Medieval Insular Romance: Translation and Innovation ed. by Judith Weiss, Jennifer Fellows and Morgan Dickson (review)

126arthuriana Smelik also examines the relation between these sequences and the role and place assigned to minor figures in each episode. A detailed typology offigures is set out, including main figures ('Hoofdpersonen'), minor figures, and nominal figures ('Figuranten'), whose functions are defined using Propp's narratology. These three types offigures are further classified by the number ofpages or lines they occupy in the Prose Lancelot's plot in Micha's edition. For example, minor characters of the first order occupy between five and fifteen pages, those ofthe second order, between two and five pages, and those ofthe third order, between two lines and two pages. The principle ofclassification raises some questions that future studies will have to confront. These arise in part because Smelik treats episodes in the LancebtProper, but leaves out for the most part the Queste and the Mort. What happens to the episode when allegory becomes common and the hermit a major figure as interpreter, as in the Questei Is that mescheance a different kind of adventure? What changes, if any, result when adventures and quests stop, but interlacing episodes remain, as in the Morti These queries lead to a second major question about the classification within the Lancelot Proper. What difference, ifany, is there between the quest episode and the episode in other motifs such as war and siege? One thinks of the strand relating Galehaut's war against Arthur and the military expeditions in Gaul, all in the Lancelot Proper, and Mordred's revolt in the Mort during another invasion of Gaul. Does the tournament replace adventure in the Mort in which adventures are said to have stopped? Do these tournaments conform to the episodic pattern used in quest narratives? There are problems as well with the arbitrary assignment ofstatus based on page and line numbers. For example, it ignores factors like age and death in the case of figures like Galehaut, Bohort, and Perceval—and, most notably perhaps, Galahad, a 'nominal figure' by this classification; yet, although his name spans the centuries and he has a place in the Lancelot Proper even before he is born, he does not appear as knight until the Queste. These issues in no way deny the significance of Bernadette Smelik's monograph. She offers important insights into the quest episode, a neglected feature of prose romance composition. Her study finds a place among current scholarship that is shedding light on and enhancing our appreciation ofthe Prose Lancebt, one ofthe truly major works in medieval literature. DOUGLAS KELLY University ofWisconsin-Madison judith weiss, Jennifer fellows and morgan Dickson, eds, Medieval Insubr Romance: Transbtion andInnovation. Cambridge: Brewer, 2000. Pp. xi, 196. isbn: 0-85991-597-2. $70. £40. Medieval Insubr Romance is the second-most-recent collection of essays selected from the prestigious biennial Romance in Medieval England Conference. There are eleven papers and a brief introduction; the volume is unified by twin foci on romance's generic fluidity and its translation or adaptation for new audiences and circumstances. REVIEWS127 Ivana Djordjevic highlights methodological problems undermining attempts to map medieval translation, proposing the partial solution ofattempting to base studies on broad yet relevant data: for instance, Bevis ofHampton and other 'Middle English translations of Anglo-Norman romances.' Rosalind Field sets out to reverse the critical neglect ofthe Roman de WabUf, a lengthyAnglo-Norman ancestral romance. According to Field, ' Wabbfdemonstrates the remarkable cohesion of the AngloNorman romance corpus,' while also revealing problems in the 'Matter ofEngland' classification. Indeed, 'It may be that the Matter of England was imperceptible to medieval authors and audiences, and we should not assume its taxonomic value in assessing thewide range ofnarratives dealingwith English history' Morgan Dickson focusses on the role ofdisguise in the Folie Tristan, Romance ofHorn, Ipomedon, and Gesta Herwardi. Disguise is used for testing and establishing identity, but individual identity is contingent upon an individual's (perceived) social position. Elizabeth Archibald tackles the issue ofhow best to define the Middle English Breton lay by reference to a late thirteenth-century list oflays found in Shrewsbury School MS 7. She attests that, in contrast to their French counterparts, English lays avoid adultery. Thus, Chaucer in the Franklin's Tale is subverting his audience's expectation...