Literature and Complaint in England, 1272-1553

Abstract

This learned and well-organised book explores the legal substrate of what has been called ‘complaint literature’, locating the roots of that literature in new plaint procedures made available by the Crown in the mid- to late thirteenth century, and demonstrating the continuing closeness of form and theme between evolving regimes of plaint and petition and what the author engagingly calls ‘the literature of clamour’. Wendy Scase ranges impressively widely, drawing out the textual links between later medieval petitionary practice and the lively culture of pamphleteering and libel in the sixteenth century: Reformation and commonwealth polemics did not spring anew from the fresh air of the Renaissance; they built on well-established traditions. Scase also makes a significant and thought-provoking case for a new pathway in the making of English literature: the demand for English-language petitions led clerks to alter the rules of dictamen and lay down the frameworks for a standard literary English, while the judicial legitimacy (sometimes) accorded to public clamour encouraged the production of vernacular poetry vocalising public and popular concerns.