521

NORTH AMERICA

2018 entries

I. COLLECTIONS

[none reported]

II. TEXTS

[none reported]

III. STUDIES

ALLEN-GOSS, Lucy. “Transgressive Desire in Chaucer’s Legend of Thisbe.” ChauR 53.2 (2018): 194-212.

Chaucer’s version in the Legend of Good Women participates in an established tradition including Jerome and Alain de Lille of the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe as an exemplum that explores relationships of gender, grammar, desire, and interpretation. (MH)

BAROOTES, B. S. W. “‘In forme of speche is chaunge’: Final -e in Troilus and Criseyde, Book II, Lines 22-28.” ChauR 53.1 (2018): 102-111.

Examination of the extant manuscripts of Troilus and Criseyde shows Chaucer’s early scribes’ careful attention to preserving his use of the “already-antiquated” final -e deployed to reflect and comment on differences in language forms—geographic, temporal, written, and oral. (MH)

BENNETT, Michael. “John Gower, Squire of Kent, the Peasant’s Revolt, and the Visio Anglie.” ChauR 53.3 (2018): 258-282.

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New archival evidence attests to Gower’s retention of an interest in and occupation of his manor in Kent during the time of the Peasant’s Revolt (1381), bringing fuller understanding of his social circles and political views. (MH)

BJORK, Robert E. “The Wife of Bath’s Bele Chose.” ChauR 53.3 (2018): 336-349.

Chaucer uses the term “bele chose” in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue as a deliberate rebuke of the labeling of private parts as pudendum (shameful thing). (MH)

CLASSEN, Albrecht. “The Discourse about Gender Relationships on the Urban Stage in Late Medieval German Shrovetide Plays and Verse Narratives.” Performance and Theatricality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Mark Cruse. ASMAR 41 (2018): 111-133.

DURHAM, Lofton L. “A Case for Reperformance: Illustrations in the Istoire de la Destruction de Troie la Grant.” Performance and Theatricality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Mark Cruse. ASMAR 41 (2018): 55-91.

GALVEZ, Marisa. “The Intersubjective Performance of Confession vs. Courtly Profession.” Performance and Theatricality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Mark Cruse. ASMAR 41 (2018): 1-16.

GASTON, Kara. “Forms and Celestial Motion in Chaucer’s Complaint of Mars.” PMLA 133.2 (2018).

Chaucer’s Complaint enables Gaston to engage with current scholarly discussions on the existence of literary forms independent of perception. Based on medieval astronomy, the love affair between Mars and Venus depicts planetary movement during a specific time period in their celestial cycles. The pathos of loss Mars articulates intersects with a larger framework than the linear one of his experience. Likewise, perception of rhetorical forms change against the background of the entire literary work. Gaston’s analyses suggest that perception depends on the connections between some forms and the time of reading. (NC)

GEERAERT,Dustin. “’Etaynez þat Hym Anelede of þe Heӡe Felle’”: Ghosts of Giants in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Comitatus 49 (2018): 71-101.

A philological tracing of the word for giant, etaynez, leads to narrative parallels in Old Norse. Germanic mythology underlies the representations of magic 523and nature bestowing ancient wisdom that foretells the demise of Arthur’s court. (NC)

Keywords: Old Norse Sagas; Tolkien; romantic philology.

GRACIA, Nahir I. Otaño. “Representing Kin(g)ship in Medieval Irish.” Enarratio: Publications of the Medieval Association of the Midwest 22 (2018): 1-24.

HENSON, Chelsea S. “‘Under a holte so hore’: Noble Waste in The Awntyrs off Arthure.” Arthuriana 28.4 (2018): 3-24.

An ecocritical examination of the aristocracy and how excessive wastefulness endangers the environment and sustainability of the court. (SH)

Keywords: excess, surplus, abundance, ostentation; environment, ecology, nature, culture, wasteland, system; hunting, forest, deer.

JOHNSON, David F. “Black Waters, Dragons, and Fiends: Arthur’s Dream in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur.” Arthuriana 28. 3 (2018): 15-32.

The Stanzaic poet’s adaptation of Arthur’s dream of the Wheel of Fortune, perhaps inspired by Book IV of Gregory’s Dialogues, offers a unique, more positive view of King Arthur’s fate based on individual merit and divine judgment. (SH)

Keywords: Mort Artu; Mordred, Goddess Fortuna; translation, source, influence; afterlife, heaven, hell, Otherworld, Soul Bridge of Judgment; mischance.

KING, David S. “The Wounded Knight’s Stench in the Prose Lancelot: The Grail Quest Prefigured.” Arthuriana 28.1 (2018): 56-68.

The stench emanating from the wound of the knight Lancelot rescues during his first adventure represents a metaphor for the moral corruption that will eventually undermine Lancelot’s quest for the Holy Grail. (SH) Keywords: Galahad; flesh, decay, trauma, odor, oath, vow, suffering, sin.

LEMONS, Andrew. “The Form of Voice in Chaucer’s House of Fame.” ChauR 53.2 (2018): 123-151.

Chaucer uses rhyme in The House of Fame to reflect on voice in form and in poetic activity. (MH)

LYNCH, Andrew. “Making Joy / Seeing Sorrow: Emotional and Affective Resources in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur.” Arthuriana 28. 3 (2018): 33-50.

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The Stanzaic poet creates an atmosphere of emotional intensity through various stylistic strategies. (SH)

Keywords: repetition, verbal collocation, transitions, brevity, compression, aesthetics, cognition, experience, action, passion, speech, affect.

MARTIN, Johnathan Seelye. “Monopolizing Violence: Gewalt, Self-Control, and the Law in Heinrich von Veldeke’s Eneasroman.” GQ 91.1 (Winter 2018): 18-33.

Martin demonstrates in an introduction and three chapters: “The Failed State,” “Turnus, the ‘Great Criminal’,” “Eneas: From Flawed to Flawless Hero,” and then the “Conclusion:: The Idealized Monopoly of Violence,” that “The Eneasroman as a whole shows a move from uncontrolled violence, at its beginning, to monopolized violence, at its end, bringing justice, peace, and the birth of Christ.” Martin shows the role of violence and self-control by connecting the legal development surrounding feuding and the Landfrieden to the “origins of courtliness.” (SJ)

Keywords: Lavinia; Latinus; Old French Roman d’Eneas (c. 1160); Vergil’s Aeneid; Friedrich Barbarossa (reigned 1152-1190); Landfrieden (of 1179 and 1186); mâze (self-control); trial by combat.

ORIOL, Guillaume. “Taming Time: Writing and Motifs of Waiting in Twelfth- through Fourteenth-Century Occitan Albas.” Encomia 38-39 (2018): 23-35.

Oriol describes mostly the difference between an alba and a canso. “The canso projects desire in the future of an unfulfilled love, a future that is an integral part of the poetic strategies of the genre. Conversely, in the alba, the notion of adulterous love is essential to the genre, since it portrays the moment that precedes both the sunrise and the separation of a couple, who must flee the daylight.” (SJ)

Keywords: watchman’s warnings; lovers’ tryst; bird’s song; foliage’s freshness; shadow’s concealment; flowers; Raimon de Las Salas; Guiraut Riquier; Guiraut de Bornelh; Bertran Alamanon; Jaufre Rudel.

MATLOCK, Wendy A. “Reading Family in the Rate Manuscript’s Saint Eustace and Sir Isumbras.” ChauR 53.3 (2018): 350-373.

Their contextualization within a miscellaneous manuscript (Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61) among poems of community and household instruction domesticates the aristocratic narratives of Saint Eustace and Sir Isumbras for a late medieval audience (c.1500) by highlighting a bourgeois notion of affective family already discernible in the two poems. (MH)

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MATTHEWS, Ricardo. “Arcite’s Overheard Song: The Knight’s Tale and the Prosimetrum Tristan en prose.” ChauR 53.2 (2018): 152-177.

Palamoun’s reaction to Arcite’s song places the Knight’s Tale within the tradition of “a popular French prosimetrum,” the Tristan en prose. (MH)

MATTHEWS, Ricardo. “Song in Reverse: the Medieval Prosimetrum and Lyric Theory.” PMLA 133.2: 296-313.

Rather than considering the heritage of lyric as if a continuation from the ancient to the modern, Matthews takes the prosimetrum as the precursor to modern lyric because the narrative context highlights an emotional song that invites imaginative expressions. The medieval form inspires various poetic genres and provides a window onto subjectivity. The analysis takes many of the French and English high and late medieval lyricists as examples with extended attention to Chaucer, Canticus Troili and Dante. (NC)

Keywords: dit amoureux; prison amoureuse;canso; canzoniere.

MORRIS, Aubrey. “‘Here is my Glove’: Introductory Oath-taking and Trial by Combat in Le Morte Darthur.” Arthuriana 28.1 (2018): 20-37.

Arthur’s failure to regulate oath-taking before trial by combat undermines justice. When oaths are not clearly defined, judiciary duels fail to deliver a definitive verdict, thus threatening the stability of the realm. (SH)

Keywords: Malory; proof, conflict, judgment, battle, accusation, defense, decision.

NIELSEN, Melinda. “Being Boethius: Vitae, Politics, and Treason in Thomas Usk’s Testament of Love.” SP 115.1 (Winter 2018): 25-47.

Thomas Usk’s Testament of Love offers insight into the reading practices (rewriting and interpreting) of the medieval Boethian tradition including Latin vitae and commentary, glosses and vernacular translations as well as looser imitations of the Consolatio, showing a “darker” political side to the contemplative paradigm ascribed to Boethius’s account of his imprisonment. (MH)

PETRINI, Vincenzo Lisciani. “La comica apocalisse nella poesia del Trecento e del Quattrocento.” Italian Quarterly 55.215-218 (Winter-Fall 2018): 134-147.

REYNOLDS, Evelyn. “Kynde in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Arthuriana 28. 2 (2018): 28-52.

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An analysis of the Middle English word kynde (nature) and its application to the relationship between identity and action. (SH)

Keywords: genealogy, lineage, kinship; reputation, ethics, character, courtesy; action, sovereignty.

RUDE, Sarah B. “Seeing is Believing and Achieving: Viewing the Eucharist in Malory’s Sankgreal.” Arthuriana 28. 2 (2018): 3-27.

Medieval eucharist theology and optics enhance our understanding of the Grail Quest and knightly achievement. (SH)

Keywords: Galahad; style, sight, vision, intromission, extramission, mass, religion, salvation, chivalry, transubstantiation.

SOLEO-SHANKS, Jenna. “The Spectacle of Sainthood: Performance and Politics of La Festa et Storia di Sancta Caterina in Siena.” Performance and Theatricality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Mark Cruse. ASMAR 41 (2018): 35-54.

SPONSLER, Claire. “Tracing Medieval Performance: The Visual Archive.” Performance and Theatricality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Mark Cruse. ASMAR 41 (2018): 93-109.

SPROUSE, Sarah J. “Lady Bertilak’s Pearls: Instrumenta Dei and the Stone Imagery that Unites the Cotton Nero A.x. (art. 3) Poems.” Arthuriana 28.4 (2018): 25-45.

An analysis of the material and religious significance of stones and how their biblical meanings create a context for understanding thematic and textual connections among the four romances contained within the manuscript. (SH) Keywords:Pearl, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Cleanness; Pearl-poet, Pearl-Maiden, Bertilak’s wife, Gawain, Dreamer, Belshazzar, Daniel, David, Apocalypse; lapidary, symbolism.

STEWART, James T. “‘They weren no thing ydel’: Noblemen and Their Supporters in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.” ChauR 53.3 (2018): 283-307.

In the Knight’s Tale chivalric displays ofprowess are underpinned by the coordinated efforts of “many other people”—“craftsmen, attendants, soldiers, and other lords,” calling attention to the social structures supporting noble status in part maintained by an ability to bind such groups together and command them. (MH)

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TAYLOR, Candace Hull. “Performing Prudence in Sawles Warde and Chaucer’s Tale of Melibee.” Performance and Theatricality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Mark Cruse. ASMAR 41 (2018): 17-34.

VINES, Amy N. “‘Who-so wylle of nurtur lere’: Domestic Foundations for Social Success in the Middle English Emaré.” ChauR 53.1 (2018): 82-101.

Appearing with conduct manuals and courtesy texts in the 15th-century “household” miscellany British Library MS Cotton Caligula A.ii suggests the Breton lay Emaré (as well as other romance narratives that appear in compilations combining the two genres) was intended for “the same readers (children and families).” (MH)

WALLING, Amanda. “Placebo Effects: Flattery and Antifeminism in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale and the Tale of Melibee. SP 115.1 (Winter 2018): 1-24.

Chaucer’s two tales relying on the work of the jurist Albertanus of Brescia show how principles of counsel and gender are closely linked. (MH)

IV. REVIEWS

BRANDSMA, Frank, Carolyne LARRINGTON, and Corinne SAUNDERS, eds. Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature. Arthurian Studies LXXXIII. Woodbridge, Suffolk: D.S. Brewer, 2015. Rev. by Sonja MAYRHOFER. Arthuriana 28.1 (2018): 72-74.

Keywords: magic, affect, neuroscience, psychology, language, gender, empathy.

BURGESS, Glyn S., and Leslie C. BROOK, trans. Twenty-Four Lays from the French Middle Ages. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2016. 288 p. Rev. by Tamara Bentley CAUDILL. Encomia 38-39 (2018): 37-39.

BURGESS, Glyn S. and Douglas KELLY (trans). “The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure. Comitatus 49 (2018). Rev. by Christina POLITANO: 229-230. Positive review not only for the much-needed translation which invites a wider audience, but also for the introduction and appendices. (NC)

FREED, John B. Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016. Pp 712. Rev. by Edward ROBERTS. GerStR 41.1 (February 2018): 153-154.

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GILES, Ryan G. and Matthew BAILEY, eds. Charlemagne and his Legend in Early Spanish Literature and Historiography. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2016. Rev. by Scott WARD. Hispanófila 182 (January 2018): 192-193.

Keywords: Spanish epic; Roncesvalles; Bernardo del Carpio; el Cid; Fierabras; Chanson de Roland; Siete infantes de Lara; Nicolas Piamonte; Cervantes.

HASTY, Will. The Medieval Risk-Reward Society: Courts, Adventure, and Love in the European Middle Ages. Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press, 2016. Rev. by Ann Marie RASMUSSEN. Arthuriana 28.4 (2018): 97-98.

Keywords: game theory, culture, community, competition, culture, adventure.

HOLLIS, Morgan L. S. Beds and Chambers in Late Medieval England: Readings, Representations, and Realities. Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2017. Rev. by Andrea LESPRON. Comitatus 49: 253-255.

Relying on Middle English romances and interdisciplinary studies derived from legal, historical, and archeological sources, Hollis argues for the chamber as a space for leisure, intimacy, public discussion and the empowerment of women. As a woman’s domain, the chamber provokes masculine anxiety, but it also allows religion, sexuality and power to come together. The reviewer notes glitches in the arguments, but also finds much material to suggest areas for future research. (NC)

Keywords: Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell; Chaucer; illustration, Henry VII’s bed.

HOSTETTER, Aaron. Political Appetites: Food in Medieval English Romance. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2017. Rev. by Irina DUMITRESCU. Arthuriana 28. 3 (2018): 115-116.

Keywords: Andreas, Roman de Silence, Havelok the Dane, Sir Gowther; identity, relationships, domination, power; nature, nurture, gender; cannibalism, feasts, consumption, meals; dogs.

KRUG, Rebecca. Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017. Rev. by Julie ORLEMANSKI. Arthuriana 28. 2 (2018): 114-115.

Keywords: comfort, despair, shame, fear, loneliness, alliteration, rhyme, solidarity, spiritual community.

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LANGER, Ullrich. Lyric in the Renaissance: From Petrarch to Montaigne. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015. Rev by William N. WEST. Modern Philology 116.1 (2018): E24-E26.

Keywords: Charles d’Orléans, Petrarch, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Montaigne.

LEGASSIE, Shayne Aaron. The Medieval Invention of Travel. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Rev. by Anna WILSON. Arthuriana 28. 2 (2018): 115-117.

Keywords: pilgrimage, Holy Land, missionary work, trade, travel literature, diaries, memory, cultural and religious differences.

MATTHEWS, Alastair. The Medieval Lohengrin: Narrative Poetics in the Story of the Swan Knight. Rochester: NY: Camden House, 2016. 250 p. Rev. by Alexandra STERLING-HELLENBRAND. GQ 91.2 (Spring 2018): 228-230.

MCKINLEY, Katherine. Chaucer’s House of Fame and Its Bocaccian Intertexts: Image, Vision and the Vernacular. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2016. Rev. by Warren GINSBERG. Modern Philology 115.4 (2018): E238-E241.

Keywords: Bocaccio, De mulieribus claris; Chaucer, House of Fame.

NAKLEY, Susan. Living in the Future: Sovereignty and Internationalism in the Canterbury Tales. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017. Rev. by Joseph TAYLOR. Arthuriana 28.3 (2018): 117-118.

Keywords: nationhood, nationalism, kingdoms, landscapes, language, religion, customs, empire, anachronism, community, domesticity.

NELSON, Ingrid. Lyric Tactics: Poetry, Genre, and Practice in Later Medieval England. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. Rev. by Carol E. HARDING. Arthuriana 28. 2 (2018): 118-119.

Keywords: writing, performance, transmission, rhetoric, voice, language.

NOWLIN, Steele. Chaucer, Gower, and the Affect of Invention. Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2016. Rev. Misho Sarah Ishikawa. Comitatus 49 (2018): 258-260.

Although the reviewer finds fault with some organization and the neglect of Aristotelian ethics, this first monograph provides significant close readings 530and contributes to studies of affect and poetics. Nowlin’s analyses posits invention as an affective force preceding audience emotional and cognitive responses. (NC)

Keywords: Chaucer, House of Fame, Legend of Good Women, Canterbury Tales Fragment VII; Gower, Confessio Amantis.

ROSENBERG, Samuel N., trans. Robert the Devil. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018. Pp. vii, 157. Rev. by Logan E. WHALEN. Encomia 38-39 (2028): 40-41.

SAINT-CRICQ, Gaël, with Eglal DOSS-QUINBY and Samuel N. ROSENBERG. Motets from the Chansonnier de Noailles. Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, 42. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, Inc., 2017. Rev. by Elizabeth Eva LEACH. MusL 99.2 (May 2018): 281-285.

SUCH, Peter, and Richard RABONE, eds. and trans. The Poem of Fernán González. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2015. Rev. by David ARBESÚ. Hispanófila 182 (January 2018): 205-206.

The review is critical of this edition of the Poema de Fernán González because it does not make clear which manuscript was the source used for the translation into English. (CDS)

WADIAK, Walter. Savage Economy: The Returns of Middle English Romance. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016. Rev. by Sarah M. ANDERSON. Arthuriana 28. 3 (2018): 120-122.

Keywords: donum, gifts, surplus, exchange, violence, household accounts.

WADIAK, Walter. Savage Economy: The Returns of Middle English Romance. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. Rev. Maia FARRAR. Comitatus 49 (2018): 281-283.

In that many romances end with a return to where they begin, Wadiak connects gift giving to violence in that the exchange fails to eliminate hostilities. Whereas some of his critical analyses requires scholarly background, the study contributes to gift-giving theory vis-à-vis the aristocratic economy in addition to insightful interpretations of the romances. (NC)

Keywords: Floris and Blancheflour; Sir Cleges; Launfal; Sir Amadace; Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle; A Geste of Robyn Hode; The Tale of Gamelyn.

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WHITMAN, Jon, ed. Romance and History: Imagining Time from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Rev. by Andres James JOHNSTON. Arthuriana 28.1 (2018): 82-83.

Keywords: Rome, Italy, Britain; antiquity, romance, genealogy, allegory, history, gender, hybridity.