Medieval Narratives of Accused Queens by Nancy B. Black (review)

Abstract

ii 14 Reviews a human rather than biblical or universal level. Greene also probes the real, historical beginnings of the story of Arthur's death in historiography, pseudo-historiography, and Celtic legend, from an innovative standpoint. This work is a revised version of Greene's doctoral thesis?indeed, it is narrated as such?and here its one fairlyserious weakness comes to the fore. Although it gathers speed and argumentative power as it heads towards its conclusion, this book should have been much more rigorously edited, especially the earlier chapters. The Mort is not really mentioned, let alone analysed, until page 74, and it is only in the fourth chapter than any substantial commentary on the text itself begins. Greene also has a frustrating habit of making intriguing statements just as a chapter is drawing to a close; at the end of each of the firstthree chapters the reader is leftwith the feeling that a promising argument has almost been articulated but cut offin its prime. Never? theless, this is an important and welcome addition to criticism on the Mort, which, like its subject matter, approaches a widely read and well-loved story with originality, dry wit, and humanity. Girton College, Cambridge Miranda Griffin Medieval Narratives ofAccused Queens. By Nancy B. Black. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 2003. xviii + 262pp. $59.95. ISBN 0-8130-2640-7. Nancy B. Black's study of the narratives of accused queens is very welcome. The previous major work on the subject, Margaret Schlauch's Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens (New York: New York University Press, 1927), has been in need of updating forsome time. Black provides a useful, selective bibliography relevant to the subject, and discusses an impressive range of works dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenthcenturies, centring on the Empress of Rome (Gautier de Coincy; Vincent of Beauvais, including Jean de Vignay's French translation; Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages', the wall-paintings of Eton College Chapel; the Bauchun Chapel roofbosses at Norwich Cathedral; Christine de Pizan; Hoccleve), the Handless Queen (La Manekine and its prosification; MaiundBeaflor; Le Roman du Comte d'Anjou; Miracles de Nostre Dame par personnages), Constance (Nicholas Trevet; John Gower; Geoffrey Chaucer), and Helen of Constantinople (the chanson degeste and prosification), glancing also at the traditions relating to Florence of Rome, the Gesta Romanorum, and Genevieve of Brabant. Black succeeds in her aim of breaking away fromthe dominance of Chaucer studies (although she presumes that her readers know Middle English, but translates?accurately?the French texts). She uses the comparative framework effectively,and analyses rhetoric sensitively. Her work is characterized by its feminist motivation, interest in manuscripts and other material artefacts, and consideration of historical context. The resulting study forms an important contribution to gender studies in late medieval French and English literature. Critical comments included below should be understood in the context of this generally very positive evaluation. Black's feminist analyses are sensible and enlightening. Her interest is in 'the complicated interactions between gendered stereotypes and innovative depictions of holiness' which mean that the persecution and sufferingof a 'virtuous woman active in the world' is a 'metaphor for larger social injustices' (p. 8). She sees the spiritual strength as well as the social and physical vulnerability of accused queens. Perhaps inevitably, given the coverage, the analysis is at times underdeveloped, and one might wish that Black had extended her investigation of particular texts and contexts, or elaborated her readings in more challenging or problematizing directions. A useful supplement for those wishing to build on these feminist and historical analyses, e.g. to ask how such narratives were useful to powerful medieval women readers, would MLR, 100.4, 2005 1115 be Saints' Lives and Women's Literary Culture, c.1150-1300: Virginityand its Authorizations , by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Black pays close attention to manuscript illustrations, and her interpretations are again helpful but tend to be somewhat underdeveloped. Technical problems also hamper the reader's ability to follow and extend (or productively disagree with) the author's interpretations. Reproductions are not always easy to make out, and some? times present illuminations in isolation from their original context; manuscripts are not given...