Malory's Morte Research Articles

The Return of King Arthur: Finishing the Quest for Wholeness, Inner Strength, and Self-Knowledge by Diana Durham (review)

82ARTHURIANA reasons, but one would be loathe to dismiss entirely the pattern of72 so beautifully reconstructed by Sulpiz Boisserreé and nicely reproduced on p. 88. Krista Sue-Lo Twu initiates the essays on English literature which occupy just over half of the volume, a generous proportion that gratifies this reviewer. Her essay, ' The Awntyrs ofArthure at the Terne Wathelyne: Reliquary for Romance' may well be the most careful and subtle reading ofthe romance in print. Although I am not quite convinced that the author of Awntyrs was the consummate artist Twu postulates, nor that the quest to find (or impose) unity in the text is a particularly useful or necessary task, the arguments presented are subtle and scrupulous and must be considered seriously by any future student of the romance. Dinah Hazell in 'The Blinding of Guenevere: Thomas Chester as Social Critic' also carefully reconsiders a romance that tends to be given short shrift in the scholarly literature. The shortness ofthe shrift may indeed be the appropriate length, but Hazell presents impressive arguments for the seriousness of Chester, and both scholars seem to signal a welcome turn to a reconsideration of these neglected works. In 'Malory's Morte Darthur. a Politically Neutral Adaptation of the Arthurian Story,' Edward Donald Kennedy does exactly what the title says he will do. With his usual scholarly scrupulosity, he reexamines possible political references in the text (including the few remaining after P.J.C. Field's ruthless pruning) and finds precisely zero undoubted political references with the inevitable conclusion that there is no clue however subtle in the text to Malory's own politics. It is to his credit that Kennedy is even willing to reject his own earlier contribution to the literatute arguing for the intrusion ofcontemporary affairs into the text ofthe Morte. Kennedy's conclusions are compelling, but sadly make it more difficult than ever to discern anything of the author in the opacity of the text. In 'King, Crusader, Knight: the Composite Arthur of the Middle English Prose Brut,' Tamar Drukker reviews the text to discern a pattern ofpromoting Arthur as the ideal Crusader-King with little concern for the actuality of kingship in action. Finally, Janina P. Traxler makes the leap into the twentieth century in 'Pendragon, Merlin and Logos: the Undoing of Babel in ThatHideous Strength.' While Lewis's novel cannot be considered a neglected text, Traxler's discussion ofit serves as a lively conclusion to the volume and indicates the continuing centrality ofArthur and Arthurian issues in modern literatute. Anthologies are always uneven affairs, but Arthurian scholars in French, German, and English will find something ofvalue in this collection. It should be read by all interested in Arthur, but, as is becoming a fairly consistent caveat, possessed only by those wealthy enough to invest in the Brewer catalogue. DONALD L. HOFFMAN Chicago, Illinois diana Durham, The Return ofKingArthur: Finishing the Questfor Wholeness, Inner Strength, and Self-Knowledge. New York: Jeremy P. Tarchcr/Penguin, 2004. Pp. x, 316. isbn: 1-58542-297-5. $25.95. As the title suggests, this book belongs in the genre of self-improvement manual rather than academic criticism. Like many recent books employing the Arthurian REVIEWS83 and Holy Grail legends for popular purposes, it allegorizes selected aspects of the legends as signs ofpsychic, social, and environmental health. While billed asJungian, it uses that mode ofanalysis no more exclusively than Arthurian legend, but combines it with other shafts to the author's the bow ofthought such as the Bible, the Kabala, Joseph Campbell, and the writings of assorted mystics and New Age philosophers. Although its goals are laudable, as an interpretation ofArthurian 'myth it must be treated with sceptisicm. Ironically for a book about empowering self and society from within, Durham's analysis does not illuminate the legends ofArthur and the Grail by closely analyzing specific texts from medieval cultural perspectives, but imposes New Age psychological commonplaces upon the texts from without. In the process, it often honors longstanding interpretations ofArthurian characters and symbols, but sometimes strains or even falsifies them. For example, Durham rightly (if somewhat reductively) observes that Merlin represents the workings of the subconscious mind and King Arthur the charismatic, enlightened leader...

A Fool of a Knight, a Knight of a Fool: Malory's Comic Knights

The examination of three predominantly comic knights in Malory's Morte Darthur shows that the 'comic discourse' reinforces—rather than subverts—the serious 'heroic/tragic discourse' of the book.

Arthurian Literature, XX edited by Keith Busby and Roger Dalrymple (review)

REVIEWS8l appearances in Book 7, Gareth reflects a selfless chivalry that directly contrasts Lancelot's petty, self-serving, sometimes vengeful fighting. And perhaps she overvalues Morgausc's importance in creating the arch-villain, Mordred. Finally, in a book about gender, I expected more detailed analysis of Malory's women; yet Morgan Ie Fay, the two Elaines, and Isolde are left largely unexplored. But these are quibbles. Ifthe book is perhaps too short to do justice to all that Armstrong wanted to accomplish, she still accomplishes a great deal. Her knowledge of theory and critical history is sound, her close readings are insightful, and her ability to reveal Malory in light of his sources is impressive. This is a good read for any student of Malory's Morte D'Arthur. JANET JESMOK Emerita, University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee Keith busby, gen. cd and roger dalrymple, assoc. ed., Arthurian Literature, XX. D. S. Brewer: Suffolk, England &c Rochester, NY, 2003. Pp. vii, 206. isbn: 0-85991798 -3. $75. It is difficult for a single reviewer to do justice to a collection ofthis scope with essays on German, French, and English literature and texts from the twelfth through the twentieth centuries. This rich variety, however, is no small part ofthe value ofuHis work. The two essays on French literature open the collection and both deal with Chrétien de Troyes. Gerald Seaman's 'Reassessing Chretien's Elusive Vanz,' makes use of medieval meteorology, symbology, and biology to tease out the subtlety and complexity of the implications of vanz in order to elucidate its function in the prologue's encomium ofMarie de Champagne. His conclusion weaves these threads together to argue that 'the author clearly viewed his patron as representative of the healthy balance that arises in that authentically medieval moment of perfect synchronicity when the elements (air and fire) [,] seasons (Spring and Summer), humors (blood and yellow bile) and temperaments (sanguine and choleric) harmoniously coalesce' (29). It is a grandly conceived and superbly executed essay. Monica L. Wright's 'Their Clothing Becomes Them: the Narrative Function of Clothing in Chrétien de Troyes' provides a thorough overview of exactly what her title promises. The essays on German literature begin with Jane Dewhurst's 'Generic Hybridity in Hartmann von Aue's Derarme Heinrich! In an essay whose value goes well beyond the specific text under consideration, Dewhurst reexamines the concept of genre and, although she avoids such jargon, 'deconstructs' the notion ofgenre as 'a means of classification of purportedly universal and enduring validity' (82). The essay's examination of genre—and gender, since the function of the maget is crucial—is scrupulous, instructive, and relevant to students of any 'genre' in not necessarily medieval epochs. In 'The Grail Temple in Derfungere Titurel,' Richard Barber and Cyril Edwards review the attempts to visualize accurately the architecture of the text's Grail Temple. Their translation ofthat portion of the text dealing with the temple (lines 329-439) will be useful to Anglophone readers. Their decision that the author intended 22 rather than 72 chapels may be appropriate for scholarly 82ARTHURIANA reasons, but one would be loathe to dismiss entirely the pattern of72 so beautifully reconstructed by Sulpiz Boisserreé and nicely reproduced on p. 88. Krista Sue-Lo Twu initiates the essays on English literature which occupy just over half of the volume, a generous proportion that gratifies this reviewer. Her essay, ' The Awntyrs ofArthure at the Terne Wathelyne: Reliquary for Romance' may well be the most careful and subtle reading ofthe romance in print. Although I am not quite convinced that the author of Awntyrs was the consummate artist Twu postulates, nor that the quest to find (or impose) unity in the text is a particularly useful or necessary task, the arguments presented are subtle and scrupulous and must be considered seriously by any future student of the romance. Dinah Hazell in 'The Blinding of Guenevere: Thomas Chester as Social Critic' also carefully reconsiders a romance that tends to be given short shrift in the scholarly literature. The shortness ofthe shrift may indeed be the appropriate length, but Hazell presents impressive arguments for the seriousness of Chester, and both scholars seem to signal a welcome turn to a reconsideration...

Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory's Morte D'Arthur by Dorsey Armstrong (review)

Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory's Morte D'Arthur by Dorsey Armstrong (review)

Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory's Morte d'Arthur by Dorsey Armstrong (review)

Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory's Morte d'Arthur by Dorsey Armstrong (review)

Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, and Literary Structure in Late Medieval England by Elizabeth Scala (review)

1?6ARTHURIANA Elizabeth scala, Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, andLiterary Structure in Late Medieval Enghnd. The New Middle Ages. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Pp. xix, 284. isbn: 0-312-24043-0. «59-95Poststructuralist literary and cultural theory and their vocabularies appear more and more frequently in medieval studies. Elizabeth Scala's book on the 'absent narratives' in late Middle English texts is an attempt to bring these frameworks and reading strategies to medieval texts. Her approach is informed both by poststructuralist (especially psychoanalytic) literary theory and manuscript studies, a productive mixture; but in the final analysis the book is tilted towards the theoretical pole. Scala's starting point, developed convincingly in her Preface and Introduction, is the analogy she finds between the structure of late medieval literary texts as determined by the stories that they do not, cannot, or will not tell (the title's 'absent narratives'), and the culture of manuscript textuality that produced them (where manuscripts relyon exemplars and authority depends on previous texts, the Origins') (xvii). The three spaces where she locates her examinations are thus textual history, the history ofcritical/editorial reception, and the text itselfas a literary work ofart. She uses a basically psychoanalytic framework and vocabulary in the interpretations; gender, representation, and narratological considerations are also important foci. Treating the 'absent narratives' (untold stories which are nevertheless signalled as lacking) as 'repressed,' Scala's theoretical metaphor is that narratives are like subjects, in an explicitly Lacanian sense, whose unconscious operations affect their meaning (what they 'say') and their structure (what they 'do') (12). The discussion of this analogy leads into a series of case studies, interpretations of Chaucer's Book ofthe Duchess, 'Squire'sTale' and 'KnightsTale,' Sir Gawain andthe Green Knight, Gower's Confessio Amantis, and Malory's Morte Darthur. Scala's interpretations are sensitive and fresh, integrating but also taking issue with a variety ofrecent theoretically minded approaches, such as Stephen Nichols's work about manuscript textuality and the 'manuscript matrix.' Her reading of Sir Gawain in terms of the discourse that substitutes the story acted for the (lacking) story told, the rational world for the uncontrollable, repressed and marginalized magical world figured by Morgan Ie Fay, stepping into the gap at the end, certainly throws new light on a number ofdetails. So is the approach to the 'Squire's Tale' as both figuring and sidestepping the telling of the incest story of Canacee, or the interpretation of the 'Knight's Tale' as romancing (and controlling) the Amazons and the feminine. But whenever Scala reaches more specific theoretical questions, so promisingly treated in the Introduction in the context ofmanuscript textuality, a specific 'medieval discourse,' and in terms of representation, the theoretically minded reader is frustrated. All we ever get at such points is that the text's concern is with the slippages and non-transparence of language, or with 'problems of representation'; a deeper analysis ofwhat exactly the texts tell us about this 'medieval discourse,' or how they redefine frameworks of representation is never given. Likewise, expectations as to the theorizing of manuscript textuality in detail as a place where such shifting signifying practices operate, and as to the particulars of REVIEWSIO7 these practices, are not fulfilled either. The theory of the absent narratives, as the repressed material ofthe textual unconscious that return and resignify in repetitions and substitutions, produces an application ofa set oftheoretical concerns to specific texts and their specific meanings in the case studies; it is not an all-embracing theory ofthe 'medieval discourse,' signification, and meaning production in general in late medieval England. But if poststructuralist thinking has taught us anything, it is that all-embracing theories are always suspect. One ofthe three spaces where the examination is situated, the manuscript context, is also somewhat less emphasized than one would expect from the Introduction. This is a book rather for the theorist and literary scholar than the codicologist. A wonderful exception is the chapter on Gower, where the manuscript's marginal Latin commentary (also its illustrations) is shown as an alternative discourse to the text: instead of limiting its meaning, this alternative discourse further elaborates it and contributes to the author/narrator figure's self-fictionalization. But the last...

Prison and Knightly Identity in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur

Due to his incarceration, Malory was forced to solve the problem of proving knightly identity when the knight is unable to express that identity physically. He redefines the nature of knightly action as internal prowess.

Gender and the chivalric community of Malory's Morte d'Arthur

This study reveals how Thomas Malory's approach to gender identity in his revisions of earlier Arthurian works produces a text entirely unlike others in the canon of mediaeval romance. It seeks to demonstrate that issues of gender identity play more critical, central roles in Le Morte d'Arthur.

Reviews: Historical Theory, a Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature, Malory's Morte D'Arthur: Re-Making Arthurian Tradition, Writing the Reformation: Actes and Monuments and the Jacobean History Play, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court, 1590–1619, Who Killed Shakespeare? What's Happened to English since the Radical Sixties, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500–1700, the

Reviews: Historical Theory, a Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature, Malory's Morte D'Arthur: Re-Making Arthurian Tradition, Writing the Reformation: Actes and Monuments and the Jacobean History Play, Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court, 1590–1619, Who Killed Shakespeare? What's Happened to English since the Radical Sixties, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500–1700, the

Malory's Morte Darthur: Remaking Arthurian Tradition by Catherine Batt (review)

Reviews Catherine batt, Malory's Mone Darthur: RemakingArthurian Tradition. The New Middle Ages. NewYork: Palgravc, 2002. Pp. xxiii, 264. isbn: 0-312-22998-4. $49.95. This is an exciting book. In her preface, Catherine Batt writes, Malory's fiction ofthe Morte as a series ofreadings often conflates the roles ofreader, writer, and text, and this highlights the possibility ofchoice and responsibility at the formallevelofnarrative direction.Thedeclarationsofintentscatteredthroughout theMorte[suchas] "NówleveweofthismaterandspekeweofsirPalomydes". . .intimate that the narratorial voice, the imagined readership, and "the book" are all engaged in establishing narrative event, (xvii) She adds, 'Malorycontinuallybrings the nature and function ofArthurian literature into question, prompting reconsiderations of how the material relates to issues of historical awareness, nationhood, the construction of masculine heroic identity, and constructions ofgender and social order and interaction' (xviii). Batt's approach offers a remarkably fruitful way of looking at the Morte. The preface introduces this approach through awonderful discussion ofthe longer 'May passage,' where Batt argues that 'the terms describing our destructive forgetfulness, "deface" and "layaparte," involve the erasure and disregardingofmanuscriptwitness' (xv) as well as of love. After the preface and a rich introductory chapter placing Malory in relation to his sources and to French and English Arthurian traditions, further chapters progress through the Morte, covering a wide range ofepisodes and characters. Batt demonstrates how 'in working through the legend's various narrative paradigms and the complexities of"our" engagementwith them, [Malory] implicidy expresses anxiety about the gap between an ideologically straightforward Arthurian world and the difficulties of realizing it textually' (xviii). One gap involves the Pentecostal Oath, whose injunction against the rape ofwomen ignores the possibility 'that men, too, maybe exposed to sexual threat' (69). Elsewhere in the Morte, though, '[t]he Oath's gendered reading of the male as "whole" and the female as violable will...come under revision, particularly with regard to Launcelot' (69). Batt's thesis has many facets, and her argument is basically compelling. But she makes occasional dubious claims. Like many Malorians nowadays, she writes from a feminist perspective, which illuminates some issues while clouding others. Her discussion ofthe Pentecostal Oath includes the claim, 'The Oath's prescription and proscription regarding women...asserts control over the female body by the king and his fellowship' (68). But just as the Oath's final proscription against battle in a wrongful quarrel for world's goods, is hardly away ofasserting RoundTable control over the goods it prohibits knights from wrongfully seeking, a proscription against rape is hardly a way of asserting control over rape's potential victims. In both ARTHURIANA I4.I (20O4) 9* REVIEWS 93 proscriptions, what the Oath requires RoundTable knights to control is themselves. Batt says, 'That the threat to, and defenses of, women's integrity potentially come from the same quarter...puts in question the status ofthe knight as law-enforcer, who agrees in this oath to be self-policing' (69). It is significant, however, that in case such self-policing fails, the Oath specifies punishment, forbidding rape upon pain ofdeath. And does the prescription always to do ladies succor assert knights' control over ladies or ladies' control over knights? That depends on who defines the occasion and means of succor—knights or ladies. Often, in the Morte, it is the latter. Fortunately, Batt is much too sophisticated to follow a party line. Thus, she recognizes that *[t]he law both acknowledges masculine aggression and seeks to contain and redirect it' (69). The book's main weakness is Batt'swriting style. Like many present-day Malorians, she wields lit-crit jargon as readily as Launcelot wields a sword, but with less grace and flair. Although her prose is sometimes unproblematic, she often expresses her invaluable insights in such sentences as 'Csordas offers embodiment as a phenomenological paradigm, but it usefully alerts us to the textual complexity of the chivalric self as dynamic cultural agent in the Morte, and especially to the problematizing capacity ofits narrative representation' (xix). Readers should not let such unappetizing prose diminish their appreciation of Batt's brilliant ideas. Far better to emulate Bors and 'take the woo...as we have takyn the weale' (The Works ofSir Thomas Mahry, 3d edn, 3:1169). FELICIA ACKERMAN Brown University Catherine batt...

Malory's Morte Darthur: Remaking Arthurian Tradition by Catherine Batt (review)

REVIEWS 93 proscriptions, what the Oath requires RoundTable knights to control is themselves. Batt says, 'That the threat to, and defenses of, women's integrity potentially come from the same quarter...puts in question the status ofthe knight as law-enforcer, who agrees in this oath to be self-policing' (69). It is significant, however, that in case such self-policing fails, the Oath specifies punishment, forbidding rape upon pain ofdeath. And does the prescription always to do ladies succor assert knights' control over ladies or ladies' control over knights? That depends on who defines the occasion and means of succor—knights or ladies. Often, in the Morte, it is the latter. Fortunately, Batt is much too sophisticated to follow a party line. Thus, she recognizes that *[t]he law both acknowledges masculine aggression and seeks to contain and redirect it' (69). The book's main weakness is Batt'swriting style. Like many present-day Malorians, she wields lit-crit jargon as readily as Launcelot wields a sword, but with less grace and flair. Although her prose is sometimes unproblematic, she often expresses her invaluable insights in such sentences as 'Csordas offers embodiment as a phenomenological paradigm, but it usefully alerts us to the textual complexity of the chivalric self as dynamic cultural agent in the Morte, and especially to the problematizing capacity ofits narrative representation' (xix). Readers should not let such unappetizing prose diminish their appreciation of Batt's brilliant ideas. Far better to emulate Bors and 'take the woo...as we have takyn the weale' (The Works ofSir Thomas Mahry, 3d edn, 3:1169). FELICIA ACKERMAN Brown University Catherine batt, Mahry's Morte Darthur: RemakingArthurian Tradition. The New Middle Ages. NewYork: Palgrave, 2002. Pp. xxiii, 264. isbn: 0-312-22998-4. $49.95. Catherine Batt prefaces her study with a detailed reading of the May passage in which she links sex and violence, and also reader and narrator and reader and narration. She emphasizes the complexityofMalory's narrative as well as the problems this creates for the reader and the gaps she claims it generates in the text. Hence— in contrast to the reader ofFrenchArthuriana—Malory's reader is sometimes forced to supply both intertextual and, especially, extratextual meaning. These textual anxieties are, for Batt, reflected in 'Malory's construction ofthe inherent instability of...the male physical body as locus ofmeaning,' a construction which 'reflects the more experimental concerns of the text as a whole.' In this discussion of (anxieties about) tradition, text, body, and violence, we have a microcosm of the book as a whole. Hence Chapter 1 traces the differences between French and English Arthuriana, the stability or lack thereof of the Morte Darthur itself, and the Englishness ofMalory'sArthuriad. Chapter 2 examines Merlin's role inTale I, linking Merlin to history, gender, violence, law, and counsel. Chapter 3 looks at authors' and readers' attempts to contain a fictional world which, inTales II-IV, is constantly disrupted by violence. Chapter 4 highlights structural, narrative, and mnemonic patterns in 'Trystram.' Chapter 5 concerns the Grail story, with a further eye to violence, Launcelot's identity, and reader involvement in generating the text; and 94arthuriana Chapter 6 focusses on the co-mingling of narrative, reader, and character 'engagement' and 'defamiliarization inTales VII andVIII. Batt further emphasizes in this chapter that 'Launcelot's body is made central to funerary ceremony.' There is throughout close comparison with the sources andwith analogous materials, but Batt also laudably insists that we not view English romance as an enfeebled redaction of French sources and vernacular, but rather 'as an active critical response to, and interaction with, its source.' A recurrent theme is the 'tensions' of the Arthurian Legend and the differentways inwhich French and English texts resolvesuch tensions. Batt also continually explores 'interactions ofreader, writer, and texts,' and emphasizes what she sees as Malory's concerns with violence and the body. Batt's readings display a sound knowledge of Malory, his sources and medieval Arthuriania in general, as well as modern theory. However, her concern with the text's instability and Malory's so-called textual anxieties is made overmuch ofat times, and the distinction between French anxiety ofauthority and English anxiety over...

Absent Fathers, Unexpected Sons: Paternity in Malory's Morte Darthur

Absent Fathers, Unexpected Sons: Paternity in Malory's Morte Darthur

SELF-DETERMINATION IN THE POST-VULGATE "SUITE DU MERLIN" AND "MALORY'S LE MORTE DARTHUR"

Critics have discounted Thomas Malory's interest in abstruse concepts, and that Malory shows no apparent interest in the 'fashionable intellectual issues' that occupied other late-medieval authors of English literature. Here, Corrie argues that the stylistic simplicity of Thomas Malory's Morte is not matched by an intellectual simplicity on the part of its author, and, contrary to many interpretations of Malory's writing, that a continuity with foregoing English writers is discernible not only in the issues raised by the Morte but in Malory's stance towards those issues as well.

"Longene to the Playe": Caxton, Chess, and the Boundaries of Political Order

Among late medieval literary figures, William Caxton poses perhaps the greatest challenge to the task of periodizing literary history, and his double identity as author and printer troubles the generally acknowledged boundary dividing the medieval and early modern worlds. On the one hand Caxton's role as printer marks him as a contributor to the English Renaissance. His publication of Malory's Morte Darthur in 1485 felicitously coincided with Henry VII's ascension to the throne, making this date a "natural" starting point for the early modern era. On the other hand the works Caxton printed do not pander to Renaissance sensibilities. As with many texts that came off his press, both the style and subject of his most famous publication, the Morte Darthur, hearken back to earlier literary forms. This tension between "medieval Caxton" and "Renaissance Caxton" makes itself felt clearly in the most recent edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Unable to categorize Caxton as one or the other, the editors include a discussion of Caxton's printing press in their "Introduction to the Sixteenth Century" yet place selections from Caxton's Morte Darthur in a section titled "The Middle Ages."1 This is a dubious finesse, as under this schema Caxton's use of technology makes him a Renaissance man, while the material he published remains discretely cordoned off in the medieval era. Caxton's identity as a publisher exacerbates this difficulty of categorization. Scholars often praise Caxton for his business acumen, identifying in his various prologues and epilogues "clear evidence of a mass-marketing strategy."2 Yet while such scholarship helps dispel characterizations of Caxton as exclusively dependent on patrons or as mindlessly translating any texts that came his way, it downplays his contributions to the literary landscape of fifteenth-century England and creates a similarly Nortonesque divide between Caxton-as-marketing-savant and Caxton-as-translator/writer. [End Page 151] More recently, scholars such as William Kuskin have started to reclaim Caxton as an important literary figure in his own right.3 Kuskin in particular looks at ways Caxton uses his prefaces and his choice of texts to model political power as a participatory society organized around what he calls "a latticework of temporary positions defined by the subject's immediate relation to authority."4 In this way, Caxton "does something new" and his texts help produce "a vernacular literary authority capable of placing his contemporary lay readers within community and literary history."5 While Kuskin successfully positions Caxton as an active participant in England's literary and political culture, I will suggest that Caxton's interest in political models contributes to the confusion surrounding his Renaissance and medieval identities. Specifically, I will look at Caxton's Game and Playe of the Chesse, the first English version of Jacobus de Cessolis's Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium super ludo scacchorum (The book of the morals of men and the duties of nobles on the game of chess), henceforth the De ludo scacchorum.6 Composed in the late thirteenth century, De ludo scacchorum uses chess as an elaborate allegory of an ideal political order, one in which civic power is dispersed throughout a community. In his 1474 translation of Jacobus's De ludo scacchorum, Caxton promoted this text as a straightforward mirror for magistrates. Dedicating the volume to King Edward's brother, Clarence, he carefully framed the text to mask the anti-monarchial implications of the chess allegory. In 1483, however, Caxton re-released the Game and Playe, omitting the initial dedication to the now-deceased Clarence, adding an entirely new preface, and including a series of twenty-four woodcuts.7 Rather than praising a member of the noble class as he had done in his original dedication, Caxton uses the 1483 preface to present De ludo scacchorum as a representation of "associational ideology" (to borrow a phrase from David Wallace8 ), and...

Epilogue: Malory's Morte Darthur and 'the Place of the Voice'

Reading Malory's Morte aloud adds elements to the oral-aural text which do not exist in the text when read silently to oneself.

The code of the warrior: exploring warrior values past and present

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Why Warriors Need a Code Chapter 3 The Homeric Hero: A Hector Who Wins? Chapter 4 The Two Faces of Rome: Stoicism and Hedonism Chapter 5 Never to Do Outrageousity nor Murder: The World of Malory's Morte Darthur Chapter 5 Vikings: Vengeance, Valkyries, and Valhalla Chapter 7 Native Americans: Warriors of the Sacred Plains Chapter 8 Chinese Warrior Monks: The Martial Artists of Shaolin Chapter 9 The Soul of the Samurai: Duty, Devotion, and Death Chapter 10 The Warrior's Code Today: Are Terrorists Warriors?

Introduction: Rhetorical Approaches to Malory's Morte Darthur

Introduction: Rhetorical Approaches to Malory's Morte Darthur ANN DOBYNS and ANNE LASKAYA In the past ten years we have seen a renewed interest in the influence of classical rhetoric on theliterature ofthe MiddleAges. Studies such as Rita Copeland's 1991 Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Transition in theMiddUAges,1 Ruth Morse's 1991 Truth and Convention in the MiddUAges,7· Jody Enders's 1992 Rhetoric and the Origins ofMedievalDrama? and Suzanne Reynolds's 1996MedievalReading* allestablish the extent to which the studyofrhetoric influenced the writing ofliterary texts in the Middle Ages. As Ruth Morse points out, 'If something might be said to have united the many different kinds ofwriting in which medieval authors engaged, that something might be derived from a version of the assumptions and practices of classical rhetoric.'5 James J. Murphy, George A. Kennedy, Thomas Conley, and others have pointed out that rhetoric manifested itselfin the late MiddleAges mainly in practical applications: as a school discipline, in handbooks on the arts of preaching, letter writing, and poetry, and in legal training.6 Of these applications die one most significant for die understandingofMalory's work is the grammar school education. Nicholas Orme's studies ofeducation in medieval England are most helpful in understanding die ways that Malory was influenced by the rhetorical tradition through his training in grammar.7 Orme observes diat records from the fifteenth century indicate the kind of education taught in the late medieval English curriculum. If we accept Peter Field's argument that Thomas Malory was die Sir Thomas Malory ofNewbold Revel ofWarwickshire, then he was a member ofthe gentry.8The family probably had ten or so servants, and as such may have included a master for Malory and his three sisters.9 Malory's facility in reading French and English manuscripts argues for a solid early grammar education, as does documentation showing him as an esquire in 1439 witnessing a deed setdement for his cousin.10 ARTHURIANA I3.3 (2OO3) ARTHURIANA Ifhewas the MaloryofNewboldRevel, hewouldhave been die recipient ofwhat Orme calls die education of die lay aristocracy of later medieval England: rhe royal family, peers and great magnates, knights, esquires and ordinary gentlemen. The grammar education of die son of a gende or aristocratic family usually took place in die home and lasted approximately sixyears, from die age ofsix or seven until fourteen. The instruction was die responsibilityofprofessional schoolmasters, most widi universityeducation in grammar, others possessingat least die highest levelofdieir most advanced students.11 As dierudimentarystage ofdie trivium, grammarformed die foundation of medieval textual culture.12 Grammar was first and foremost a study of correctness but to diat end included die study of literary texts and thus overlappedwith rhetoric. In fact, according toJohn O. Ward, diegrammatical tradition kept alive die principles ofclassical rhetorical theory in England. In part this is because of what we might call the rhetorical nature of grammatical study in classical education.13 Suzanne Reynolds points to this connection when she reminds readers diat grammar instruction would include die analysis of style. Like rhetoric, she says, grammar included a consideration of figures and tropes; what distinguished them was 'dieir approach to figuration, for while grammar offers an explanation of its mechanisms, rhetoric is concerned to harness its effects in the work of persuasion.'14 Such arguments indicate ashift in assessments ofdie influence ofrhetoric in die Middle Ages. All too often twentieth-century readers have assumed diat rhetoric had a hiatus in the Middle Ages widi die notable exception of Augustine's fifth-centuryappropriation ofrhetorical principles into a method of interpreting and teaching the scriptures in On Christian Doctrine. According to this argument, rhetoric—as defined in die classical periodas a means by which citizens participated in die administration of dieir social order—had litde opportunity to flourish in a world ofabsolutes governed by a hierarchical system. And, while the language ofrhetoric was preserved in the grammatical texts that were so prominent in the period, such documents could not really properly be considered rhetorical treatises. But, aswe have seen, rhetoricwas an essential and primaryelement in die artes liberales and, as such, was at die heart of die educational curriculum. The literate were of course primarily the clerical class, and dirough their influence rhetorical...

Elaine's Epistolarity: The Fair Maid of Astolat's Letter in Malory's Morte Darthur

This essay argues that Malory employs dictaminal conventions from the medieval letter writing tradition to construct a feminist subjectivity in the figure of Elaine of Astolat.

News: from the North American Branch

The Round Table NEWS from the North American Branch NAB Officers 2003 (forfulladdresses see Bibliographical Bulletin ofthe International Arthurian Society [bbias]) President: Susann Samples (Mount St. Mary's College) Immediate Past President: Alan Lupack (University of Rochester) Vice-President: William W. Kibler (University ofTexas) Secretary-Treasurer: Jean Blacker (Kenyon College) Bibliographer: Dan Nastali (Independent Scholar) Advisory Committee: Romance Languages: Peggy McCracken (University of Michigan) English: Kathleen Kelly (Northeastern University) Germanic: David Johnson (Florida State University) Canada: James Noble (University of New Brunswick) Post Medieval: Charlotte A.T. WuIf(ViIIaJuHe College) Bonnie Wheeler, Arthuriana Editor (Southern Methodist U, ex officio) IAS Officers 200} (forfull addresses see bbias) President: Dr. Bart Besamusca (University of Utrecht Honorary President: Jane H. M. Taylor (St. Hilda's College, Oxford U)) Vice-President: Peter Field (University ofWales-Bangor) Secretary: Maria Colombo Timelli (University of Milan) Treasurer: Joan Grimbert (Catholic University ofAmerica) bbias/bbsia Editor: Dr. Frank Brandsma (University of Utrecht) Back Issues of'bbias andArthuriana: For back issues of bbias through v. 51/1999, contactJoan Grimbert, Dept. ofModern Languages, Catholic U, Washington, DC 20064 (grimbert@cua.edu); for v. 52-53/2000-2001, contact Jean Blacker, Kenyon C, Gambier, OH 43022-9623 (blacker@kenyon.edu). Back issues still available are v. 25-29 (1973-77) and 31-34 (1979-82), all for $10 each; v. 36-41 (1984-89), 43 (1991), and 45-51 (1993-99) are $18 each; v. 51-52 (2000-2001) are $20 each. All other volumes are out ofprint. For back issues ofArthuriana, contact Arthuriana, Box 750432, SMU, Dallas, TX 75275-0432 (bwheeler@mail.smu.edu). Your bbiasAbstracts: Members are reminded that, for inclusion in the society's annual bibliography, they should send bibliographic entries and abstracts for articles or books published in 2002 or in 2003 to Daniel Nastali (nastali@aol.com). arthuriana 13.2 (2003) 94 THE ROUND TABLE95 Arthurian Studies at Kabmazoo: 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, May 8-11, 2003. [For information and registration materials write to Prof. Paul Szarmach, director, The Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5432; tel. 616-387-8745; fax: 616-387-8750; e-mail: mdvl_congress@wmich.edu; web page: http://www.wmich.edu.medieval/congress.] IASBusiness Meeting. Friday, 9 May, 12 Noon, Fetzer 1010. North American Branch Business Meeting with box lunches ($6.00; quantity limited: first come, first served). 1.Adoption of the agenda 2.Minutes of the meeting of May 2002 (see Arthuriana 12.3, 104-106) 3.President's Report 4.Matters arising 5.Secretary-Treasurer's report 6.Bibliographer's report 7.Report from the Editor ofArthuriana 8.Sessions for Kalamazoo 2004 9.Other business Reception hosted by NAB/IAS: Friday, 9 May, 5:15 p.m., Bernhard 158. Kabmazoo 2003 Sessions Sponsoredby theNorthAmerican Branch ofthe International Arthurian Society, Thursday, 8 May to Sunday, 11 May 2003: Session 73 (Thursday, May 8, 1:30—3): Valley 1 102 Trust, Guilt, and Suspicion in Arthurian Literature Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Organizer: Felicia Ackerman, Brown Univ. Présider: Felicia Ackerman 1."Alas, Who May Truste Thys World?": Exploring Trust in Malory's Morte. Janet Jesmok, Univ. ofWisconsin-Milwaukee 2.Keeping Score in Malory's Book ofSir Tristram Michael W. Twomey, Ithaca College 3.How the Queen Lies: Female Wiles and the Portrait of the King Janina P. Traxler, Manchester College 4.Trust, Guilt, Suspicion, and Lancelot in the French Prose Lancebt Carol Dover, Georgetown Univ. Session 134 (Thursday, May 8, 3:30-5): Valley 1 102 Political Uses of the Arthurian Legend Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Organizer: June Hall McCash, Middle Tennessee State Univ. Présider: June Hall McCash 1.Two Interpretations of the Historia regum Britanniae: Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and Edward I Heather Shaw, Univ. ofToronto 2.Dedicated to Peace: Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae and the Civil War of the 1130s 96ARTHURIANA Rebecca Slitt, Fordham Univ. 3. Myth, Marketing, and Political Prophecy: Sir Gawane and the Celts ofCarlisle Jean Coakley, Miami Univ. of Ohio Session 199 (Friday, May 9, 10—11:30): Fetzer 1010 Arthurian Comedy Sponsor: International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Organizer: Joan Grimbert, Catholic Univ. ofAmerica Présider: Joan Grimbert 1.'Fetchez la Vache...

The Merriest Knight: The Collected Arthurian Tales of Theodore Goodridge Roberts ed. by Mike Ashley (review)

Reviews mike ashley, ed., The Merriest Knight: The Collected Arthurian Tales ofTheodore Goodridge Roberts. Oakland, CA: Green Knight Publishing, 2001. Pp. 523. isbn: 1928999 -18-2. $17.95 (US); $26.95 (CAN). Theodore Goodridge Roberts provides a charming behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Court ofArthur through the eyes ofone ofits minor knights, Sir Dinadan. The stories employ an old world setting for the kind of adventure-seeking hero made popular in North American in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The collection consists of a series of Sir Dinadan stories, followed by other Arthurian tales and a final tale about the enduring glory of the name Pendragon, even in Norman times. The mood and tone of the narratives follow this division with the Dinadan tales striking a wryly humorous and mildly deprecating tone, distinctively Canadian, in which one can celebrate the hero while avoiding anything resembling hero worship. The second halfof the book is marked by the absence of the Dinadan character; however, the noble hero of each tale exhibits many of the same attitudes and weaknesses as the Arthurian knight. In this half, Roberts frequently indulges in a first person narrative, allowing a more intimate portrait of such knightly heroes as the unassuming Dennys ap Rhys, who, while sharing some characteristics with Sir Dinadan, is distinguished by his wanderlust and quest to find his one true love. Roberts clearly builds upon Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur and most ofthe Dinadan stories begin with an epigraph from Malory which serves both to establish the story as legitimate Arthurian literature and provide a point from which the story is launched. Roberts's imagination ofSir Dinadan's role in the episodes found in the book of Sir Gareth of Orkney or Sir Tristam of Lyonesse stretch beyond Malory's original reach. As the author notes in his introduction, 'The fact is, Malory did not know all about Sir Dinadan. To prove my statement, I shall now tell you some things that he did not know.' As Roberts imagines him, Sir Dinadan is not the brightest or bravest knight in Arthurs retinue, but his good manners, willingness to engage in combat when necessary, and unerring weakness for the fairer sex always work together to provide, if not a cheerful ending, at least an amusing story. Roberts's stories incorporate some details from other Irish and Welsh medieval hero tales. His inclusion of characters such as Uwaine and Finn lend a sense of place to his talcs; however, scholars looking for extensive use of these legends will be disappointed as the result is merely to name drop, and the plots bear only passing resemblance to Celtic and Arthurian medieval tales. Roberts's stories are not ofvalue to the scholar seeking clear lines ofdevelopment of the primary characters of the Arthurian legend; rather, they are more a pleasant ARTHURIANA 12. 4 (2OO2) REVIEWS??? detour or distraction from the serious business undertaken by such knights such as Lancelot and Tristram. His rather demonstrates the enduring ability of Camelot to fire the imagination of an adventure writer such as Roberts, and his stories are an amusing glimpse in to the way it things may have really happened in the age of chivalry. MICHELE D. BRAUN Northeastern University sarah BECKWiTH, Signifying God: Social Relation and SymbolicAct in the York Corpus Christi PUys. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.Pp. xviii, 294. isbn: 0226 -04134-4. $35 (cloth). The foundational premise ofSignifying God is that '[i]ftheatre and sacrament teach us anything, it is surely that neither is an object to be known, but rather a process that demands our participation and our willingness to be known in the contingencies ofour own biographies' (xviii). Here Beckwith is invoking Stanley Cavcll's observation that '[n]othing can be present to which we are not present' in order to construct a theory of ritual that underscores the importance of presence as a means of grasping and, in fact, remembering the York plays. Beckwith's boldest claim hinges the sociality of presence to the symbolic act she calls sacramental theatre. The York plays are thus read as profoundly collective activities in which knowledge of Christ is made real in...