# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Map, Walter

​MAP or MAPES, WALTER (fl. 1200) mediæval author and wit, was from his name of Welsh descent, and he speaks of the Welsh as his fellow-countrymen (De Nugis, ii. 20). Map, which is Welsh for 'son,' and which has been shortened to Ap in forming modern patronymics, seems to have been used by the Saxons as a nickname for a Welshman. Walter himself was almost, certainly a native of Herefordshire; he calls himself 'a marcher of Wales' (ib. ii. 23), and his De Nugis Curialium' abounds in legends relating to 'that county; moreover, he was throughout his life more or less closely connected with the city of Hereford. It is known that there was a succession of Walter Maps at Wormsley, about eight miles north of that city, between 1150 and 1240 (cf. citations from Hist. MSS. 3586 and 6726, ap. Ward, Cat. of Romanca, i. 736-8). Walter may have been a member of this family, but there is no certain evidence, although he is known to have held land at Ullingswick, at no great distance (Cart. S. Peter Gloucester, ii. 156, Rolls Ser.) It has, however, been argued, though on very insufficient grounds, that Map was a native of Pembrokeshire (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 386; Hardy, Cat. Brit. Hist. ii. 487). All that we know of his parents is that they were of sufficient station to have been of service to Henry II, before and after he became king (De Nugis, v. 6). Map was probably born about 1140, and went to study at Paris soon after l154, for Louis VII bad lately married Constance of Castile, and he was there at least as late as 1160, for he studied under Girard la Pucelle, who began to teach in or about that year (ib. v. 5, ii. 7). He was, however, back in England before 1162, for he was present at the court of Henry II, while Thomas Becket was still chancellor (ib. ii. 23). Map says that he bad earned Henry's favour and affection through his parent's merits (ib. v. 6). He was one of the clerks of the royal household, and thus was frequently employed justice itinerant (Giraldus Cambrennis, Opera, iv. 219); his name occurs in this capacity at Gloucester in 1173 (Madox, Hist. Exhequer, i. 701), and as a justice in eyre for Herefordshire and the neighbouring counties in 1185 (Eyton, Itinerary of Henry II, pp. 176, 265). Giraldus says that Map always excepted the Jews and Cistercians from his oath to do justice to all men, since 'it was absurd to do justice to those who were just to none.' Map was with Henry at Limoges in 1173, when tie had care of Peter of Tarentaise. In 1179 Henry sent him to the Lateran Council at Rome (cf. ib. p. 223); on his way he was hospitably entertained by Henry of Champagne. At the council he was deputed by the pope to argue with the representatives of the Waldensiana, who were present there (De Nugis, ii. 3, v. 6, i. 31). In 1178 he received the prebend of Mapesbury at St. Paul's; apparently he was already canon and precentor of Lincoln, and parson of Westbury, Gloucestershire, a living in the gift of the vicars choral at Hereford (Le Neve, ii. 82, 406). In 1183 he was with Henry II in Anjou, and at the time of the young king's death in June was at Saumur (De Nugit, iv. 1, v. 6). Before 1186 he had become chancellor of Lincoln (Cart. S. Peter Glouc. ii. 166). His connection with the court seems to have ceased at the death of Henry II (De Nugis, iv. 2). In 1197 (not 1196 as often stated) he was made archdeacon of Oxford, and at the same time resigned his precentorship (S. de Dicentro, ii. 150). Two years later, on a vacancy in the see of Hereford, the chanter wished to have Walter for bishop; he held at this time one of the prebends, Walter accompanied a deputation from the chapter to Angers in March 1199, when they attempted to gain their end with the aid of Bishop Hugh of Lincoln (Vita S. Hugonis Lincolniesis. p. 281, Rolls Ser.) Their mission was unsuccessful, and John, on his accession soon after, gave the see to Giles de Braos [q.v.] In January 1303 Waller, as archdeacon of Oxford, was ordered to seize all the property of his old friend Giraldus within his archdeaconry (Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, iii. 20). In November 1203 he was one of the candidates whom Giraldus, not very sincerely, suggested for the see of St. Davids (ib. i, 306, lii. 331). Map was still alive on 15 March 1208, when an order was made for a payment to him (Cat. Rot. Litt. Claus. i. 106), but apparently he was dead when Giraldus wrote the proæmium to the second edition of his' Hibemica' about 1310, for, in referring to Map, Giraldus says, 'cujus animra propitietur Deus' (Opera, v. 410). The date of his death is given as 1 April in a calendar printed from a Hereford missal in the 'History of Hereford,' London, 1717.
In the only extant charter granted by Map, his nephew, Philip Map, is mentioned as a witness (Cotton Charter, xvi. 40, printed ap. Latin Popes, p. xxix). Map had other nephews (De Nugis, p. 13), but nothing further is known of them. 'There is no doubt that Map is the right spelling of his name; it is the form invariably used by his contemporaries, and is given by Walter himself (ib. v. 6, 'cui agnomen Map'). Mapes is the latinised and inaccurate form, though it has been most popularly used. Map is to be carefully distinguished from his predecessor ​in the archdeaconry of Oxford, Walter Calenius [q. v.], with whom he has been often confused.
Walter Map's undoubted literary remains are scarcely commensurate with the reputation which he has almost continuously enjoyed. A man of the world, with a large circle of courtly acquaintances—he bears witness himself to his familiarity with the two Henrys of England, Henry II and his son, with Louis of France, and Henry of Champagne—actively engaged in public affairs from his youth up, he was probably more familiar to his contemporaries as a wit than as a writer; to this Giraldus Cambrensis bears witness in the record that he has preserved of his friend's ‘courtly jests’ (Opera, iii. 145, iv. 219, &c.) It is possible also that this is all that Giraldus alludes to in his repeated references to Map's French ‘dicta,’ though this is susceptible of another explanation. Map himself says expressly to Giraldus, ‘Nos multa diximus; vos scripta dedistis et nos verba,’ and that his ‘dicta’ had brought him a considerable reputation (Giraldus, Opera, v. 410–411). However, Giraldus is also our witness that Map was a scholar, well versed in law and theology, and a man of poetic taste, well read in literature (ib. i. 271–89, iv. 140). Much of this might be inferred from his one undoubted work, the ‘De Nugis Curialium’ (Courtiers' Triflings). This curious book, although devoid of any visible arrangement, made up largely of legends from his native county, gossip and anecdotes of his court life, also displays his interest in and acquaintance with the ancient classics, the Christian fathers, and contemporary history. In its form hardly more than the undigested reminiscences and notes of a man of the world with a lively sense of humour, there is yet a deeper purpose underlying it; it is, indeed, in some sense a keen satire on the condition of church and state in the writer's own day. It incorporates much historical information, chiefly of a traditional and anecdotal character, but of considerable interest; especially noticeable are his accounts of the Templars and Hospitallers, and his sketch of the English court and kings from the reign of William II to his own time. To the ‘De Nugis’ we also owe nearly all our knowledge of Map's own life. The work appears to have grown out of a request made by a friend called Geoffrey, that he would write a poem on ‘his sayings and doings that had not been committed to writing’ (De Nugis, pp. 14, 19). Elsewhere he implies that he wrote at the wish of Henry II, and tells us that the book was composed in the court by snatches (ib. p. 140). It is sufficiently clear from the work itself that it was composed at various times between 1182 and 1192 (ib. pp. 176 and 230; see also pp. 20, 22, 39, 209, 228, 232). Moreover, the same stories or incidents are sometimes related more than once. The only manuscript of the ‘De Nugis Curialium’ is Bodl. MS. 851, a manuscript of the fifteenth century, once the property of John Wellys, monk of Ramsey and sometime student of Gloucester Hall, Oxford (inscription in Bodl. MS. 851, and Wood, City of Oxford, ii. 260, Oxf. Hist. Soc.) There is a transcript made from this manuscript by Richard James [q. v.] in James MSS. 31 and 39, in the Bodleian Library. It was edited by Mr. T. Wright for the Camden Society in 1850. A discussion of some of the folk-tales contained in the ‘De Nugis’ will be found in ‘Germania,’ v. 47–64. In the ‘De Nugis’ (Distinctio, iv. c. iii.) is incorporated a little treatise, ‘Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum ne uxorem ducat,’ which seems to be a work of Map's earlier years, and of which many anonymous copies exist (e.g. Bodl. MS. Add. A 44, early thirteenth century with a fourteenth-century commentary, and Arundel MS. 14, and Burney MS. 360 in the British Museum). It is printed among the supposititious works of St. Jerome in Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ xxx. 254.
In the ‘De Nugis Curialium’ there are incorporated various stories of a romantic character. But there is nothing which, for its style or matter, would lead us to attribute to Map that share in the composition of the Arthurian romances with which he has in varying proportions been credited. The manuscripts of the great prose romance of ‘Lancelot’ commonly ascribe the authorship to Map. Of the four parts of this work the first two compose the ‘Lancelot’ proper, the other two being the ‘Quest of the S. Graal,’ and the ‘Morte Arthur.’ All four parts are in several manuscripts, attributed specifically to Walter Map (e.g. Royal, 19 C xiii. thirteenth century, in the British Museum). But in Egerton MS. 989—which is a copy of the ‘Tristram’—the writer, who passes under the name of Hélie de Borron, tells us that Map wrote ‘le propre livre de M. lancelot du lac.’ The same writer in the ‘Meliadus’ (cf. Add. MS. 12228) gives the usual ascription of the ‘Lancelot’ to Map, with the significant addition ‘qui etoit le clerc le roi henri.’ The constancy of the tradition would in itself point to there being some foundation of fact; it is therefore interesting to find Hue of Rotelande, who was himself a native of Herefordshire, and wrote about 1185, after describing the threefold appearance of ​his hero at the tournament in white, red, and black armour, excuse his romance-writing with these words:—
Sul ne sai pas de mentir lart, Walter Map reset bon sa part. (Ipomedon.)
(‘I am not the only one who knows the art of lying, Walter Map knows well his part of it.’).
The incident of the tournament figures of course in the ‘Lancelot,’ and it is almost incredible that we have not here a conscious allusion to that romance, and to Map as its author. With this corroborative evidence we may take the statement by the so-called Hélie de Borron in the ‘Meliadus.’ Hélie lived about 1230, and was an ‘arrangeur’ of older and shorter romances, from which he probably derived his assertion of Map's share in the composition of the ‘Lancelot.’ If Hélie was merely endeavouring to father the ‘Lancelot’ on an eminent man, it is strange that he should not have given Map his later designation of archdeacon, instead of going back fifty years to the time when he was a simple clerk of the king. That Hélie or his authorities should have known that Map was a royal clerk is in itself perhaps a little peculiar, and the assertion that he translated the ‘Lancelot’ into French at Henry's request is a further coincidence, when compared with Map's own statement in the ‘De Nugis’ that he engaged in literature at the king's wish (p. 140). Taking the analogy of the great prose ‘S. Graal,’ which was asserted to be a translation from the Latin by Robert de Borron, but which has proved to be founded on a short poem by that writer, we may not unfairly conclude that the foundation of the prose ‘Lancelot’ was an Anglo-French poem by Walter Map. Map wrote poetry and wrote in French, and it is possible that this is what he refers to as his ‘dicta,’ using that word in the sense of the French ‘dites,’ and ‘dicere’ in the sense of composing in the spoken language as opposed to ‘scribere’ (to compose in Latin). That such Anglo-French poems on this subject did exist we know from Ulrich of Zatzikhoven, who partly founded his romance of ‘Lanzelet’ on a book which he borrowed from Hugh de Morville [q. v.], when a hostage in Germany for Richard I. M. Paulin Paris and Dr. Jonckbloët even favour Map's claim to be the author of the prose ‘Lancelot,’ including the ‘S. Graal’ and ‘Morte Arthur.’ On the other hand, M. Gaston Paris would deprive him of any share whatever in its composition. On the whole it seems probable that Map did contribute in a considerable degree towards giving the Arthurian romances their existing shape, but how far any of his work has survived must be a matter of dispute. It is perhaps worth notice that M. Paulin Paris hazarded a theory that Map wrote his romances in defence of Henry's opposition to the Roman court, and that the legend of Joseph of Arimathea constituted a claim for pontifical supremacy in defiance of the pope (ib. i. 472 et sqq.). This theory, though perhaps far fetched, is enticing when viewed in connection with Map as the satirist of Roman corruption.
It is as a satirist, rather than as the author of the ‘De Nugis Curialium’ or the ‘Lancelot,’ that Walter Map has enjoyed so lasting a reputation. To his pen has been ascribed much of the Goliardic verse, in which the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries were so prolific. These Latin poems consist of satires on the corruptions of the ecclesiastical order generally, and above all on the church of Rome. A ‘Goliardus’ was a clerk of loose life, who made a living by his coarse and satirical wit (on the derivation of the word see Wright, Latin Poems attributed to Walter Map, or Ducange, sub voce). From this we have the pretended Bishop Golias, the burlesque representative of the clerical order, whose ‘Confession’ and ‘Apocalypse’ are the chief among the poems of this class attributed to Map. But Giraldus Cambrensis was familiar with the ‘Confession,’ and criticises its writer severely under the name of Golias; it would therefore appear that he at any rate did not suspect his intimate friend of the authorship (Speculum Ecclesiæ, ap. Opera, iv. 291–3). Giraldus also cites the poem entitled ‘Golias in Romanam Curiam’ (ib.; cf. Latin Poems, pp. 36–9). Of the other poems the ‘Metamorphosis Goliæ’ (ib. pp. 21–30) appears to have been written about 1140 (art. by M. Hauréau in Mém. Acad. Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, xxviii. ii. 223–38). A collection of these poems was edited by Mr. T. Wright for the Camden Society, ‘Latin Poems attributed to Walter Map,’ 1841. There is no sure ground for ascribing any of this extant poetry to Map, and the ascriptions of them to him in manuscripts, though common in the fifteenth century, are in no case older than the fourteenth century. We do, however, know that Map wrote verses against the Cistercians, and some of his jests preserved by Giraldus are made at the expense of the clergy (cf. Opera, iii. 145, ‘vir linguæ dicacis et eloquentiæ grandis illorum et similium sugillans avaritiam episcoporum’). The ‘De Nugis Curialium’ moreover contains some unfavourable criticisms of the monastic orders, and comments on the avarice of the court of Rome (cf. pp. 37, 44– ​58, 87). It was probably the knowledge of these sentiments and his fame as a satirist that earned Map the repute of being the true Golias. Of his poems against the Cistercians, one line appears to have been preserved:—
Lancea Longini grex albus ordo nefandus.
This occurs in a reply by W. Bothewald, subprior of St. Prideswide's, Oxford, dating from the twelfth century (printed in Latin Poems, p. xxxv). In one place Bothewald seems to allude to the 'De Nugis' (ib. p. xxxvii). It is noticeable that the metre of this line is different from that of any of the poems commonly attributed to Map. Giraldus says that Map's hostility to the Cistercians arose out of a dispute with the Cistercians of Flixley as to the rights of his church of Westbury (Opera, iv. 219-24, 140). He also refers to Map's poetic tastes in a long letter which he addressed to him (ib. i. 271-89}, and preserves a poem which he sent to Map with a stick, and Map's reply in twelve elegiacs (ib. i, 362-363). The letter appears to be the only undoubted product of Map's muse which is now extant.
The famous so-called 'Drinking-Song' —
Meum est propositum in taberna mori, Vinum sit appositum morientis ori, Ut dicant cum venerint angelorum chori, Deus sit propitius huic potatori—
which more than all else has secured Map a popular repute in modern times, consists of two separate extracts from the 'Confessio Goliæ,' lines 45–52, and 61–76. The first four of these lines form the opening verse of another drinking-song given in Sloane MS. 2593, f. 78, which dates from the fifteenth century (printed in Latin Poems, p. xlv). It is therefore probable that before that date the well-known song had been constructed out of the 'Confessio.' There have been many modern translations of this song (cf. Notes and Queries, 7th ser. viii. 108, 211, 252). Among these are versions by Leigh Hunt, Sir Theodore Martin, and Mr. J. A, Symonds (Wine, Women, and Song). Its supposed authorship must in all probability be abandoned, and in any case the titles of 'the jovial archdeacon and 'the Anacreon of his age' which it has earned for Map are utterly inappropriate.
Many specimens of Map's wit. are preserved by Giraldus (cf. Opera, iii. 145, iv. 140, 219–24). A version of the fable of the hind in the ox-stall is given as 'ex dictis W. Map,' in C.C.C. MS. 139. It is printed in Wright's edition of the 'De Nugis.' p. 244.
[Almost all our knowledge of Map's life is due to the De Nugis Curialium and the frequent references in the works of Giraldus Cambrensis; the latter are quoted from the edition in the Rolls Series; there are two passages relating to him in the life of S. Hugh of Lincoln by Adam of Eynsham in the Rolls Ser.; there are also a few references in the Pipe Rolls and Calendars of Patent and Close Rolls. The most valuable modern account is to be found in Ward's Catalogue of Romances in the British Museum, i. 218, 345–66, 734–41; see also Wright's prefaces to the De Nugis Curialium, and Latin Poems attributed to Walter Map, and his Biographia Britannica Literaria, ii. 295–310; Foss's Judges of England, i. 275–8. For various points in connection with Map's supposed share in the Arthurian romances see Paulin Paris's Romans de la Table Ronde, esp. v. 351–67, and Manuscrits François de la Bibliothèque du Roi; Gaston Paris's Littérature Française au Moyen Age, §§ 60, 62, 63; Jonckbloët's Le Roman de la Charrette par Gauthier Map et Chrestien de Troyes, The Hague, 1850; Maertens's 'Lanzelotsage, eine litterarhistorische Untersuchung,' in Romanische Studien, v. 557–706; Romania, i. 457–72, 'De l'origine et du développement des romans de la Table Ronde,' by Paulin Paris, x. 470, on the Lanzelet of Ulrich of Zatzikhoven by Gaston Paris, and xii. 459–534, 'Le Conte de la Charrette,' by Gaston Paris; Nutt's Studies in the Legend of the Holy Graal. The writer has to thank Mr. H. L. D. Ward of the British Museum for some valuable assistance.]
C. L. K.