Anne Boleyn (review)

190 Reviews which is implicit in an unwillingness to consider the wider context. Dr. Goodman fulfils his brief with admirable sensitivity. Perhaps, however, the Historical Association should next consider publishing a European interpretation. The change in focus might assist in distinguishing the important from the trivial. Sybil M . Jack Department of History University of Sydney Guenee, B., States and rulers in later medieval Europe, trans. J. Vale; Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985; pp. xi, 322; 2 maps; R.R.P. A U S $34.95. This book is an English translation of VOccident aux XlVe et XVe sUcle: les Etats, which appeared in the Nouvelle Clio series in 1971. The bibliography, dways a fine feature of Nouvelle Clio, has been doubled to include works published between 1971 and 1984 though Guenee's text has not itself been revised in response to this recent literature. Guenee is one of the leading French medievalists of our day and his book, since its English translation by Juliet V d e in 1985, has enjoyed a wide circulation amongst English-speaking students of the later Middle Ages. They have been attracted by its wide geographicd canvas (though its western European emphasis is concealed in the Englishtitle)and by its discursive, problem-oriented, treatment of constitutional and politicd themes. There is a great deal of generalization about what 'people' thought, what 'everyone' demanded, and what 'no-one' disputed which, with the almost complete absence of foot-notes, gives the work a magisterial - if not downright dogmatic dr. These breaches of scholarly etiquette should be tolerated because Guenee is a trustworthy guide in an area of historicd study which is notoriously fragmented and particularized. The translation is good, though St. Paul's conversion by Dionysius the Areopagite (p. 38) is the fruit of a mistranslation and thefinalconclusion (p. 208) has been rendered even more impenetrable than the original. The binding of this Blackwell paperback is as bad as ever, with pages already falling like confetti from m y review copy. Nicholas Wright Department of History University of Adeldde Ives, E., Anne Boleyn, rpt, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1988, pp. xvii, 451; 3 genealogical tables, 55 plates; R.R.P. A U S $24.95. Anne Boleyn was controversial in her life and after her death. Biographies of her have been equally contentious. This reprint of the most recent scholarly work should enable scholars to appreciate the new perspective which recent research Reviews 191 has brought to bear on Henry VIII's second queen. Ives believes that Anne was misrepresented by friend and foe dike. H e sees her as an honest, intelUgent and strong-minded woman with a clear notion of what a queen's role could be and a determination to undertake it appropriately. Despite her few days as queen, he believes she made an active, not merely passive, impression on the direction English reUgion took by her influence on clerical appointments and her network of connections. Sybil M . Jack Department of History University of Sydney Taylor, B. S. and M. Rogerson, eds, The York Joseph and Mary Plays, Sydney, University of Sydney, Department of English, 1988; pp. viii, 40; R.R.P. A U S $3.00. All teachers of the English cycle drama will appreciate why Betsy Taylor and Margaret Rogerson have prepared this student-friendly edition of York XIII (Joseph's Troubles about Mary) XIV (The Nativity) XIX (The Flight into Egypt) and X X I (Christ and the Doctors in the Temple). Editions of complete cycles are neither affordable by, nor linguistically accessible to, most of our students, but modernized versions, acceptable as they may have been when medieval drama was the antiquarian's province, now read as very inadequate substitutes. Peter Happe's composite cycle (English Mystery Plays, Penguin, 1975) introduces extra problems for students as the dialects switch from play to play. Taylor and Rogerson provide texts in normalised spelling with margind glosses and foot-of-the-page translations, and just enough other information to satisfy the average reader and enable the interested reader to discover where to go next. Since the plays 'have in common the presence of Joseph and Mary as characters' (p. iv), and are apparently selected for...