The French tradition and the literature of medieval England (review)

Reviews 231 interesting compositionally than the tympanum itself, the description of the sculpture is lively and the conclusions are convincing. Blum argues strongly for the presence of much twelfth-century work, despite of the 'restorations' of the nineteenth century which included complete removal and replacement of sections and 'recutting' of the sculptures in situ. The accompanying information about medieval theology enlivens the drier descriptions of stonework. Chapter Five, 'The damned and the blessed', describes thefirstarchivolt, and contains much material which makes clear the associations that the sculpture would have had for the medieval viewer. It recalls to mind Adso of Melk's vision while viewing such a carved judgement in Umberto Eco's The name ofthe rose. The jamb sculptures of the wise and foolish virgins continue the eschatological theme. Chapter Eight, 'Style and meaning in the central portal', brings together Blum's conclusions in five brief pages. The Romanesque inheritance of Saint-Denis is considered, as is the specifically 'Dionysian' character of much of the work. The three artistic hands are distinguished and the results of their collaboration assessed. Blum concludes that: 'the sculpture of the late 1130s at Saint-Denis provides a laboratory in which one can observe the filtering of artistic ideas through the sensibilities of artists of different backgrounds' (p. 121). This is not a book for the beginner but it will reward both the interested amateur and the architectural scholar. Carole Cusack School of Studies in Religion University of Sydney Calin, William, The French tradition and the literature of medieval England, Toronto/Buffalo/London, University of Toronto Press, 1994; cloth and paper; pp. xvi, 587; R.R.P. CAN$75.00 (cloth), $29.95 (paper). In spite of its tide, this study is a history of medieval French literature with reference to texts created, or known, or imitated in that offshore French territory known in the period under survey as England. Is this a book for medieval French students whose knowledge of the language is unsound, or is it a volume destined for medieval English students who need enlightenment? It could be for either or both. The academic climate at the end of the twentieth century is such that many university English 232 Reviews departments teach medieval French literature in translation as part of medieval English literature courses and French departments suppress the Middle Ages in favour of trendy cinematographies or linguistics. H o w we teachers of French have circumrotated in less than a hundred years! At the turn of this century medieval French was struggling successfully in universities for a place in the sun, liberated from English and German. But the force in the British Isles that now impels French to resume its earlier place as a handmaiden of English is nationalism. The literature of medieval England must be English. It is a contradiction to describe it as French. This is where, after this tedious exordium, Calin, a medieval French literature specialist, enters in his own right upon the terrain. He is not intent on launching a literary Hundred Years' War. Instead, he has had the acumen to produce a study that will be indispensable to French departments which have little time to dilate on the beauty of the Chanson de Roland or the Roman de la Rose, and to English departments which require knowledge of a rich and variegated French subsoil to explain the eternal blooms of Chaucer, Gower, and Malory. Calin divides the subject matter chronologically: 'Anglo-Norman narrative', 'Continental French legacy', 'English court poetry', and 'Middle English romance'. The pattern of presentation is approximately identical for each section: a brief introduction and a selection of authors or anonymous texts, the narrative of each of which is summarized. Old French extracts are provided with modern English prose translations, literary qualities are extolled, and a conclusion envelops the presentation. There is little new ground being broken. All the fertile beds of criticism have beentilled,according to the narrow furrows of nationalism. However, whereas long ago, one consulted, for example, Wells's Manual and supplements to find French sources, now it will be more intellectually profitable to read Calin. In each of the four parts of his study, he has surveyed the trendy...