Originally published in 1994. Chaucer is considered the first major humorist in English literature and is particularly interesting as he reflects the humor of predecessors and contemporaries as well as defines development for subsequent British humor. This collection presents essays that define the nature of Chaucerian humor, examine Chaucer's works from a variety of theoretical perspectives, and consider genres of humor within his writing. This is an excellent work of critical discourse that adds important understanding of Chaucer as well as the field of comedy in literature.

This volume offers 18 new studies reflecting the latest scholarship on Latin verse, explored both in its original context and in subsequent contexts as it has been translated and re-imagined. All chapters reflect the wide research interests of Professor Susanna Braund, to whom the volume is dedicated. Latin Poetry and Its Reception assembles a blend of senior scholars and new voices in Latin literary studies. It makes important contributions to the understanding of kingship in Hellenistic and Roman thought, with the first four chapters dedicated to exploring this theme in Republican poetry, Virgil, Seneca, and Statius. Chapters focusing on the modern reception include case studies from the 16th to the 21st century, with discussions on Gavin Douglas, Edward Gibbon, Herman Melville, Igor Stravinsky, and Elena Ferrante, among others. No comparable volume provides a similar range. Latin Poetry and Its Reception will appeal to all scholars of Latin poetry and classical reception, from senior undergraduates to scholars in classics and other disciplines.

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a variety of angles and approaches. The essays in this volume continue the Journal's tradition of groundbreaking interdisciplinary work. The volume opens with a survey of the discipline of medieval clothing and textiles, written by founding editor Gale R. Owen-Crocker. The range of the other essays extends chronologically from the early Middle Ages through the fifteenth century and covers a variety of disciplines. Topics include the conception of the author as a "wordweaver" in the literatures of Anglo-Saxon England; intertextual literary identities established through clothing in the Nibelungenlied and the Voelsunga Saga; the historical record of clothing and textiles at the court of King John of England; medallion silks, their use in Western Europe, and their representation in art; the vestments of Beguines and other penitential movements in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and a depiction of heraldic textile weaving inlate-medieval art. Contributors: Tina Anderlini, Joanne W. Anderson, Maren Clegg Hyer, Alejandra Concha Sahli, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth M. Swedo, Hugh Thomas

Originally published in 1965, A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an interpretation of the most important poem in Middle English literature, the only fourteenth century work which can stand beside Chaucer. The book examines the poem's conventions and purposes in a critical analysis and provides a useful and insightful introduction to 'Sir Gawain'. It will be of interest to students and academics studying the poem of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Originally published in 1988, The Protean Text looks at the shifting evolution of medieval texts and how changing social and aesthetic values were depicted in the literature of the period. The book examines how this was reflected in the reworking and rewriting of texts - a common practice in medieval literature - as various groups adapted existing legends to their own socio-aesthetic needs. Such textual fluidity often resulted in a proliferation of versions. This tendency to experience the text in protean terms is intrinsic to medieval literary expression. This book uses the legend of "Doon and Olive", to discuss the protean text, and uses the diverse series of extant versions available, to enhance our understanding of the possibilities of literary shift and modulation through this period.

Originally published by 1984 Justice and Mercy in Piers Plowman provides a clear and informative introduction to the complexities of Langland's Piers Plowman. It identifies Langland's major concerns and shows in detail, passus by passus, how these are developed by him in the first part of the poem - the Visio. It offers a close reading of the text and draws parallels where relevant with other medieval writings. There is a final brief chapter on the Vita which outlines the chief ways in which the themes of justice, mercy and law that have been followed through Visio continue to be of major importance in the rest of the poem. By concentrating on the philosophical core of the work, the climate of thought in which Langland wrote and the thematic integrity of the poem as a whole, the author makes a difficult, but unique and fascinating poem more accessible.

Originally published in 1994, Oral Tradition in Middle English is an edited collection providing a multidisciplinary look at the importance and nature of oral tradition in Middle English literature. The book offers a discussion of the gradual problemization of orality and literacy in works of verbal art from this period. It shows how early typographies proved too exclusive to explain the heterogeneity of relevant texts, bringing to bear the new and potentially productive concepts of "vocality" and developing literacy. This book establishes a new interpretive paradigm for Middle English poetry.

Originally published in 1970, John Lydgate sets out to restore a sense of perspective to the work of Lydgate, not by attributing a spurious modernity as a precursor of the Renaissance, but by accepting the fact that he is fundamentally medieval. The book analyses Lydgate's background in literary tradition and compares this with Chaucer's work. The book looks at Lydgate as a professional craftsman and examines how his work adapted to the demands and occasions of his age. Without over-valuing the poetry, this approach makes it possible to discriminate with increased objectivity between the more and less worthwhile and to distinguish the unexpectedly large number of poems in which craftsman-like competence rises to rhetorical artistry of a high order. In accepting Lydgate as the epitome of his age, the book also provides a diagram of the medieval poetic mind in its basic form and suggests the usefulness of Lydgate as a source book for the understanding of medieval literature.

Originally published in 1990, Memorization in the Transmission of the Middle English Romances tackles the long-standing issue of the role of memorization in the transmission of Middle English romances. The book addresses the lack of consensus on the issue, despite extensive discussion, putting forth the theory that the heterogeneity of the poems of this period, grouped under the general heading of 'medieval romance', makes generalizations about the history of transmissions unreliable. The book suggests that oral-formulaic theory has been applied over-literally to oral or oral derived works, through the assumption that all poems answer the same structural criteria. The book also looks at the aspects of orality and performance theory alongside the textuality and intertextuality of these medieval texts.

Originally published in 1977, Old English and Middle English Poetry provides a historical approach to English poetry. The book examines the conditions out of which poetry grew and argues that the functions that it was assigned are historically integral to an informed understanding of the nature of poetry. The book aims to relate poems to the intellectual and formal traditions by which they are shaped and given their being. This book will be of interest to students and academics studying or working in the fields of literature and history alike.

Originally published in 1984, Literature and Law in the Middle Ages is a comprehensive bibliography on the subject of literature and law in the Middle Ages. The collection was composed with the notion that early society regarded literature, law and religion from the same single point of view. It discusses how for many medieval poets, their art existed primarily to enforce obedience to God and king and suggests that society viewed law as a chief instrument of the divine will in human affairs. The book's comprehensive introduction argues that eventually, these areas of diverged and became separate; this bibliography covers the broad period of the Middle Ages from the 5th to the 15th century and examines this period of transition during which, the process was not yet complete. This bibliography will be vital resource for those studying medieval studies, both in literature and history.

Originally published in 1952 The Lost Literature of Medieval England provides an account of lost masterpieces of medieval English literature. The book examines the evidence for their existence and pieces together a fuller understanding of the literary traditions of the period. In more specific detail, the book looks at the concept of Christian epics and religious and didactic literature, as well as the drama and the lyrical poetry of the period.

Originally published in 1969 Piers Plowman is a collection of 12 original essays by leading academics on Piers Plowman. As a combined volume, this collection forms a substantial introduction and a comprehensive account of the poem, its background and textual problems. The book's essays reflect the diversity, and vigour of criticism in the field of medieval literature and opens new perspectives in the study of one of its finest poems.

Originally published in 1939, Early Middle English Literature is a comprehensive overview of various aspects of early Middle English literature. The book examines authorship and provenance and the effect this had upon the literature of the period. This text examines literature from the period of 1066 to 1300 and addresses the transition between Old and Middle English and looks at the effect the transition of language during this period from Anglo-French to English, had on the literature of the time.

Originally published in 1981, The Later Middle Ages bridges the gap between modern and medieval language and literature, by introducing the social and intellectual milieu in which writers like Chaucer, Malory and Margery Kempe lived. It provides a unified and coherent account of the culture of late medieval England, and of the problems involved in viewing it, in relation to English literature. The book covers the history of ideas and education, art and architecture, and changes in the social, economic and political structure.

Originally published in 1967, The Poetry of John Lydgate presents a broad discussion of John Lydgate's secular poetry. It reassesses much of the poetry through critical examination and suggests that Lydgate was not necessarily the master that the medieval ages proclaimed him to be, nor the plain poet that he is often seen as in modern analysis. Instead, the book suggest that he was a competent poetic craftsman that presents substantial literary form in his poetry. The analysis in the book looks at Lydgate as atypical of the Middle Ages, instead exhibiting traits currently linked to the Renaissance. The book provides a unique perspective on John Lydgate as a poet and will be of interest to medievalist and literary historians alike.

Originally published in 1975, The Writer as Liar examines the literary game of falsehood as it is portrayed in the Decameron. The book examines how Boccaccio's collection of tales has a 'frame' story, its own built-in key to the art of story-telling, its internal logic of truth and falsehood, as well as its moments of self-parody, pure narrative intrigue and sophisticated sexual symbolism. The book formulates the argument that Boccaccio's story telling is seen as an artfully malicious operation, depending for its success not on some abstract concept of narrative originality or the accurate depiction of human psychology, but on the combinative assemblage of narrative blocks, which are manipulated by a craftsman who must lie and cheat with raw material in order to produce a living work - therefore depicting the artist as a liar.

Originally published in 1992, Margery Kempe looks at one of the most appealing mystics and pilgrims of 15th-century England. The book looks at Margery Kempe, and her book The Book of Margery Kempe, thought to be the first vernacular autobiography in medieval Britain. Original essays in the book examines Kempe's spirituality, cultural context, and the autobiography itself, The Book of Margery Kempe. The essays in the book represent detail literary analysis on Kempe and the critical history of her words.

Originally published as an English translation in 1981, The Middle English Mystics is a crucial contribution to the study of the literature of English mysticism. This book surveys and analyses the language of metaphor in the writings of such mystics as Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Julian of Norwich, and in such anonymous works as The Cloud of Unknowing and the Ancrene Wisse. The main emphasis of this comparative and stylistic study is not theological but rather the means by which theological concepts are communicated through language. The book sets the English mystics in perspective by establishing their place in the European mystical movement of the Middle Ages. It shows how intricate the relationship between English, and continental mysticism really is. The book suggests that there is clear links between English and German female mysticism, yet the mysticism is in the main due not so much to specific influences as to the common background of Christian theology and mysticism.

Originally published in 1985. This impressive research tool offers four different indexes to cross-reference works on the sources of Chaucer. The user can look up sources by author, genre type or title, or look up the title of one of Chaucer's works to find which bibliographic entries they are mentioned within. This is a useful reference work on Chaucer source and analogue scholarship, including 1477 entries.

Originally published in 1951 Middle English Literature applies methods of literary evaluation to certain Middle English works. Arguing that previous literary criticism has largely focused on the commentary of their historical, social, philological and religious content, the book suggests that it has led to a thinking that Middle English literature is without artistic value and therefore cannot be compared effectively with later works of the fourteenth and fifteenth century. While traditional analysis has been beneficial to scientific and historical findings, this text seeks to look deeper into the artistic merits of the works and the authors that wrote them, arguing that the authors of these Middle English texts, wrote with the same motivations and experiences of these later authors which in turn informed the artistic basis of these Middle English works. The book looks at Middle English texts through three main areas: the Metrical Romances, the Religious Lyrics and Piers Plowman.

This book is the first translated and annotated edition of Ibn Nazif's Al-Ta'rikh al-Mansuri. Totalling 227 folios, the manuscript is a unique and valuable source full of historical accounts and anecdotes. The documents include two letters by the Emperor Frederick II in Arabic, as well as the only mention of the Albigensian Crusade in the Arabic language. Other notable material includes Ibn Nazif's notes concerning the rivalries between the various Ayyubids and the wars against Jalal al-Din Mangubirti, descriptions of the Ayyubids in Yemen, and notes on the destruction of the Sicilian Muslims and the defeats of the Spanish Muslims. Containing an extensive historical introduction, this book will appeal to scholars and students interested in the later Crusader and middle Ayyubid periods.

Originally published in 1972, Themes and Images in the Medieval English Religious Lyric discusses themes and images in religious lyric poetry in Medieval English poetry. The book looks at the affect that tradition and convention had on the religious poetry of the medieval period. It examines the background of the lyrics, including the Latin tradition which was inherited by medieval vernacular and shows how religious lyric poetry presents, through a rich variety of images, the significant incidents in the scheme of Christ's redemption, such as the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Passion and the Resurrection. It also considers the lyrics which were designed to assist humanity in the task of living in a Christian life, as well as those which prepared them for death.

Originally published in 1967 The Pearl looks at the anonymous fourteenth century poet of Pearl. The book argues that the poem ranks in importance and interest with that of Chaucer and Langland, but suggests that it has always proved more difficult to approach to the modern reader. The aim of this book is to clear away some of the difficulty through a close examination of the material the poet had to draw on, and the poet's use of this in the organisation of the poem. The main themes are established through detailed analysis of the poem, which is seen as much more than either a lament for an individual or the mere figurative presentation of an idea.

Medieval Literature and Social Politics brings together seventeen articles by literary historian Stephen Knight. The book primarily focuses on the social and political meaning of medieval literature, in the past and the present. It provides an account of how early heroic texts relate to the issues surrounding leadership and conflict in Wales, France and England, and how the myth of the Grail and the French reworking of Celtic stories relate to contemporary society and its concerns. Further chapters examine Chaucer's readings of his social world, the medieval reworkings of the Arthur and Merlin myths, and the popular social statements in ballads and other literary forms. The concluding chapters examine the Anglo-nationalist `Arctic Arthur', and the ways in which Arthur, Merlin and Robin Hood can be treated in terms of modern studies of the history of emotions and the environment. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval Europe, as well as those interested in social and political history, medieval literature and modern medievalism.