Chivalric Literature: Essays on Relations between Literature and Life in the Later Middle Ages ed. by Larry D. Benson, John Leyerle (review)

HUMANITIES 409 Lany D. Benson and John Leyerle, editors. Chivalric Literature: Essays on Relations between Literatureand Life in the Later Middle Ages University of Toronto Press 1980. xiv, 176. $20.00 This book stems from a Harvard seminar which expanded into a series of papers for the annual medieval conference at Kalamazoo. Of the ten essays included here, eight are revised versions of these papers. The common theme, loosely uniting them, is the thesis that, far from declining, pace Huizinga and Kilgour, chivalry only truly flourished in the later Middle Ages. This conclusion rests on the assumption that early chivalric literature portraying knightly exploits in arms was not related to real life, and that it took several centuries for life to imitate art. That by Malory's time the two had caught up with each other is more fully developed in Professor Benson's Malory's Morte Darthur, which obviously stimulated the present papers. Among these, five examine knightly feats in arms from the twelfth-century tournaments of William the Marshall to the chivalric exploits of the fifteenth-century Chevalier Bayard, including essays on chivalricbiography, on the pas d'armes, and on Malory's Gareth as a model for fifteenth-century chivalry. Solidly based on contemporary accounts, these studies provide much interesting information. The contrast between the chivalric Bayard and the professional pragmatic Giovanni de' Medici, as also the relationship between chronicle, chivalric biography, and family tradition, are particularlyfascinating. Nevertheless, the reader is not necessarily persuaded that these details prove the case. Does the Chevalier Bayard, who uses casuistry to escape from a tight situation (p 126) and who shows mercy only to his chivalric peers (p 127), really measure up to the ideals ofchivalryexpounded in Ram6n Lull's Le Libredel Orde de Cauayleria or summed up in the person of Chaucer's Knight? Elaborate rules and overnicetyin observing them suggestdecadence. One is left with the distinct impression that, even if, earlier, chivalry had been more written about than practised, late medieval society did no better by concentrating on its outward trappings rather than on its essential spirit. That, despite undoubted valour and fighting skill, the emphasis falls on showy display also comes across - albeit unintentionally - in a study comparing feasting in the alliterative Morte Arthure with actual celebrations , including Henry IV'S elaborate coronation banquet in 1399 and its empty ritual challenge. Three of the remaining four essays have somewhat different orientations , an unavoidable weakness that collections of this kind share with the Festschrift. The most interesting is a reading of Cleanness in terms of its festive decorum, where the earthly banquet becomes a prototype of the future heavenly one. This sacramental view of food contrasts markedly with what we saw earlier in the alliterative Morte. Paris and Vienne extols 410 LETTERS IN CANADA 1981 female faithfulness and passive resistance, though the heroine uses such grotesque means that no real courtlylady could possibly have imitated her actions. Whether or not militant feminists would appreciate the comparison of Vienne to Milton's Samson, the artistic weaknesses of this curious romance are only thrown into sharper relief by such an unlikely match. 'Lewte' and 'trawpe' are vital touchstones for the Gawain-Poet, but the essay included here speaks only of an honour/shame code, a term taken from social anthropology, to which frequent reference is made. Not surprisingly, therefore, the author sees Gawain's downfall essentially as an exposure of what ought to have remained private (p 89) and does not corne to grips with the poem either on its deeper levels or on its primary playful one. Professor Leyede's in-depth essay, the last in the book, surveys the ground covered by the preceding papers, analysing the links between them, and providing further insights. In view of the somewhat disparate material, part of this conclusion might have been helpful as an introduction . Instead, Caxton's 'Exhortation to the Knights of England' serves as preface and highlights the problems inherent in the whole thesis. Like statistics subject to varied interpretations, Caxton's famous lament on the decline of chivalry may reflect a vital contemporary concern, but might equally well be an attempt to revive a dying form. Leyede, following Maurice...