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. |
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... says to Polixenes : Verily ? You put me off with limber vows , but I , Though you would seek t'unsphere the stars with oaths , Should yet say , ' Sir , no going . ' Verily , You shall not go . A lady's ' Verily ' is As potent as a ...
... says he is ready to reconcile with Doralice if he can be sure she is chaste , that is , faithful to him , she answers wittily and with a bit of Paulina's wisdom : " If you are wise , believe me for your own sake : Love and Religion have ...
... says to his face : I oft have heard him [ Volpone ] say how he admired Men of your large profession , that could speak To every cause , and things mere contraries , Till they were hoarse again , yet all be law . ( 1.3.52-55 ) This is ...
Contents
HEROIC ROMANCE | 3 |
TRAGICOMIC ROMANCE | 45 |
SOCIAL COMEDY | 83 |
Copyright | |
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