The work of seventeen scholars, plus an introduction by the editors, make up the bulk of this Festschrift in honor of Siegfried Wenzel. A "tabula gratulatoria", a list of Wenzel's publications, an index of manuscript references, a bibliography of works cited, and a general index round out the volume. The book is handsomely produced and impeccably edited; it serves as a fitting tribute to the honoree.
The introduction situates Philology as the primary and premier medieval discipline, and Wenzel is rightly acknowledged as an important and learned practitioner of philological study in the latter half of this century. The contributions are grouped under five headings (reproduced below): Chaucer, Piers Plowman, Pastoral Literature, Scripture and Homiletics, and Lyric Poetry. Since only the editors, reviewers, and the honoree himself are likely to read through the whole volume, I have broken the following review into brief remarks on each contribution so that individual subjects of interest may be pursued.
Chaucer:
Theo Stemmler on "To Rosemounde" -- Stemmler summarizes and critiques "ex cathedra" (16) pronouncements of various critics, primarily Edmund Reiss and Joerg Fichte, concerning the parodic effect of the lyric. Stemmler maintains, on the contrary, that the descriptions of the lady are serious and conventional, and he demonstrates his thesis through sure- footed citations of analogous descriptions in French and Middle English. His larger point, that "we might enhance our linguistic, stylistic, and critical competence by taking the evidence of contemporary usage more seriously than we usually do" (23), is well-taken.
Piero Boitani on the "Nun's Priest's Tale" -- The editors in their introduction note how Boitani "thematizes Chaucer's reflections on fictionality itself" (2). This suggestive approach is lost, at least for this reviewer, in a treatment of the NPT as circumlocutory and sometimes as confused as Chauntecleer himself. Although the NPT may be the most capacious and free-wheeling of the Tales, especially in its appeals to authority, Boitani over-indulges in a series of capricious free associations which fail to deliver a coherent critical payoff. Boitani himself asks "Where are we?" on the top of page 40, only to continue on this and the following page to mention La Fontaine, Dryden, St. Paul, Frank Kermode, Wallace Stevens, Bucephalus [Alexander of Macedonia's battle charger], and Franz Kafka. Turning the page reveals a conclusion quoting George Orwell.
Edward B. Irving, Jr. on the "Knight's Tale" and Beowulf -- Irving considers how Chaucer and the Beowulf-poet, both Christians viewing a pagan world, adapt a literary form characteristic of that world: epic. Shared themes of the hero (Theseus and Beowulf) defending against chaos, death and violence, and of women imprisoned and victimized, construct an "iron world" (59) in both poems. The essay performs the important function of establishing "a dark traditional dimension" (57) in Chaucer which may reflect a response to native (Anglo-Saxon) culture and literary practice otherwise absent from, or at least very elusive in, Chaucer's corpus.
Albert E. Hartung on the "Parson's Tale" -- Hartung posits the "critical dilemma" (61) of the "Parson's Tale" in light of how sincerely Chaucer meant the penitential statements in the Retraction. Hartung reads the Retraction as a "personal utterance" (65) of a man whose biography (think of Cecily Chaumpainge and the Fleet Street Friar) may lead one to believe that Chaucer was in need of something beyond a routine penance. In order to connect the Tale to real circumstances in Chaucer's life, Hartung examines five passages from the Tale, in parallel with Chaucer's sources, to detect some intensity of feeling that would indicate a personal investment in the sins being treated. Extrapolating from an author's text to his or her life is often a dubious business, but fascinating nonetheless. The essay ends in a bit of a hurry, after a brief look at the Envoy to Scogan, which in Hartung's view indicates how Chaucer "made his peace" (78) with whatever was bothering him. Hartung speculates no further, though having gone this far one wishes that he would.
Piers Plowman:
Ralph Hanna III on the role of "Robert the Ruyflare" -- Hanna concentrates on variously revised appearances of the "Robert" figure in the Confession of the Seven Deadly Sins in the A, B, and C texts. Patterns of doubling and "looping" (91) highlight Couetyse's "penitential inertia" (93), and Hanna concludes that the complicated state of the revisions mirrors Langland's sense that penance in this world is not as straightforward as Dante or Deguilleville would lead one to believe. I am reminded of Morton Bloomfield's insight that "by the multitude of his instructors . . . . Langland cannot make his structure uniformly vertical or decide on a final and definitive teacher."1Hanna's obvious expertise in the subject of Piers manuscripts is diminished only by a tendency to write in syntactically overloaded and poorly punctuated sentences (see, e.g., the second full sentence on page 93).
John A. Alford on Sources of the Banquet Scene -- Alford demonstrates that the Banquet of Conscience (B.13.21-214) derives from exegesis (especially by Ambrose) of Proverbs 23. The essay is convincing in its particulars and in its methodology; Alford's use of biblical commentary is not to bust a "crux" (114) but to gloss a whole scene and therefore show how Langland "turns exegesis into drama" (99). It is worth repeating Alford's conclusion that "the most important intertext of Piers Plowman is the glossed Bible" (117).
Joan Heiges Blythe on the "peccata linguae" tradition -- Blythe presents a persuasive and informative analysis of the "sins of the tongue" tradition as it appears in Peraldus and Albertano da Brescia. In brief, language is not corrupt, users are; the exercise of prudence is the necessary antidote. At the levels of action, imagery, and allegory, it is remarkable to see how, in Piers, speaking is connected to all of the sins. Blythe further addresses Will's own "role as rhetor" (131), his sense of worth as a poet, and the value of a "tongue-less state" (135).
Pastoral Literature:
Joseph Goering on Richard of Wetheringsett's Qui bene presunt (ca. 1215) -- Goering reviews the influence of this systematized preaching manual wherein the twelve articles of the Apostles' Creed are organized into a Life of Christ. The work, like those produced by Grosseteste and Pecham, derives from the catechetical mission inaugurated by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Goering undertakes an inconclusive review of the authorship question and suggests that the three variously named individuals credited with the treatise are the same person.
A. G. Rigg on De motu et pena peccandi -- Rigg summarizes and provides excerpts from this 946-line poem (probably acephalous and atelous) in Latin hexameters. British Library MS Cotton Julius D.iii preserves the unique copy. Part I of the poem (based, among other sources, on Augustine's De sermone Domini in monte) treats the process and causes of sin; Part II (from Innocent III's De miseria) the consequences of sin. The poem is relentless in its systematization of the psychology of sin, but very interesting for its use of similes and exempla from the Bible (parallels to the Fall of Man, Christ's three raisings from the Dead, Luke 9:60 -- "Let the dead bury the dead") and from everyday life (sailors, farmers, philosophers).
A. I. Doyle on Lectulus noster floridus -- Doyle edits this delightful allegorical compendium of catechetical formulations in Middle English prose (in seven copies, early 15th century, no single source). The dominant metaphor (based on Song of Songs 1:15) governs how one must prepare a bed in one's soul for Christ by cleansing it of sin and appointing it properly. The ten rings for the bed curtain, for example, are the Ten Commandments, and "loke no rynge be broken" (188).
Christina von Nolcken on the style of Wycliffite texts-- Given, as a starting point, the repetitiousness and predictability of Lollard texts, von Nolcken foregrounds the problem of fully understanding and appreciating them. Von Nolcken cites a tendency to generalize (195), the use of "morally loaded modifiers" (197) with few "particularizing details" (198), and finally the use of "we" to signal corporate authorship (199) as dominant stylistic characteristics. From these features, von Nolcken moves, rather abruptly, to a discussion of Wyclif's realism and his rejection of nominalism to argue that the deliberate uniformity of style reflects the philosophical abstractions toward which the Wycliffites generalized. The essay is, in the end, an interesting but not fully worked out synthesis of how Lollard style complements and reinforces Lollard philosophy.
Scripture and Homiletics:
A. J. Minnis on Henry of Ghent and Scriptural Style--Minnis's contribution is impressive from the beginning. He situates Henry of Ghent (late 13th century), whose intellect and influence Minnis likens to Aquinas and Bonaventure, in the context of the "reception history" (210) of Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana. The concept of "sacred stylistics" (211), or in other words the challenge posed by accommodating classical rhetoric to scriptural exegesis (cf. the recent *PMLA* article by John D. Schaeffer2), foregrounds the respective advantages of clear and obscure styles, when interpreting Scripture, depending on the "capacity" (224) of the audience: "It is up to the expositor, then, to ensure that everyone will get something out of a given passage of Scripture -- but not, of course, necessarily the same thing" (229). Minnis's expertise in the fields of exegesis and medieval theories of reading make this essay perhaps the strongest in the collection.
Kent Emery on "Monastic Collectaria" and Denys the Carthusian -- A collectarium is a storage and retrieval system for excerpted passages from Scripture and the Fathers. Such works served as preaching aids from the late ninth century (with Rabanus Maurus) into 16th-century printed works. Emery painstakingly describes two collectaria produced at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Trudo in Limburg, based on extensive extracts from Denys the Carthusian (d.1471). The mass of codicological and bibliographic detail obscures Emery's conclusion -- that Trudo of Gembloux thought of himself as an "author," not as a "mere compiler" (260).
D. L. D'Avray on philosophical aspects of Scholastic and Franciscan preaching -- D'Avray attempts to "chart the penetration of philosophy, logical argument and problem solving into preaching" (264), and uses as a test case the sermons of the 13th-century Franciscan Servasanto da Faenza (a Florentine). Such an examination erases the usual divisions erected between Dominican and Franciscan preaching, and D'Avray offers as a tentative conclusion that the use of philosophical language and argument depends more on the time period in which the sermon was composed than on the Order responsible for its production.
David Anderson on St. Louis of Toulouse in the Sermons of Jacobus of Viterbo -- Anderson announces his intentions late in the essay: "This paper has tried to identify some of the names appearing in the sermons...at first in order to establish their authorship and chronology, and then to suggest the sympathetic nature of Jacobus's relations with the court of Charles II of Anjou" (294). Jacobus produced his sermons -- some 225 in number -- while Archbishop of Naples (post 1300). Anderson describes the unique manuscript, supports the suggestion that it is an autograph, and pursues the historical context involving the canonization of St. Louis, the marital tribulations of Isabella of Anjou, and other instances of datable events in the sermons.
Lyric Poetry:
Karl Reichl on the Contents of Bodleian MS Digby 2 -- The Manuscript was produced in 13th-century Oxford, and it contains computational writings (mostly Latin scientific prose), philosophical treatises, and a selection of English, French, and Latin poetry. Reichl details the MS contents, discusses several English lyrics (especially IMEV 2293, "No more ne willi wiked be," and IMEV 1365, which is related to a passion lyric in the famous Harley 2253 collection), and prints excerpts from the French and Latin poems. All are marked by affective piety, and therefore (probably) Franciscan sympathies, though given the "catholic" (317) nature of the poems and of the entire MS, Reichl declines to be any more specific concerning the provenience and use of such a collection.
Richard Newhauser on the Middle English poem "Strong it is to flitte" -- In a thorough and interesting contribution, Newhauser stresses the importance (with Wenzel) of reading lyrics in their manuscript context. He then concentrates on a three-couplet English lyric (in Bodley 29, mid 14th century) which appears in the context of a Latin prose allegoresis of Ephesians 6:10-17 wherein the spiritual armor is mapped onto a friar's body and dress (tonsure, staff, tunic). The triangular "scuto" is of particular interest, in that the shield corresponds to the friar's heart, and each couplet is written in a corner of the shield/heart ("in quolibet angulo") as a verbal memento mori (I would note that the paronomasia "angulus/anglice" suggests itself, since the "corner" verses are written in "English"). The lyric is closely related to others (IMEV 1422, 3201, 3219, 4033, 4047, 4129, et al.) which Newhauser discusses prior to his edition and translation of the treatise.