Almost certainly the most niche book that has come my way recently is Bewnans Ke, a critical edition of a previously unknown Middle Cornish play. However it is also one of the more fascinating, charming, and on occasion hilarious things I've read in a while. The play was probably written in the mid to late 15th century, and although unfortunately incomplete, represents the only new discovery in Middle Cornish for more than 50 years, and is as such of huge importance to Cornish speakers and those studying its medieval form. The edition edited by Graham Thomas and Nicholas Williams provides a complete critical apparatus and guide to oddities of spelling and grammar, and looks at the considerable number of new Middle Cornish words and phrases that it contains. Helpfully for those of us who don't have Middle Cornish a parallel translation is provided, allowing the play to be appreciated both for itself and as important evidence for life in late medieval Cornwall, for the cult of St. Ke, and for Cornish interaction with the King Arthur stories.

The play is missing several leaves and is at the moment broken into two almost separate sections. The main extant part concerns itself with the life, mission and miracles of St. Ke, while the second is an extended Arthurian digression. The majority of the main section focuses around St. Ke's persecution by an evil pagan tyrant, Teudar, and his attempts to convert him. The play thus combines the serious and instructive, as Ke explains Christianity and the doctrine of the trinity, with the humorous, as Teudar's schemes to torture and defraud St Ke and prove the superiority of his own God Jovyn are gradually foiled, culminating with Teudar stuck in his own bathtub and forced to give away the best part of his kingdom. Teudar's anger builds and builds throughout this section resulting in ever more florid cursing, and this part must have been a joy to play – think Basil Fawlty! The finest oaths and curses are reproduced below for your enjoyment, and because everyone should have at least a few words of Middle Cornish.

It is probably the Arthurian section that will prove more of a draw to the non-specialist in Cornish. It tells the story of Arthur's defiance and defeat of the Roman Emperor Lucius Hibericus, and of Mordred's treachery in seducing Guinevere while Arthur has left him in charge of the country, and in hiring Saxon mercenaries to fight against King Arthur. It builds to a battle in which Mordred and the remaining allies of Lucius are vanquished. It is clearly based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, but there are important differences, which shed light on how the Arthurian legends developed in a Cornish context. Although Caerleon upon Usk, Geoffrey of Monmouth's site of Arthur's court is mentioned, Arthur is said to be of Kyllywyk in Cornwall. Arthur's sword is also given a Cornish name. It is conjectured that the play would originally have had a third part in which St Ke persuades the disgraced Guinnevere to enter a nunnery, tying the play together with a Christian message and ensuring its relevance to a local audience.

Some Middle Cornish insults, blasphemies and curses:

Te pen boba lagajak	You goggle-eyed head of a clown
Ser the thewan, te pen pist	Shut your mouth you blockhead
ha pur harlot	and utter scoundrel
Na gows thymmo vy a Christ	Do not speak to me of Christ
an raf rybot	the worthless ribald
Lemmen me a wor in ta	Now I know full well
orth the worthyb ha gwryans	by your answer and your behaviour
the vos cle'gys	That you are diseased.
A lobbry Sous!	O filthy Englishman!
The'n cans myl deawl reg yllough	May you go to the hundred thousand demons
ha byner re thewellough,	and never may you return,
why, na tebal nawothow!	neither you nor bad news!
Desempys gueyf ow golok	Get out of my sight forthwith
ha dyspyt the vab the das!	and God damn the son of your father!

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