Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Michael Blaunpayn
MICHAEL BLAUNPAYN (fl. 1250), also called Michael the Cornishman and Michael the Englishman, Latin poet, was clearly a native of Cornwall, for in his satire he says:
Nam rex Arturus nos primos Cornubienses.
He is said to have studied at Oxford and Paris, and to have finally become dean of Utrecht. More reasonably, perhaps, he may be conjectured to have been a Cambridge scholar, for he thought fit to recite his satire before the chancellor and masters of that university. Michael boasts of being a better scholar and teacher than his adversary, Henry of Avranches. Henry was a poet who enjoyed the favour of the court, and had reflected on Cornish rusticity. This moved Michael to reply, which he did in a satire that was recited before Hugh, abbot of Westminster, the Dean of St. Paul's, and R. de Mortimer, an official of the Archbishop of Canterbury; afterwards it was again recited before the Bishop of Ely and the chancellor and masters of Cambridge. This poem, in leonine hexameters, is contained in MS. Royal 14, C. xiii. f. 269, and Cotton MS. Titus A. xx. ff. 52–69, in the British Museum, in MS. Bodley O.C. 3041 (Bernard, Cat. MSS. Angliæ), and MS. Ff. vi. 13, in the Cambridge University Library. An allusion to the bishop-elect of Winchester fixes its date between 1250 and 1260. In Cotton MS. Vespasian, D. v. f. 149, there are ‘Epistolæ et Carmina,’ which are ascribed to Michael by Richard James [q. v.] The introductory epistle begins ‘Solus et sapiencia.’ The poems include verses to various prelates, as Fulk Basset, William Ralegh, and Peter des Roches, and some lines ‘De veteri Sarisburie et ecclesie mutatione,’ inc. ‘Mons Saltisberie.’ Camden, in his ‘Remaines’ (ed. 1674, p. 10), quotes some lines against Normandy, which ‘merry Michael the Cornish poet piped on his oaten pipe for England.’ They begin:
Nobilis Anglia pocula, prandia donat et æra.
Michael is also credited with a ‘Life of St. Birinus’ and a ‘Historia Normannorum.’
[Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. 432; Hardy's Cat. Brit. Hist. iii. 125; Warton's Hist. of Poetry, ed. Price, i. cxxxiii, ed. Hazlitt, ii. 48–9; Cotton and Royal MSS.; Hist. Litt. de la France, xviii. 529–30.]