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REVIEWS Wheatley finds Chaucer, Lydgate, and Henryson to be subtle readers of fables, writers who ‘‘understood that fable was an acceptable site of intertextual exploration,’’ arguing that all three exploited this knowledge , to very different ends: Chaucer satirically, Lydgate pedantically, and Henryson in the full, rich spirit of the classical tradition. Wheatley’s view of these negotiations guides his readings of individual fables, which he pursues to examine broader implications for reading authorship and authority in classical literature and the vernacular in the Middle Ages. His thoroughgoing exploration of these complex relationships is nuanced and comprises one of the most stimulating aspects of this challenging and successful book. Mark Addison Amos Southern Illinois University Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor, and Ruth Evans, eds., The Idea of the Vernacular: An Anthology of Middle English Literary Theory, 1280–1520. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. Pp. xviii, 506. Paperback $25.95. The Idea of the Vernacular is an anthology that comes in many parts and multiple voices. Under the general direction of Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, a team of three scholars have compiled a selection of excerpts from Middle English literature that in some way illuminate the vernacular literary culture of the period 1280 to 1520. Mostly prologues, these excerpts are organized into three large categories, each preceded by an introduction: ‘‘Authorizing Text and Writer,’’ edited by Andrew Taylor; ‘‘Addressing and Positioning the Audience,’’ edited by Ruth Evans; and ‘‘Models and Images of the Reading Process,’’ edited by Nicholas Watson. Each excerpt is introduced by a short discussion of ‘‘Date and Provenance,’’ ‘‘Author, Sources, and Nature of Text,’’ ‘‘Audience and Circulation,’’ ‘‘Bibliography,’’ and ‘‘Source,’’ and each is followed by detailed notes. Alexandra Barratt, Brendan Biggs, Ian R. Johnson, Helen Phillips, Denis Renevey, and Stephen Shepherd contributed to the enterprise by editing particular texts. Preceding the collected excerpts are a short introduction and a note 445 ................. 9680$$ CH16 11-01-10 12:37:39 PS STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER on editorial principles; succeeding them comes a series of scholarly texts. First are five essays that analyze the assembled primary material (discussed below). Watson then offers an ‘‘Alternative Arrangement of the Excerpts,’’ and Wogan-Browne provides a glossary covering both ‘‘Middle English Terms’’ and ‘‘Select Latin Terms.’’ The volume winds down with an ‘‘Index of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books,’’ a lengthy bibliography, and a detailed index, compiled by Taylor. The idea of this anthology is remarkable, its contents are fascinating, and its variety of voices, medieval and modern, is endlessly stimulating. There is a democracy of intellect here; unlike many collaborative scholarly works, in which individual voices are subsumed by a dominant general editor (or publisher) into one level tone, the personalities and scholarly proclivities of The Idea of the Vernacular’s four-plus editors shine out clearly. The reader feels invited into an ongoing conversation and a fellowship of discovery, ranging across both unfamiliar texts and familiar texts placed in a new and rewarding context. At the heart of The Idea of the Vernacular’s enterprise is a corresponding form of democracy: the liberation of the vernacular mode from its long intellectual subservience to the high-prestige tongues of the later Middle Ages in England: Latin and French. As ‘‘The Notion of Vernacular Theory’’—co-authored by Evans, Taylor, Watson, and WoganBrowne —explains, the work of Minnis, Scott, and Copeland has accustomed medievalists to the idea that medieval literary theory trickled down slowly from classical and patristic tradition to the vernaculars, beginning in Italy and penetrating only shallowly to England. Apart from Chaucer’s well-known comments, it seemed as though scholars had little to point to in English until Sidney wrote his Defence of Poesie in 1595. The Idea of the Vernacular establishes that this intellectual nullabor was in fact teeming with ideas, concerns, and insights about authorship and audience. This is not the first scholarly work to draw on this resource, but it is the first to confront the issue full on, asserting in its subtitle and throughout that commentary does not have to take recognizable Latin-derived forms in order to merit the prestigious name of ‘‘literary theory.’’ In fact, it is precisely the low...

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