Medieval Romance, Medieval Contexts (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Medieval Romance, Medieval Contexts Nicole Clifton Rhiannon Purdie and Michael Cichon, eds., Medieval Romance, Medieval Contexts. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2011. Pp. ix, 195. ISBN: 978–1–84384–260–6. $90. A collection of thirteen papers from the eleventh ‘Romance in Medieval Britain’ conference, this volume focuses on the medieval contexts shaping the production of medieval romance. First, in ‘The Pleasure of Popular Romance: A Prefatory Essay,’ Derek Pearsall wittily and gracefully retracts his 1965 article, ‘The Development of Middle English Romance.’ Pearsall now admits to his own delight in the repetitious elements of Middle English romance. ‘The leap of understanding is in realising that in asking for the wrong things…one misses all that is particular to the pleasure of romance, all those elements that have to do originally and essentially with oral presentation’ (11). Repetitive elements in the Middle English popular romances create a bond between audience and narrative, reinforcing communal values. Pearsall’s essay must become a classic; together, this and the 1965 piece illustrate the changes in attitudes toward and treatment of Middle English romance over the past half-century. Two essays discuss proverbial discourse, both folk and learned, in northern romances. In ‘Representations of Peasant Speech: Some Literary and Social Contexts for The Taill of Rauf Coilyear,’ Nancy Mason Bradbury argues for the Dialogue of Solomon and Marcolf as an analogue to Rauf Coilyear. Unlike chronicle portrayals of common men sounding like animals, Bradbury’s texts present clever, articulate peasants using proverbs and traditional wisdom to vanquish kings. In ‘“As ye have brewd, so shal ye drink”: the Proverbial Context of Eger and Grime,’ Michael Cichon studies traditional comparisons, proverbs to do with women, and proverbs about reciprocity. Nicholas Perkins, in ‘Ekphrasis and Narrative in Emaré and Sir Eglamour of Artois,’ argues that the protagonists both act within exchange networks and are themselves objects of exchange, like the rich fabrics, weapons, and other courtly items in these texts. The descriptions, rather than interrupting the narrative, are integral to it, encouraging the audience to interact imaginatively with the romance and its materiality. Marianne Ailes queries traditional generic distinctions in ‘What’s in a Name? Anglo-Norman Romances or Chansons de Geste?’ Ailes argues that despite a few romance elements, the Anglo-Norman versions of Otinel, La Destruction de Rome, and the Roman de Horn are chansons de geste; the English translations become known as ‘romance’ because derived from French. Phillipa Hardman works with a related text in ‘Roland in England: Contextualixing the Middle English Song of Roland.’ She concludes that it is an ‘innovative treatment’ transforming the geste into Middle English romance, which leans toward black-and-white contrasts and piety (104). Another essay including Charlemagne material is Siobhain Bly Calkin’s study of ‘Romance Baptisms and Theological Contexts in The King of Tars and Sir Ferumbras.’ Both texts ‘explore extremely complex ideas about what makes a body Christian’ (119). In ‘“For Goddes loue, sir, mercy!”: Recontextualising the Modern Critical Text of Floris and Blancheflor,’ John Geck argues that ambiguity is an important theme in all four manuscript versions of Floris, while the Auchinleck manuscript extends this [End Page 110] by ‘mitigating’ the ‘religious ambiguity’ of the text (77). Robert Rouse also studies an Auchinleck text in ‘Walking (between) the Lines: Romance as Itinerary/Map.’ He uses maps and merchants to contextualize geographical movement in Guy of Warwick. Guy also features in Yin Liu’s ‘Romances of Continuity in the English Rous Roll,’ which asks whether John Rous thought he was writing romance or history in his armorial rolls. Liu concludes that late-medieval readers did not differentiate between the two, and that this means that romance ‘was directly relevant to immediate social and political concerns’ (159). Emily Wingfield likewise considers manuscript context in her essay, ‘“Ex Libris domini duncani / Campbell de glenwrquhay / miles’: The Buik of King Alexander the Conqueror in the Household of Sir Duncan Campbell, Seventh Laird of Glenorchy.’ Campbell owned two copies of Gilbert Hay’s work, whose flyleaves reveal a wide circle of readers; Campbell’s other books confirm the family as ‘significant early modern readers of medieval romance’ (174). Judith Weiss reconsiders ‘Modern and Medieval Views on Swooning...