Arthurian Studies – serie

This volume of essays is aimed at advancing the appreciation of Malory, an author who has always been enjoyed by the common reader, but is still sometimes underestimated by the critics. Despite an increasing number of articles onMalory, there is a need for a general survey of recent research, which Aspects of Malory provides. The volume opens with a note by the late Professor Vinaver on Malory's prose, and three essays on Malory's Englishness andhis English sources, including an essay by P. J. C. Field which argues for an English rather than a French origin for the Tale of Gareth. This is followed by two essays on Malory's French sources, by Jill Mann and Mary Hynes-Berry. Terence McCarthy re-exasmines the sequence of the tales, and three further essays look at the scribal and textual tradition of Malory's work, in particular the relationship between the Winchester MS, Caxton's printed version, and the history of the MS. Finally, Richard R. Griffith reconsiders the authorship question, and proposes a long-forgotten Thomas Malory as the most likely candidate. There is a bibliography of recent research compiled byProfessor Takamiya..`Full of sound scholarship'. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Essays examining a variety of aspects of important Arthurian poem.The present volume grew from a nucleus of four papers given at the Twelfth International Arthurian Conference at Regensburg in 1971 on the alliterative Morte Arthure, increasingly recognised as one of the great masterpiecesof medieval English literature. These lectures sought to reappraise the poem and its somewhat enigmatic historical and cultural context, and are presented here in a much revised and expanded form. Unlike most volumes of theiskind, the contributions form an integrated whole, the result of lengthy discussions among the collaborating scholars over the past year. The topics range from the poem's place among chronicles and Arthurian romances to the date, audience and attitude to contempary problems, notably that of war. pecific fields such as heraldry and laments for the dead are examined in detail, while the linguistic structure of the poem is the subject of two essays.

Dr Morris examines how the legend grew through the retelling of what medieval writers believed was the story of an historical figure, based not on some lost Welsh biography, but on Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings ofBritain, the `authorised' version of Arthur's career. She looks at his antecedents, the story of his conception and birth, and his accession, moving on to discuss his warfare, his role in peacetime, his relationships with hisfamily, his personal attributes, and his problematical death, showing how Arthur remains a distinct character in medieval literature despite appearing in an infinite variety of guises. Arthur appears in medieval literature in an infinite variety of different guises, yet remains a distinct character. Medieval writers, however freely they treat their sources, respected the traditions of the past, and Dr Morris, in writing the 'biography' of Arthur, isconcerned to show the complex intelinking of different versions of his story. Her approach is through the sequence of events which make up Arthur's career. She looks in turn at his antecedents, the story of his conception and birth, and his accession, the initial 'facts' and the discusses his warfare, his role in peacetime, his relationships with his family, and his personal attributes. The problems surrounding Arthur's death are examined in the finalchapter. Throughout the book, Dr Morris is concerned to 'use Arthur tro find out about the sources rather than vice versa' and in so doing illustrates both how medieval writers retold what they believe to be the story of a real historical figure and how the familiar story of Arthur gradually took shape over the centuries, based not on some lost Welsh biography, but on Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain the 'authorised' version of Arthur's career for almost all medieval writers

Full indexes by topic, keyword and individual work\author form a complete subject-index, based on the indexes in source bibliographies. This is a complete bibliography of Arthurian literature to 1978, the result of five years' work by Professor Cedric Pickford and Dr Rex Last of the University of Hull. It consists of a complete alphabetical author-listing, with key numbers for each item, of all critical material recorded in the standard Arthurian bibliographies (Bruce, Modern Languages Quarterly, BBSIA and various other minor lists) with full indexes by topic, keyword and individual work,/author. The total is over 10,000 main entries, with all recorded reviews listed after each entry. Where summaries exist in BBSIA, this is indicated in the main entries. The computer programs have been specially devised and written for this bibliography by Dr Last, and programming and editing of the material has taken morethan two years. Updating volumes are planned to appear at five-year intervals.

This volume, a festschrift for Professor A,H. Diverres, has been included in the Arthurian Studies series because it contains highly important new work on the medieval aspects of Arthurian legend, ranging from Rachel Bromwich's essay on the Celtic elements in Arthurian romance and A.O.H Jarman's study of Arthurian allusions in the Black Book of Carmarthen to examinations of the Spanish and French romances of the 15th century. There are five papers on theromances of Chretien de Troyes, including pieces by Tony Hunt, Kenneth Varty and Charles Foulon, two on Welsh and German romances associated with Chretien's work, while other studies are on the Breton lais and on the English romances. In all, this is a wide-ranging and valuable collection, and a welcome addition to the series.

The Romance of Ydersurvives in a unique manuscript in Cambridge University Library, and has only once been edited; no translation survives. Yet it is a highly interesting work, reflecting a tradition which reaches back to the beginnings of Arthurian romance in the early 12th century; it is linked to the famous Arthurian sculpture on the cathedral at Modena, and contains an episode which foreshadows the temptation scene in Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight, while elsewhere Celtic material is much in evidence as the basis of the tale. It is also close in style and sometimes in content to the work of Chrétien de Troyes. Dr Adams' text provides a clear version of an often corrupt original, and the facing translation serves to illuminate the text further, enabling this neglected work to take its rightful place in the ranks of Arthurian literature.

The revival of interest in Arthurian legend in the 19th century was a remarkable phenomenon, apparently at odds with the spirit of the age. Tennyson was widely criticised for his choice of a medieval topic; yet The Idylls of the Kingwere accepted as the national epic, and a flood of lesser works was inspired by them, on both sides of the Atlantic. Elisabeth Brewer and Beverly Taylor survey the course of Arthurian literature from 1800 to the presentday, and give an account of all the major English and American contributions. Some of the works are well-known, but there are also a host of names which will be new to most readers, and some surprises, such as J. Comyns Carr's King Arthur, rightly ignored as a text, but a piece oftheatrical history, for Sir Henry Irving played King Arthur, Ellen Terry was Guinevere, Arthur Sullivan wrote the music, and Burne-Jones designed the sets.The Arthurian works of the Pre-Raphaelites are discussed at length, as are the poemsof Edward Arlington Robinson, John Masefield and Charles Williams. Other writers have used the legends as part of a wider cultural consciousness: The Waste Land, David Jones's In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, and the echoes ofTristan and Iseult in Finnigan's Wake are discussed in this context. Novels on Arthurian themes are given their due place, from the satirical scenes of Thomas Love Peacock's The Misfortunes of Elphin and Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court to T.H. White's serio-comic The Once and Future King and the many recent novelists who have turned away from the chivalric Arthur to depict him as a Dark Age ruler.The Return of King Arthurincludes a bibliography of British and American creative writing relating to the Arthurian legends from1800 to the present day.

The setting of medieval Arthurian romance, as typified by Malory's Morte Darthur, plays an important part in the creation of the atmosphere of the stories, and in intensifying the drama of the action. Professor Whitaker looks at the Arthurianworld which Malory inherited form his sources and to which he added his own details, and examines its different aspects: castles and forests, kingdoms and empires, showing how these diverge from reality to meetthe particular requirements of romance, how new political and temporal relationships are set up for the same reason, and how it was shaped by the presence of the Otherworld in the Celtic stories from which many episodes were drawn.

`The publication of this book is an event of some importance in Arthurian studies. The Prose Tristanwas one of the most widely read works in medieval France; written between 1215 and 1235, it continued to be copied until the end of the Middle Ages and its popularity lasted another hundred years in printed editions. It was in fact in prose rather than in poetic form that the legend was known - Dr Curtis is to be warmly congratulated on undertaking this important task.' ERASMUS [BRIAN WOLEDGE]This three volume critical edition of the Prose Tristan, based on a complete collation of all the manuscripts with the Carpentras manuscript (404), is the first edition of this important medieval work ever published. Renée Curtis's three-volume critical edition of the Prose Tristanis the only edition of this very important medieval work ever published; until the first volume (now reprinted with corrections) appeared in 1963, the work was only accessible in the form of a few fragments which had been edited and a summary of the romance made by E. Löseth in 1891. Dr Curtis's edition is based on a complete collation of all the manuscripts, and this led her to choose the Carpentras manuscript (404) as the basis of her edition.Professor Brian Woledge, the eminent medievalist, wrote of this first volume in Erasmus:`The publication of this book is an event of some importance in Arthurian studies. The Prose Tristanwas one of the most widely read works in medieval France; written between 1215 and 1235, it continued to be copied until the end of the Middle Ages and its popularity lasted another hundred years in printed editions. It was in fact in prose rather than in poetic form that the legend was known -Dr Curtis is to be warmly congratulated on undertaking this important task.'

Renée Curtis's three-volume critical edition of the Prose Tristanis the only edition of this very important medieval work ever published; until the first volume appeared in 1963, the work was only accessible in the form ofa few fragments which had been edited and a summary of the romance made by E. Lö

Renee Curtis's three-volume critical edition of the Prose Tristan is the only edition of this very important medieval work ever published; until the first volume appeared in 1963, the work was only accessible in the form of a fewfragments which had been edited and a summary of the romance made by E. Loseth in 1891. Dr Curtis's edition is based on a complete collation of all the manuscripts and this led her to choose the Carpentras manuscript 404 as thebasis of her edition. This second volume appeared in1976. Professor Brian Woledge, the eminent medievalislt, wrote of the first volume in Erasmus: "The publication of this book is an event of some importance in Arthurian studies. The Prose Tristan was one of the most widely read works in medieval France; written between1215 and 1235, it continued to be copied until the end of the Middle Ages and its popularity lasted another hundred years in printededitions. It was in fact in prose rather than in poetic form that the legend was known.... Dr Curtis is to warmly congratulated on undertaking this important task"

These essays on Arthurian prose romances, published as a tribute to Cedric E. Pickford, reflect their development and the reshaping of the romances in response to changing taste and fashion from the death of Chrétien de Troyes tothe end of the medieval period in England. Topics include the question of religious influences; the transition of Arthurian material to foreign contexts; and the fortunes of the prose romance in England, focusing on the Prose Merlinand Malory. The contributors are: ELSPETH KENNEDY, RENÉE L. CURTIS, FANNI BOGDANOW, JANE H.M. TAYLOR, DAVID BLAMIRES, CERIDWEN LLOYD-MORGAN, CAROL M. MEALE, KAREN STERN, DEREK BREWER, FAITH LYONS, ROGER MIDDLETON

The essays in this volume, a Festschrift for Professor Kenneth Varty, are centred on the relatively unexplored theme of rewards and punishments in French Arthurian romance and the medieval lyric. The Arthurian studies range over verse (Béroul, Chrétien, Jean Renart, the Roman de Silence) and prose (Robert de Boron, the Queste del Saint Graal, Perlesvaus, Lancelot and the Tristan), reflecting a variety of different approaches, from an examination of the legal background to the work of Béroul to an iconographical survey of hitherto undiscussed and unpublished Tristan illustrations to close textual analysis of an episode in Robert de Boron's Joseph and Merlin.

`No Arthurian critic will be able to ignore this book which gathers together so much diverse material and skilfully brings out unexpected links between versions widely separated in time and country of origin. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW`No Arthurian critic will be able to ignore this book which gathers together so much diverse material and skilfully brings out unexpected links between versions widely separated in time and country of origin.' MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW Cei is one of the most puzzling figures in the development of the Arthurian legend: a hero beyond compare in the early Welsh sources, his appearances in later Arthurian literature are frequently associated with comic defeatin combat, objectionable outspokenness, and sometimes with more serious misdeeds. This study assesses Cei from his native Welsh context to his role in the romances of Chrétien de Troyes and later developments, in which the authorlooks at the portrayal of Cei in a selection of medievalContinental, Welsh and English works, before moving closer to the present day and the rich heritage of English ballad and Gaelic folktale; the ending offers something of a surprise. This account of the long and varied career of one of Arthur's closest associates shows how a sympathetic approach to Cei can shed new light on some particularly controversial aspects of Arthurian studies.

`Love's Masks raises provocative questions about the Old French Tristan poems and their context and provides some suggestive answers.' Donald Hoffman, QUONDAM ET FUTURUS, Vol. I, No 1 Spring 1991 `-a highly readable, useful overview of theTristan corpus, an excellent introduction for students and a suggestive analysis for specialists.' SPECULUM French Tristan poets of the 12th century worked within a self-contained tradition, though they drew on avariety of sources. In the process of retelling and embellishing the Tristan matter they elaborated a significant network of connections among the narrative elements of the French Tristan poems. There have been many studies of therelation of a given text to the traditional body of narrative material, but Dr Blakeslee seeks to do something rather different: he traces the poets' conscious thought processes and unconscious associations as they reworked theirmaterial.This is achieved through an examination of a single narrative element - the identities of Tristan -in the first generation of French Tristan texts, those versions of the Tristan legend composed in octosyllabic Anglo-Norman or French verse in the latter half of the 12th century and the first quarter of the 13th. Dr Blakeslee studies Tristan's parentage and antecedents, the circumstances of his birth and naming, his education and skills,his physical appearance. He then considers his social identities - knight, musician and hunter -and analyses the narrative function and metaphoric significance of the disguises that he adopts: leper, fool, minstrel, `Nightingale',pilgrim, and wild man; finally he discusses the hero as victim and saviour, identities that bring together in a single unifying metaphor the varied and contradictory elements of Tristan's persona. The meaning of these identitiesis seen to arise from the metaphorical development of narrative detail in an earlier version of the legend or in the broader literary and cultural ethos in which the poem was composed.

A comprehensive and objective study of Layamon's sources is long overdue. As a first step Françoise le Saux investigates the English poet's handling of his main source, Wace's Roman de Brut, to determine what principles guided the composition of the English Brut. These established, she is able to distinguish between different sorts of variation from the Roman, thereby providing norms against which to gauge the probability of further, secondary sources. Additional sources are then identified, in the various fields suggested by the poem: historical; literary; and religious writings (or tales) in Welsh, English, Latin and French and perhaps even Scandinavian.

This volume comprises selected papers from a Tristan symposium held at the Institute of Germanic Studies in London. The symposium was conceived by the organizers as an experiment in transatlantic dialogue and the papers representthe views of scholars from a variety of North American and British universities. The main focus of attention is Gottfried's Tristan. Familiar assumptions about the text are questioned and fresh perspectives are offered on many contentious issues: those disagreements which persist are themselves a reflection posed by Gottfried's masterpiece. In addition, new light is thrown on the treatment of the Tristan theme in medieval and modern times.Contributors are:MICHAEL CURSCHMANN, W.J. MCCANN, MARGARET BROWN, C. STEPHEN JAEGER, M.H. JONES, ADRIAN STEVENS, ARTHUR GROOS, THOMAS KERTH, MICHAEL BATTS, MARIANNE WYNN, JANET WHARTON, GEORGE GILLESPIE, JOAN M. FERRANTE, LESLIE SEIFFERT, SIDNEY M. JOHNSON, PETRUS W. TAX, AUGUST CLOSS, H.B. WILLSON, ROY WISBEY.

`Roger Simpson['s] finds are crisp, detailed, and convincing.' MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW The revival of interest in Arthurian literature in the early part of the 19th century has been largely unremarked until now. Roger Simpson's wide-ranging study of this period, in which he traces the dominant forms adopted by the Arthurian revival and presents a wealth of new material, shows it to have been of critical importance in the development of the legend and to have been a powerful early influence on Tennyson, whose role within the Arthurian revival is accordingly reassessed. His book also contains a complete bibliography of early 19th-century Arthurian poetry, drama and prose fiction, together with catalogues of paintings and illustrated books.ROGER SIMPSON is Director, Centre for Overseas Student Programmes, at the University of East Anglia

This introduction to Morte Darthuroutlines the book's basic character, followed by a study of the key concepts of love, loyalty, sin and shame. Malory's approach to his material is discussed, as are his sources, and his individual contribution; finally, Maloryand his book are placed in their historical context. Published in 1988 as Reading the Morte Darthur. `Presents in very accessible form the explanatory material which [students] will require. He is well-informed about the basic issues in Malory scholarship and criticism, and his approach is sound.' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES`This book is aimed specifically at readers approaching Malory's Morte Darthur... it will be very useful both to new readers and to their instructors.' CHOICEThe Morte Darthuris a book of action and adventure, not a book of thought. It is full of unexplained and inexplicable customs,magic and mystery, love and hate, nobility, villainy and the highest ideals. Among its characters are the heroes and heroines of the greatest love stories in the western tradition, and it appeals to our most basic and powerful sentiments. Terence McCarthy's book is an introduction to Malory, and so the first section is designed to show how to go about reading the Morte Darthur, and to outline aspects of its basic character. The remaining sections offer an interpretation of it, beginning with the key concepts of love, loyalty, sin and shame.The reader is urged to resist the temptation to consider the Morte Darthuras an early novel, and Malory as omniscient narrator, in order to see him as he saw himself - a historian chronicling the public events of a kingdom. Even his much-praised style underlines the formal and traditional aspect of his book. The Morte Darthuris based on inherited material, and while it is not necessary to know all the intricacies of Malory's sources, Terence McCarthy shows how Malory worked and the extent and nature of his individual contribution. A brief final section puts Malory and his book in their historical context: the turmoil of late fifteenth-century England may be a striking contrast to the order and harmony Arthur achieved (and lost), but too precise an interpretation will remain fruitless until weknow more about Sir Thomas Malory -including who he actually was.

`I believe this volume will give to scholars of Williams expanded vistas from which to view his work, and to the general reader glimpses of Camelot'. MYTHPRINTIncludes Taliessin through Logres and The Regionof the Summer Stars - complex and haunting works which constitute the major imaginative writings about the Grail this century in addition to much previously unpublished material.Charles Williams's two cycles of poems, Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, constitute the major imaginative work about the Grail of the 20th century. Williams's vision of spiritual reality is expressed through symbols of great originality, and the complex patterns of sound and haunting rhythms make his poems deeply rewarding.In this new edition David Dodds collects together for the first time twenty-four of Williams's earlier poems on Arthurian themes, many never published before. They are from Williams's collection The Advent of Galahad, which both grew into and gave way to the Taliessin cycle. There are also later poems showing this transmutation in process, and fragments, designed to form a sequel to The Region of the Summer Stars, which appear for the first time. Besides the publication of this important new material, the present edition will serve to introduce new readers to the magic of these rich and lyrical pieces, which evoke a spiritual world in keeping with the highest ideals of Arthurian literature.DAVID LLEWELLYN DODDS, of Merton College, was a Rhodes Scholar and Richard Weaver Fellow. He has lectured in English at Harlaxton College, worked at the Houghton and Regenstein Libraries, and is now Curator of C.S. Lewis's house, The Kilns. He is currently working on a complete critical edition of Charles Williams's unpublished Arthurian poetry and prose. Other poets in this series: Edwin Arlington Robinson; A.C. Swinburne; William Morris & Matthew Arnold.

Studies showing the influence of the French Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes on German medieval literature.The pre-eminent role of Chrétien de Troyes in the formation of Arthurian romance is reflected in the swift and brilliant response of German courtly poets to his works. Within a few years of their composition, Erec et Enideand Yvain were adapted for German audiences by Hartmann von Aue, while Chrétien's unfinished Grail-story was taken up by Wolfram von Eschenbach and brought to a triumphant conclusion in Parzival. In this volume a distinguished international team of scholars contrast the treatment and reception of the stories in Germany with their French originals.Contributors: E.M.MELETINSKY, MICHAEL BATTS, SILVIA RANAWAKE, W.H.JACKSON, H.B.WILSON, KAREN PRATT, MARTIN H. JONES, DANIEL ROCHER, WALTER BLANK, KLAUS GRUBMULLER, TONY HUNT, WIEBKE FREYTAG, MICHAEL CURSCHMANN, RENE PERENNEC, ADRIAN STEVENS, ARTHUR GROOS, TIMOTHY McFARLAND, J.-M. PASTRE and VOLKER HONEMAN.

This anthology of medieval writing provides a context for a deeper understanding of the Gawain-poet's originality and skill.The intertextuality of this brilliant poem can be more fully understood through Elisabeth Brewer's presentation of modern English versions of themes familiar from Gawain and the Green Knight -beheading, seduction and othertraditional material - from a range of medieval writings. Her book is a delightful and unusual small anthology of medieval literature; but its greatest success lies in providing a context for a fuller understanding of Sir Gawain, through its presentation of extracts and poems (including translation from Celtic and French originals) illustrating the tradition in which the Gawain-poet wrote, underscoring his own great achievement. It is both anintroduction to the poem and a useful tool for critical comparison. First published in 1975 as From Cuchulainn to Gawain.ELISABETH BREWERlectured in English at Homerton College, Cambridge.

Fully annotated edition, in French, of late 12c Arthurian romance.Cligés is generally thought to be the second of Chrétien's Arthurian romances, probably written between 1185-87. This critical edition of Cligésis the first since Wendelin Foerster's in (1884) to take account of allthe manuscripts. Based on the Guiot manuscript, it contains many emendations, producing a text closer to that of Chrétien's original. Variant apparatus, notes, glossary, and editorial comment on the manuscripts accompany the text.STEWART GREGORY is in the Department of French, Leicester University; the late CLAUDE LUTTRELL was formerly in the Department of English at the same university, and is known for his books and articles on 12c French Arthurian romance.

A critical study of T.H. White's classic Arthurian tetralogy.The Once and Future King defies classification. Is it for children, or for adults? Is it fantasy or a psychological novel? In its great range, it encompasses poetry and farce, comedy and tragedy -and sudden flights of schoolboy humour. White's `footnote to Malory' (his own phrase) resulted in the last major retelling of the story based on Malory's Morte Darthur, and Elisabeth Brewer explores the literary context of White's finest work as wellas considering his aims and achievement in writing it.White's story of Arthur begins with his `enfances', set in an imaginary medieval England, but it is far removed from the conventional historical novel. White was writing in wartime England, a country increasingly absorbed by a need to find an antidote to war. Through the medium of the Arthurian story he found his own voice, his unique contribution to keeping alive the flame of civilisation. Malory's chivalric virtues are rejected in favour of White's own twentieth-century values; the love affair of Lancelot and Guenever is interpreted in terms of modern psychology.The books which eventually made up The Once and Future Kingof 1958 appeared in distinctly different editions. In discussing these,Elisabeth Brewer looks at some of the ways in which White drew on his own personal experience at a deep psychological level, while also incorporating into his story material inspired by his antiquarian pursuits and by his years as a schoolmaster. She completes her study with an account of White's use of historical material, and the relationship of The Once and Future King to the Morte Darthur.ELISABETH BREWER lectured in English at Homerton College, Cambridge. She is the author of books and articles on Chaucer and the Arthurian legends.

Essays reflecting the present state of Layamon studies, identifying problems and outlining current directions in research.This volume investigates the problems with which the contemporary reader of Layamon's Brut is faced: To what extent is the archaic feel of the Brut part of a deliberate aesthetic strategy of Layamon's? For what sortof audience could it have been written? How can one define its relation to older or more recent texts and traditions? What ideological stance (if any) is to be deduced from the work?The seventeen articles in this book tackle the different issues from a variety of fields: codicology and palaeography; Linguistics, stylists and syntax; the socio-political dimension of the work and its possible audience; the tradition upon which Layamon was drawing, and his contribution to later writers; literary theory and more general issues such as gender and spatial symbolism in the Brut. A number of essays present a synthesis of points of view, specifically intended to provide students with a yardstick against which to measure the more controversial articlesin the volume.Contributors: MARIE-FRANÇOISE ALAMICHEL, ROSAMUND ALLEN, STEPHEN K. BREHE, BETH BRYAN, ARTHUR WAYNE GLOWKA, MARSHAL S. GRANT, DOUGLAS MOFFAT, YOKO IYEIRI, LESLEY JOHNSON, FRANÇOICE LE SAUX, JAMES I. McNELIS III, JAMES NOBLE, HERBERT PILCH, JANE ROBERTS, ERIC G. STANLEY, CAROLE WEINBERG, KELLEY M. WICKHAM-CROWLEY, NEIL WRIGHTDr FRANCOISE LE SAUXlectures in Medieval English language and literature at the University of Lausanne.

The first book in English to cover the whole production of Hartmann von Aue (fl.1180-1203), a figure of paramount importance in the history of medieval German literature... His book is refreshing...and full of stimulating ideas. MEDIUM AEVUMFirst full-scale exploration of knighthood and chivalric values in poems of key figure in 12c German literature, Hartmann von Aue.

Essays intended as a companion to a reading of the works of the Gawain poet: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness and PatienceThe essays collected here on the Gawain-Poet offer stimulating introductions to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness and Patience, providing both information and original analysis. Topics includetheories of authorship; the historical and social background to the poems, with individual sections on particularly important features within them; gender roles in the poems; the manuscript itself; the metre, vocabulary and dialect of the poems; and their sources. A section devoted to Sir Gawain investigates the ideas of courtesy and chivalry found within it, and explores some of its later adaptations from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. Afull bibliography completes the volume.DEREK BREWER was Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge; JONATHAN GIBSON has worked as a lecturer in the Universities of Exeter and Durham.Contributors: DEREK BREWER, MALCOLM ANDREW, A.C. SPEARING, JANE GILBERT, MICHAEL J. BENNETT, DAVID AERS, RALPH ELLIOTT, MICHAEL THOMPSON, FELICITY RIDDY, ANNE ROONEY, MICHAEL LACY, A.S.G. EDWARDS, H.N. DUGGAN, ELISABETH BREWER, RICHARD NEWHAUSER, HELEN COOPER, NICHOLAS WATSON, PRISCILLA MARTIN, NICK DAVIS, DEREK PEARSALL, GILLIAN ROGERS, BARRY WINDEATT, DAVID J. WILLIAMS

Analysis of the relationship between the Winchester manuscript and Caxton's edition. Detailed linguistic analysis of the two versions of the Morte Darthur, charting important changes in the development of the English language.Malory's Morte Darthursurvives in two versions: the Winchester manuscript, which has been dated 1469-70, and the edition Caxton published in 1485. These versions were thought to be collaterally related through a common source to an original lost manuscript, until in 1977 new evidence suggested a linear descent. Dr Tieken-Boon van Ostade's study supports this argument, first through a detailed refutation of Vinaver's arguments for collateral descent,then through an analysis of the incidence of multiple negation in both versions of the Morte Darthurand the conclusions to be drawn from it. A reconstruction of the events leading to Caxton's publication of the text at a politically hazardous time completes the volume.Dr INGRID TIEKEN-BOON VAN OSTADEis lecturer in English at the University of Leiden. Two books already published centre on the history of the English language.

Study exploring the treatment of the Arthurian legends by the French Romantic movement.French Romanticism was a widespread movement, as apparent in the works of historians and scholars as in the works of creative writers. One of its principal characteristics was the cult of the middle ages, and this book examines the treatment of the Arthurian legends in French Romantic medievalism. Taking into account works of historiography and literary history, as well as literary texts proper, it assesses the place of the Arthurian material in French culture in the period up to 1860, the date of publication of Edgar Quinet's Merlin l'enchanteur. In so doing, it reveals key features of French Romanticism and traces the origins of some of the problems and contradictions which still affect the practice of medieval studies. The authorargues that the depiction of Arthurian legends in French Romantic writing discloses some of the underlying ideological positions of the movement and the developing tensions between the interests of a general literary public and the ambitions of scholars seeking to define and promote medieval literature as an emerging field of study. In addition to scholars such as Claude Fauriel, Paulin Paris and Francisque Michel, other important figures in French Romanticism are considered, including Quinet and Michelet.MICHAEL GLENCROSSis Senior Lecturer in French at the University College of Ripon & York St John.