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Short Notices 239 Parergon 21.1 (2004) them to pursue more concentrated reading on the women mystics but there is little here for specialist readers. Carmel Bendon Davis Department of English Macquarie University Johnson, Richard, The Seven Champions of Christendom (1596-7), ed. Jennifer Fellows, (Non-Canonical Early Modern Popular Texts), Aldershot, Ashgate, 2003; cloth; pp. xxxi, 317; RRP US$79.95, £45; ISBN 0754601986. In her lucid introduction to the first scholarly edition of The Seven Champions of Christendom, the editor, Jennifer Fellows, discusses the cultural significance of the work. Frequently dismissed by critics as lacking in literary value, Richard Johnson’s romance of chivalry and adventure was, nevertheless, an enormously successful text, from the publication of Part I, in 1596, quickly followed by the second part, a year later, to its reincarnation – sometimes in abridged, chapbook form, and sometimes extended into a three-part version – as a bowdlerised work of children’s literature in the eighteenth century, which continued to be read in both Britain and the United States until the early twentieth century. On this basis, Fellows stresses that ‘an informed understanding of its place in literary history therefore might further our understanding of the popular culture of over three centuries’ (p. xxvii). The introduction includes a discussion of what little is known of Richard Johnson’s life, his numerous contributions to the popular literature of early modern England, in the course of a career which spanned the reigns of Elizabeth, James and Charles, and, of course, the publishing history of the Seven Champions, and its particular style and content which made it a popular classic. Intricate, sometimes bathetic, in its rhetoric, interwoven with ‘ornamental’ as opposed than ‘functional’ verse-passages, the Seven Champions, Fellows explains, was only nominally about saints, and involved exotic, outlandish adventures, complete with ‘lustful giants and deflowered virgins’ (p. xxiv). Like some of the work of contemporaries, Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker, Johnson’s career appears to have been defined by his participation in the popular culture of Tudor-Stuart London, characterized by patriotic themes, and a tradition of civic celebration, to which he himself overtly contributed, with titles such as The Nine Worthies of London, and Looke on Me London. 240 Short Notices Parergon 21.1 (2004) The scholarly apparatus is helpful, without being cumbersome. Brief textual notes explain historical, literary and mythological allusions, and gloss archaic word usages and denser examples of grammar. In addition, Fellows provides a comprehensive bibliography of both primary sources and secondary material. This sixteenth-century text is, therefore, very accessible to general reader and specialist alike, and the latter will find this edition an invaluable starting point for further research. Understanding the place of this text, its merits, and its appeal, are certainly all the easier for Fellows’ painstaking scholarly work. Lastly, I would like to comment on the role of Ashgate in supporting this sort of scholarly research through their willingness to publish a series devoted to Non-Canonical Early Modern Texts. In view of the much-discussed crisis in academic publishing, as well as the general difficulties of teaching early modern literature and lesser-known works, Ashgate should be commended for their decision; this book, for one, demonstrates the value of such an outlet for the study of literary culture. Ivan Cañadas Hallym University Chunchon, South Korea McCarthy, Conor, ed., Love, Sex and Marriage in the Middle Ages: A Sourcebook, London, Routledge, 2004; paperback; pp. xii, 292; RRP £15.99; ISBN 0415307465. This sourcebook is designed as an introduction to the area of love, sex and marriage in the Middle Ages, and includes material that has never appeared in modern English before. The texts are drawn from a wide variety of sources, including theological, medical, legal and fictional writings. Some of the sources, for example the letters of Abelard and Heloise, are very well-known; others, such as Church legislation and the records of court proceedings, are more obscure. McCarthy’s intention is to bring together texts on love, sex and marriage (the emotional, the physical, and the social dimensions respectively) and use these texts as the basis for fruitful discussion. His introductory essay is extremely useful in orienting the reader approaching...

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