Middle English Marvels: Magic, Spectacle, and Morality in the Fourteenth Century by Tara Williams (review)

In her Introduction, “Why Marvels Matter,” Tara Williams states that a group of literary texts incorporating marvels represents “a coherent and previously unrecognized theory of the marvelous, one focused on the intersection of the magical, the spectacular, and the moral” (1). The spectacle, whether natural, preternatural, magical, or even manmade, and comparably either human, demonic, or divine, has the potential to stimulate wonder (with its strong affective imprint) and then promote moral and ethical reflection among both the figures of romance, and its readers and listeners. Ethical systems and their exponents are put to the test in marvelous and unforeseen circumstances.

The Middle English literary tradition would appear to be unique in this respect among western European congeners. In broader cultural terms, the visual and the didactic were often conjoined in the fourteenth century. Among the methodological challenges met by this study of merveilles is the ambiguous nature of agency and intent in magical practices. A corollary is the question of how to behave when faced with phenomena beyond one’s community and experience. This slim but rewarding book is organized in four chapters, each of which studies one or more well-known Middle English texts, as informed by concerns for, respectively, chivalry, identity, agency, and language.

In Chapter 1, “Mirroring Otherworlds: Fairy Magic, Wonder, and Morality,” the fairy magic that shapes the narrative of Sir Orfeo is examined through the consideration of the spectacle of a gallery of suffering figures assembled by the fairy king. We know little of the life of fairies when they are not interacting with mortals. This spectacle prompts Orfeo to reflection on the chivalric knight’s moral role and may provide insight into the moral code of the fairies. In this reviewer’s opinion, such a code remains obscure and the most that can be said is that the fairy king honors a bargain. In the second chapter, “Revealing Spectacles: Virtue and Identity in Fair Unknowns,” devoted to Lybeaus Desconus, marvels are shown to have the power to illuminate true character. Incrementally, each test confirms the worth of the knight, until such time as he can be judged complete through the revelation of his hitherto hidden identity. Both courage and courtliness are put to the test when he suffers the kiss of the dragon-lady. The modern reader might also wish to add to his accomplishments the suppression of disgust.

“Moving Marvels: Action and Agency in Courtly Spectacles,” Chapter 3, is a skillful analysis of the interplay of magic and spectacle, and interaction of these with ethics and personality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The spectacle of the Green Knight “investigates the nature and limits of virtue itself while also raising questions about the compatibility of magical and moral agency, hinting that Morgan le Fay embodies the former while the shape-shifting figure she creates enacts the latter” (8). Is Morgan inimical to chivalry or only putting it to the test? While this is not the author’s image, it seems that the knight, his lady, and Gawain are like Russian dolls contained in Morgan’s greater agency. Each of the succeeding figures is both contained by her experiment and shapes the moral problem for those in its power. Given their relative conspecificity, which presents the greater challenge to the knight, a monster or a woman? In Chapter 4, “Talking Magic: Chaucer’s Spectacle of Language,” the texts under consideration become even more complex. This is the least compelling of the author’s individual studies, a consequence of Chaucer flouting the conventions of the marvelous and simply stating the marvel as a fait accompli rather than detailing it graphically. The brain is engaged, the emotions less so, and the resulting wonder is of a different kind. As The Wife of...