Marriage, Adultery and Inheritance in Malory's Morte Darthur PDF
Preview Marriage, Adultery and Inheritance in Malory's Morte Darthur
ARTHURIAN STUDIES LXVII MARRIAGE, ADULTERY, AND INHERITANCE IN MALORY’S MORTE DARTHUR Marriage in the Middle Ages involved two crucial but sometimes conflicting dimensions: it was a private companionate relationship and a publicsocialinstitution,themeanswherebyheirswereproducedandland, wealth, power, and political rule were transferred. This new study exam- inestheconceptofmarriageasseenintheMorteDarthur,movingbeyondit to look at ‘adulterous’ and other male/female relationships, and their impact on the world of the Round Table. Key points addressed are the compromiseachievedinthe‘TaleofSirGareth’betweennatural,youthful passionandthegentry’spragmaticviewofmarriage;theproblemsofKing Arthur’smarriageinlightofbothpoliticalneedandthequeen’sinfertility andadultery;andtherepercussionsofLauncelot’sadulteryinthetragedies oftwomarriageabledaughters,ElaineofAstolatandElaineofCorbin.The authorrevealsandconsidersindetailthemythofbenevolentpaternityby which men, whether born legitimate or bastard, were united through the Round Table and concludes by focusing on dynastic dysfunction in three generations of Pendragon men: Uther, Arthur and Mordred. KARENCHEREWATUKis Professor of English at St Olaf College, Minnesota. ARTHURIAN STUDIES ISSN 0261–9814 General Editor: Norris J. Lacy Previously published volumes in the series are listed at the back of this book MARRIAGE, ADULTERY, AND INHERITANCE IN MALORY’S MORTE DARTHUR Karen Cherewatuk D. S. BREWER © Karen Cherewatuk 2006 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner The right of Karen Cherewatuk to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published 2006 D. S. Brewer, Cambridge ISBN 1 84384 089 8 D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc, 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY14620, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com ACIPcatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This publication is printed on acid-free paper Typeset by Pru Harrison, Hacheston, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn To Richard . . . He set down his glass in the ring of a fine marriage. Only a son was missing. Derek Walcott,Omeros Contents Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xi Introduction xx 1 Pledging Troth in Malory’s “Tale of Sir Gareth” 1 2 The King and Queen’s Marriage: Dowry, Infertility, and Adultery 24 3 Marriageable Daughters: The Two Elaines 56 4 Fathers and Sons in Malory 75 5 Royal Bastardy, Incest, and a Failed Dynasty 109 Epilogue 127 Works Cited 129 Index 143 Acknowledgments ThecommunityofArthurianscholarsisasbigandbulkyasitisgenerous.This bookhasbenefitedfromthekindnessofmanyinthatcommunity.Forconversa- tionandcommentary,IthankFeliciaAckerman,D.ThomasHanks,Jr,KevinT. Grimm,KennethHodges,RobertL.Kelly,LisaRobeson,ArnoldSaunders,Eliz- abeth Sklar, and Kevin Whetter. For their continued interest in my work, I am indebted to Dorsey Armstrong, P. J. C. Field, Andrew Lynch, Michael W. Twomey,andBonnieWheeler.CarolV.Kaskehasencouragedmesincegraduate school, for more than two decades. Donald Hoffman, Kenneth Hodges, and Thomas H. Crofts III kindly allowed me to consult unpublished material. The tworeadersforBoydell&Brewer,CarolineEckhardtandRalucaL.Radulescu, andtheserieseditor,NorrisJ.Lacy,gavemeimportantandformativefeedback, and my argument is sharper for their generous attention. When I especially neededit,mytwodearestfriendsintheprofessionpulledouttheirredpensand put on their editors’ caps. Thank you for your hard work, Joyce Coleman and Karen Sawyer Marsalek. I am grateful to you all. I owe publishers my gratitude. An early version of Chapter 1 appeared as “Pledging Troth in Malory’s ‘Tale of Sir Gareth,’ ” in JEGP 101 (2002): 123–131, copyright 2002 by the Board of the Trustees of the University of Illinois, and is reprintedbypermissionoftheUniversityofIllinoisPress.AsectionofChapter4 was published in Arthuriana 11 (2001): 52–64 as “Born Again Virgins and Holy Bastards:BorsandElaineandLancelotandGalahad.”MythankstoCharlesD. Wright, general editor of JEGP, and to Bonnie Wheeler, general editor of Arthuriana, for permission to use material published earlier. Caroline Palmer, Editorial Director at Boydell & Brewer, has been a model of clarity in communication. Iresearchedandwrotethisprojectduringthelongillnessthenearlystagesof grief for my daughter, Helen DuRocher. I wish to acknowledge my past and present running partners for keeping me together, body and soul: Nancy Ammerman, Peggy Fink, Marilyn Hanson, Margaret Huber, Diane LeBlanc, AnneMaple,AnneMeyerRuppel,PaulRuppel,andPegWitt.Ipromisethatwe willhavenomorelongrunsdiscussingchaptertwoandthatIam“go”forthe next marathon. Three chairs of the St Olaf English department – John T. Day, JonathanHill,andMarySteen–deservethanksfortheirpatienceandsupport. Dean James M. May aided this project with a release time grant, a sabbatical, andseveralconsultationsonmyLatinquotations.EnglishmajoralumnaeSarah Everhart and Nancy Simpson proofread my quotations of Middle English and other medieval languages with good cheer, saving me from countless typos. I lookforwardtowelcomingthesetwopromisingyoungscholarsintotheprofes-
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