English plays]]
[[Category:Medieval drama]]
[[Category:1504 in literature]]
[[Category:Middle Cornish literature]]
[[Category:Plays set in the 4th century]]
[[Category:Plays set in ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Plays set in England]]
[[Category:Plays set in France]]
[[Category:Religious vernacular drama]]
[[Category:Peniarth collection]]

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