Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England

A contributory volume on the effect of medieval culture and literature on early modern England.

Gordon McMullan (Edited by), David Matthews (Edited by)

9780521117401, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 July 2009

304 pages, 13 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

"Scanlon, Simpson, and the essays in the first group discussed above are all clearly attuned to recent debates, whereas the essays by Matthews and Trigg, among others in the second and third groups described here, seem to adhere to an older version of ‘‘medievalism,’’ in which the focus is less on an interchange of modes of thinking than the early modern period’s use of the medieval for its own ends. Nevertheless, the essays here offer much material for reflection and chart some new lines of inquiry."
-Katherine Little, Fordham University

In English literary and historical studies the border between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and hence between 'medieval' and 'early modern' studies, has become increasingly permeable. Written by an international group of medievalists and early modernists, the essays in this volume examine the ways in which medieval culture was read and reconstructed by writers, editors and scholars in early modern England. It also addresses the reciprocal process: the way in which early modern England, while apparently suppressing the medieval past, was in fact shaped and constructed by it, albeit in ways that early modern thinkers had an interest in suppressing. The book deals with this process as it is played out not only in literature but also in visual culture - for example in mapping - and in material culture - as in the physical destruction of the medieval past in the early modern English landscape.

List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction: reading the medieval in early modern England David Matthews and Gordon McMullan
Part I. Period: 1. Diachronic history and the shortcomings of Medieval Studies James Simpson
2. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and the rhetoric of temporality Deanne Williams
Part II. Text: 3. Langland, apocalypse and the early modern editor Larry Scanlon
4. Public ambition, private desire and the last Tudor Chaucer David Matthews
Part III. Nation: 5. The vulgar history of the Order of the Garter Stephanie Trigg
6. Myths of origin and the struggle over nationhood in medieval and early modern England Anke Bernau
7. The colonisation of early Britain on the Jacobean stage Gordon McMullan
Part IV. Geography: 8. Tamburlaine, sacred space and the heritage of medieval cartography Bernhard Klein
9. Leland's Itinerary and the remains of the medieval past Jennifer Summit
Part V. Reformation: 10. John Bale and reconfiguring the 'medieval' in Reformation England Cathy Shrank
11. Medieval penance, Reformation repentance and Measure for Measure Sarah Beckwith
12. Medieval poetics and Protestant Magdalenes Patricia Badir
Afterword David Wallace
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]