Medieval Balladry and the Courtly Tradition: Literature of Revolt and Assimulation by Gwendolyn A. Morgan (review)

Abstract

98arthuriana Fortune was in a good mood that day and decided to spin in an upward direction. And while medieval theorists may authorize a view ofthe fall ofArthur as merely an unhappy downward spin of Fortune's wheel, in practice Arthurian authors establish far more intricate and profound views ofArthur's fall. Guerin seems aware that there is more to be said, but has difficulty finding away to say it because she reviews, rather than renegotiates, the medieval idea oftragedy. This, ofcourse, would require a different book than the one Guerin has chosen ro write. Guerin's practice is more interesting than her theory. While fitting the end of Camelot into a simple de casibus structure, het investigation of the Motdred figure redefines Fortuna and begins to suggest a history and a psychology of tragedy, an Oedipal history of incest that links up with a theology of sin and a psychology of guilt and retribution in which Arthur suffers not an arbitrary and accidental fall, but the punishment for and consequences ofhis own original sin. Guerin's investigation of this painful fall is most effective in her discussion of the Vulgate Cycle. Her careful reading ofthe text makes a clear and convincing case for the original sins that prepare the fall ofCamelot even almost before it has begun to rise. Guerin is less convincing in texts which 'exemplify the veiled treatment of Arthur's nemesis.' When this comes to mean texts in which Mordred is barely mentioned and never appears, ?eilseems to become a synonym for absent. Insofar as she is committed to the character ofMordred, Guerin provides some rather strained readings of Chrétien and SGGK. On the other hand, when she forgets Mordred altogether, she provides useful and careful readings ofthe texts in question; similarly, when she moves on to a less incarnate notion ofMordred and uses him as a metonym for the lecherous desires that both cause and define him, she implies a more complex theory of tragedy than she articulates. She begins to explicate the haunting sense of the ending that shadows some of the most apparently cheerful Arthurian texts. In short, while this is an idiosyncratic book, it provides a number ofchallenging insights and perceptive readings. The quality ofthework may most easily be suggested by quoting its eloquent and evocative conclusion: Not tragedy, then, but comedy closes each new work, and each adventure ends not in sorrowbut in joy. But medieval literature is meant not only to please but also to instruct. Beyond the laughter ofthe court lies the Wasteland: beyond the adventures, in the last text ofall, Fortune's wheel will turn and Mordred is waiting to put an end to all the tales: '...que après ce n'en porroit nus riens conter qui n'en mentist de toutes choses' (235). DONALD L. HOFFMAN Northeastern Illinois University Gwendolyn a. Morgan, Medieval Balladry and the Courtly Tradition: Literature of Revolt and Assimulation. American University Studies: Series 4, English Language and Literature, vol. 160. New York: Peter Lang, 1993. Pp. 148. isbn: 0-8204-2042-5. Í3é-9S· Gwendolyn A. Morgan's MedievalBalkdry and the Courtly Tradition begins with the assumption that the eighty-some surviving medieval ballads express 'the REVIEWS^ consciousness of the common folk' (i) and that these ballads 'are all ofa piece' (3). The similarity that Morgan sees between the ballads extends beyond form, and she argues that medieval ballads expressed a consistently peasant world view. From this perspective, claims Morgan, the ballads reveal a world ofbleak pragmatism in which the concepts ofchivalry and courtly love are the idle games ofthe aristocracy. In the later chapters of the book Morgan argues that this pragmatic and commonsensical view of the world developed out of a model of Anglo-Saxon epic literature and influenced the English school ofwriting ofthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Many ofthe ballads present a wotld ofcommoners in which those who live by theit wits succeed while the idealists who adhere to a chivalric code ofbehavior often fail. After an examination of such ballads as 'The Lass of Roch Royal' and 'The Demon Lover,' Morgan concludes that the hero 'must be utterly and unrelentingly practical. This unidealized recipe for behavior, then...