Writings on Love in the English Middle Ages

214 Pages·2006·0.733 MB·English

by  Helen Cooney (ed.)

WRITINGS ON LOVE IN THE
ENGLISH MIDDLE AGES
STUDIES IN ARTHURIAN AND
COURTLY CULTURES
The dynamic field of Arthurian Studies is the subject for this book
series, Studies in Arthurian and Courtly Cultures, which explores the
great variety of literary and cultural expression inspired by the lore of
King Arthur, the Round Table, and the Grail. In forms that range
from medieval chronicles to popular films, from chivalric romances
to contemporary comics, from magic realism to feminist fantasy—and
from the sixth through the twenty-first centuries—few literary subjects
provide such fertile ground for cultural elaboration. Including works in
literary criticism, cultural studies, and history, Studies in Arthurian and
Courtly Cultures highlights the most significant new Arthurian Studies.
Bonnie Wheeler, Southern Methodist University
Series Editor
Editorial Board:
James Carley, York University
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, American University
Virginie Greene, Harvard University
Siân Echard, University of British Columbia
Sharon Kinoshita, University of California, Santa Cruz
Alan Lupack, University of Rochester
Andrew Lynch, University of Western Australia
WRITINGS ON LOVE IN THE
ENGLISH MIDDLE AGES
Edited by Helen Cooney
WRITINGSONLOVEINTHEENGLISHMIDDLEAGES
© Helen Cooney, 2006.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-6848-7
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case ofbrief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2006 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-53069-4 ISBN 978-1-4039-8353-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403983534
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Writings on love in the English Middle Ages / edited by Helen Cooney.
p. cm.––(Studies in Arthurian and courtly cultures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English literature—Middle English, 1100–1500—History and
criticism. 2. Love in literature. I. Cooney, Helen. II. Series.
PR275.L66W75 2006
820.9(cid:2)3543—dc22 2006044814
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: September 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction 1
Helen Cooney
1. The Reality of Courtly Love 7
Bernard O’Donoghue
2. Love before Troilus 25
Helen Cooper
3. Love and Loyalty in Middle English Romance 45
Corinne Saunders
4. “The unequal scales of love”: Love and Social Class in
Andreas Capellanus’s De Amoreand Some Later Texts 63
John Scattergood
5. Troilus and Criseyde: Love in a Manner of Speaking 81
Barry Windeatt
6. The Wisdom of Old Women: Alisoun of Bath as Auctrice 99
Alastair Minnis
7. “Nat that I chalange any thyng of right”: Love,
Loyalty, and Legality in the Franklin’s Tale 115
Neil Cartlidge
8. Some New Thing: The Floure and the Leafe
and the Cultural Shift in the Role of the Poet in
Fifteenth-Century England 131
Helen Cooney
vi CONTENTS
9. Romancing the Rose: The Readings
of Chaucer and Christine 147
Martha W. Driver
10. Entrapment or Empowerment? Women
and Discourses of Love and Marriage in the
Fifteenth Century 163
Carol M. Meale
11. Writing about Love in Late
Medieval Scotland 179
Priscilla Bawcutt
Index 197
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume arises in part from a conference held at Trinity College,
Dublin in September 2002, called “Quid Sit Amor?: Definitions of
Love in Medieval English Literature.” Sincere thanks are due to the Dean
of the Faculty of Arts (Letters), Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and to the Head of
the Department of English, Nicholas Grene, at T.C.D., for their extremely
generous financial and administrative support of that conference. A feeling
grew out of the conference, however, that the relatively narrow focus on
“definitions of love” did not do justice to the sheer variety of writings on
love in medieval England, and so about one half of the essays in this vol-
ume were commissioned at a later date, in order to reflect the perceived
diversity of the literature under discussion. Thanks are due to each one of
my contributors for giving so generously of their expertise, imaginative
energy and time—and also for complying so fully with all of the demands
of the editor. A special word of thanks is due to both John Scattergood and
Deirdre Parsons, for their help in the final stages of the production of this
volume. My greatest debt is to my family and it is to them that this book is
dedicated.
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NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Priscilla Bawcutt is a graduate of London University, and has taught at
the universities of London, Durham, Manchester and Liverpool. She is
currently an honorary professor in the Department of English Language
and Literature at the University of Liverpool, and vice-president of the
Scottish Text Society. Her research interests concern English and Scottish
literature in the late medieval and renaissance period. Her publications
include an edition (together with Felicity Riddy) of Longer Scottish Poems
1375–1650(Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1987); an edition of The
Shorter Poems of Gavin Douglas (Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, 1967; a
second and revised edition has been published in 2003); and a two-volume
edition of The Poems of William Dunbar(Glasgow: Association for Scottish
Literary Studies, 1998), which in 1999 was awarded the National Library
of Scotland/Saltire Society prize for the best work of research in that year.
She has also published two works of literary criticism: Gavin Douglas: A
Critical Study (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1976); and Dunbar
the Makar(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). One of her current projects is
an edition (together with Janet Hadley Williams) of A Companion to Early
Scottish Poetry(this proposal is being prepared for Boydell and Brewer).
Neil Cartlidgestudied English Literature at Clare College in Cambridge.
After completing his doctorate there in 1995, he worked in Oxford as
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Wolfson College, and then as a
lecturer at St John’s. He was appointed to his current post as a lecturer in
Old and Middle English at University College, Dublin, in 1999. In
2002–2003, he held an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the semi-
nar for Medieval Latin Philology in the University of Freiburg, Germany.
He has published two books, Medieval Marriage: Literary Approaches
1100–1300 (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997) and The Owl and the
Nightingale(Exeter: Exeter University Press, 2001)
Helen Cooneyholds a B.A. (Mod.) from Trinity College, Dublin, and an
M.A. (with Commendation) from Bristol University and a Ph.D. from
T.C.D., where she currently teaches medieval and Renaissance literature.