Lors est ce jour grant joie nee: essais de langue et de littérature françaises du Moyen Age ed. by Michèle Goyens, Werner Verbeke (review)

romance relates the story of Guillaume, prince of Sicily, kidnapped at a tender age by a werewolf. Concurrently, we learn of the Spanish prince Alphonse, who was transformed into that werewolf by his stepmother. The adventures of this duo turn the romance into a mirror for princes (125–26), as the werewolf demonstrates chivalric virtue despite his bestial appearance. The anonymous author’s skill as a versifier and story-teller are well established by Sconduto. Sconduto concludes her study with several late Renaissance discussions of werewolves, a topic in vogue in theological and literary circles. Among these are Jean Bodin’s De la démonomanie des sorciers (1580), Claude Prieur’s Dialogue de la lycanthropie (1596) and Beauvoys de Chauvincourt’s Discours de la lycantropie (1599), to name but three. Religious strife in the sixteenth century had led to an increased interest in werewolves, now closely tied to witchcraft and to worship of the Devil. These primary sources have been carefully studied by Montague Summers (Werewolf [1933; rpt. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2003]) and Adam Douglas The Beast Within: A History of the Werewolf [New York: Avon, 1992]), both quoted repeatedly by Sconduto. She ends the chapter on the werewolf renaissance with a summary of the last major werewolf case in Western Europe (169), the trial of the Coutras adolescent Jean Grenier or Grainier (169–78), and a demonstration of 1603 judicial efforts to separate lycanthropy from mental illness . Sconduto concludes that werewolves of the twelfth century are a different breed than those of the sixteenth and that it is the latter group that haunts the modern imagination (200), observing that werewolves are “a reflexion of their time” (200). The author provides translations of all non-English citations; Old and Middle French texts are printed, Latin texts not. This book probably began as a dissertation, and at times, it still reads as such. It is disappointing that Sconduto’s research survey did not include German-language secondary works (e.g., Manfred Bambeck’s “Das Werwolfmotiv im Bisclavret” Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 89 [1973]: 123–47). Tracing the werewolf motif is a meritorious idea, and Sconduto has found every example of note. Though it is doubtful that she has added to our understanding of well-studied tales such as Bisclavret, she has made the fascinating story of Guillaume de Palerme better known, for which she is to be commended. Given current popular interest in werewolves (a search of Amazon.com brought up more than 2,000 items relating to the theme), Metamorphoses could well be a useful enticement, luring students to medieval French literature. University of Louisville (KY) Wendy Pfeffer GOYENS, MICHÈLE, et WERNER VERBEKE, éd. Lors est ce jour grant joie nee: essais de langue et de littérature françaises du Moyen Age. Leuven: Leuven UP, 2009. ISBN 978-905867 -740-2. Pp. xv + 198. $55.00. This collection of eight essays addressing various aspects of medieval French language and literature was assembled in honor of Willy Van Hoecke, a distinguished Belgian philologist, who retired in 2004 after a remarkably productive 40-year career. Although the essays cover a wide range of literary and linguistic topics, they are primarily focused on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Claude Buridant (Université de Strasbourg) in a lengthy, well-documented 806 FRENCH REVIEW 84.4 essay of 50 pages, “Phraséologie historique du français,” examines the role of certain fixed phrases in Old French, exploring patterns of creation and resistance to change, and assessing the importance of this linguistic phenomenon in the production of literary texts. The essay integrates Buridant’s own contributions to this area of research into a larger “aperçu panoramique” (43) reflecting the work of numerous philologists. Brigitte Callay (Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania) focuses on a problematic verse from the prologue of Guillaume d’Angleterre (“Crestiëns dit, qui dire siaut...”), exploring the rich ambiguities and complexities of the verb, dire, as utilized in other Old French texts. Colette Van CoolputStorms (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) focuses on differences between the Romanz de Dieu et de sa Mere by Herman de Valenciennes, composed toward the end of the twelfth century, and the Biblical passages which Herman recasts in his...