In about 1520 Wynkyn de Worde published Undo Youre Dore (STC 23111.5), elsewhere titled The Squire of Low Degree, a verse narrative in couplets, with no known source, and no surviving early manuscript witnesses. Usually classified as a romance, the poem gestures in various ways to the conventional features of romance narrative, and de Worde's decision to print it may reflect his sense that the market for romances, one for which he had catered for some decades, remained a strong one. Yet in some respects de Worde's printing of The Squire of Low Degree seems to mark a pivotal point in the history of his engagement with this form, and to indicate a recognition on his part that the previous commercial appeal of the genre might be extended in different directions. Some of these new directions are thrown into relief when The Squire of Low Degree is compared with other printed romances and with other forms of verse narrative printed by de Worde during the 1520s. As we will suggest, de Worde's sense of the continuing appeal of this genre seems untypical of the general level of interest among printers in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a point when their engagement with romance seems to have been flagging.

The plot of The Squire of Low Degree can be summarised as follows. The squire of the work's title falls in love with the King of Hungary's daughter, whom he serves with silent devotion. Although the princess discovers his love at an early stage and reciprocates it, an unscrupulous steward, who himself wishes to marry the princess, reveals their love to the king. The squire seeks permission from the king for a period of exile ‘to be proved a venterous knight’ (478). Before departing he returns to his lady's chamber to bid her farewell. But the steward has been charged by the king to be ready for such a contingency with ‘men of armes’ (416). They attack the squire, and a melée ensues in which the squire kills the steward but is himself seized by the king, who sends him into exile for seven years, in which he does ‘great chyvalry’ (886).