Old English poetry in medieval Christian perspective: a doctrinal approach (review)

Reviews 205 Garde, Judith N., Old English poetry in medieval Christian perspective: a doctrinal approach, Cambridge, D. S. Brewer, 1991; cloth; pp. 232; R.R.P.£35.00. Judith Garde examines early medieval Christian doctrine in three religious volumes: the Junius manuscript, Exeter Book, and Vercelli Book. Her introduction outlining doctrine of the period is foUowed by discussion of selected poems which collectively constitute a 'credal sequence', providing instruction in the articles of faith outlined in the Creed. First examined are the Junius poems. A preamble to this sequence describes 'the reconciliation and restoration of Adam's race in historical and prophetic detail' (p. 26). Subsequent chapters cover the Advent lyrics, Dream ofthe Rood, Descent into Hell, Christ II, Elene, Christ III and Phoenix. Garde discovers that an orthodox body of doctrine is uniformly proclaimed throughout, the core of which is Heilsgeschichte (salvation history), a drama extended from creation to judgement with Christ's Incarnation and Passion at its centre. One can hardly disagree with the remark that 'the relationship between Old English religious verse and the early medieval Christian faith has always been recognized to be fundamental and inherent'. Few scholars, also, would deny that the verse selected is didactic and catechetical, at least in part. Nevertheless, Garde finds herself in disagreement with many scholars engaged in the reading of Old English religious poetry for two reasons. Firstly, she considers that many studies of 'structure, pattern, style and theme' are two nanow in focus: 'critical analyses that disregard the doctrines and traditions underlying the early medieval faith often miss the point' (p. 2). Indeed, 'no critical overview of early medieval Christian faith and doctrine has emerged in relation to the verse' (p. 1). Gardefillssome gaps in this area, but perhaps overstates the deficiency. It is surprising to discover that Milton Gatch's Loyalties and tradition (New York, 1971), which is another, if less detailed, attempt to provide such an overview is not cited. Secondly, Garde questions the validity of allegorical interpretations, claiming that 'the isolation of patristic theory in dramatic, essentiaUy historical verse presupposes a common exegetical expertise that simply cannot be justified' (p. 3). In other words, poetry that was intended to entertain and instruct an unlearned audience and to celebrate the Redemption can be read literally for the story it tells. Here Garde further develops the work of readers who dissent from the dominant school of figural criticism which has grown up after Bernard Huppg's seminal Doctrine and poetry (New York, 1959). Nina Boyd, for example, argues that verbal and nanative details, picked out in the past as allegorical in intent, are in fact simple descriptive additionstomake the material accessible to an Anglo-Saxon audience ('Doctrine and criticism: a revaluation of "Genesis A",' NM 83 (1982) 230-38). Garde considers that many such detatis 206 Reviews highlighted by the allegorists in fact reinforce the literal doctrinal message of the poems. Garde asserts that her study is concerned with the interpretation of EngUsh vernacular poetry in medieval Christian context, rather than with literary criticism, and in her endeavour to find doctrinal patterns common to the poems, rather than to account for their individual qualities, she does not engage with the texts closely at the stylistic or verbal level. Indeed, the reader's familiarity with the poems and their state of preservation is often assumed. References are made, for example, to Liber I and Liber II in the Junius manuscript, without preliminary explanation of the codicological and paleographic reasons for this division. For this reason, her study will probable be more useful for the specialist reader than for students, and principally for its assemblage of sources and analogues relevant to the doctrinal content of the poetry. These range from early patristic writings to contemporary Old EngUsh texts. Greg Waite Department of EngUsh University of Otago Halle tt, Charles A. and Elaine S., Analyzing Shakespeare's action (scene versus sequence), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xi, 230; R.R.P. AUSS85.00. Regrettably not even the C U P imprint can guarantee a good new book on Shakespeare these days. Earnest worthy even, the Hallett's undertaking is typical of what one thinks of as old-fashioned...