From Arabye to England ed. by A. E. Christa Canitz and Gernot R. Wieland
David Williams
í%E‘Vl‘EWS A. E. Christa Canitz and Gernot R. Wieland, eds. From Arabye to England. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1999. 307. $33.00 paper. It is well known that university presses avoid collections es­ says because, it thought, they have little appeal for the pub­ lic. Reading through England, edited by one can hardly imag­ ine how such an idea got started. A delightful informa­ tive collection essays in honour British Columbia’s distinguished mediaevalist, Mahmoud Manzalaoui, are organized around permeability different cultures possibility dialogue between them — a contemporary ideal, mediaeval reality. While this general unifying theme knits whole together, also form smaller groups. Historical analysis characterizes Hanna Kassis’s intri­ guing account Arab images Europeans, as Chris J. G. Turner’s meticulous discussion pastoral letter fifteenth-century Greek Patriarch, Gennadios. Derek C. Carr’s detailed informative study library Enrique de Villena , Castilian nobleman humanist, fits into category, does highly focused, richly docu­ mented examination Paul Burns holdings Britain writings Hilary Poitiers. more thematically group includes another Beryl Rowland’s always fascinating instructive discussions intimacies, time about what we might call “How-not-to-do-it” manual, consisting chapter medi­ aeval medical treatise. Also thematic John Mills’s “Pageant Sins,” well-argued convincing demonstration in­ fluence theological discourse concerning sin on Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Equally Wieland’s King Alfred’s Preface PasESC 27, 2001 ESC toral Care which he shows Anglo-Saxon heroic ideal whereby king prospered both “war” “wisdom” was continental, Carolingian origin. Three other could be classed Chaucer studies, since deal primarily with great fourteenth-century poet. With characteristic prudence, Douglas Wurtele reexam­ ines Chaucer’s use physiognomy Tales referring, elegant gesture, physiognomies Pro­ fessor Manzalaoui’s definitive edition Secretum Secretorum (EETS o.s. 276, 1977). Kieran Kealy concerned Retraction (recantation?) its tent clarified “Last Tales,” those Second Nun, Canon’s Yeoman, Manciple. provides feminist perspective Legend Good Women, text, she claims, constitutes “a critique monolithic misogynous implications ofthe idealizing courtly conventions” genre (132). Philological linguistic concerns at center Lau­ rel Brinton’s essay Middle English “discourse marker” whilom. complex development word various grammatical functions made clear interesting sub­ stantial study. Anne L. Klinck’s contribution, “The Oldest Folk Poetry,” may placed category although investigation poetry, frauenlied or chanson femme, exhaustive history terms kind literature. examines modern reflects Murray Evans’s sophisticated psy­ chological Using Coleridge’s theory sublime, contrasting Freud Lacan, Evans reads pardon scene Piers Plowman way show greater effectiveness Coleridge illumination poem’s meaning. reaches out beyond subject offer wise important considerations liter­ ary theory: “I do not dispute there value psychoanaly­ tical readings texts. I am concerned, however, familiar repetition transform hermeneutic model fossilized...
English Studies in Canada