Boethian Apocalypse: Studies in Middle English Vision Poetry by Michael D. Cherniss (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER [Clerc) II inclinait aux discours vertueux, Joyeux d'apprendre et d'enseigner joyeux. [Cure de village] La loi du Christ et de ses douze apotres Suivait d'abord, puis la prechait aux autres. For capturing the spirit of Chaucer's verse, his seems to me the most successful poetic translation in any language.6 A French translator using Legouis as a model might do surpassingly and perform a real service. A lively verse version ofthe Tales could make Chaucer pleasurable to French speakers who do not aspire to understand his English, just as de Caluwe­ Dor is making him more accessible to those who do. JAMES I. WIMSATT University ofTexas-Austin MICHAEL D. CHERNISS. Boethian Apocalypse: Studies in Middle English Vision Poetry. Norman, Okla.: Pilgrim Books, 1987. Pp. x, 271. $35.95. Boethian Apocalypse stakes out territory somewhere between detailed studies ofthe immense influence ofBoethius on medieval literature (e.g., H. R. Patch, The Tradition ofBoethius [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1935]; and Pierre Courcelle, La Consolation de philosophie dans la tradi­ tion litteraire [Paris: 1967]) and scholarly surveys of medieval visionary poetry (e.g., A. C. Spearing, Medieval Dream-Poetry [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976]; and Barbara Nolan, The Gothic Vi­ sionary Perspective [Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977]). On the one hand, it focuses on many ofthe same medieval texts studied by the earlier works: The Consolation ofPhilosophy, De planctu naturae, 6 This is not to deny the appreciable virtues ofDavid Wright's new English version of The Canterbury Tales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985). The nineteenth-century German version by Adolf von During, revised by Lambert Hoevel, Die Canterbury Tales (Koln: Hegner, 1969), also strikes me as quite effective. It renders the Reeve's lines: "Nun, Herren!der Verwalter Oswald sprach- / kh bitt Euch alle, tragt es mir nicht nach, / Wenn ich den Hut zurecht ihm etwas setze. I Fiir Hiebe, Hiebe-so steht's im Gesetze!" 134 REVIEWS Roman de la Rose, Pearl, The Book ofthe Duchess, The Parliament of Fowls, Confessio Amantis, The Kingis Quair, and The Testament of Cresseid. On the other hand, it narrows the field somewhat by defining a specific "genre"-Boethian Apocalypse-that excludes some key visionary poems (e.g., Piers Plowman) and other major works reflecting significant Boethian elements (e.g., Trot/us and Cn'seyde) that are central to other studies.Thebook thus brings two questionsto mind: Didsuch agenre exist in the Middle Ages? and, more important, Does postulating such a genre contribute to our understanding of medieval literature? The first question must be answered in the negative, despite the book's attempt to pinpoint distinct "outer" and "inner" forms for the Consolation ofPhilosophy that make it an "example of a totally new literary genre" (p. 9) and "the key work, the generic foundation" (p. 28), of the later medieval works. Cherniss makes a valiant effort to define this "genre," speaking ofits particular decorum and structures and drawing distinctions between form and content, but what he actually delineates is the literary continuity of particular themes prominent in Boethius, hardly a startling discovery. Generally, he merely takes the existence of the "genre" for grantedin sweepingstatements foundthroughouttheargument,although he sometimes avoids confidently identifying a work as a Boethian Apoc­ alypse by employing more ambiguous categories such as "Boethian tradi­ tion" or "Boethian form of vision poem." Occasionally acknowledging when a large portion ofa work-for example, Deplanctu naturae-"bears little resemblance to the Consolation" (p. 51), Cherniss nevertheless skirts the full implications ofsuch a concession by concluding that Alan "uses the Boethian genre with considerable freedom and originality" (p. 59). Simi­ larly, although noting that most of the Roman de la Rose is "radically different" from Boethius, theauthor insists that the onesection that "comes into very close contact" with the Consolation "offers us insight into the limitations which [Jean de] Meun apparently saw in the Boethian genre" (p.81). It isdifficult to refute conclusions based on such circular reasoning, even though they remain unconvincing. The chapter on The Book ofthe Duchess typifies the book's argumen­ tative strategies. It begins by stating without reservation that the poem is a Boethian Apocalypse, although its "generic relationship...