Chaste Passions: Medieval English Virgin Martyr Legends ed. by Karen A. Winstead (review)

Abstract

ARTHURIANA Donjt je] voel ceste rime fere Nil n'est mie drois c'on se taise... but should read: Pour çou que vraie est la matere Dont je v[o]el ceste rime fere Qu'il n'est mie drois c'on se taise... Only the o of voelis completely hidden by the fold in the manuscript, and in spite of Suchier, Gnarra, and Sargent-Baur all having N'il in line 37, I believe the correct initial letter is Q' rather than N (cf. 1. 40 vs. 1. 33). As is clear from the above lines, Sargent-Baur's editorial policy is to '[add] the diéresis when the [final] e needs to sounded in hiatus for the sake of the meter' (pp. 125-26) and to use the cedilla to soften the pronunciation ofc before a, 0, u. However, in the second passage reproduced at length in the illustrations (figure 8, lines 296178 and 2991-3018), I found the diéresis missing in lines 2962, 2964, 2995 (que it), 3006 (que aves), and 3015 (que amender), and a cedilla lacking in 2996 (commença). Furthermore, there is an improper accent on enfés (3007), and the nasal bar is missing on compaignons (3014), which should therefore be rendered compaigno[n]s. With the exception ofviolent for voisent in line 23, these are largely editorial quibbles that do not significantly affect the sense of the text. Nonetheless, the multiplicity of such problems in the few lines that can be verified against photos of the manuscript is troubling and leads me to conclude that the preferred Old French text must remain that by Suchier. On the other hand, the prefatory materials by Stones, Middleton and Sargent-Baur effectively update Suchier's introduction, except for the language study. Finally, Gnarra's notes on the text are much more detailed than Sargent-Baur's and in general, to my ear at least, her translation is more graceful. WILLIAM W. KIBIER The University ofTexas at Austin Karen a. wiNSTEAD, ed. and trans., Chaste Passions: Medieval English Virgin Martyr Legends. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. Pp. 201. isbn: 0-8014-3569-2 (cloth). $39-95; 0-8014-8557-6 (pbk). $16.95. Karen Winstead's Virgin Martyrs: Legends ofSainthood in Late Medieval England (Cornell University Press, 1997) was one of the first major studies to address the representations of virgin martyrs and the changing audiences for their popular narratives in late medieval England. Now, with Chaste Passions: Medieval English Virgin Martyr Legends, Winstead makes available to more general readers and students the important primary material, in accessible modern English translations. This new collection comprises sixteen examples ofthe popular virgin martyr legend from across three hundred years, several regions and dialects, and from an interesting variety of Middle English sources and reading contexts. Winstead's collection includes both the expected and unexpected—for instance, the widely translated and very popular legends ofSt. Katherine and St. Margaret, as REVIEWS89 well as the more unusual legends of St. Winifred (who survived her beheading and lived for many years afterwards) and St. Eugenia (the transvestite saint who resisted the accusation of sexual assault by revealing her actual, female, body). Winstead's choices demonstrate the often unrealised truth ofmedieval saints' narratives: though the stories may and frequently do share important narrative elements (for instance, the wheel torture in both the legend of St. Katherine and St. Juliana), they are nevertheless remarkably diverse, reflecting both the initial—often female—audience's desires and the—mostly male—writer's sense of responsibility or obligation to the lesson offered by the text. One of the key critical strengths of this collection resides in the author's introductions to the individual legends. Winstead's previously published work on the virgin saints' lives set the precedent for the standard revealed here, and she obviously draws on some of that earlier work in the short essays which accompany the translations. In these brief introductions, she focusses on the production and transmission of the written legend and the possible audience for the specific version she is translating, elucidating some ofthe key issues ofmedieval lay-piety and literary culture. One ofthe most useful elements ofher short essays...