The Tempter's Voice: Language and the Fall in Medieval Literature PDF
Preview The Tempter's Voice: Language and the Fall in Medieval Literature
The Tempter)s Voice THE TEMPTER)S VOICE Language and the Fall in Medieval Literature Eric Jager Cornell University Press Ithaca and London This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is manufactured using toner in place of ink. Type and images may be less sharp than the same material seen in traditionally printed Cornell University Press editions. Copyright© I993 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 5I2 East State Street, Ithaca, New York I485o. First published I993 by Cornell University Press. International Standard Book Number o·80I4·2713·3 (cloth) International Standard Book Number o·Boi4·Bo36·I (paper) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 93· I I8 I I Printed in the United States of America Librarians: Library of Congress cataloging information appears on the last page of the book. @ The paper in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z)9.48·I984. Excerpts from the following works reprinted by permission: The Ancrene Riwle: The Corpus MS.: Ancrene Wisse, translated by Mary B. Salu. C[) 195 5 by Burns&. Oates, Ltd. Avitus, The Fall of Man, edited by Daniel J. Nodes. pp. IR-48, by permission of the publisher. © 1985 by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. Larry D. Benson (Editor), The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition. Copyright CC I987 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Used with permission. The Celestial Cycle: The Theme of Paradise Lost in World Literature. with Tmnslations of the Major Analogues by Watson Kirkconncll. ~·J I9\2, University of Toronto Press. Confessions of St. Augustine by St. Augustine, translated by Rex Warner. Copyright cO I963 by Rex Warner, renewed I99I by F. C. Warner. Introduction copyright~·:· I963, renewed I99I by Vernon J. Rourke. Used by permission of New American Library, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. Early English Christian Poetry Tmmlated into Alliterative Verse, edited and translated by Charles W. Kennedy. CO 1952, Oxford University Pre". "Langue d'Amour" by Laurie Anderson. CO I984 Difficult Music (BMI). The Literal Meaning of Genesis, vol. 2. John Hammond Taylor, S.J., translator, AnCient Chris· tian Writers series, no. 42. !!'l I982 by Rev. Johannes Quasten, Rev. Walter J. Burghardt, S.J,, Thomas Comerford Lawler. Used by permission of Paulist Press. Saint Ambrose: Hexameron, Paradise, and Cain and Abel, translated by John J. Savage; and Saint Augustine on Genesis, translated by Roland J. Teske; Fathers of the Church series, nos. 42 and R4. r&J I961, 199I, Catholic University Press of America. St. Augustine: On Christian Doctrine. Translated by D. W. Robertson, Jr. Copyright 1958 by Macmillan Publishing Company; and from fohn Milton: The Comrlete l'oems and Ma1or l'wse, edited by Merritt Y. Hughes. Copyright ro Iy8s by Macmillan Publishing Company. r!) IY\7 by Odyssey Press. Reprinted with the permission of Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc. To my father And in memory of my mother [Adam j signifies in Greek the whole world, for there are four letters, A, D, A, and M. But as the Greeks speak, the four quarters of the world have these initial letters .... Adam therefore has been scattered over the whole world. He was in one place, and fill, and as though broken small he filled the whole world; but the mercy of God gathered together the fragments from every side, and forged them by the fire of love, and made one what was broken. -ST. AUGUSTINE CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments Xl Abbreviations xiii Note on Biblical Citations xvii Introduction I Part One Augustine's Garden r The School of Paradise 23 2 The Genesis of Hermeneutics 51 3 The Garden of Eloquence 99 Part Two The Medieval Garden 4 The Old English Epic of the Fall 145 5 The Seducer and the Daughter of Eve 6 The Carnal Letter in Chaucer's Earthly Paradise Epilogue Signs of the Fall: From the Middle Ages to Postmodernism 299 Bibliography 307 Index 325 Vll ILLUSTRATIONS I. Biblical text with gloss: The Serpent's speech to Eve I7 2. God instructing Adam about the Tree of Knowledge 28 3· God with scriptural book, Adam and Eve with fig leaves 68 4· Adam and Eve hiding among the trees of the Garden 127 S· Eve proffering the forbidden fruit to Adam 182 6. Devils tempting women 201 7· The climax of the pear tree story 281 ix
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