Andrew King
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187226
- eISBN:
- 9780191674662
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187226.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Scholarship on Middle English romance has done little to access the textual and bibliographical continuity of this remarkable literary tradition into the 16th century and its impact on Elizabethan ...
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Scholarship on Middle English romance has done little to access the textual and bibliographical continuity of this remarkable literary tradition into the 16th century and its impact on Elizabethan works. To an even greater extent, Spenserian scholarship has failed to investigate the significant and complex debts The Faerie Queene owes to medieval native verse romance and Malory's Le Morte D'arthur. This book accordingly offers a comprehensive study of the impact of Middle English romance on The Faerie Queene. It employs the concept of memory, in which both Middle English romance writers and Spenser show specific interest, in building a sense of the thematic, generic, and cultural complexity of the native romance tradition. The memorial character of Middle English romance resides in its intertextuality and its frequent presentation of narrative events as historical and consequently the basis for a favourable sense of local or even national identity. Spenser's memories of native romance involve a more troubled engagement with that tradition of providential national history as well as an endeavour to see in pre-Reformation romance a prophetic and objective authority for Protestant belief.Less
Scholarship on Middle English romance has done little to access the textual and bibliographical continuity of this remarkable literary tradition into the 16th century and its impact on Elizabethan works. To an even greater extent, Spenserian scholarship has failed to investigate the significant and complex debts The Faerie Queene owes to medieval native verse romance and Malory's Le Morte D'arthur. This book accordingly offers a comprehensive study of the impact of Middle English romance on The Faerie Queene. It employs the concept of memory, in which both Middle English romance writers and Spenser show specific interest, in building a sense of the thematic, generic, and cultural complexity of the native romance tradition. The memorial character of Middle English romance resides in its intertextuality and its frequent presentation of narrative events as historical and consequently the basis for a favourable sense of local or even national identity. Spenser's memories of native romance involve a more troubled engagement with that tradition of providential national history as well as an endeavour to see in pre-Reformation romance a prophetic and objective authority for Protestant belief.
Andrew King
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187226
- eISBN:
- 9780191674662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187226.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter aims to establish the nativeness of Le Morte D'arthur, first by considering Malory's use of native romance sources, and then by looking at how continental sources were influenced by his ...
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This chapter aims to establish the nativeness of Le Morte D'arthur, first by considering Malory's use of native romance sources, and then by looking at how continental sources were influenced by his memory of native romance. Two concerns in particular arise, both connecting Malory to the native tradition while also anticipating his relevance to Spenser: one is Malory's concern with stories of noble youths who are displaced or disguise their identity, and the other is Malory's problematized attempt to fuse history and romance into an idealized version of England.Less
This chapter aims to establish the nativeness of Le Morte D'arthur, first by considering Malory's use of native romance sources, and then by looking at how continental sources were influenced by his memory of native romance. Two concerns in particular arise, both connecting Malory to the native tradition while also anticipating his relevance to Spenser: one is Malory's concern with stories of noble youths who are displaced or disguise their identity, and the other is Malory's problematized attempt to fuse history and romance into an idealized version of England.
Patrick Parrinder
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199264858
- eISBN:
- 9780191698989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264858.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Prose fiction came in late in European literature. Before the Elizabethan period, original short stories and romance narratives consisted of just prose fiction. The prose fiction works of Malory, ...
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Prose fiction came in late in European literature. Before the Elizabethan period, original short stories and romance narratives consisted of just prose fiction. The prose fiction works of Malory, Nashe, Lyly, Wilton, and other popular novelists are discussed in the chapter. The changing usage of the word cavalier is also examined in the chapter. It used to mean a gentleman trained to arms, but its modern usage refers to an escort of a lady. A clash of ideas between Puritanism and cavalier values happened fifty years before the Civil War. During the 17th century, rogue narratives came to be connected with the Royal Period. The central theme during the Civil War period was the contradicting ideas of anarchism and the rule of law.Less
Prose fiction came in late in European literature. Before the Elizabethan period, original short stories and romance narratives consisted of just prose fiction. The prose fiction works of Malory, Nashe, Lyly, Wilton, and other popular novelists are discussed in the chapter. The changing usage of the word cavalier is also examined in the chapter. It used to mean a gentleman trained to arms, but its modern usage refers to an escort of a lady. A clash of ideas between Puritanism and cavalier values happened fifty years before the Civil War. During the 17th century, rogue narratives came to be connected with the Royal Period. The central theme during the Civil War period was the contradicting ideas of anarchism and the rule of law.
Ronald Hutton
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205708
- eISBN:
- 9780191676758
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205708.003.0023
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, British and Irish Early Modern History
Around the year 1240, the reforming bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, complained to his archdeacons of priests who demeaned themselves by joining ‘games which they call the bringing-in of May’. ...
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Around the year 1240, the reforming bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, complained to his archdeacons of priests who demeaned themselves by joining ‘games which they call the bringing-in of May’. In the early 1420s, the corporation of New Romney, a port in Kent, gave money to the men of neighbouring Lydd ‘when they came with their May’. References to this custom in England begin with Grosseteste's grumble. They multiply as soon as England's literature became sufficiently developed to include lush background detail for narratives, which was in the fourteenth century. As Geoffrey Chaucer towers over the other writers of the period, so does he furnish the largest number of descriptions. In his Court of Love, heroine Emelie goes out at sunrise ‘to do May observance’. A hundred years later, the major literary work of that age included a similar scene in Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur.Less
Around the year 1240, the reforming bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste, complained to his archdeacons of priests who demeaned themselves by joining ‘games which they call the bringing-in of May’. In the early 1420s, the corporation of New Romney, a port in Kent, gave money to the men of neighbouring Lydd ‘when they came with their May’. References to this custom in England begin with Grosseteste's grumble. They multiply as soon as England's literature became sufficiently developed to include lush background detail for narratives, which was in the fourteenth century. As Geoffrey Chaucer towers over the other writers of the period, so does he furnish the largest number of descriptions. In his Court of Love, heroine Emelie goes out at sunrise ‘to do May observance’. A hundred years later, the major literary work of that age included a similar scene in Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur.
Joanna Summers
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199271290
- eISBN:
- 9780191709586
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271290.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy has long been taken as one of the seminal works of the Middle Ages, yet despite the study of many aspects of the Consolation's influence, the legacy of the figure ...
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Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy has long been taken as one of the seminal works of the Middle Ages, yet despite the study of many aspects of the Consolation's influence, the legacy of the figure of the writer in prison has not been explored. A group of late-medieval authors — Thomas Usk, James I of Scotland, Charles d'Orléans, George Ashby, William Thorpe, Richard Wyche, and Sir Thomas Malory — demonstrate the ways in which the imprisoned writer is presented both within and outside the Boethian tradition. Each of these writers inscribes himself and his imprisoned situation within his text. This book examines, therefore, whether each text invites a reading as autobiography. In many of the texts there are clear signs of intertextual reference; this book questions whether such reference to contemporary discourse or literary authority is incorporated for the purposes of a politically-motivated self-presentation as opposed to a concern with literary aesthetics or formal or philosophical considerations. It examines whether the self-presentation of each writer has a motivation of self-justification or self-promotion, leading to a manipulation of historical evidence for political ends, as the persuasion of the audience, whether this is envisaged as coterie, patron, heretical sect, or opponent is effected through the manipulation of these devices. Late-Medieval Prison Writing also questions whether the group of texts constitutes a genre of early autobiographical prison literature in its own right.Less
Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy has long been taken as one of the seminal works of the Middle Ages, yet despite the study of many aspects of the Consolation's influence, the legacy of the figure of the writer in prison has not been explored. A group of late-medieval authors — Thomas Usk, James I of Scotland, Charles d'Orléans, George Ashby, William Thorpe, Richard Wyche, and Sir Thomas Malory — demonstrate the ways in which the imprisoned writer is presented both within and outside the Boethian tradition. Each of these writers inscribes himself and his imprisoned situation within his text. This book examines, therefore, whether each text invites a reading as autobiography. In many of the texts there are clear signs of intertextual reference; this book questions whether such reference to contemporary discourse or literary authority is incorporated for the purposes of a politically-motivated self-presentation as opposed to a concern with literary aesthetics or formal or philosophical considerations. It examines whether the self-presentation of each writer has a motivation of self-justification or self-promotion, leading to a manipulation of historical evidence for political ends, as the persuasion of the audience, whether this is envisaged as coterie, patron, heretical sect, or opponent is effected through the manipulation of these devices. Late-Medieval Prison Writing also questions whether the group of texts constitutes a genre of early autobiographical prison literature in its own right.
JOANNA SUMMERS
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199271290
- eISBN:
- 9780191709586
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199271290.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This Epilogue begins with a discussion of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Although much studied, Malory's self-presentation is rarely considered in itself, no doubt because autobiographical concerns ...
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This Epilogue begins with a discussion of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Although much studied, Malory's self-presentation is rarely considered in itself, no doubt because autobiographical concerns appear minimal in the text, and as such Malory's Arthuriad is beyond the scope of this book. However, the narrative does possess a first-person narrator, together with authorial addresses to the reader in the colophons, which possess elements of self-definition, and present an imprisoned author. The Epilogue therefore discusses these facets of the Morte, including the controversial question of authorship, and arguing that only the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth colophons are the author's own — the colophons that also contain (auto)biographical expression, albeit in varying degrees. The Epilogue argues that it is incorrect to assume that there is no thematic, autobiographical, or political relation between the colophons and the main narrative.Less
This Epilogue begins with a discussion of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Although much studied, Malory's self-presentation is rarely considered in itself, no doubt because autobiographical concerns appear minimal in the text, and as such Malory's Arthuriad is beyond the scope of this book. However, the narrative does possess a first-person narrator, together with authorial addresses to the reader in the colophons, which possess elements of self-definition, and present an imprisoned author. The Epilogue therefore discusses these facets of the Morte, including the controversial question of authorship, and arguing that only the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth colophons are the author's own — the colophons that also contain (auto)biographical expression, albeit in varying degrees. The Epilogue argues that it is incorrect to assume that there is no thematic, autobiographical, or political relation between the colophons and the main narrative.
Megan Leitch
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198724599
- eISBN:
- 9780191792205
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724599.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Folk Literature
This book addresses the scope and significance of the secular literary culture of the Wars of the Roses, and especially of its distinctive prose romances. The book argues that the pervasive textual ...
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This book addresses the scope and significance of the secular literary culture of the Wars of the Roses, and especially of its distinctive prose romances. The book argues that the pervasive textual presence of treason c.1437–97 suggests a way of conceptualizing the understudied space between the Lancastrian literary culture of the early fifteenth century and the Tudor literary cultures of the early and mid-sixteenth century. Drawing upon theories of political discourse and interpellation, of the power of language to shape social identities, this book explores how treason is both a source of anxieties about community and identity and a way of responding to those concerns. Despite the context of civil war, treason is an understudied theme even with regards to Thomas Malory’s celebrated prose romance, the Morte Darthur. The book accordingly provides a double contribution to Malory criticism by addressing the Morte Darthur’s engagement with treason, and by reading the Morte in the hitherto neglected context of the prose romances and other secular literature written by Malory’s English contemporaries. This book also offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of the medieval romance genre and sheds light on understudied texts such as the prose Siege of Thebes and Siege of Troy, and the romances that William Caxton translated from French. More broadly, this book contributes to reconsiderations of the relationship between medieval and early modern English culture by focusing on a comparatively neglected sixty-year interval—the interval that is customarily the ‘no man’s land’ between well- but separately studied periods.Less
This book addresses the scope and significance of the secular literary culture of the Wars of the Roses, and especially of its distinctive prose romances. The book argues that the pervasive textual presence of treason c.1437–97 suggests a way of conceptualizing the understudied space between the Lancastrian literary culture of the early fifteenth century and the Tudor literary cultures of the early and mid-sixteenth century. Drawing upon theories of political discourse and interpellation, of the power of language to shape social identities, this book explores how treason is both a source of anxieties about community and identity and a way of responding to those concerns. Despite the context of civil war, treason is an understudied theme even with regards to Thomas Malory’s celebrated prose romance, the Morte Darthur. The book accordingly provides a double contribution to Malory criticism by addressing the Morte Darthur’s engagement with treason, and by reading the Morte in the hitherto neglected context of the prose romances and other secular literature written by Malory’s English contemporaries. This book also offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of the medieval romance genre and sheds light on understudied texts such as the prose Siege of Thebes and Siege of Troy, and the romances that William Caxton translated from French. More broadly, this book contributes to reconsiderations of the relationship between medieval and early modern English culture by focusing on a comparatively neglected sixty-year interval—the interval that is customarily the ‘no man’s land’ between well- but separately studied periods.
Elly McCausland
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526135629
- eISBN:
- 9781526150349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526135636.00018
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This chapter explores the ways in which British and American adaptations of Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur for child readers during the early twentieth century sought to redefine chivalric masculinity ...
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This chapter explores the ways in which British and American adaptations of Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur for child readers during the early twentieth century sought to redefine chivalric masculinity for a modern age, following the Victorian medieval revival. Focusing on works by Henry Gilbert and Howard Pyle, it examines how these texts retained the imaginative framework of the ‘soldier hero’ in their attempt to appeal to adventurous boy readers, Hunger and cannibalism but redefined this figure in moral terms. They promote a romanticised ‘gentleman’ whose courtesy, duty and dedication were drawn from the chivalric model but whose bravery and endurance went beyond the battlefield. In doing so, however, they also hint at irreconcilable tensions between an idealised medievalism and the increasing complexities of modern gender identity.Less
This chapter explores the ways in which British and American adaptations of Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur for child readers during the early twentieth century sought to redefine chivalric masculinity for a modern age, following the Victorian medieval revival. Focusing on works by Henry Gilbert and Howard Pyle, it examines how these texts retained the imaginative framework of the ‘soldier hero’ in their attempt to appeal to adventurous boy readers, Hunger and cannibalism but redefined this figure in moral terms. They promote a romanticised ‘gentleman’ whose courtesy, duty and dedication were drawn from the chivalric model but whose bravery and endurance went beyond the battlefield. In doing so, however, they also hint at irreconcilable tensions between an idealised medievalism and the increasing complexities of modern gender identity.
Katie Garner
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- April 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780198858577
- eISBN:
- 9780191890734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198858577.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter investigates the influence of Keats’s knowledge of medieval romance on his travels in Scotland in 1818. Tracing allusions to Spenser’s Faerie Queene and the Arthurian legend in his tour ...
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This chapter investigates the influence of Keats’s knowledge of medieval romance on his travels in Scotland in 1818. Tracing allusions to Spenser’s Faerie Queene and the Arthurian legend in his tour letters and poems, it argues that the quest patterns that Keats admired in Spenser and Malory were reconfigured in his mind as he wandered in pursuit of ‘experience’. Travelling on foot through dramatic, ruin-strewn landscapes gave Keats a new sense of how romance was a live, credible register for extreme feeling. In Keats’s tour writings, medieval landscapes fuse with more recent histories, anticipating the style and tone of his later medievalist poetry.Less
This chapter investigates the influence of Keats’s knowledge of medieval romance on his travels in Scotland in 1818. Tracing allusions to Spenser’s Faerie Queene and the Arthurian legend in his tour letters and poems, it argues that the quest patterns that Keats admired in Spenser and Malory were reconfigured in his mind as he wandered in pursuit of ‘experience’. Travelling on foot through dramatic, ruin-strewn landscapes gave Keats a new sense of how romance was a live, credible register for extreme feeling. In Keats’s tour writings, medieval landscapes fuse with more recent histories, anticipating the style and tone of his later medievalist poetry.
Kate McClune
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198787525
- eISBN:
- 9780191829635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198787525.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter analyses the presentation of the figure of King Arthur in a selection of Scots chronicles and romances. It considers Scots ambivalence towards the figure of Arthur, and examines this ...
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This chapter analyses the presentation of the figure of King Arthur in a selection of Scots chronicles and romances. It considers Scots ambivalence towards the figure of Arthur, and examines this against the perennial Scots concern with the problem of youthful kingship. In doing so, it highlights a hitherto neglected aspect in the equivocal Scottish treatments of Arthur: the issue of age. It argues that the varied nature of Arthur’s characterization is related to the extreme youth of the true heir (in Scots tradition at least), Modred, and a corresponding anxiety about minority rule which reflects contemporary Scots concerns. It concludes with an analysis of Malory’s Morte Darthur and points to hitherto unnoticed parallels in the English tradition.Less
This chapter analyses the presentation of the figure of King Arthur in a selection of Scots chronicles and romances. It considers Scots ambivalence towards the figure of Arthur, and examines this against the perennial Scots concern with the problem of youthful kingship. In doing so, it highlights a hitherto neglected aspect in the equivocal Scottish treatments of Arthur: the issue of age. It argues that the varied nature of Arthur’s characterization is related to the extreme youth of the true heir (in Scots tradition at least), Modred, and a corresponding anxiety about minority rule which reflects contemporary Scots concerns. It concludes with an analysis of Malory’s Morte Darthur and points to hitherto unnoticed parallels in the English tradition.
Megan G. Leitch
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198724599
- eISBN:
- 9780191792205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724599.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Folk Literature
This introductory chapter establishes the idea of a literature of the Wars of the Roses by analysing the differing ethical and aesthetic emphases of English literature from the late fourteenth to the ...
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This introductory chapter establishes the idea of a literature of the Wars of the Roses by analysing the differing ethical and aesthetic emphases of English literature from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, and charting these emphases alongside the changing sociopolitical conditions in England. In addition to these historical and literary-historical arguments, this chapter also addresses the methodological approach and priorities of the book. Significantly, this study proposes neither one-to-one correspondence between text and event nor points of strict political allegory, but rather examines a broader and looser, yet no less urgent, mode of topical engagement and didactic response. This response was conditioned by a type of sociopolitical stress that lasted for approximately two generations, and involved the politically active—and literate—classes of gentry, aristocracy, and, sometimes, merchants. This chapter establishes the parameters of contemporary writers’ and readers’ preoccupation with treason.Less
This introductory chapter establishes the idea of a literature of the Wars of the Roses by analysing the differing ethical and aesthetic emphases of English literature from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, and charting these emphases alongside the changing sociopolitical conditions in England. In addition to these historical and literary-historical arguments, this chapter also addresses the methodological approach and priorities of the book. Significantly, this study proposes neither one-to-one correspondence between text and event nor points of strict political allegory, but rather examines a broader and looser, yet no less urgent, mode of topical engagement and didactic response. This response was conditioned by a type of sociopolitical stress that lasted for approximately two generations, and involved the politically active—and literate—classes of gentry, aristocracy, and, sometimes, merchants. This chapter establishes the parameters of contemporary writers’ and readers’ preoccupation with treason.
Megan G. Leitch
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198724599
- eISBN:
- 9780191792205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724599.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Folk Literature
This chapter both examines the way in which Malory’s Morte Darthur employs a narrowed and emphatic lexicon of treason that affects the understanding of the text in itself, and demonstrates the degree ...
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This chapter both examines the way in which Malory’s Morte Darthur employs a narrowed and emphatic lexicon of treason that affects the understanding of the text in itself, and demonstrates the degree to which the Morte forms part of a wider English generic and cultural movement. The first half of this chapter examines how treason, like fellowship, receives greater textual attention in Malory than it does in his sources, even though Malory condenses his source materials. While Malorian strategies of treating betrayal are sometimes more sophisticated than those of the prose Thebes and Troy and other literature of the Wars of the Roses, the former nonetheless resonate with the latter. This chapter offers new insights into the nature of the romance genre through the ways in which these texts’ genre inhabits yet transforms the space of traditional romance to generate its divergent meanings and implications.Less
This chapter both examines the way in which Malory’s Morte Darthur employs a narrowed and emphatic lexicon of treason that affects the understanding of the text in itself, and demonstrates the degree to which the Morte forms part of a wider English generic and cultural movement. The first half of this chapter examines how treason, like fellowship, receives greater textual attention in Malory than it does in his sources, even though Malory condenses his source materials. While Malorian strategies of treating betrayal are sometimes more sophisticated than those of the prose Thebes and Troy and other literature of the Wars of the Roses, the former nonetheless resonate with the latter. This chapter offers new insights into the nature of the romance genre through the ways in which these texts’ genre inhabits yet transforms the space of traditional romance to generate its divergent meanings and implications.
Megan G. Leitch
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198724599
- eISBN:
- 9780191792205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198724599.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Folk Literature
While the continental influences on Caxton’s prints have been well documented, scant attention has been paid to the English resonance of Caxton’s own translated romances; this chapter reads these ...
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While the continental influences on Caxton’s prints have been well documented, scant attention has been paid to the English resonance of Caxton’s own translated romances; this chapter reads these romances and explores the fused chivalric and civic ideology they manifest. To address what Caxton’s prose romances were ‘doing’ in England (in terms of both provenance and work), the reading of their cultural significance pursued here is informed not only by these texts’ origins, print production, and broader readership, but also by their generic and thematic affinities with Malory’s Morte Darthur (which Caxton printed in 1485) and other recent English literature. This chapter concentrates upon Godeffroy of Boloyne (1481), Charles the Grete (1485), and The Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1488) as the three of Caxton’s prose romances most centrally concerned with treason, and also considers non-romance tracts in Caxton’s oeuvre that promulgate similar attitudes towards treason.Less
While the continental influences on Caxton’s prints have been well documented, scant attention has been paid to the English resonance of Caxton’s own translated romances; this chapter reads these romances and explores the fused chivalric and civic ideology they manifest. To address what Caxton’s prose romances were ‘doing’ in England (in terms of both provenance and work), the reading of their cultural significance pursued here is informed not only by these texts’ origins, print production, and broader readership, but also by their generic and thematic affinities with Malory’s Morte Darthur (which Caxton printed in 1485) and other recent English literature. This chapter concentrates upon Godeffroy of Boloyne (1481), Charles the Grete (1485), and The Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1488) as the three of Caxton’s prose romances most centrally concerned with treason, and also considers non-romance tracts in Caxton’s oeuvre that promulgate similar attitudes towards treason.