435

North America

2013 entries

I. Collections

AKBARI, Suzanne Conklin, and MALLETTE, Karla, eds. A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. xi+310 p.

Collection of essays on aspects of Muslim-Christian-Jewish cultural communications in the Mediterranean basin, in memory of María Rosa Menocal. (AECC)

Keywords: Mediterranean studies; María Rosa Menocal; al-Andalus; Muslim Sicily; Muslim-Christian-Jewish political and cultural relationships; alterity/otherness; Orientalism; representation of Islam; history of criticism; romanz; interrelations among Romance languages, including, French, Italian, Occitan, Catalan, Gascon, Galician-Portuguese, and others; multilingualism; hybrid languages; multilingual poetry; Frayre de Joy et Sor de Plaser; Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (troubadour), descort; chanson de geste; Chanson de Roland; Gui de Bourgogne; La Prise d’Orange; Raoul de Chambrai; Charroi de Nîmes; Sicilian Muslim poets; Mus’ab ibn Muhammad ibn Abi al-Furat al-Qurashi (Sicilian Muslim poet) aka. Abu al-’Arab; Arab music; Arabic muwashshahs; music of Occitan troubadour songs.

AKBARI, Suzanne Conklin, and ROSS, Jill, eds. The Ends of the Body: Identity and Community in Medieval Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. ix+327 p. 12 halftones.

A collection of twelve essays which examine the physical and metaphorical body as a symbol of individual or collective identity, drawing on Latin, French, English, Irish, Spanish, and Arabic historical, religious, and literary documents. (AECC)

Keywords: Christine de Pizan, Livre du corps de policie; Christine de Pizan, Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V; biography; King Charles V of France.

436

JEFFERIS, Sibylle, ed. Text Analyses and Interpretations: In Memory of Joachim Bumke (Kalamazoo Papers 2012–2013). Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 776. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 2013.

This collection contains among fourteen articles studies of the works of Hartmann von Aue and Wolfram von Eschenbach, as well as novellas and chansons-de-geste, especially Iwein, Gregorius, and poetry, as well as Schondochs Königin von Frankreich and Elisabeth’s von Nassau-Saarbrücken Sibille. (SJ)

II. TEXTS

FRANCOMANO, Emily C., ed. and trans. Three Spanish Querelle Texts: “Grisel and Mirabella,” “The Slander against Women,” and “The Defense of Ladies against Slanderers”: A Bilingual Edition and Study, by Pere TORRELLAS and Juan de FLORES. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2013.

Bilingual edition (with facing-page translation) of Torrellas’s Maldezir de mugeres and Razonamiento de Pere Torrella en defensión de las donas contra los maldezientes and of Flores’ La historia de Grisel y Mirabella, with extensive introduction, bibliography, and index. (AECC)

Keywords: Spanish querelle des femmes texts; Pere Torrellas [alternative spellings: Torrellas, Torrella, Torroella, Torroellas], Maldezir de mugeres (Slander against Women); Pere Torrellas, Razonamiento de Pere Torrella en defensión de las donas contra los maldezientes (Defense of Ladies against Slanderers); Juan de Flores, La historia de Grisel y Mirabella (Grisel and Mirabella); short romance; misogynist polemic; female-voice narrative; satire of misogyny.

MALO, Robyn. Relics and Writing in Late Medieval England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. ix+298 p. 5 halftones.

Investigates the technical language and tropes of relic discourse and then applies this lens to various texts not primarily concerned with relics: chapter 3 explores how relic discourse informs English Grail legends, especially Malory’s Tale of the Sankgreal, and chapter 4 examines the use of relic discourse in Chaucer’s “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale” and Troilus and Criseyde. (AECC)

Keywords: Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale”; Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde; Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (Fra Cipolla); John Lydgate, Troy Book; Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur; 437the alliterative Joseph of Arimathie; Henry Lovelich, The History of the Holy Grail; Grail quest; blood miracle; pilgrimage; saints’ shrines; reliquaries; relic discourse; religion of love.

MOLL, Richard J., ed. William Caxton: The Booke of Ovyde Named Methamorphose. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2013; Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2013. viii+652 p.

Edition (with introduction, explanatory notes, bibliography, glossary, and index) of Caxton’s translation of the Ovide moralisé en prose, based on the reunited manuscript consisting of Cambridge, Magdalene College, Old Library, F.4.34 (Books 1–9) and Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, 2124 (Books 10–15). Two appendices present brief selections from the as yet unedited Ovide moralisé en prose, based on the Saint Petersburg MS (Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, F.v.XIV.1). (AECC)

Keywords: William Caxton, The Booke of Ovyde Named Methamorphose; Cambridge, Magdalene College, Old Library, F.4.34; Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys Library, 2124; Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, F.v.XIV.1; Ovide moralisé en prose: Middle English translation.

III. STUDIES

AKBARI, Suzanne Conklin. “Death as Metamorphosis in the Devotional and Political Allegory of Christine de Pizan.” The Ends of the Body: Identity and Community in Medieval Culture, 283–313. [C-AKBARI].

The essay explores the tension between the individual body and the communal body in Christine de Pizan’s Livre du corps de policie and Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V, where the king’s bodily death also signals revivication, reaffirming the essential health of the French body politic as a result of the flow of vertu, despite the social and political turmoil of the times. (AECC)

Keywords: biography; King Charles V of France.

ALBIN, Andrew. “The Prioress’s Tale, Sonorous and Silent.” ChauR 48.1 (2013): 91–112.

Exploring sound’s material power to shape the experience of embodied reality and effect meaning across narrative frames deepens understanding of the ways the Tale constructs community through audition. (MH)

438

ARMSTRONG, Guyda. The English Boccaccio: A History in Books. Toronto Italian Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. xv+464 p. 25 halftones.

Explores the reception of Boccaccio’s works, especially in English literary culture from the early fifteenth century onwards, focusing on the production context of various manuscripts and specific translations, which present the text to new generations of readers and patrons. (AECC)

Keywords: Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron: translation and reception; Giovanni Boccaccio, De casibus virorum illustrium: translation and reception; Giovanni Boccaccio, De mulieribus claris: translation and reception; Giovanni Boccaccio, Fiammetta: translation and reception; Giovanni Boccaccio, Genealogy of Pagan Gods: translation and reception; John Lydgate, Fall of Princes; Manchester, Rylands Library, English MS 2 (= a sumptuous 15th-century ms of John Lydgate’s Fall of Princes); Laurent de Premierfait, Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes; Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; medieval translation.

ASARO, Brittany. “Unmasking the truth about amor de lohn: Giovanni Boccaccio’s rebellion against literary conventions in Decameron I.5 and IV.4” Comitatus 44 (2013): 95–120.

Asaro argues for Boccaccio’s privileging of “love by hearsay” over love by sight in order to parody literary conventions of courtly love. Decameron I.5 exploits Rudel’s Vida with its story of amor de lohn and Capellanus’s rule on appropriate social stations. The tale demonstrates the power of words/stories/literature to effect behavior and undermines courtly conventions. Asaro’s analyses of IV.4 first note the introduction to Day IV with its self-conscious defense of Boccaccio’s aesthetic choices. Elissa’s introduction to the tale next defends love by hearsay with reference to literature so as to continue Boccaccio’s involvement in a literary polemic. Finally, the tale criticizes Capellanus and Lentini for their emphasis on sight-based love and expands on Boccaccio’s challenge of all inherited courtly love conventions in a changing social milieu. (NC)

BANDLIEN, Bjφrn. “Arthurian Knights in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: Erex Saga and Ívens Saga in the World of Ormur Snorrason.” Arthuriana 23.4 (2013): 6–37.

An inquiry into the relationship between the wealthy aristocrat Ormur Snorrason and the earliest known Icelandic translations of Chrétien de Troyes’ romances. (SH)

Keywords: Icelandic Saga, court, Norway, battle at Grund, manuscripts.

439

BOTTEX-FERRAGNE, Ariane. « Lire le roman à l’ombre de l’“estoire” : Tradition manuscrite et programmes de lecture des romans d’antiquité. » Florilegium 29 (2012): 33–63.

Examines the manuscript tradition and reception of the romans d’antiquité (Thèbes, Troie, Énéas, Brut) and concludes that medieval historiography appears to have had a greater influence on the reading of these texts than did the chanson de geste. (AECC)

Keywords: Benoît de Sainte-Maure; Le Roman d’Énéas; Wace; historiography.

BOYLE, Louis J. “Ruled by Merlin: Mirrors for Princes, Counseling Patterns, and Malory’s ‘Tale of King Arthur.’” Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 52–66.

Malory’s “Tale of King Arthur” reveals the paradoxes inherent in the advice text tradition, especially when viewed in light of Merlin, who represents the perfect counselor. Arthur’s reliance on Merlin contradicts the principles of the speculum principis tradition current during Malory’s age. (SH)

Keywords: counsel, advice, Suite du Merlin, mirror for princes, Secretum Secretorum.

BRYAN, Elizabeth J. “Picturing Arthur in English History: Text and Image in the Middle English Prose Brut.” Arthuriana 23. 4 (2013): 38–71.

An examination of visual representations of King Arthur in seven illustrated manuscripts of the fifteenth-century Middle English Prose Brut shows how the depiction of Arthur connects the past to the present in a variety of ways. (SH)

Keywords: kingship, heraldry, Merlin, Giant of Mont-St-Michel, Rome, Mordred.

CAMPBELL, Laura J. “The Devil’s in the Detail: Translating Merlin’s Father from the Merlin en Prose in Paulino Pieri’s Storia de Merlino.” Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 35–51.

Paulino Pieri’s fourteenth century Italian vernacular translation of Robert de Boron’s Merlin reinterprets and attenuates Merlin’s diabolical nature, thus reducing the power of evil over good, and allowing for the moral rehabilitation of Merlin and his family. (SH)

Keywords: paternity, devil, despair, anger, exempla, Merlin’s mother, Marinaia, Rosamor, Biagio (Blaise), foregiveness, salvation.

CHANCE, Jane. “Re-membering Herself: Christine de Pizan’s Refiguration of Isis as Io.” MP 111, No. 2 (2013): 133–157. (SC)

440

COLEY, David K. “Exegesis, Form, and Vernacular Translation in Pearl.” Florilegium 30 (2013): 211–231.

The article discusses the form of the Middle English poem Pearl as a crucial aspect of its exegetical programme, proposing that the poem mobilizes its aesthetic and poetic structures towards an ongoing process of informal biblical hermeneutics and showing how Pearl engages with the controversies over biblical translation occasioned by late-medieval lay demands for increasingly personal forms of devotion and by Wycliffite efforts at biblical translation. (AECC)

Keywords: Pearl; Gawain-poet / Pearl-poet; allegory; vernacular theology; biblical exegesis; biblical translation.

CORRIE, Marilyn. “‘God may well fordo desteny’: Dealing with Fate, Destiny, and Fortune in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur.” SP 110.4 (Fall 2013): 690–713.

Considering the ways in which the Morte engages with notions of Destiny and Fortune reveals Malory’s more complex interest in intellectual questions of determination than scholars have been willing to allow. (MH)

ERIKSEN, Stefka G. “Mode of Reception and Function of Medieval Texts: A Comparative Study of Elye de Saint-Gilles and Elis saga ok Rósamundu.” JEGP 112, No. 1 (2013): 1–25. (SC)

FENN, Jessica. “Apostrophe, Devotion, and Anti-Semitism: Rhetorical Community in the Prioress’s Prologue and Tale.” SP 110.3 (Summer 2013): 432–458.

Apostrophes–short formulaic sayings that move fluidly between written and oral, Latin and vernacular, devotional and political contexts–work to articulate, define, and reproduce community and shared understanding in the Prioress’s Prologue and Tale. (MH)

FINDON, Joanne. “Supernatural Lovers, Liminal Women, and the Female Journey.” Florilegium 30 (2013): 27–52.

Discusses three tales (the Middle Irish Cath Maige Tuired, the Middle English Sir Degaré, and Marie de France’s Yonec) in which a young woman has a sexual encounter (and later a child) with a supernatural man who seems to be summoned by her own desires. Although these tales also express anxieties over dynastic succession, their depiction of intense emotional moments focalized 441through a female perspective suggests an interest in women’s subjectivity. (AECC)

Keywords: Middle English romance; Breton Lay; Otherworld; Fairy lovers; female desire; female sexuality; female subjectivity; supernatural rape; rape and marriage; Auchinleck MS; Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Poetry 34.

GAUNT, Simon. “Linguistic Difference, the Philology of Romance, and the Romance of Philology.” A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, 43–61. [C-AKBARI].

Discusses the interplay of Romance languages and idioms in multilingual cultural and textual environments, offering a reading of the multilingual Frayre de Joy et Sor de Plaser which shows how linguistic difference may carry cultural and ideological freight. (AECC)

Keywords: Frayre de Joy et Sor de Plaser; Occitan / Catalan romance; Raimbaut de Vaqueiras (troubadour), descort; multilingualism; hybrid languages; multilingual poetry; romanz; Occitan; Catalan; Gascon; Galician-Portuguese.

GECK, John A. “Interrogating Chivalry and the Hunt in the Auchinleck Guy of Warwick.” Florilegium 29 (2012): 117–145.

Argues that the excision of two morally problematic scenes in the Guy of Warwick / Gui de Warewic tradition (Guy’s killing of Florentine’s son, and Segyn’s killing of Sadok) masks the major turning point where Guy abandons the flawed world-view of secular chivalry in favour of a heroism serving the divine will. (AECC)

Keywords: hunting law; Auchinleck MS (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS 19.2.1); manuscript tradition; manuscript redactions; Christian heroism in chivalric romance.

GERBER, Amanda J. “‘As olde bookes maken us memorie’: Chaucer and the Clerical Commentary Tradition.” Florilegium 29 (2012): 171–200.

Based on new manuscript evidence from prose paraphrases of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the article argues that the ways in which Chaucer’s clerical characters adapt and comment on hermeneutics elucidate both the means by which lay readers accessed clerical discourse and the patterns of reading and textual analysis that inspired the composition of parts of the Canterbury Tales. (AECC)

Keywords: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales: clerical characters; Chaucer, “Monk’s Tale”; Chaucer, “Wife of Bath’s Prologue”; Chaucer, “Summoner Tale”; Ovid, Metamorphoses: medieval prose paraphrases of ~; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 214; Oxford, Merton College, MS 299.

442

GRANARA, William. “Sicilian Poets in Seville: Literary Affinities across Political Boundaries.” A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, 199–216. [C-AKBARI].

The author reviews the political and cultural relationships between Muslim Sicily and Muslim Spain in the late eleventh century as well as the emigration of Sicilian Muslim poets to al-Andalus, especially the ‘Abbadid court at Seville, with special focus on Mus’ab ibn Muhammad ibn Abi al-Furat al-Qurashi aka. Abu al-’Arab. The article considers the connections between Abu al-’Arab’s skill at oral composition, court patronage, and the challenges to traditional cultural loyalties. (AECC)

HERMAN, Peter C. Royal Poetrie: Monarchic Verse and the Political Imaginary of Early Modern England. Rev. by Kevin Sharpe. MP 111, No. 1 (2013): 45–48. (SC)

HOLBROOK, Sue Ellen. “To the Well: Malory’s Sir Palomides on Ideals of Chivalric Reputation, Male Friendship, Romantic Love, Religious Conversion–and Loyalty.” Arthuriana 23. 4 (2013): 72–97.

An analysis of five scenes in Malory’s Tristam that represent variations on the four values of chivalric reputation, male friendship, romantic love and religious conversion. The locus uniting the five scenes is water, in the form of a well, as in scenes 1 through 4, or the baptismal font as in scene 5. At each one of these sites an adventure occurs that tests the four values cited above, culminating in the final reconciliation between Tristram and Palomides, made possible by Palomides’ religious conversion and his demonstration of loyalty to Lancelot. (SH)

Keywords: Isode, Saphir, Epinogris, Joyous Gard, Castle of Maidens, Lonezep, friendship, reputation, Saracen, religious conversion, baptism, loyalty.

HOUSER, Richard McCormick. “Alisoun Takes Exception: Medieval Legal Pleading and the Wife of Bath.” ChauR 48.1 (2013): 65–90.

Through Alisoun’s use of techniques of courtroom pleading (excepcion and confession and avoidance), subjecting scriptural interpretation to an appeal to reason, Chaucer effects a methodological critique of corrupt exegesis while balancing his challenge in pleye. (MH)

JEFFERIS, Sibylle. “Schondochs Märe Die Königin von Frankreich und der ungetreue Marschall im Vergleich mit dem Sibillenroman von Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken.” Text Analyses and Interpretations,105–124 [C-JEFFERIS].

443

Differences are shown between the Sibille novel, which is a Middle High German translation of the French chanson de geste, and the verse-novella by Schondoch, which is based on the French chanson de geste as well, but shorter and modified. (SJ)

JEFFERIS, Sibylle. “Hartmanns Gregorius und die Prosareduktion Gregorius auf dem Stein.” Text Analyses and Interpretations, 221–236. [C-JEFFERIS].

In this study the verse-novella Gregorius by Hartmann von Aue is compared to the prose-legend Gregorius auf dem Stein, which is contained in the Heiligenleben and derived from the novella. The manuscript tradition of Gregorius is discussed and affiliated to the suitable versions of the prose-legend, as shown in three stemmas. (SJ)

JUDKINS, Ryan R. “The Game of the Courtly Hunt: Chasing and Breaking Deer in Late Medieval English Literature.” JEGP 112, No. 1 (2013): 70–92. (SC)

KING, David S. “Judicial Duels and Moral Inadequacy in La Mort le Roi Artu.” SCRev 30.2 (Summer 2013): 91–111.

Refuting or refining arguments made by scholars such as Bloch, Frappier, Micha, Pratt, and Lacy, King highlights the ways in which the role of judicial duels is transformed in La Mort le Roi Artu. He contends that two judicial duels–the first opposing Lancelot and Mador and the second between Lancelot and Gawain–uncover the author’s subtle lesson in the tale: Camelot’s downfall is brought about by the moral inadequacy of the Arthurian knights, whose choices lead to their fate. Rather than fight villains, heroes engage in combat against other heroes, and their attitudes cast doubt upon the idea that divine justice ensures the battle’s outcome. (KLB)

Keywords: Guenevere, grace, Queste, virtue.

KINOSHITA, Sharon. “Beyond Philology: Cross-Cultural Engagement in Literary History and Beyond.” A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, 25–42. [C-AKBARI].

Re-assesses the image of the “lusty,” black-skinned Saracen Other attributed to the Chanson de Roland by earlier generations of critics and calls for a more nuanced reading of the representation of Muslim characters in French chansons de geste and other works. (AECC)

Keywords: chanson de geste; Gui de Bourgogne; La Prise d’Orange; Raoul de Chambrai; parody; Charroi de Nîmes; alterity/otherness; Orientalism; Muslim characters; Saracens; representation of Islam; history of criticism.

444

LENDO, Rosalba. “La fin de Merlin dans la Suite du Roman de Merlin, son adaptation espagnole, le Baladro del sabio Merlín, et trois romans de chevalerie espagnols.” Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 20–34.

Traces the evolution of the episode of Merlin’s demise in five Spanish adaptations of the Suite du Roman de Merlin. A comparison of the Suite with the Spanish versions of the episode demonstrate that the character of Merlin changes according to the culture and time period in which the adaptations were written. Merlin becomes more diabolical in didactic texts that attribute Merlin’s tragic end to his sinful nature and origins (Baladro del sabio Merlín, Espejo de caballerías, Espejo de príncipes y caballeros) where his imprisonment becomes a hell of his own making. In the Belainís de Grecia, Belianís removes Merlin from his tomb and sets him on the path to repentance and salvation. (SH)

Keywords: Lancelot en prose, Suite-Vulgate, Viviane, Dame du lac, Morgain, damnation, repentance, diabolical nature.

McMULLEN, A. Joseph. “The Communication of Culture: Speech and the ‘Grail’ Procession in Historia Peredur vab Efrawc.” Arthuriana 23.3 (2013): 27–43.

An exploration of the role of speech in Peredur as an integral part of its narrative structure and as an indicator of the historical climate in which the tale was written. Peredur’s failure to speak alludes to the need for the Welsh to communicate their culture in the face of the Norman Conquest and the gradual loss of Welsh sovereignty. (SH)

Keywords: Wales, Grail procession, speech, cultural communication, black-haired maiden, Anglo-Norman occupation.

REYNOLDS, Dwight. “Arab Musical Influence on Medieval Europe: A Reassessment.” A Sea of Languages: Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, 182–198. [C-AKBARI].

Focuses on Arab music in Europe but also discusses the striking literary parallels between Arabic muwashshahs and Occitan troubadour songs, yet despite literary similarities, the musical structures appear unrelated. (AECC)

Keywords: Arab music; Arabic muwashshahs.

ROUSE, Robert. “Reading Ruins: Arthurian Caerleon and the Untimely Architecture of History.” Arthuriana 23.1 (2013): 40–51.

An examination of Gerald of Wales’ re-reading of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s interpretation of the ruins of Caerleon in the Historia and what these ruins reflect regarding both the passage of time and the evolution of political dynasties. (SH)

Keywords: Itinerarium Cambriae, Historia, Rome, King Arthur, Arthurian Britain.

445

RUDD, Gillian. “‘The Wilderness of Wirral’ in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Arthuriana 23.1 (2013): 52–65.

An eco-critical reading of landscape, particularly the way in which humans impose myth onto landscape as a way of expressing conflicting attitudes towards the natural world. (SH)

Keywords: nature, forest.

SAMUELSON, Charlie. “De la filiation à la subversion: Les modalités et enjeux des répétitions dans Aucassin et Nicolette et le Roman de Silence.” Florilegium 30 (2013): 1–25.

The article shows how the chantefable mobilizes mechanisms of repetition; concentrating on the political implications of repetition within romance poetics and specifically in Aucassin et Nicolette and Roman de Silence, the article illustrates how certain forms of repetition resist patriarchy and normative logic and may be considered “queer.” (AECC)

Keywords: repetition as political device; queer poetics.

SHIMOMURA, Sachi. “The Walking Dead in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.” ChauR 48.1 (2013): 1–37.

The tale’s temporal fluctuations in and out of historical processes–suspensions, deferral, stops and starts of plot–recreate the “unstable stasis” of an anachronistic chivalric world that exists “only in literature and the imagination.” (MH)

UTTER, Benjamin D. “Gawain and Goliath: Davidic Parallels and the problem of Penance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Comitatus 44 (2013): 121–156.

Utter focuses on the nature of Gawain’s sin and analyzes the ways the medieval image and the Biblical story of David inflect Gawain and his narrative. The parallels between the stories illustrate the ability of sin to infect ancestry and community. Addressing the scenes of the court, Utter argues for the obtuseness of the Arthur’s court in their understanding of the gap between their ideals and their practices, which in turn, points to the future downfall of the court. The court’s spiritual ignorance enables Gawain to be read in light of the other narratives attributed to the poet and examines the final adoption of Gawain’s winnings as a spiritual knot related to penance. (NC)

WADE, James. “Arbitrariness and Knowing in Malory’s Morte Darthur, Book 4.18–21.” SP 110.1 (Winter 2013), 18–42.

Analysis of style and semantics, including Malory’s handling of his sources, in the episode of the three damsels by the fountain in Book 4 of the Morte 446reveals that narrative strategies effect an “arbitrariness”–such as the illogic of chance encounters rather than causal sequences or consequential actions–producing “new” (elusive or even secret) knowledge “only accessible in the experience of reading.” (MH)

IV. REVIEWS

AKBARI, Suzanne Conklin. Idols in the East: European Representations of Islam and the Orient, 1100–1450. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. Rev. by Leila Anna OUJI. University of Toronto Quarterly 82.3 (2013): 618–619.

Keywords: Orientalism; postcolonial theory; Saracens; Muslims; Islam; chanson de geste; romance; allegory; The Book of John Mandeville, Chanson de Roland; Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival; Dante, Divine Comedy.

ARICHIBALD, Elizabeth and PUTTER, Ad, The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend. Cambridge: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Rev by Richard J. MOLL. Speculum 88.3 (July 2013): 752–753.

BAILEY, Matthew. The Poetics of Speech in the Medieval Spanish Epic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Rev. by Simone PINET. HispRev 81.2 (Spring 2013): 232–235.

BARBIER, Josiane, COTTRET, Monique, and SCORDIA, Lydwine, eds. Amour et désamour du prince du haut Moyen Âge à la Révolution française. Rev. by Christophe CHAGUINIAN. FR 86.5 (April 2013): 1046–1047.

BOWERS, John. An Introduction to the Gawain Poet. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2012. Rev. by Gillian ADLER. Comitatus 44 (2013): 237–239.

Bowers surveys the poems attributed to the Gawain poet and includes St. Erkenwald. In the same vein as Spearing’s The “Gawain” Poet (1970) and Burrow’s The “Gawain” Poet (2001), the study offers detailed interpretations of each narrative but also a comprehensive biography, pieced from historical backgrounds, to hypothesize visits to Richard II’s court. Bowers contextualizes theories about the poet’s education and outlines the rifts between Richard 447and London. In discussing Pearl, he draws parallels between its courtly elements and the opulence of Richard’s court and analyzes fourteenth-century art, including Wilton Diptych, so as to offer new insights into the poem. Finally, Bowers treats moments in the poems in the context of our current culture and literary history to emphasize their influence and endurance. (NC)

BROWN, Cynthia J. The Queen’s Library: Image Making at the Court of Anne of Brittany, 1477–1514. Rev. by Kathy M. Krause. FR 86.5 (April 2013): 1027–1028.

BRUCKNER, Matilda Tomaryn. Chrétien Continued: A Study of the Conte du Graal and Its Verse Continuations. Rev. by Daisy Delogu. MP 110, No. 3. (2013): 152–155.

CARLSON, David R, ed., with a verse translation by A.G. RIGG. John Gower. Poems on Contemporary Events: The “Visio Anglie” (1381) and “Cronica tripertita” (1400). Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2011. Rev. by Misty SCHIEBERLE. University of Toronto Quarterly 82.3 (2013): 604–605.

Keywords: Vox Clamantis; English Peasant Rising (1381); courtly dream vision; visio; nightmare landscape; eligiac distichs; translation.

CARTLIDGE, Neil, ed. Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Medieval Romance. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012. Rev. by Raluca L. RADULESCU. Arthuriana 23. 3 (2013): 115–116.

Keywords: Alexander the Great, Turnus, Mordred, Sir Gowther, Merlin, Gawain; crusaders, Saracens.

CIAVOLELLA, Massimo and RISSO, Gianluca, eds. Like doves summoned by desire: Dante’s New Life in 20th Centure Literature and Cinema, Essays in memory of Amilcare Iannucci. New York: Agincourt Press, 2012. Rev. by Heather SOTTONG. Comitatus 44 (2013): 297–299.

Within this collection of essays, Raffaele Pinto’s and Luigi Ballerini’s articles pertain to courtly literature. Analyzing Buster Keaton’s use of Dante’s Paolo and Francesca in the final scene of Sherlock Jr. (1924), Pinto relies on René Girard’s Deceit, Desire and the Novel (1966) and the mediation of desire to unravel the scene’s complexities. Ballerini addresses the same episode in Inferno V, but focuses on the line “amor che a nullo amato amar perdona.” Noting past commentaries, Ballerini analyzes the philological and poetic 448meaning in light of Calvalcanti’s love lyrics. Also of interest is the final article by Natascia Tonelli who addresses the way the death of a lady begins with Dante’s work and continues to inspire Italian writers. (NC)

CLARK, David and McCLUNE, Kate, eds. Arthurian Literature XXVIII, Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the “Morte Darthur.” Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer, 2011. Rev. by Kenneth HODGES. Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 67–68.

Keywords: identity, kinship, honor, sibling rivalry, vengeance, treason.

CRANE, Susan. Animal Encounters: Contacts and Concepts in Medieval Britain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Rev. by Marijane OSBORN. Comitatus 44 (2013): 249–253.

In tracing the living animal within the text, Crane draws evidence from Bede to Chaucer, from London to Ireland. Method rather than argument links the chapters. Animal philosophy provides an analytic context for the werewolf in Bisclavret, the lai attributed to Marie de France (chapter 2). Chapter 4, “The Noble Hunt as Ritual Practice,” examines the spectacle in terms of human-animal communication, the mastery of nature, and a hierarchy of being. Crane’s analyses here may be useful in reading the hunts in Sir Gawain. In discussing Canacee and the falcon in Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale, Crane elaborates on the honor and dishonor associated with certain animals and then transferred to humans whose care for them, and even hunt of them, disrupts the binary opposition between species (chapter 5). The sixth chapter follows the theme of cohabitation to address the “Knight and Horse,” with subsections such as “The Performance of Knighthood” and “The Embodied Knight and Horse.” Such discussions lend insight into the representations of horses in courtly literature. Crane’s study opens new avenues of exploration for the literary scholar. (NC)

DILLON, Janette. The Language of Space in Court Performance, 1400–1625. Rev. by Kevin Dunn. MP 111, No. 1 (2013): 27–30. (SC)

DOSS-QUINBY, Eglal, GROSSEL, Marie-Geneviève, and ROSENBERG, Samuel N., eds. “Sottes chansons contre Amours”: parodie et burlesque au Moyen Âge. Rev. by Joan Tasker Grimbert. FR 86.4 (March 2013): 822–823.

EMING, Jutta, RASMUSSEN, Ann Marie, and STARKEY, Kathryn, eds. Visuality and Materiality in the Story of Tristan and Isolde. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012. Rev. by: Alison BERINGER. 449GerSR 36 (2013): 675–677. Rev. by Justin ROSE. Comitatus 44 (2013): 356–358.

This collection of essays is divided into three sections: Courtly Bodies, Seeing and Emotions; Media, Representation, and Performance; and Visual Culture of Tristan. The introduction explains the interpretative contexts. In the first section, the essays address the chiaroscuro between cave and court, the love potion as liberation, the religious and social constraints. The second section investigates the translation of myth to material products such as the Tristan murals in the château of Saint-Floret, and the third section considers the manuscripts in terms of object and of transmission. The articles resulted from a conference at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill Universities (2007). Whereas the reviewer notes the significance of the collection, he also calls for further reflection on its agency in respect to material culture. (NC)

EVERIST, Mark, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music. Rev. by Henry HOPE. MandL 94.4 (November 2013): 672–674.

FLETCHER, Alan J. The Presence of Medieval English Literature: Studies at the Interface of History, Author, and Text in a selection of Middle English Literary Landmarks, Cursor Mundi 14. Turnhout, Brepols: 2012. Rev. by Hannah ZDANSKY. Comitatus 44 (2013): 267–270.

Collected around the theme of reception, Fletcher historicizes canonized texts without sufficient explanation of “presence.” Among the texts, he devotes chapters to Sir Orfeo, to Canterbury Tales, and to Malory’s Morte Darthur. Although relying on Loomis’ outmoded 1942 analysis, Fletcher argues for the social construction of Sir Orfeo and the undermining of authority. His chapter on Canterbury Tales focuses on the “culture of heresy” (146) partially based on correcting the definition of errour (“sin”) to focus on “theological error.” Fletcher interprets Malory’s Morte in terms of anxiety over authoritative tropes in inscriptions, homilies, maxims, proverbs, and characters’ justifications. Despite flaws in the overall conception and organization of the book, Fletcher offers valuable insights into the individual texts he discusses. (NC)

GALLAGHER, Edward J[oseph], trans. Joseph BÉDIER. The Romance of Tristan and Iseut. Translated, with an Introduction. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2013. Rev. by Hans R. RUNTE.

450

GERLI, E. Michael. “Celestina” and the Ends of Desire. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. Rev. by Juan ESCOURIDO. HispRev 81.2 (Spring 2013): 225.

Keywords: Freud; Lacan.

GUYÉNOT, Laurent. La Lance qui saigne: Métatextes et hypertextes du “Conte du Graal” de Chrétien de Troyes. Essais sur le Moyen Âge 44. Paris: Champion, 2010. Rev. by Ann McCULLOUGH. Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 70–71.

Keywords: lance, grail, Fisher King, Gauvain, vengeance, myth.

HIMELBLAU, Jack J. Morphology of the “Cantar de Mío Cid”. Potomac, MD: Scripta Humanistica, 2010. Rev. Rev. by Grant GEARHART. Hispanófila 168 (May 2013): 135–136.

Keywords: Propp.

HINTON, Thomas, The Conte du Graal Cycle: Chrétien de Troyes’ “Perceval,” the Continuations, and French Arthurian Romance. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2012. Rev. by David F. HULT. Speculum 88.3 (July 2013): 812–816.

HOWARD, Lloyd H. Virgil the Blind Guide: Marking the Way through the “Divine Comedy.” Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010. Rev. by John M. FYLER. University of Toronto Quarterly 82.3 (2013): 648–649.

HUME, Cathy. Chaucer and the Culture of Love and Marriage. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012. Rev. Gillian ADLER. Comitatus 44 (2012): 280–282.

Following the critical tradition begun with Kittredge’s analyses of the Marriage Group, Hume relies on the neglected sources of advice literature and letter collections to analyze Chaucer’s representation of love and marriage. The study contributes to fourteenth- and fifteenth-century reception of late medieval literature. Although Hume excludes the Wife of Bath and her tale, the introduction provides a review of scholarship addressing the Marriage Group and then contextual analyses in light of marriage rules, advice for the good wife, and fifteenth-century correspondences from gentry and merchant families. Chapters seven and eight focus on Chaucer’s Troilus to examine resistance to the culture of courtly love. These contexts highlight Chaucer’s manipulation of cultural expectations to provide insights for students and teachers. (NC)

451

JONES, Catherine M., and Logan E. WHALEN, eds. “Li premerains vers”: Essays in Honor of Keith Busby. Rev. by Wendy PFEFFER. FR 87.1 (October 2013): 225–226.

KERBY-FULTON, Kathryn, HILMO, Maidie, and OLSON, Lindo. Opening up Middle English Manuscripts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012. Rev. by Sarah Kathryn MOORE. Comitatus (44) 2013: 288–289.

Recommended for all scholars of medieval English literature, this volume, companion to Clemens and Graham’s Introduction to Manuscript Studies, provides introductions and case studies, an overview of scripts and manuscripts. Chapter 2 in particular focuses on romances in the Auchinleck manuscript, Arthuriana, scribal consistencies, and reception in the context of readers and class. The fifth chapter addresses the Canterbury Tales and its manuscript versions. Over 200 colored illustrations, indices to manuscripts and extensive citations make the volume an invaluable resource. (NC)

KIM, Yonsoo. Between Desire and Passion: Teresa de Cartagena. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2012. Rev. by Raquel TRILLIA. HispRev 81.4 (Autumn 2013): 503–506.

Keywords: mysticism; women.

KINOSHITA, Sharon and McCRACKEN, Peggy. Marie de France: A Critical Companion. Gallica 24. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012. Rev. by Matthieu BOYD. Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 72–73.

Keywords: Marie de France, literary history, historical context, characters, narrative techniques.

LÖSER, Freimut, STEINKE, Robert, VOGELGSANG, Klaus, and WOLF, Klaus, eds. Neue Aspekte germanistischer Spätmittelalterforschung. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2012. Rev. by: Albrecht CLASSEN. GQ 86 (2013): 354–355.

PARKER, Margaret, ed. The Spanish “Santa Catalina de Alejandria”: The Many Lives of a Saint’s Life. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2010. Rev. by Ryan GILES. Hispanófila 168 (May 2013): 136–139.

PATTERSON, Lee. Acts of Recognition: Essays on Medieval Culture. Rev. by Shannon Gayk. MP 111, No. 1 (2013): 23–26.

Keywords: Clanvowe, John; court poetry.

452

PERAINO, Judith A. Giving Voice to Love: Song and Self-Expression from the Troubadours to Guillaume de Machaut. Rev. by Henry HOPE. Music and Letters 94.2 (May 2013): 334–337.

PINET, Simone. Archipelagoes: Insular Fictions from Chivalric Romance to the Novel. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011. Rev. by Jean DANGLER. HispRev 81.1 (Winter 2013): 110–113.

Keywords: Iberia; Amadís de Gaula.

PURDIE, Rhiannon, and CICHON, Michael, eds. Medieval Romance, Medieval Contexts. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2011. Rev by Ivana DJORDJEVIC. Speculum 88.1 (January 2013): 331–332.

ROBINS, William, ed. Textual Cultures of Medieval Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. Rev. by Bella MIRABELLA. University of Toronto Quarterly 82.3 (2013): 613–615.

Keywords: ottava rima; cantari; tenzone; literary debate; dolce stil novo.

RODER, Jeff, and FRIEDMAN, Jamie, eds. The Inner Life of Women in Medieval Romance Literature: Grief, Guilt, and Hypocrisy. The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Rev. by Amy N. VINES. Arthuriana 23.1 (2013): 78–81.

Keywords: emotion, emotionology, silence, women, guilt, grief, hypocrisy.

RODRIGUEZ-VELASCO, Jesús D., Order and Chivalry: Knighthood and Citizenship in Late Medieval Castile. Trans. Eunice Rodríguez Ferguson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Rev. by Cristina GUARDIOLA-GRIFFITHS. Speculum 88.2 (April 2013): 573–575.

SMITH, Nicole D. Satorial Strategies: Outfitting Aristocrats and Fashioning Conduct in Late Medieval Literature. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012. Rev. by Susan BROOKS. Comitatus 44 (2013): 339–341. Rev. by E. Jane BURNS. Arthuriana 23.2 (2013): 80–81. Rev. by Jan DUMOLYN. Speculum 88.4 (October 2013): 1166–1167.

Focusing on Guigemar attributed to Marie de France, on the Roman de Silence narrated by Heldris de Cornäulle, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale, Smith analyzes the literature in light of their contemporary ecclesiastical commentaries on clothing. She reads, for example, the church’s 453admonishment against tight lacing in light of the knottings by which the lovers in Guigemar recognize each other: whereas tight clothing invites vice in the church’s view, the lai posits the knotting of garments to signify the virtue of love. Likewise Sir Gawain transforms the green girdle from a fourteenth-century luxury item to a symbol of spiritual contemplation. In the Roman de Silence, cross-dressing becomes a mode of self-defense to comment on aristocratic avarice that, in turn, deprives the creative class of payment for their entertainments. Chaucer’s parson expresses his concern for revealing garments so as to correlate aristocratic opulence with neglect of the poor. The illustrations so enliven the four essays that additional plates would be welcome. (NC)

Keywords: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, penance, fashion, conduct.

STEEL, Karl. How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages. Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2011. Rev. by Ryan R. JUDKINS. Arthuriana 32.4 (2013): 125–126.

Keywords: domination, contamination, butchery, animal theory, violence, human.

ULRICH von Zatzikhoven. German Romance. Volume 4: Lanzelet. Kathleen J. Meyer, ed. and transl. Rev. by Thomas Kerth. JEGP 112, No. 1 (2013): 108–111.

VAN DYKE, Carolynn. ed. Rethinking Chaucerian Beasts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Rev. by Carl Grey MARTIN. Arthuriana 23.4 (2013): 127–128.

Keywords: animals, Troilus and Criseyde, Knight’s Tale, Nun’s Priests’s Tale, Chauntecleer, Chaucer.

ZAERR, Linda Marie. Performance and the Middle English Romance. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2012. Rev. by Alexandra VERINI. Comitatus 44 (2013): 364–366.

As a musician and a scholar, Zaerr investigates the interplay between the romances and the minstrel’s performance in the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries. Noting the lack of musical notations in continental texts, Zaerr relies on payment records naming particular instruments, the literary representations of minstrels, metrical variation in tail-rhymes, and extant monophonic songs, among other evidence, to highlight the improvisation and flexibility 454available to minstrels. This study fills a gap in scholarship and reminds us that the texts we read were performed. (NC)

Keywords: Sir Cliges; Edi Beo thu.