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REVIEWS in LGW; he also asks us to consider the situation of women, some of them powerful, in Chaucer's audience who might get a pleasant frisson from LGWs representation of them as morally (though by no means po­ litically) "on top," even as men laughed at the extremes to which the poem appears to take profeminist arguments and representations. Given the breadth of reference and depth of learning constantly demonstrated throughout this book, it seems almost ungrateful to speak of omissions. Nonetheless, there are a few puzzling gaps, of which the least explicable, to this reader, is the absence of reference toJohn H. Fisher's research and hypothesizing on the cultural dynamic underlying the rise of English as a literary language in Chaucer's lifetime. Puzzling for different reasons are the apparent attribution of the entire text of the Roman de la rose to Jean de Meun (as on p. 128), and the discussion of rhyme royal that seems to suggest it is written in six- instead of seven­ line stanzas (p. 262). Of the relatively few typographical errors, only those involving names suggest culpable carelessness: C. K. Zacker (for Zacher; pp. 166, 541) and-mirabile lectu-Alan Leviathan (for Levitan; pp. 227, 548). Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Shorter Poems should prove the most in­ dispensable of the three volumes in the series; no other volume known to me offers so much information and analysis of Chaucer's poetic oeu­ vre outside the Tales and the Troilus. Students and scholars alike will also find it the liveliest of the three: the author's voice, opinions, and quite engaging literary allusions and wordplay make this a good critical read as well as a first-rate reference book and vademecum. ROBERT W. HANNING Columbia University LYNETTE R. Mum. The Biblical Drama ofMedieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xxiii, 320. $60.00. Muir's book has the ambitious aim of providing "a comprehensive pic­ ture of European medieval biblical drama" (p. xiv). The phrase is sig­ nificant. Muir adopts a pan-European perspective into which she draws an impressive range of local and national studies ofdrama that fully jus­ tifies the term "comprehensive." Moreover, she recognizes no strict limits of time or genre for "medieval," a word that remains undefined. 279 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER She claims to include all texts composed before 1500 (excluding some unpublished material) and references to all plays with "medieval links" or "in the medieval tradition" from the post-1500 period (p. xiv). And she limits her study by subject matter to "biblical" drama, and more precisely to the adaptation of the biblical source-material in those plays. This is not a book that significantly explores dramatic effect or the in­ teraction of different modes of drama. Rather, Muir's "overall purpose is to encourage and facilitate de­ tached and comparative critical investigation of the plays, not to pro­ vide it" (p. xiii). She offers no definition of "drama" and claims no critical agenda. Her book thus avoids the shortcomings of those pioneer encyclopedic scholars of early drama-Chambers, Cohen, Creizenach, D'Ancona-whose vast knowledge was suffused with subjective judg­ ment, critical condescension, and a desire to endorse a monolithic model of dramatic origins. Yet some concealed definition of "drama" compatible with their evolutionary approach can be detected when Muir distinguishes between "simple" and "more elaborate" plays (p. 46) or speaks of the plays "bursting out of their liturgical bonds" (p. 28), or refers to their "representational" function (p. 2), the need for an "audi­ ence" (p. 4), or rubrics for "gestures" and "roles" (p. 19). The book is organized in two parts. The first part-a miracle of com­ pression in only fifty-seven pages-presents medieval theatre from the standpoint of its organizers and performers, following the familiar track from liturgy to drama and then looking at who performed the plays, where they were performed, and how they were paid for. This overview reveals clearly the catalytic effect of specific ceremonies and symbols for dramatic development. In particular, Muir stresses the importance of Italian lay-productions for the establishment of Corpus Christi drama-a useful counterbalance to the liturgical...

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