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290 Reviews might be called the humane side of humanism (rather misleadingly characterised by him as 'scientific' humanism), while Thomson is an exponent of 'literary' humanism. Southern, in his concentration on individuals shows himself to be more of a humanist in one commonly accepted sense of the word. At least this is the impression given by a comparison of the two collections. In Southern's Medieval Humanism eight out of twelve essays include the n a m e of a person in their titles, in Thomson's collection only three of nineteen. Indeed in the latter's writings institutions (or even books) almost appear to be people-surrogates, as in 'Bury [the monastery of Bury-St-EdmundsJ was not afraid, but rather was eager to acquire the works of the n e w dialectical theologians' (I, 635) or 'The Durham copy of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica produced at least thre descendants in north England, and another five later' (XVIII, 38). A few final quibbles: the fact that the essays are reprinted without revision means that they can neither be considered the author's last word on the subject nor as representing current scholarship. The publisher has allowed (or perhaps Thomson only needed) seven pages for updates and second thoughts. However, this hardly seems sufficient for topics of such interest which have been the subject of continued scholarly attention since Thomson first tackled them. For example, Martha Bayless's important work on parody in the Middle Ages (1996) might have rated a mention in the additional notes to XI. Fortunately, the publisher has seenfitto provide a useful index of manuscripts as well as a general index to the book. Unfortunately, the Table of Contents contains three glaring misprints. Sabina Flanagan Department ofHistory University ofMelbourne Wallace, David, ed., The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999; cloth; pp. xvi, 1043; R.R.P. AUS$180; ISBN 0521444209. The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature (CHMEL) variousl acknowledges a widely accepted function of literary histories, 'to organize discussions of texts in diachronic categories and groupings so the reader 291 has a working m a p of a given literary period' (p. 92), thus, to cater to the 'need for essential exposition and information' by w a y of 'an accessible narrative history'. Yet whether this is done in the half-title statement-ofintent covering the projected edition of the New Cambridge History ofEnglish literature as a whole, or in David Wallace's 'General Preface' to its Medieva volume, or in some contributions to it, such acknowledgement is swiftly qualifiedby references to the need to accommodate a range ofinterpretations, to sanction an inclusive view of what constitutes 'literature', and to stress the importance of 'the [less tidy] materialities of textual production, preservation and circulation' (p. xvi). For CHMEL, Wallace firmly rejects what he sees as the single-account narrative (all scribal confusions smoothed away), of its predecessor, the fifteen-volume CHEL, edited by A. W . Ward and A. R. Waller. Of this, chiefly volumes Mil (1907-09) cover m u c h of the same time-span as the present volume's c. 1066-c. 1547. CHMEL's thirty-one contributions, organised under main heads briefly discussed by Wallace ('After the N o r m a n Conquest', 'Writing in the British Isles', 'Institutional Production', 'After the Black Death', 'Before the Reformation'), also attempt to present n e w emphases. The proportion of Scottish literary content is greatly reduced from that in the earlier History; more notice (in Part II at least) is given to the literature of Ireland and Wales; previously neglected topics (such as the study of individual lives through funerary verse, testament, personal letter and formal biography) are given equal prominence; others formerly 'secure' (such as prosody) are omitted altogether. CHMEL provides translations and helpful footnotes, as well as a densely set out 'Chronological Outline of Historical Events and Texts in Britain, 1050-1550' (these pages unfortunately not covered by the index); a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, and a detailed index, but i t also assumes of its readers a high level of knowledge. K. KerbyFulton 's excellent essay on Piers Plowman, for example, might...

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