ABSTRACT
Popular tales about a king in disguise occur in many European languages. Ancient examples include Zeus visiting humans for sexual conquests, Odysseus returning to his homeland in disguise, and the Lord visiting Abraham as one of three strangers. The tradition flourished in England. As ballad-collector Thomas Percy noted in 1766, ‘It has been a favourite subject with our English ballad-makers to represent our kings conversing, either by accident or design, with the meanest of their subjects.’1 Previous commentators on the disguised king tradition in England have shown little interest in the common structure of the narratives.2 Comparison of extant English metrical poems and ballads about disguised kings written before 1600 yields nine distinct narratives. In seven of these plots (three of the four poems and four of the five ballads), a king of England becomes the unrecognized houseguest of one of his subjects. 3 The present essay will focus upon the peculiar narrative structure and evolution of the tale in English tradition and suggest an ultimate source in JudeoChristian popular culture.
