The Endless Knot: Essays on Old and Middle English in Honor of Marie Borroff ed. by M. Teresa Tavormina, R. F. Yeager (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER subjects as Lollard heretics, and the path to peace through rapine and seizure in France" (p. 191). This account of the reigns of the Henries is seriously unbalanced. To give just one example, Strohm says that "the normal Lancastrian way of cherishing the Church is to apprehend and burn heretics" (p. 194) but never mentions the Lancastrian religious foundations, Henry IV's pre-1400 crusading or post-1400 acts ofcontri­ tion and even self-humiliation, or Henry V's famous piety and his plans to reform the monastic houses. Indeed, readers of the recent historiog­ raphy of the period by Mcfarlane, Harriss, McNiven, and Allmand, among others, will recognize that Strohm's caricature of these "savage" (p. 68) and "obscene" (p. 213) rulers is possible only by ignoring much of the historical record. The reason must be that Strohm has little sym­ pathy for the often harsh realities of medieval and specifically English kingship. Hence, for instance, he is shocked-shocked!-that Arundel and Henry IV should have colluded in bringing about the exemplary burning of William Sautre in 1401, and equally appalled that Henry V should have had spies who kept him well informed of the rebellion of 1414 so he could manage it to his own advantage. The result is less an analysis of historical texts than a morality play, with the monstrous "Lancastrians" on one side, plotting to control all around them by the most devious of symbolic strategies, and on the other, heroically resis­ tant "texts," which pluckily imagine that perhaps things could be other than they are-perhaps even like 1397-99, when good King Richard ruled? LEE PATTERSON Yale University M. TERESA TAVORMINA and R. F. YEAGER, eds. The Endless Knot: Essays on Old and Middle English in Honor of Marie Borrojf. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1995. Pp. x, 252. $90.00. Celebrating the retirement of Marie Borroff-Sterling Professor of En­ glish at Yale University-this Festschrift offers sixteen essays penned by distinguished Anglo-Saxonists and medievalists. Especially vital to this collection are key themes (style, poetics) and authors (Langland, 544 REVIEWS Gower, Chaucer, the Pearl poet) appealing to Borroff throughout her scholarly career. At least five essays call attention to explorations of style, including grammar, language, and prosody.While Eric Stanley's "Paradise Lost of the Old English Dual" focuses on the use ofthe pronominal construction ("the two of us/you") in Old English prose and verse works, R.F.Yea­ ger's essay ("BenJonson's English Grammar and John Gower's Reception in the Seventeenth Century"), however, emphasizes the frequent appear­ ance ofGower selections (thirty-two references) in the English Grammar. Then revealing how and why Jonson employed Gower, Yeager argues that the medieval poet embodied significant virtues, "ideals Jonson and his circle proposed for themselves" (p.238).Accordingly, Gower repre­ sented for the Renaissance writer authority fused with humaneness, "a man of letters whose classicism and ethical poetic" served as beacons in a benighted world "to light the way for kindred spirits yet to come" (p.239). Following these scholarly forays into grammar and its influences, Me­ lissa M.Furrow ("Latin and Affect") elucidates how and why Latin­ "the primary language of religious observance ..., [the tongue} heard from infancy by every Christian" (p.30)-is used by Gower, Langland, and Chaucer.Such poets, Furrow argues, employed Latin to generate emotional power.Two final explorations ofstyle are found in Stephen A. Barney's "Langland's Prosody: The State of Study" and in Ralph Hanna Ill's "Defining Middle English Alliterative Poetry. " While Barney inves­ tigates alliterative meter generally and surveys "recent theories of the alliterative long line and ofLangland's prosody" (p.85), Hanna attempts to decode the ciphers of alliterative verse.Noting the limited critical visions ofwhat truly constitutes alliterative poetry, Hanna contends that scholars must scrutinize extant texts more meticulously and fashion "a more carefully nuanced model of 'alliterativity' than has pertained in the past" (p.57). Because of limitations of space, the remainder of this review will be devoted to the artistry of three fourteenth-century Middle English po­ ets-Langland (one essay), Chaucer (selected discussions), and the Pearl poet (two analyses...