Kelmscott Press edition of ''The Tale of King Coustans the Emperor'

This book is part of a series of translations of medieval French stories that William Morris produced in the 1890s. It tells the story of the Emperor of Byzantium who heard a prophecy that a child would marry his daughter and succeed him as emperor. Angered by the prophecy, the Emperor ordered the child in question to be killed and buried in the woods. The knight tasked with murdering the child decided to leave his body by a monastery, rather than burying it. Here he was found by the abbot who healed his wounds and baptised him Coustans.

Coustans grows up at the monastery and eventually the Emperor hears that he is still alive, summoning him to court. The Emperor employs Coustans to deliver a sealed letter to the commander of Byzantium that asks him to kill the bearer of the letter. Upon arriving at the city, Coustans wanders into a garden and falls asleep. He is found by the Emperor’s daughter who switches the letter to one asking the commander to arrange a marriage between Coustans and her, which he does at once. Coustans then fulfils the prophecy and succeeds the Emperor upon his death, converting the city to Christianity and renaming it Constantinople.

Morris’s translation of the original medieval French utilises his usual archaic writing style also seen in the fiction books he was writing in the 1890s. He had previously made use of this story as the inspiration behind his tale ‘The Man Born to be King’ in ‘The Earthly Paradise’. The Kelmscott Press printed 525 copies of ‘The Tale of King Coustans the Emperor’ on hand-made paper, and an additional 20 on vellum.