The Shaping of English Poetry: Essays on the Battle of Maldon, Chrétien De Troyes, Dante, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer

354 Pages·2017·1.945 MB·English

by  Gerald Morgan

This fourth volume of essays under the title The Shaping of T
English Poetry consolidates the work of the previous three volumes h
The Shaping of
e
on the great subjects of english literature in the Medieval and
S
renaissance periods. The norman Conquest of england built upon the rich
h
foundation of anglo-Saxon england but did not destroy it; thus the present a
p E n g l i s h P o e t r y
volume begins with the commemoration of english heroism in The Battle i
n
of Maldon. In the late twelfth century we encounter in Chrétien de Troyes's
g
seminal romance Le Chevalier de la Charrete a new kind of hero in Lancelot, o
f
abject and obedient before his mistress, although Chrétien himself is not an
E
uncritical admirer of the sanctity of adulterous love. Hence the importance n Volume IV
of Dante's exposition of love in Purgatorio, XVIII, which forms a background g
l
to the essays here on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Parliament is Essays on
h
of Fowls. The volume concludes with essays on Chaucer's Knight's, Monk's

P The Battle of Maldon,
and nun's Priest's Tales, which form part of a long-term project to interpret
o Chrétien de Troyes, Dante,
the Canterbury Tales as a unified whole and not merely a series of fragments e
t Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
awaiting revision on Chaucer's death. r
y and Chaucer
,

Gerald Morgan was a Meyricke exhibitioner at Jesus College, Oxford, and V
o
holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer
l
and Fellow in the School of english at Trinity College Dublin and is now research u
m
Director of the Chaucer in Context research group of the Trinity Centre for Gerald Morgan
e
Medieval and renaissance Studies. His publications include Sir Gawain and the
I
Green Knight and the Idea of Righteousness (1991), The Tragic Argument of Troilus V
and Criseyde (2005), The Shaping of English Poetry: Essays on ‘Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight’, Langland, Chaucer and Spenser (Peter Lang, 2010), The Shaping of
G
English Poetry, Volume II: Essays on ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Langland
e
and Chaucer (Peter Lang, 2013), The Shaping of English Poetry, Volume III: Essays r
a
on ‘Beowulf’, Dante, ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Langland, Chaucer and l
d
Spenser (Peter Lang, 2013) and the edited volume Chaucer in Context: A Golden
M
Age of English Poetry (Peter Lang, 2012).
o
r
g
a
n
ISBn 978-3-0343-1724-5
www.peterlang.com PeTer Lang
This fourth volume of essays under the title The Shaping of T
English Poetry consolidates the work of the previous three volumes h
The Shaping of
e
on the great subjects of english literature in the Medieval and
S
renaissance periods. The norman Conquest of england built upon the rich
h
foundation of anglo-Saxon england but did not destroy it; thus the present a
p E n g l i s h P o e t r y
volume begins with the commemoration of english heroism in The Battle i
n
of Maldon. In the late twelfth century we encounter in Chrétien de Troyes's
g
seminal romance Le Chevalier de la Charrete a new kind of hero in Lancelot, o
f
abject and obedient before his mistress, although Chrétien himself is not an
E
uncritical admirer of the sanctity of adulterous love. Hence the importance n Volume IV
of Dante's exposition of love in Purgatorio, XVIII, which forms a background g
l
to the essays here on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Parliament is Essays on
h
of Fowls. The volume concludes with essays on Chaucer's Knight's, Monk's

P The Battle of Maldon,
and nun's Priest's Tales, which form part of a long-term project to interpret
o Chrétien de Troyes, Dante,
the Canterbury Tales as a unified whole and not merely a series of fragments e
t Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
awaiting revision on Chaucer's death. r
y and Chaucer
,

Gerald Morgan was a Meyricke exhibitioner at Jesus College, Oxford, and V
o
holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford. He was formerly a Senior Lecturer
l
and Fellow in the School of english at Trinity College Dublin and is now research u
m
Director of the Chaucer in Context research group of the Trinity Centre for Gerald Morgan
e
Medieval and renaissance Studies. His publications include Sir Gawain and the
I
Green Knight and the Idea of Righteousness (1991), The Tragic Argument of Troilus V
and Criseyde (2005), The Shaping of English Poetry: Essays on ‘Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight’, Langland, Chaucer and Spenser (Peter Lang, 2010), The Shaping of
G
English Poetry, Volume II: Essays on ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Langland
e
and Chaucer (Peter Lang, 2013), The Shaping of English Poetry, Volume III: Essays r
a
on ‘Beowulf’, Dante, ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Langland, Chaucer and l
d
Spenser (Peter Lang, 2013) and the edited volume Chaucer in Context: A Golden
M
Age of English Poetry (Peter Lang, 2012).
o
r
g
a
n
www.peterlang.com PeTer Lang
The Shaping of English Poetry, Volume IV

The Shaping of
E n g l i s h P o e t r y
Volume IV
Essays on
The Battle of Maldon, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante,
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer
Gerald Morgan
PETER LANG
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Preface xxi
1 The Battle of Maldon: The Commemoration of an Heroic
Sacrifice 1
2 The Conflict of Love and Chivalry in Le Chevalier de la
Charrete 21
3 The Movement of Love in the Interior Senses and in the
Intellect: An Explanation of Purgatorio, XVIII.22–24 69
4 The Goodness of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight 81
5 Nature and the Bird-Debate in the Parliament of Fowls 101
6 Chaucer’s Tellers and Tales and the Design of
the Canterbury Tales 129
7 The Campaigns of Chaucer’s Knight 161
8 Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale: The Book of the Duke 195
9 The Grand Design of the Monk’s Tale 231
10 The Function of Rhetoric in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale 269
Index 303

Acknowledgments
Anyone writing a book on medieval literature (quite apart from the Monk’s
Tale) will be obliged at some point to address the question of fortune and
the philosophical issues related to it of justice and injustice. As I now write
the acknowledgments to this fourth volume of The Shaping of English Poetry
I can hardly deny that to a great extent I have been the beneficiary of the
blessings of good fortune.
First and foremost I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr Margret Fine-Davis,
Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology in Trinity College
Dublin. Had she not so generously offered me a home for myself, my books
and computer when I had to leave my rooms in New Square at the end of
2012, I doubt whether I could even have contemplated a fourth volume, let
alone bring it to completion. At the same time I have been greatly encour-
aged, as have many others, by the support and learning of Dr Sarah Alyn
Stacey, Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in
Trinity College, founded by her in 1999. She has kept me in touch with
the work of the next generation of Medieval and Renaissance scholars.
In the preparation of this book for publication (as for all three earlier
volumes in 2010 and 2013) I have been secure in the knowledge of the
expertise and efficiency of Peter Lang as publishers, especially as represented
in Ireland by Christabel Scaife. For the present volume I am indebted in
particular to Jasmin Allousch. For the fourth time in this series Andrea
Greengrass has been responsible for the Index. I have commented more
than once before on the sustained excellence of her work and consultation
of the Index to the present volume will surely supply proof of that.
As the wheel of fortune has continued to turn I have found myself
working on Volume IV in recent winters not in the cold and rain of Dublin
but on the sun-drenched shores of Tenerife. Here again I have been the
recipient of good fortune. Much of the work in Tenerife has been done on
the computers of Torviscas Travel where Jose and Luis have been unfailingly
kind and courteous (as they are to all those who avail of their services).
viii Acknowledgments
I have done much of the work of correction on the terraces of Sunset
Harbour and Torviscas Playa where the sight of the Atlantic Ocean has
been a calming and soothing presence.
The Preface to the present volume was written during a series of break-
fasts at Casa Tres in Sunset Bay. It was as if I were in an Ireland of continuous
sunshine. Those who know at first hand of Irish (combined with Yorkshire
and Kentish) hospitality will know how lucky I have been. I express here
my heartfelt thanks to Mags (Co. Kildare), Maura (Rathfarnham), Anjie
(a Yorkshire lass) and Lynn (a Londoner now in Kent).
Above all this book is the product of over forty years during which I
taught Old English (Literature and Philology), Middle English and Spenser
in the Department and School of English in Trinity College Dublin (1968–
2012). Since 2012 I have held a series of unofficial tutorials on Chaucer in the
Berkeley/Clyde Court Hotel (now sadly demolished) and Ballsbridge Hotel
on the old site of Trinity’s Botanic Gardens with Mrs Margaret Connolly,
a mature student in the Department of Medieval and Renaissance English
in Trinity whom I taught in 1987–1991. Her continuing love of Chaucer
has sustained and inspired my own love of Chaucer in recent years and I
dedicate this book to her in grateful memory of all my students.
Dublin, 12 May 2017