Writers of the Reign of Henry II Twelve Essays

by Kennedy, Ruth; Meecham-Jones, Simon

• ISBN13: 9781403966445
• ISBN10: 1403966443
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-13
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This collection is the work of scholars on Middle English, Insular French and Medieval Latin writings of the late twelfth century in England and its possessions, when an English-speaking populace was ruled by a French-speaking aristocracy and administered by a Latin-speaking and writing clergy. The political discourses of Henry's reign are acknowledged, developed and ironised within the first real flowering of so many vernacular genres, romance and history in particular. The energetic and intrepid writers of this period are examined in relation to the development of social institutions and emergent ideas of 'nationhood', as the literature of Henry's court is shown to act as an echo-chamber within which anxieties about the proper exercise of power in a legal order founded on martial conquest could be reflected and soothed.

Author Biography

Ruth Kennedy is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her publications include “Medieval English Measures” (Parergon Special Issue, 2000) and “Three Alliterative Saints’ Lives” (Early English Text Society 321 (2003). Simon Meecham-Jones is an affiliated lecturer for the English Faculty at the University of Cambridge. His essays on Chaucer & Gower, Medieval Latin Lyric Poetry and Historical Linguistic Change have appeared in several books and in Parergon, English Studies, and Medium AEvum.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(220)
Simon Meecham-Jones
1. The Cultivation of History, Legend, and Courtesy at the Court of Henry II	25	(28)
John Gillingham
2. Latin and French as Languages of the Past in Normandy During the Reign of Henry II: Robert of Torigni, Stephen of Rouen, and Wace	53	(26)
Elisabeth van Houts
3. An Intruder at the Feast? Anxiety and Debate in the Letters of Peter of Blois	79	(30)
Neil Cartlidge
4. "I Will not Stay Silent": Sovereignty and Textual Identity in Walter of Chatillon's "Propter Sion non Tacebo"	109	(24)
Simon Meechatn-Jones
5. Sex, Ghosts, and Dreams: Walter Map (1 135?-1210?) and Gerald of Wales (1146-1223)	133	(18)
Tony Davenport
6. Old English Textual Activity in the Reign of Henry II	151	(18)
Mary Swan
7. The Life of English in the Mid-Twelfth Century: Ralph D'Escures's Homily on the Virgin Mary	169	(18)
Elaine Treharne
8. English Poetry of the Reign of Henry II	187	(18)
Elizabeth Solopova
9. "Gloser La Lettre": Identity and Power in the Poetry of Marie De France	205	(16)
François Le Saux
10. The Meaning of Suffering: Symbolism and Antisymbolism in the Death of Tristan	221	(18)
Laura Ashe
11. Arthur, Emperors, and Antichrists: The Formation of the Arthurian Biography	239	(10)
Judith Weiss
12. Children of Anarchy: Anglo-Norman Romance in the Twelfth Century	249	(14)
Rosalind Field
Index of Manuscripts	263	(2)
Index	265