Women of Words in ‘Le Morte Darthur’: The Autonomy of Speech in Malory’s Female Characters by Siobhán M. Wyatt

Abstract

MLR, .,   faukoun as ‘falcon/false cunt’ (derived from an Old French fabliau) in Chaucer’s description of Criseyde as one who is ‘As fressh as faukoun comen out of muwe’ (p. ); or when Carolynn van Dyke insists on reading the Middle English noun leden in its etymological sense of ‘Latin’, even when applied to the vocalizations of birds (pp. –). Elsewhere, wider generic reading could have been useful, for if Francine McGregor (Chapter , pp. –) had consulted some medieval English hawking treatises she would have found that a malady of the foot, variously called peyne or pyne, was not restricted to horses. U  J D S-M Women of Words in ‘Le Morte Darthur’: e Autonomy of Speech in Malory’s Female Characters. By S M. W. (Arthurian and Courtly Cultures ) London: Palgrave Macmillan. . xi+ pp. £. (ebk £.). ISBN –––– (ebk ––––). is welcome addition to the scholarly field of Arthurian gender studies sets out to consider the characterization of Sir omas Malory’s female characters through their speech and dialogue in Le Morte Darthur (c. ). Given Malory’s propensity for plot-driven, action-based narrative—as opposed to the emotional and psychological insights provided into Arthurian characters by some other romance authors (such as Chrétien de Troyes)—Malory’s methods of characterization have long interested Arthurian scholars. is study provides a useful foregrounding of the scholarship in this area from the last two to three decades, situating itself alongside work by Malorians such as Wheeler and Whetter. Siobhán M. Wyatt suggests that Malory changes his sources to ‘bolster’ women, and examines Malory’s alterations of key moments from the French source material, such as Elayne of Ascolat’s ‘pre-death speech’ (p. ), to interrogate the book’s main thesis that ‘Malory lends credibility to female speech in order to position women as credible judges of knightly behaviour’ (p. ). e work is divided into four chapters (plus an Introduction and Conclusion), which divide the female characters into four groups based upon their function or status in the text; namely: ‘e Ill-Speaking Woman and the Marriageable Lady’ (Chapter ), ‘Magical and Miraculous Women’ (Chapter ), ‘Ladies in (Unrequited) Love’ (Chapter ), and ‘True Lovers and Adulterous Queens’ (Chapter ). is organizational principle perhaps does not lend itself to a theoretical consideration of different types of speech (rather than different ‘types’ of woman), which may seem reductionist. Morgan le Fay, for example, could sit comfortably in any of the above categories at different points in the ‘hoole book’ (Le Morte Darthur, ed. by P. J. C. Field (Cambridge: Brewer, ), p. ; reviewed in MLR,  (), –). However, Wyatt shows an awareness of the limitations of such categories, and expresses concerns about studies ‘categorising the women under various headings’ (p. ). e book offers some useful new methods of approaching Malory’s women and his reworking of Arthurian source material. Wyatt explores socio-historical  Reviews contexts of women’s speech in fieenth-century England, including women as ‘scolds’ in court records from this period and Eleanor Cobham’s witchcra trial, using these to re-evaluate Malory’s scolding and magical women, respectively. e study also establishes other contemporary literary, linguistic, judicial, religious, and socio-historical evidence to build a picture of women’s speech in fieenthcentury England against which Malory’s female characters can be convincingly read. e book ranges widely among these figures, including Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, Isode, the Elaynes, Lyonet and Lyonesse, and others—as well as unnamed figures, such as Percival’s sister. Wyatt undertakes a great deal of useful comparison between Malory’s women and their source analogues, and this—alongside the breadth of characters under discussion—is certainly a key focus and strength of the book. Given Wyatt’s interest in contemporary fieenth-century contexts, Margaret of Anjou is an unexpected omission. She is mentioned once, with regard to Guinevere ’s fortifications of the Tower of London against Mordred (p. ), but she does not appear in the work’s index. A consideration of Margaret and recent scholarship on late medieval queens and queenship—such as studies by eresa Earenfight (Queenship in Medieval Europe (London: Palgrave, )), J. L. Laynesmith (e Last Medieval Queens (Oxford University Press, )), or Helen E. Maurer (Margaret of...