The Making of Middle English, 1765-1910 (review)

Abstract

222 Reviews A final point about Lemer's chosen subject matter sheds further light on the problem. The subtitle 'Medieval Millenarians and the Jews' is misleading, not only because it does not engage with the millenarian violence ofwhich Cohn writes, but also because it equates this millenarian 'philo-Judaism' with Joachism per se. To support his suggestion that Joachim was a Jew, Lerner adduces Geoffrey of Auxerre's remark that Joachim's ideas were 'Judaistic' and that he had been born Jewish and educated in Jewish doctrines (p. 24). But such accusations resonate in other, pre-Joachite contexts as rhetorical dismissals of millenarianism. Immediately after the discussion of Joachim's possible Jewish heritage, Lerner acknowledges that Andrew of St Victor had drawn on Hebrew learning for his literal exposition of the scriptures, for which he became well known (p. 29). What remains unmentioned is that Richard of St Victor called his confrere Andrew a 'Judaizer' and a companion of the Jews because ofhis literalist interpretation of millenarian prophecies. Millenarianism itself wa according to the standard Christian interpretation, a 'Jewish' mode of thought. It seems more likely, then, that Joachite millenarianism was 'philo-Judaic' because Augustinian tradition branded it so than because it had anything to do with innovative thinking by Joachim or connections with Jews by his disciples. Such problems perhaps re-direct our appreciation of the important and often poignant story that Lerner tells in The Feast of Saint Abraham, but they do not substantively undermine any of its many virtues. I commend it to all who are interested in medieval prophecy, eschatology, and Christian-Jewish relations. Lawrence Warner Australian Academy of the Humanities Matthews, David, The Making of Middle English, 1765-1910 (Medieval Cultures 18), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999, cloth, pp. xxxvii, 231; R.R.P. US$39.95; ISBN 0816631859. More than a social history, but perhaps slightly less than a construction o ideological practice, this book describes the development of Middle English studies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through the efforts of a number of individual and idiosyncratic scholars. Beginning with Thomas Percy and his contemporaries, Joseph Ritson and Thomas Warton, the book moves on to Walter Scott and then to the founding fathers ofmedieval literary scholarship, Frederic Madden and Frederick Fumivall, Reviews 223 pausing on the way to consider the contribution ofclubs and societies specialising in medieval publications. There was clearly more at stake than mere antiquarianism. Frederic Madden, 'an implacable opponent of anything hinting of radicalism' (p. 116), was prepared to defend the manuscripts of the British Museum against a possible Chartist attack. Furnivall, losing his faith and finding socialism instead, chose to lecture on Piers Plowman 'because of its sketch of working men in the fourteenth century' (p. 146). What is at stake among these various lives, as Matthews shows, is the construction of the self, by gender, class and nationality. All the early editors of medieval texts were men, either b o m to high social status, like the founders of the Roxburghe Club, or, morefrequently,aspiring to status through the patronage that came with their antiquarian and editorial efforts. Matthews draws attention to the parallels between the feudalism found in the medieval texts and the 'somewhat feudal relations between aristocrats and aspiring litterateurs' (p. 87). For most of these early scholars, the study of medieval literature was a crucial link between their personal ambitions and the patrons w h o could help them rise above their modest origins, just as the choice of romance as the high-status genre positioned chivalry as a contemporary class marker. The book also argues, mainly in the last two chapters on Furnivall and Chaucer studies, for the use of Middle English literature as an intellectual structure supporting English nationalism. A s Matthews makes clear, this nationalist project coincided with the entry of Middle English studies into middleclass educational institutions as an academic and professional, rather than antiquarian and amateur, pursuit. Largely through Furnivall's foundation of the Early English Text Society, medieval English was 'reinvented as national heritage' (p. 158). In a fascinating piece of empirical research, Matthews shows how the subscribers to the E E T S changed from the 'country...