Pamela Gradon – författare

This second volume of English Wycliffite sermons is an edition of the sermons for the Proper and Common of Saints together with two Wycliffite tracts. It is intended to be used with close reference to Volume 1, comprising the sermons on Sunday Epistles and Gospels, which appeared in 1983. The sermons form part of a complete sermon cycle preserved in part or as a whole in the thirty-one manuscripts described in Volume I. The tracts are also preserved, mainly - but not exclusively - in these same thirty-one manuscripts.The two-part introduction to this volume contains an account of five additional manuscripts, and also a discussion of the textual history of the sermons in the Sanctorale and of the tracts. The latter complements the material on the Sunday Epistles and Gospels already published, and when the edition is complete, it will set the history of the Sanctorale in the context of the whole cycle. The sermons are of great interest not only in their handling of Lollard ideas but also in their utilization of theological and scientific ideas; they indicate the level of sophistication expected of their readers.

This volume, along with Volume V, completes the edition of the long English Wycliffite sermon cycle and two related tracts; the first three volumes, published in 1983, 1987 and 1990, contained the texts of the 294 sermons, together with variants and some introductory material. This volume contains a review of the evidence concerning the date, authorship and audience of the sermons, followed by a survey of the main polemical issues repeatedly under discussion in the sermons and by a commentary on the text, which is continued in Volume V. The material here, along with the introductions to the three text volumes, will enable scholars to assess the background and importance of this extensive body of vernacular preaching. In particular, the discussion traces the large debt of the sermons to a wide range of Wyclif's own Latin works, and shows their relationship to other works of the Wycliffite movement.

This volume completes the edition of the long English Wycliffite sermon cycle and two related tracts; This final volume contains a detailed commentary on the text, essential for the study of the earlier text volumes. The material here, along with the introductions to the three text volumes and the survey of the main polemical issues repeatedly under discussion in the sermons in Volume IV, will enable scholars to assess the background and importance of this extensive body of vernacular preaching, tracing the sermons, debt to a wide range of Wyclif's own Latin works, and reveals their relationship to other works of the Wycliffite movement.

First published in 1971, Form and Style in Early English Literature critically investigates the main literary genres and styles of Old and Middle English, illustrated by close reference to the major works—Beowulf, Gawain and the Green Knight and the writings of Langland, Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, and some of their continental contemporaries. This book is an essential read for students and researchers of medieval English literature.