Against All England: Regional Identity and Cheshire Writing, 1195-1656

Chapter Four Heraldic Devices/Chivalric Divisions

133 Ch a p t e r F ou r Heraldic Devices/ Chivalric Divisions sir gawain and the green Knight and the Scrope-Grosvenor Trial Of all the texts addressed in this book, none is more firmly linked in modern scholarship to Cheshire and to regional identity than the late fourteenth-century romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK). studies of the poem’s dialect have traditionally concerned themselves with placing SGGK on one side or the other of the Cheshire-staffordshire border.1 the scholarly search for the name of the poem’s anonymous author has regional implications as well: while the Gawain-poet’s precise historical identity remains unknown, articles and essays proposing competing candidates have often had the serendipitous side effect of detailing the sociopolitical activities of Cheshire’s local gentry in the decades surrounding 1400.2 to their number we might add Ralph Elliott’s analyses of the poem’s topographical vocabulary as well as his claim to have solved the “mystery” of the green 134 Cheshire the County Chapel’s location.3 but the most influential strand of regionally focused interpretation over the last twenty years has been the work of historian Michael bennett: his research concerning Cheshire and Lancashire participation within Richard II’s affinity, especially in the period 1387–99, is now routinely cited in discussions of SGGK, albeit often as a brief nod in the direction of local and regional context.4 bennett’s court-centered approach has found its greatest champion in John bowers, whose historicist readings of Pearl derive much of their force from bowers’ assumption of a cultural collision between the Cheshiremen surrounding the king and a variety of anti-Ricardian forces.5 the bennett-bowers hypothesis responds to the facts of the poem: at a very basic narrative level, SGGK is about the encounter between two different communities, each separated from the other by geography and, more controversially, by culture. Like the local focus described above, the socio-spatial division between Camelot and Hautdesert returns again and again in the scholarship surrounding the poem. to give but a few examples of particular relevance to my own discussion below: J. R. Hulbert argues for a vigorous English north holding the line against a sophisticated Francophile south (the classic statement of defiant regionalism); thorlac turville-Petre posits a pair of disparate regions that nevertheless come to acknowledge their national unity; and Patricia Clare Ingham describes an imperial England engaged in cultural contestation with colonial Wales.6 the bennett-bowers approach also fits into this model of socio-spatial interaction. In all four cases, center meets periphery. the precise outcome of the encounter may vary from study to study (Hulbert’s static stand-off, turville-Petre’s celebration of class-based identity, Ingham’s deflection toward misogyny, and bennett and bowers’ politico-cultural exile), but the basic assumption of spatial difference remains: whatever else it may be, SGGK is a text which foregrounds its provinciality.7 Analysis of the poem’s assertive localism typically begins with the Fitt 2 description of gawain’s lonely journey in search of the green Chapel: Now ridez †is renk †ur∑ †e ryalme of Logres, sir gauan, on godez halue, †a∑ hym no gomen †o∑t— Oft leudlez alone he lengez on ny∑tez Heraldic Devices/Chivalric Divisions 135 ˇer he fonde no∑t hym byfore †e fare †at he lyked; Hade he no fere bot his fole bi frythez and dounez, Ne no gome bot god bi gate wyth to karp— til †at he ne∑ed ful neghe into †e Nor†e Walez. Alle †e iles of Anglesay on lyft half he haldez And farez ouer †e fordez by †e forlondez; Ouer at †e Holy Hede, til he hade eft bonk In †e wyldrenesse of Wyrale. Wonde †er bot lyte ˇat au†er god o†er gome wyth goud hert louied. And ay he frayned, as he ferde, at frekez †at he met If †ay hade herde any karp of a kny∑t grene, In any grounde †eraboute, of †e grene Chapel. And al nykked hym wyth “Nay!”—†at neuer in her lyue ˇay se∑e neuer no segge †at watz of suche hwez Of grene. ˇe kny∑t tok gates straunge In mony a bonk vnbene. His cher ful oft con chaunge, ˇat chapel er he my∑t sene. (lines 691–712)8 Unlike the errant wanderings of many romance heroes...