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144 LETTERS IN CANADA 1992 only implies the lack of space to discuss James F. Burke on Peribanez, Davis Carlson on Thomas Usk, John Cartwright on the Antwerp Landjuweel , Laurence de Looze on Froissart's Prison amoureuse, Anne Lancashire on the London Drapers' Company, A.G. Rigg on the legend of Hugh Capet in England. The topics and the treatment of them are all well within the centre and its compass. In special ways the essays by Ian Lancashire, James Miller, David' Staines, and Robert A. Taylor show how the Leyerle legacy and inspiration are continuing to grow and develop. Lancashire brilliantly adapts the computer to a study of Chaucer's 'General Prologue,' showing how 'repetends ' (simply, 'irregularly recurring phrases') may shed special light (beyond statistics) on Chaucer's creative memory. Miller takes up a current theme of contemporary literary criticism, viz. the male gaze, and working through medieval rhetorical theory and practice of the descriptio, applies the notion to Chaucer's Black Knight and Blanche. Staines reviews the idea of medieval narrators and narrative voices, keeping modern and postmodern ideas of narration in the discussion, and concludes that 'Chretien is the first writer to distance his narrator from the author and place this literary self throughout his compositions but not inside the actual fiction he presents.' Taylor uses solid philology in the service of linguistic pluralism in his description of a select body of lyrics that feature a hybrid of French and Occitan. By exemplifying what is and what will be the Leyerle legacy, the writers indeed honour the man and advance the subject he has so extraordinarily served. (PAUL E. SZARMACH) Anthony Brennan. Henry V Twayne's New Critical Introductions to Shakespeare, 16. Twayne 1992. xliv, 127. $12.95 paper If you are in the market for a single, sustained critical interpretation - the aim of every Twayne's Critical Introductions volume - to Shakespeare's Henry V, Anthony Brennan's interpretation is a good one. This is not only because Brennan sensibly and sensitively argues for Henry V as a complex , balanced drama but also because, in demonstrating the balance, he gives numerous examples of more single-minded interpretations of different kinds, thus providing the material for those so inclined to develop their own readings diverging (either generally or in specific details) from his. The examples also allow readers to move on their own into theoretical territory not normally explored in Twayne Critical Introductions. The book begins rather unpromisingly, with too much of a chronological , blow-by-blow progress through the play's stage history (twenty-one pages) and then, somewhat repetitiously but much more briefly, through HUMANITIES 145 its critical reception history (seven pages). The imbalance between the two sections also suggests that a combined approach might have worked better (and with the provision as well of a broader context of theatricalproduction and literary-studies history), but perhaps the series' format required the approach taken. Even the writing in these sections can at times become awkward, as Brennan seems merely to be getting through required topics. ' Brennan comes into his own, however, in the main body of the volume, adeptly working with both written criticism and notable productions of stage and screen to develop his critical reading. He argues for Henry V as a play of political complexity - 'a complex examination of war from a carefully organized variety of perspectives' - demonstrating through its protagonist both the admirable and the non-admirable sides of successful political and military leadership. Especially useful is Brennan's use of specific stage productions to point out the interpretative changes resulting when particular parts of Shakespeare's text are cut or adapted. Brennan notes how seldom productions, usually aiming one-dimensionally at either a heroic or an anti-heroic Henry, have used the complete text: because it does not allow a one-sided view either of the king, of those around him, or of the situations presented. Citation of various productions ' percentages of lines cut (and of what types of lines) provides a highly effective demonstration (although overused by the book's end) of various directors' attempts to unproblematize Shakespeare's text and tum it to their own theatrical purposes. Inevitably everyone will find...

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