City, Marriage, Tournament: Arts of Rule in Late Medieval Scotland by Louise Olga Fradenburg

Abstract

REVIEWS LOUISE OLGA FRADENBURG. City, Marriage, Tournament: Arts ofRule in Late Medieval Scotland. Madison and London: University of Wiscon­ sin Press, 1991. Pp. xv, 390. $49.75 cloth; $19.95 paper. After a chapter or two, impatient readers might be provoked to question the premises ofthis book. If one isinterested in arts ofrule, why write about Scotland? If one is interested in Scottish literature, why concentrate whole chapters on such out-of-the-way texts as the Latin poems ascribed to one James Foullis, or the 1482 charters to Edinburgh ofJames III? Why look to the wedding (in 1503) ofMargaret Tudor andJames IV to demonstrate the "transformation of inequality into equality" in a royal wedding (p. xiv)? As it stands, there would appear to be operating throughout the book the expectation that the reader will, unpersuaded, accept the same value and emphasis the author has initially placed on the subject, as well as the assumption that this ratherout-of-the-waymaterial will serve as peculiarly, self-evidently rich ground for the unfolding of modern theories of power and identity. Because it does not come to terms in a full introduction with either the perceived marginality of its subject or (more important) with those particular qualities that differentiate Scottish literature and history from, say, English literature and history, this book may seem more dis­ jointed and less innovative than it actually is. Large ideas are sought in out-of-the-way places here. That is not a bad thing in itself, but there are dangers. Not least among these is that the reader probably lacks familiarity with the material and, without clear signposts andexplanations, may simply get lost. The landmarks referred to may seem arbitrarily chosen and not adequately reveal all the corners and turns along the way. The reader is likely to experience disorientation, most obviously during Fradenburg's discussion of theories about the late­ medieval development ofEdinburgh as a capital (pp. 31-34): this section cries out for a map. For the book as a whole, the other much-needed missing map would be a full, clear introduction that sets forth the context of its author's leading ideas and the relations among them. Granted, there is some briefintroductory justification ofthe emphasis of the book: "Late medieval Scotland is ofparticular interest to a study ofthe arts ofrule both because of its comparative 'decentralization' and because of the comparative flexibility which that decentralization gave to monar­ chical imaginings" (p. xv). These briefreferences to complex issues are left undeveloped, however.Thereader (especially the nonspecialist)must allow 199 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER the author much from the outset, notably that the three topics named in the title (lacking obvious integration, especially in the case of the first section, "City") will turn out to be connected in interesting and revelatory ways. Perhaps such things ought not to be assumed, but, after all, neither as history nor as literature is this material considered by many scholars and readers (outside Scotland, at any rate) as a Subject, possessing broad interest or central importance. There are advantages to Fradenburg's approach. The author takes risks and challenges the reader. She writes to demonstrate the real strengths and richness of this material, but she does so without special pleading or resorting expediently to a pantheon of great national events and works. Leading ideas are presented and then subside, to be alluded to chapters later. Still, this approach has its problems. At first look the sequence of chapters seems arbitrary, notably in the first section, in which the reader is expected to leap rapidly from the early history ofEdinburgh to two poems by William Dunbar, to the Trinity Altarpiece (Edinburgh, attributed to Hugo van der Goes), to the uneasy relations between James III and his capital, to the remaking of the identity of the city in the early sixteenth century, as revealed in contemporary Latin poems. Given the perception that introductory and connective exposition is lacking, criticism ofthe larger contexts that the author does provide for her analyses may hardly seem fair. Nevertheless, the book may be seen thus to move from potentially bewildering lack ofarticulation to distracting over­ articulation. Does recent discussion of Edinburgh as...