The Floure And The Leafe And The Assembly Of Ladies

An asset to any study of gender in medieval England, this volume contains three poems that complement each other in their treatments of relations between the sexes. The Floure and the Leafe explores the courtly imagery of the flower and leaf, wherein the flower symbolizes the fickleness and shallow attraction characteristic of men, compared to the evergreen persistence of the leaf, likened to the long-suffering of women. Meanwhile, The Assembly of Ladies recounts the activities of a group of women while describing the differences between the sexes. Finally, the dream poem The Isle of Ladies tells of a male dreamer's interactions with the ladies of an all-female island. All of the poems include contextualizing introductions and helpful glosses; there is also an extensive glossary for the entire volume, rendering the volume useful to not only beginning students of Middle English but also to more advanced students of this topic.

An asset to any study of gender in medieval England, this volume contains three poems that complement each other in their treatments of relations between the sexes. The Floure and the Leafe explores the courtly imagery of the flower and leaf, wherein the flower symbolizes the fickleness and shallow attraction characteristic of men, compared to the evergreen persistence of the leaf, likened to the long-suffering of women. Meanwhile, The Assembly of Ladies recounts the activities of a group of women while describing the differences between the sexes. Finally, the dream poem The Isle of Ladies tells of a male dreamer's interactions with the ladies of an all-female island. All of the poems include contextualizing introductions and helpful glosses; there is also an extensive glossary for the entire volume, rendering the volume useful to not only beginning students of Middle English but also to more advanced students of this topic.

The Assembly of Gods, which was published near the end of the fifteenth century, is an allegorical dream vision poem. It is notable for its strange mixture of both classical and Christian sources, in which the classical pantheon debates over the moral state of an individual, in an attempt to bring Reson and Sensualyte into balance in the individual. This text is suitable for all levels of students with its introduction explaining the cultural and linguistic context of the text, as well as a gloss and notes. This volume is invaluable to those teaching courses on late medieval allegory and dream poems.

One of the most intriguing features of The Assembly of Ladies, an anonymous fifteenth-century Middle English poem, is that it has remained in print in anthologies for over 500 years. Why would a poem about courtly love remain so popular for so long? This book analyses the literary and historical publishing evidence about The Assembly of Ladies, to show that the poem has remained in print not for its literary merit, but because its anonymity has allowed it to be appropriated by editors for their own particular social and political causes. The book draws together textual, contextual, and intertextual evidence about all twenty editions of The Assembly of Ladies. By examining closely how and why a single text is or has been included in canonical traditions over time, this study not only reveals the material presence of the text in various traditions but also brings to the foreground the categories scholars continue to use while defining or imagining those traditions.

Bringing together scholarship on multilingual and intercultural medieval Britain like never before, The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain comprises over 600 authoritative entries spanning key figures, contexts and influences in the literatures of Britain from the fifth to the sixteenth centuries. A uniquely multilingual and intercultural approach reflecting the latest scholarship, covering the entire medieval period and the full tapestry of literary languages comprises over 600 authoritative yet accessible entries on key figures, texts, critical debates, methodologies, cultural and isitroical contexts, and related terminology Represents all the literatures of the British Isles including Old and Middle English, Early Scots, Anglo-Norman, the Norse, Latin and French of Britain, and the Celtic Literatures of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall Boasts an impressive chronological scope, covering the period from the Saxon invasions to the fifth century to the transition to the Early Modern Period in the sixteenth Covers the material remains of Medieval British literature, including manuscripts and early prints, literary sites and contexts of production, performance and reception as well as highlighting narrative transformations and intertextual links during the period

A Companion to Medieval Poetry presents a series oforiginal essays from leading literary scholars that explore Englishpoetry from the Anglo-Saxon period up to the15th century. Organised into three parts to echo the chronological andstylistic divisions between the Anglo-Saxon, Middle English andPost-Chaucerian periods, each section is introduced with contextualessays, providing a valuable introduction to the society andculture of the time Combines a general discussion of genres of medieval poetry,with specific consideration of texts and authors, includingBeowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer,Gower and Langland Features original essays by eminent scholars, including AndyOrchard, Carl Schmidt, Douglas Gray, and BarryWindeatt, who present a range of theoretical,historical, and cultural approaches to reading medieval poetry, aswell as offering close analysis of individual texts andtraditions