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REVIEWS PIERO BOITANI and ANNA TORTI, eds. Religion in the Poetry andDrama of the Late Middle Ages in England. J. A. W Bennett Memorial Lec­ tures, Perugia, 1988. Cambridge and Wolfeboro, N.H.: D.S. Brewer, 1990. Pp. viii, 239. $70.00. The papers in this collection were read in their original form at Perugia in 1988, for the sixth symposium commemorating J. A. W Bennett. Two excellent essays on the mystics introduce the series. Douglas Gray prefaces his study of the Book ofMargery Kempe with a discerning analysis of the strands of popular religion and its connections with official teachings. He finds Margery's Book "full of energetic and unruly life." Appropriately, his essay, also surging with life, does justice to her vitality. Contrary to those who underestimateMargery, he judges her to be "an extraordinary example of 'homeliness' combined with intense visionary qualities, of mysticism rooted in everyday experience." Similarly vital is Domenico Pezzini's study of the theme of the passion in Richard Rolle and Julian of Norwich. Pezzini's overview of the medieval theology of redemption, as well as his definitions of spirituality and mysti­ cism, are useful for the study of other medieval treatises on spirituality. Margaret Bridges wrestles with the topic of "Narrative-engendering and Narrative-inhibiting Functions of Prayer in Late Middle English." She includes in her concept of prayer in literature any expression of a wish, whether or not it is addressed to God or the saints. Even when analyzing the legend of St. Margaret of Antioch, she bypasses the theological under­ pinnings of her subject. Thus her approach throws only minimal light on the specifically religious character of the works she examines. Four essays on Chaucer address the problem of faith and literature from creative perspectives. Przemyslaw Mroczkowski, in "Faith and the Critical Spirit in Chaucer's Life and Times," presents Chaucer as neutral on the subject of religion. Writing, not doctrine, he holds, was Chaucer's prin­ cipal vocation: while accepting Christian teachings, Chaucer presented what lay outside creed and acceptable conduct without combating either. Unfortunately, Mroczkowski's analysis is flawed by references to "the adora­ tion of Mary" and "the accepted medieval worship of Christ's mother." Whatever may have been the stance of popular piety, official church teaching did not sanction Marian adoration or worship. By contrast, in "The Aesthetic of Chaucer's Religious Tales in Rhyme Royal," C. David Benson sees Chaucer's faith commitment not as marginal 163 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER but as central to his concerns. Benson argues that Chaucer is not "a moral relativist, with no fixed principles or deep beliefs." Rather, he celebrates transcendent faith, and in his attitude toward secular affairs he is far from reassuring to the established political powers. In fact, according to Benson, the "female heroines who dominate these works create what might be called a Christian feminism, in which Chaucer uses the historical mar­ ginality of women (and a child) to criticize the operation of the secular world, which is run entirely by men." In the third Chaucer piece, "The Pardoner's Tale: An Early Moral Play?" Paula Neuss presents new arguments for reading the tale as a drama. She shows how Chaucer's text anticipates and draws on the techniques and devices of the English moral plays. She believes that the moral play is an offshoot of the moral sense of Scripture, as developed in traditional four­ part biblical exegesis. Focusing on characters in Troilus and Criseyde and The Nun's Priest's Tale, Saul N. Brody shows how these works present conflicts in the area of making moral choices, even when moral principles are clear. He shows in the Chaucerian narratives he examines how animal passions can subvert reason and how reason, in anycase, can barely make sense of the confusions that assault the human subject. Therefore Chaucer's moral tales implicitly caution against making final judgments. The first of two papers on Piers Plowman also deals with the complexity of human morality. In "AWill with a Reason: Theological Developments in the C-Revision of Piers Plowman," Bruce Harbert traces Langland's growth from a narrow didactic perspective to a mature moral vision manifested...

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