Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain by D. A. Trotter (review)

Abstract

TES, 33, 2003 TES, 33, 2003 339 339 Brescianlawyer)might takethe argumentsomewhat further,although, admittedly, outsidethe religioussphereAers chooses to consider. Staley's 'Pearland the Contingencies of Love and Piety' is an extraordinary mixture of meticulous Old Historicism with post-modern social history. Staley's argument,that the poem may representcomfort extended to Thomas of Woodstock on the occasion of presenting his daughter Isabel to the Poor Clares of London in the laterI38os, is highly speculative.But it is certainlynot outre, in the light ofJohn Bowers's recent book-length argument that the poem consoles Richard II for the death of Anne of Bohemia. And, whatever the plausibility of Staley's claim, the article is impressive for its sheer argumentative dexterity which extends from the amassing of detail about Thomas and the Minories to detailed considerations of Pearlsrhetoricand its social effects. Legalism proves a fruitfultopic throughout the volume. Elizabeth Fowlertakes up 'Consent and Conflictof Laws'in 'The Man of Law'sTale'. The essayultimately is concerned with some very large issues, translatio imperii for example, but it sees these focused in the problem of consent in a situationof competinglaws;unusually, in Fowler's account the Man of Law performs a satisfying variety of 'thought experiment' (p. 56) in which various laws are brought into collision and measured againstone another. Criminal law figures in Christopher Cannon's contribution, 'Malory's Crime'. Cannon brings the developing legal concept mensrea to bear on problems of disloyaltyin Malory. ForCannon, legalismin fact revealsonly the 'ethicalpretense' of chivalry,that Malory's ennobling institutionmust in fact exist (and equally must fall)preciselybecause of the presence of evil in itsmembers. The volume includesfive other essays.Lee Pattersontakesan historicallong view in his discussion of 'Heroic Laconic Style'; he connects Beowulfwith Edwardian aristocraticstoicismand seesboth asfallingvictim to the same forces,the ebullience of'Romance'. SarahBeckwith,in a remarkableessaythatresistssummary,discusses performance in the York Cycle and its inclusion of the audience as a way of represence -ing an absent sacrament within a ceaselessly renewed community life. PaulStrohm,Nicolette Zeeman, and C. David Benson alsohave contributionshere. The volume concludes with a very useful bibliography of the honoree's publications, but it is less these than Pearsall'spresence as friend and teacher, one committed to a relatively unproblematized version of historical study, that dominatesproceedings.I am surePearsallwillbe pleased andparticularlyhonoured by the authors'effortsto draw his commentary on theirproductions (e.g. Fowlerat pp. 55-56, Beckwith at p. 205 n. 74). KEBLECOLLEGE, OXFORD RALPHHANNA Multilingualism inLater Medieval Britain.Ed. by D. A. TROTTER. Cambridge:Brewer. 2000. x + 237 pp. ? 35; $63. This volume is a selection of papers originally presented at a conference at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth,in I997. The introduction is by David Trotter, who polemically takes to task monoglot medievalists (particularly scholars of multilingualismand literarytheorists):'The present volume shows only too clearly that medievalists cannot be permitted simply not to bother with "difficult languages", still less to remain monoglot' (p. i). Llinos Beverly Smith's essay analysescontact between the English and Welshlanguages, looking at bilingualism and monolingualismand the formativeinfluenceof Englishon the role and statusof Welsh.BegofiaCrespoGarciadiscussesthehistoricalbackgroundofmultilingualism Brescianlawyer)might takethe argumentsomewhat further,although, admittedly, outsidethe religioussphereAers chooses to consider. Staley's 'Pearland the Contingencies of Love and Piety' is an extraordinary mixture of meticulous Old Historicism with post-modern social history. Staley's argument,that the poem may representcomfort extended to Thomas of Woodstock on the occasion of presenting his daughter Isabel to the Poor Clares of London in the laterI38os, is highly speculative.But it is certainlynot outre, in the light ofJohn Bowers's recent book-length argument that the poem consoles Richard II for the death of Anne of Bohemia. And, whatever the plausibility of Staley's claim, the article is impressive for its sheer argumentative dexterity which extends from the amassing of detail about Thomas and the Minories to detailed considerations of Pearlsrhetoricand its social effects. Legalism proves a fruitfultopic throughout the volume. Elizabeth Fowlertakes up 'Consent and Conflictof Laws'in 'The Man of Law'sTale'. The essayultimately is concerned with some very large issues, translatio imperii for example, but it sees these focused in the problem of consent in a situationof competinglaws;unusually, in Fowler's account the Man of...