Word as Bond in English Literature from the Middle Ages to the RestorationFor centuries, the transmission of power in feudal European society depended on a code of fidelity, of political allegiance, and truth to one's word. The word as bond extended to include not only the pledge of allegiance between subject and king, but the troth-plight between lovers, the vow of friendship, and the judicial oath. Society was ultimately based upon a gentleman's or gentlewoman's word that was itself underwritten by the Word of God. J. Douglas Canfield argues that English literature of the feudal epoch placed this master trope of word as bond at the center of conflict. The trope does not passively reflect social reality; rather, it helps to define, to constitute the society and its values. Both society and literature were preoccupied by the contest between fidelity on the one hand and its antithesis, betrayal (with the political and sexual anarchy that it threatened) on the other. In literature, the conflict was usually resolved through supernatural aid, the intervention of the Logos, which guaranteed the validity of the word. Canfield analyzes over 25 representative works, focusing on Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Dryden, in the five dominant modes of aristocratic literature-romance, comedy, lyric, tragedy, and satire. In each chapter, he offers three examples, one from the Middle Ages, one from the Renaissance, and one from the Restoration. Canfield's study proceeds synchronically, attempting to show that the trope is always under stress. The language of heroic romance coexists with the language of subversive comedy and absurdist satire. In an Afterword, he suggests why the trope disappears--not from the discourse, where it remains to this day, but from the center of conflict in English literature after 1688. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 57
... oaths of fealty , sanctioned first by pagan then by Christian gods.2 As society centralized , fealty also became centralized , attached to the person of the king . It is im- portant to realize that this fealty was a personal affair , a ...
... oaths , " Mary " ( 2140 & 1268 ) . It is underscored by Sir Gawain's own oaths both here and throughout his stay at the castle , as he punctuates his temptations with apparently casual expletives and ejaculations . And it is underscored ...
... oaths , uttered for vain and sinful purposes . " By Goddes precious herte , " and " By his nayles , " And " By the blood of Crist that is in Hayles , Sevene is my chaunce , and thyn is cynk and treye ! " " By Goddes armes , if thou ...
Contents
HEROIC ROMANCE | 3 |
TRAGICOMIC ROMANCE | 45 |
SOCIAL COMEDY | 83 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown