Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature: From Cædmon to Malory by Lawrence Besserman (review)

This volume, the first in the new series Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture, implicitly draws on that characteristically medieval way of understanding the Bible as essentially typological. That is, on one level, the episodes, imagery, and language of the New Testament give meaning to the Old Testament, and the truth of episodes in the New Testament is confirmed by prefigurations and verbal echoes in the Old Testament. It has been customary to assume that in the Middle Ages this paradigm was extended to include non-biblical literature and history, so that episodes in literary texts could be understood as having been modeled on events in the Old Testament and the life of Christ. However, this intellectual leap from the Bible to non-biblical literature is problematic, and readings that argue that episodes are informed by biblical paradigms are open to debate. Lawrence Besserman sets out to persuade the reader that detecting the influence or use of biblical paradigms of language and episode illuminates meaning in the medieval texts that have been selected for this study. But while aspects of Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature are convincing, to varying degrees there are grounds for skepticism of its claims.

Besserman makes the assumption that a characteristic feature of medieval culture is a dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. He needs to do this in order to argue for the “imbrication of sacred and secular materials,” and that “the assimilation of biblically derived sacred and secular motifs and themes could be in either direction, or even in both directions at the same time” (4). But is this assumption of an opposition between the sacred and the secular necessary? Might medieval culture not compel us to think of the secular as sacred and the sacred as secular? It can be argued that the insistence on this dichotomy probably reflects a post-medieval perception of the Middle Ages.

The precise argument of the book is difficult to bring into focus. The introduction states in its first sentence that “biblically derived diction, imagery, characterization, plot motifs, and themes” are “prominent features” of the vernacular texts discussed in this book. It refers as well to texts that characterize sexual love in terms of religious or sacred love, and a general “fusion of religious and secular themes.” Further, “the main goal of this study is to offer fresh insights into the contextual meaning and significance of the more and less familiar biblical paradigms that the works deploy” (3). One asks if there is anything new in this approach. Certainly religious language and themes are found in what we might think of as “secular” texts throughout medieval literature. Chaucer is masterful in the way he parodies biblical language and imagery, for example, of the Song of Songs in The Miller’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale. There is clearly a rich vein of material available to Besserman, but, at the same time, it is well known and has been mined by generations of critics. In the light of the claims made in the introduction, one would expect to find here a series of original contributions to the subject of the use of biblical paradigms and language in medieval literature.

The list of texts that are drawn into the orbit of this study covers a broad spectrum of literature, including Cædmon’s Hymn, the Old English Exodus, and Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon period, along with two well-known Middle English lyrics, “Maiden on the Moor Lay” and “I Sing of a Maiden”; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde; and Malory’s Morte Darthur. This is a reading list for a course on medieval English literature, with some notable omissions. The ambition of the study is not, however, matched by the ambition of the investigation itself. One problem stems from what Besserman acknowledges is a “narrow approach” that sets aside the contribution of...