The Invention of Middle English: An Anthology of Primary Sources (review)

Short Notices 259 A brief discussion of the different genres involved, the choice and use of different voices, especially where words are attributed to Columbus himself, and the way in which these differences shape the three works' presentation and choice of content adds considerably to the reader's understanding of the texts which follow. This edition clearly corrects and supersedes any earlier printed versions. Sybil M. Jack Department ofHistory University of Sydney Matthews, David, The Invention of Middle English: An Anthology of Primary Sources (Making the Middle Ages), Turnhout, Brepols, 2000; board; pp. viii, 244; R.R.P. EUR50.00; ISBN 2503507697. David Matthews describes this anthology of writings on Middle English as a ki of sequel to his earlier study, The Making of Middle English, 1765-1910 (1999), though we might rather call it a prequel: it presents extracts, often substantial ones, from many of the sources Matthews used when examining the study of Middle English in its broader institutional and social contexts. The earlier book focussed on the individuals Matthews argues had the most formative influence on Middle English as a discipline (Percy, Ritson, Scott, Madden and Furnivall); but was also particularly concerned with the social and cultural contexts in which they developed their influential agendas for scholarship in thisfield.This anthology can offer less detail about those contexts, but it does frame its carefully selected extracts with briefbiographical notes and suggestions for further reading. Matthews'firstsection is concerned primarily with the various attempts to define and describe Middle English as a philological phenomenon. It is interesting to see how far the discipline has been transformed, now that literary studies enjoys almost complete dominance over philology, and when later Middle English are increasingly studied quite separately from early medieval texts. It is also remarkable how little importance Chaucer enjoys in these discussions. In the second section on 'Literary criticism', however, the relative absence of Chaucer is even more marked. As Matthews remarks, it would seem pointless to reproduce material already printed by Caroline Spurgeon, yet the effect of this economy is to reinforce the division between Chaucer and 'non-Chaucer' that 260 Short Notices was a crucial aspect of the development of academic medieval literary studies in the late nineteenth century. This decision does, however, throw less familiar texts into the limelight. Some will be familiar to many readers, such as Ritson's famous condemnation of Lydgate as 'this voluminous, prosaick, and driveling monk' (p. 103). But it is a revelation to read from Scott's introduction to his edition ofSir Tristrem. There are also perverse pleasures to be found in reading these scholars' debates against each other in an era preceding our own very formal academic prose. So, for example, in 1767, Percy condemns the antiquaries 'who have revived the works of our ancient writers' as 'for the most part men void of taste and genius' (p. 77), while in 1783 it was Ritson's rum to launch an ad hominem attack on Percy. The Invention ofMiddle English is a companion volume, certainly, to The Making of Middle English, but like all good anthologies it does not foreclose research; rather, it opens up the history of medieval studies by making so many of its key texts so readily accessible. Stephanie Trigg Department ofEnglish with Cultural Studies University of Melbourne Mazzoni, Cristina, trans., Angela ofFoligno's Memorial (The Library of Medieval Women), Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1999; paper pp. xi, 132; R.R.P. US$19.95; ISBN 085991562X. The new translation of Angela's Memorial is a welcome addition to the growi literature about this fascinating thirteenth-century mystic. The full text allows the English reader to place in context the much-cited single passage when she swallows the leper's sore as an imitation of the Eucharist. To many modern tastes, aspects ofAngela's life must seem hysterical or neurotic. However, her biography shows a woman of complexity and deep spirituality, and allows a more complex understanding of a particular w o m a n and her time. Angela has increasingly become the focus of feminist studies and Cristina Mazzoni provides an interpretative essay to explore Angela's Christology in terms ofm o d e m...