Individuality and Achievement in Middle English Poetry ed. by O.S. Pickering (review)

Abstract

reviews117 baring her breasts is a fascinating work though Hotchkiss omits any discussion ofit. I wonder how Christian iconographers constructed sanctity and gender in portraits of female transvestites? The deficit ofHotchkiss's work is also its strength. The author paints broad strokes drawing upon various medieval texts covering numerous centuries, ethnic groups and varieties ofliterature. The fine points and nuances ofparticular times and places are glossed over. Hotchkiss has made however a vital contribution to cultural analysis of gender in the Middle Ages. JANE MARIE PINZlNO University of Puget Sound o.s. pickering, ed. Individuality andAchievementin MiddleEnglish Poetry. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997. Pp. xi, 227. isbn: 0-85991-424-0. $71. Something of a scholarly miscellany, this collection of twelve original articles on a range ofMiddle English texts—including the CursorMundi, St. Erkenwald, The Siege ofJerusalem, and The Castle ofPerseverance, among othets—is marked by its eclecticism and its intentional omission ofany discussion ofthe works ofChaucer, Langland, or the Pearl-poet. It is also notable for its essays' collective tendency (ifnot commitment) toward a brand of 'New Critical' reading: the volume is published, its editor forthrightly admits, as a 'counterbalance' to other critical approaches that have 'led to a decline in the amount of literary appreciation, and to a neglect in particular of the achievements ofpoets who are not at the centre ofthe. . .canon' (vii). This intriguing attempt to blend old-fashioned close reading and new-fangled canon questioning yields results that, if on the whole uneven, are often illuminating. The volume includes essays by Alexandra Barratt on The Owlandthe Nightingale, John J.Thompson on the CursorMundi, Derek Pearsall on The Simonie, andThorlac Turville-Petrc on the poem 'Ne mai no lewed lued' from British Library, MS Harley 2253. Two other articles, one by Karl Reichl and the other by Julia Boffey, focus on love lyrics and religious lyrics, respectively. David Lawton and John Butrow each write on allitetative verse, with Lawton spotlighting the SiegeofJerusalem and Burrow St. Erkenwald, and O. S. Pickering surveys the imagety employed in a number of other religious poems. Three articles on medieval drama, by Avril Henry, Myra Stokes, and Peter Meredith, round out the collection. While space doesn't petmit a full discussion of every article, several ofthe pieces desetvc special mention. Pearsall in 'The Timelessness of The Simonie,' for instance, describes the three versions in which that poem exists and notes how very few changes are made in the different versions to make it more topical. Characterizing that poem as a 'social penitential,' he argues for the thematic necessity ofthe very 'permanence' ofthe abuses the poem describes. Turville-Petre's essay, 'English Quaint and Strange in "Ne mai no lewed lued",' summarizes this rather little-known poerri nicely and then, by means ofsome philological commentary and comparisons to other consistory court accounts, persuades that the poem adopts, in something ofthe manner ofthe ii8arthuriana fabliaux, a 'lewed' perspective in otdet to laugh at it. Burrow's 'Redundancy in Alliterative Verse: St. Erkenwald' is a brief but suggestive reflection on the narrative and stylistic 'economy' of the poem, and Henry offers a quantitative, exhaustive analysis of 'The Dramatic Function of Rhyme and Stanza Patterns in The Castle of Perseverance that is necessary reading for future studies ofthe play. Readers of this journal may want to be aware that two ofthe articles, Burrow's and David Lawtons excellent 'Titus Goes Hunting and Hawking: The Poetics ofRecreation and Revenge in The Siege ofJerusalem,' make passing references to Arthurian poems such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Awntyrs offArthure, and their respective arguments might well prompt some new thinking on alliterative Arthurian literature. It is not at all clear that this collection will (ot should) have the 'counterbalancing' effect that is intended for it, particularly since at least some ofthe approaches alluded to in the book's 'Preface' seem to be employed, ironically enough, in its essays. Individuality andAchievement in Middle English Poetry does contain, however, a good deal ofsolid and worthwhile scholarship, and its readers may find themselves turning to some seldom-read poems with fresh enthusiasm. DANIEL PINTI New Mexico State University N.F. blake, William Caxton and English Literary Culture. London...