The ages of man: a study in medieval writing and thought (review)

Abstract

Reviews 141 Burrow, J. A., The ages of man: a study in medieval writing and thought, rpt, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988; paper; pp. 211; frontispiece plus 12 plates; R.R.P. AUS$32. Bunow's book wasfirstpublished in the same year (1986) as two others which are, like his, concerned with medieval concepts of the ages of M a n and their manifestations in literature and art: The perfect age ofMan's life, by Mary Dove, who shares with B u n o w a particular interest in manifestations of the theme in medieval English literature, although she concentrates on one specific age, and The ages of Man: medieval interpretations of the life cycle, by Elizabeth Sears, which ranges rather more widely through the visual arts and through Europe (both reviewed in Parergon 1 (1989) 119-20 and 150-52, respectively). There is, predictably, a degree of overlap amongst the books, along with acknowledgements of assistance given by one author to another, but there is also considerable variation in approach as well as scope, and all three have been broadly welcomed by the academic community for drawing attention, in their respective ways, to a persistent discourse in the intellectual and creative life of the European Middle Ages. The special virtue of Burrow's book is the clarity and logic of his presentation, making this the most accessible of the three as an introduction to the subject apart from offering its share of hermeneutic interest in respect of individual works. The fact that it alone has been issued in paperback indicates an expectation, well enough founded, that it will be purchased by individual scholars and students as well as by libraries and refened to again and again. The first two chapters trace the origin and development of the schemes in which ideas about the ages reached medieval writers and artists: first, the scientific or 'natural' schemes of biologists, physiologists, and astrologers, which distinguished, respectively, three, four, or seven ages in the full life-span, and second, the temporal schemes espoused by preachers, exegetes, and historians, the most prominent of which distinguished six ages analogous to the supposed six ages of the world. The remaining two chapters explore the treatment of these 'norms* in particular medieval narratives, according to whether the assumed ideal is transcendance of the norm or conformity to it. A short appendix provides a convenient means of consulting loci classici in the original Latin and translation. Bunow's experience shows especially in his humane understanding of the concepts involved, his ability to see such things from the perspective of a medieval scholar and to communicate his insights in terms that are meaningful to both specialist and generalist in medieval studies. Questions can be raised about some points of detail (see particularly the review of the original publication by H. A. Kelly, Speculum 63 (1988) 630-34) and as in any case where a potentially vast topic has been surveyed in a relatively small space other 142 Reviews materials might easily have been included as suitable for treatment The fact that such thoughts spring readily to mind, however, could be considered a real strength of this book. Like his seminal books explicating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1965), discovering a major literary grouping in the 'Ricardian' poets (1971), pinpointing the distinctive characteristics of Middle English literature at large (1982), this is in turn almost certain to generate a new series of studies. If 'formal doctrines' of the ages of M a n belong to the world of 'a lettered minority' such as Dante and Chaucer, for instance (p. 93 and passim), what informal understandings of the human life-span are to be found in the world of popular culture? Diane Speed Department of English University of Sydney Bushnell, Rebecca W., Tragedies of tyrants: political thought and theater in the English Renaissance, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 1990; cloth; pp. xviii, 195; R.R.P. US$29.95 + 1 0 % overseas. Professor Bushnell's study begins by examining h o w politically focused writings from antiquity to the Renaissance variously constructed images of the tyrant. It then proceeds to explore how English Renaissance drama recreated and/or redefined those...