Lyric Tactics: Poetry, Genre, and Practice in Later Medieval England by Ingrid Nelson (review)

Building on earlier studies of medieval English lyrics and genre issues, Nelson undertakes to examine how one might fruitfully 'define' the lyric in this period, focusing particularly on the fourteenth century. She argues that 'the lyric genre is defined as much by its cultural practices as by its poetic forms' (p. 4). In the various chapters, Nelson sheds light on medieval lyric practices such as the interplay between writing and performance, adaptation of forms and tropes to new uses, integration of secular and religious themes, and more. In the process, through her micro-examination of individual poems in their particular settings, she develops a macro-argument for the persistence and evolution of lyric tactics. The tactics discussed involve both textual and cultural practices, ranging from composition to transmission. Following an introduction which discusses both theoretical and rhetorical contexts, her chapters develop these ideas by examining particular compilations or texts.

Nelson seeks to correct some inherited critical biases by examining the Middle English lyric corpus in connection with tactics that emerge from the body of work and its varied contexts. Just as some earlier critical views privileged epic over romance, a parallel theoretical bias has carried through with respect to lyric poetry, and, as Nelson notes, Middle English lyrics were often placed low on the approval scale when judged against the prevailing paradigms. By demonstrating a method of reading these poems through the new paradigm of a tactical lens, Nelson successfully adapts modern cultural transmission theories that question the older paradigm, for example, of assessing literary value in terms of originality.

The first and second chapters examine two fourteenth-century collections; Harley 2253 and William Herebert's commonplace book (British Library MS Additional 46919) provide contexts for examining the tactics of lyric voice and language. The Harley manuscript allows for a look at both performative and textual/scribal practices, and Nelson prefaces that portion of the chapter with a discussion of both medieval and modern theories of voice. Harley 2253 presents a secular collection of works, and Herebert's commonplace book provides a balancing consideration of pastoral intent. An Oxford friar, Herebert collected not only lyrics but also miracle stories and sermons into his work; Nelson focuses attention on Herebert's translation of some French hymns and the presentation of these hymns in contrast to that of other texts in the manuscript. Both doctrinal and rhetorical considerations come into play as Nelson argues how Herebert ties together moral doctrine with formal lyric strategies.

Chapters Three and Four focus on Chaucer's lyric passages in Troilus and Criseyde and Legend of Good Women. Nelson situates the Troilus discussion in a context of continental forms and adaptations that suggest a negotiation between Chaucer's use of insular lyric practices and the continental forms he adapts which mirror his poem's political issues. Within the poems, Chaucer inscribes the tensions between individual and communal; Antigone's song and the Cantici Troili are Nelson's primary focus. She pairs Legend with Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne to look at the use of lyric tactics within the moral/ethical focus of exempla. An examination of Mannyng's 'The Dancers of Colbek' and its structural ties to the repetitive carol form then moves into Chaucer's Legend Prologue and a series of lyric interludes within the legends. Nelson successfully argues that Chaucer's exemplary stories also expand the potential paths for the genre by the use of lyric tactics.

Nelson's own summary of her work provides a context in which one might consider other texts: ' To understand genre as a conjunction of practices rather than forms recovers the social and cultural existences of texts' (p. 30). While Nelson's book does not directly address the Arthurian corpus, it could prove useful for scholars interested in the interplay between lyric practices and other genres and how that engagement might elucidate how poems or lyrical...