This new engagement with the problems and possibilities
of the Middle English popular romances seeks to consolidate and build upon
the work of recent collections such as
The Spirit of
Medieval Popular Romance (Harlow, 2000) and
Pulp Fictions of Medieval England:
Essays in Popular Romance (Manchester, 2004).
A compilation by established and emerging romance scholars, the volume
constitutes both an overview of the nature and issues of this sub-genre,
and a meditation upon the roles and directions of the scholarship that
concerns it. The
Companion profitably probes the judgements that
previous eras of criticism have passed upon the popular romances, and, in
so doing, testifies to the strength of current scholarly interest in this
fascinatingly heterogeneous body of texts.
Raluca Radulescu's and Cory Rushton's introduction follows recent
consensus in defining popular romance as 'those texts in Middle English,
sometimes with origins in Anglo-Norman versions, which show a predominant
concern with narrative at the expense of symbolic meaning' (p. 7). This
produces a clear case for excluding Chaucerian texts that already receive
much attention in their own right, and has the advantage of directing
attention towards the substantially non-aristocratic and understudied
audiences of less 'courtly' literature. Rosalind Field's opening
chapter, 'Popular Romance: The Material and the Problems', fluently
charts the history both of popular romance from its Anglo-Norman and
Breton roots onwards, and of critical perception of the genre. Field
stresses that it is not the standard of 'originality' against which
these texts should be judged, but rather the ways in which they deploy
narrative conventions, and thus the opportunities they offer for insights
into the culture in which they were produced and received, for which they
can be appreciated. Raluca Radulescu then discusses 'Genre and
Classification', dealing with these two issues by focusing on what the
texts do, or have been thought to do, by readers both medieval and modern.
Radulescu draws attention to 'the spread of concerns tackled by these
texts' and their function as both entertainment and education (p. 31),
discussing three common 'characteristics' as a way of approaching the
essence of the genre: social and familial concerns, independently-minded
heroines, and the narratives' self-reflexive tendencies to interrogate
their own values and generic boundaries.
Two subsequent chapters are concerned with the material forms in which
romances survive, explaining the information these objects offer with
respect to textual provenance, circulation, valuation, and longevity.
Maldwyn Mills and Gillian Rogers consider 'The Manuscripts of Popular
Romance', providing first an overview of the types of medieval
manuscripts in which, and breadth of non-romance texts alongside which, we
find extant popular romances; and, secondly, an exposition of the nature
and contents of the seventeenth-century Percy Folio manuscript, focusing
on the types of groupings existing among romances and between romances and
other texts. The next chapter likewise treats the post-medieval appeal of
the genre of romance. Jennifer Fellows' look at 'Printed Romance in
the Sixteenth Century' does not consider the production of new romances
post-1500, instead focusing exclusively on the post-medieval printing of
five medieval romances. Fellows highlights the ongoing taste for earlier
romances in the post-medieval period, assessing the commonalities and
idiosyncrasies of transmission and adaptation that coalesce in print in
this era.
The next two chapters provide complementary appraisals of the problems
of identity politics in the popular romances. Thomas Crofts and Robert
Rouse argue for the vitality of nationalism in medieval literature while
cautioning against looking for 'the monolithic homogeneity that we have
come to expect from the forms of nationalism prevalent in the modern
age' (p. 85). This chapter assesses firstly the national and regional
affinities and enmities of Guy of Warwick and Bevis of Hampton, and
secondly the valence of the nationally-hybrid Middle English Charlemagne
romances, emphasizing these texts' chivalric doctrine as their primary
form of 'English' self-fashioning. Joanne Charbonneau and Desiree
Cromwell focus on popular romance's 'intense interrogation of accepted
values and gender roles' (p. 99), taking a balanced approach to the
interests and implications of female and male, at home and abroad, in
order to address the extent to which conventional and unconventional roles
are both explored and contained. The wide selection of texts under
discussion in this chapter serves as an index to the capaciousness and
flexibility of the genre's designs on social identity.
Ad Putter discusses 'The Metres and Stanza Forms of Popular
Romance' in a substantial chapter that not only details the myriad
structural manifestations of the genre but also models an approach to the
questions of textual style, sources, concerns and context on which
metrical matters can shed light. Putter's gestures towards the
performative dimensions of the verse romances - for example, in the
audience expectations of closure or pause created by a bob and wheel -
are followed up in Karl Reichl's discussion of 'Orality and
Performance'. Beginning from the accepted standpoint that the popular
romances 'were meant to be heard' (p. 133), Reichl navigates between
conflicting theories of the extent and shape of the role of minstrels in
performance, transmission, and composition to highlight the likelihood of
a multiplicity of coexisting modes and an 'oral-literate continuum'
(p. 149).
In 'Popular Romances and Young Readers', Phillipa Hardman discusses
themes and the evidence of manuscript contexts to make a seemingly
incontestable case for considering these texts as didactic material
suitable for youthful readers. Hardman also seeks to counter the
pejorative value judgement that has customarily accompanied the idea of
texts that can be understood as juvenile conduct literature. The volume
then concludes with a thoughtful consideration of how modern (scholarly)
audiences have approached, and might approach, popular romances. Cory
Rushton addresses the history of aesthetic value judgements and the place
of pleasure as they have shaped the reception of the body of texts under
consideration in this Companion. Exploring the dialogue between medieval
popular and 'high' cultural artefacts, and between medieval popular
narratives and their modern descendants in fantasy, science fiction and
video games, Rushton further foregrounds the instrumentality and vitality
of the popular romance genre for scholars and students alike.
On the whole, this volume successfully caters to the spectrum of
student and scholarly interests. While some chapters maintain a narrow
scope that resists gesturing towards a wider context, most chapters have
struck a profitable balance between depth and breadth, and footnoting to
further studies and sources of information throughout is complemented by a
robust bibliography and index. The collection could perhaps have been a
bit more flexible in terms of interrogating what to include, or what has
been included, in the genre; that is, while dealing with a previously
critically-marginalized group of texts, the volume reproduces the
conventional silences regarding texts at the margins of that group itself,
such as prose romances. Conversely, however, the volume's flexibilities
are among its greatest strengths. Examples are drawn from a large number
and variety of texts – from King Horn and Athelston
to Sir Launfal and the Squire of Low
Degree, and from Sir Orfeo and Emare to
Sir Gowther and Generydes, and, of course,
Chaucer's parodic Sir Thopas – and rigid definitions and
prescriptive answers are eschewed. A forward-looking contribution to an
increasingly complex and rich conversation, this Companion is
likely to be heralded by scholars of the field and appreciated by students
in search of an introduction and guide.
Megan Leitch
