The Vision of Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman is trippy and freaking long, so I'll let Wikipedia handle the heavy lifting. Some generalities:

Piers Plowman (written ca. 1360–1387) or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman (William's Vision of Piers Plowman) is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus" (Latin for "step"). Piers is considered by many critics to be one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The text:

Piers Plowman is considered to be one of the most analytically challenging texts in Middle English textual criticism. There are 50-56 surviving manuscripts, some of which are fragmentary. None of the texts are known to be in the author's own hand, and none of them derive directly from any of the others.

All modern discussion of the text revolves around the classifications of W. W. Skeat. Skeat argued that there are as many as ten forms of the poem, but only three are to be considered authoritative—the A, B, and C-texts—although the definition of "authoritative" in this context is problematic. According to the three-version hypothesis, each version represents different manuscript traditions deriving from three distinct and successive stages of authorial revision. Although precise dating is debated, the A, B, and C texts are now commonly thought of as the progressive (20-25 yrs.) work of a single author.

Given the epic size of Piers Plowman, and its tangled intricacies, no mere synopsis will do. Ergo, an outline.

King Arthur's Death

This book contains two texts: the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Both romances tell the story of King Arthur's death and the events leading up to it. Since this is a TEAMS book, I shall borrow the handy online commentary, and since the book's introduction treats both works together, I shall do so as well.

Descriptions of the text:

We cannot be sure exactly where or when the two romances in this volume were composed. Probably both were written in the North Midlands area of England in the fourteenth century, the Stanzaic Morte Arthur around the middle of the century, the Alliterative Morte Arthure toward the end, probably around 1400 or so (see note to line 3773). These, however, can be only guesses. All we can say for sure is that the unknown authors produced works of exceptional merit that have a unique importance for English literary history.

The two romances in this volume represent two distinct stylistic traditions. The Alliterative Morte Arthure belongs to the "Alliterative Revival," the literary movement that begins in the middle years of the fourteenth century and that includes such important writers as William Langland and the author of Gawain and the Green Knight. The Stanzaic Morte Arthur is written in the more common eight-syllable, four-beat line of English romance, a line that derives ultimately from French models. Despite its foreign source, this is a simpler, more popular style than that of the alliterative romance, and the author of the Stanzaic Morte Arthur probably intended his work for a somewhat wider and less sophisticated audience than the alliterative poet aimed for.

Synopsis of plot:

The Alliterative Morte Arthure ranks just after the works of the Gawain-poet among the finest products of that late medieval literary movement that we call the "Alliterative Revival." It lacks the delicacy and balance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but the vigor of its narrative, the epic sweep of its action, and its coolly realistic presentation of fourteenth-century warfare lend the poem an interest of its own. The King Arthur of this poem is neither the "somewhat childish" romance king who appears in Sir Gawain nor the helpless cuckold he so often seems in French romance. He is a warrior king, shifting his troops about, sending out skirmishers, and ever ready to do battle himself.

This is primarily a poem of battles, and there are no better accounts of late medieval warfare than we find in this poem. Nor are there any more sobering reminders that all was not heroic and romantic in this age. The poet's account of the siege of Metz (lines 3032-43), with his description of the results of a medieval bombardment (from slings and catapults), reminds us all too sharply of more recent horrors. Yet our poet is finally more interested in the fates of men than of armies, and he has a keen eye for psychological facts. His description of Mordred's momentary repentance (lines 3886-96) is a marvelous touch, unprecedented in Arthurian tradition (in which Mordred is never treated with such sympathetic understanding) and worthy of a place alongside some of the best passages in Chaucer. Each reader will find his own favorite passages, for the Alliterative Morte Arthure well deserves the high reputation it has among specialists, who, because of the difficulties of the text, have thus far constituted almost its only modern audience.

The Stanzaic Morte Arthur is a very different narrative. It is a brilliant condensation of the French prose romance (La Mort Artu) which, along with the Stanzaic Morte Arthur itself, was the source of Malory's last two tales, "The Book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere" and "The Most Piteous Tale of the Morte Arthur." Writing a century before Sir Thomas Malory completed his own Morte Darthur, the unknown English romancer achieved many of the virtues that we associate with Malory's later work and produced a relatively tight and fast-moving narrative. The French Mort Artu is a leisurely and complex narrative, characterized by an elaborate network of episodes and by a full treatment of the psychological and philosophical implications of the action. The author of the Stanzaic Morte Arthur, like most English romancers of his time, was less interested in psychological abstractions. He reduced the material he inherited from the French to about a fifth of its original length, producing a work that succeeds because of its lean and rapid narrative and that gains force because of its more obvious focus upon the actions themselves. Yet the author does not omit completely the psychologizing that characterized his French source. As any reader of Chaucer knows, the literature of the later fourteenth century, marked by a new interest in individual feelings, is often (as in The Second Nun's Tale or even parts of Troilus) what we might now call a sentimental literature ("Pitee runneth soon in gentle heart" is one of Chaucer's favorite sayings). Tears flow freely in this romance (as they do in the Alliterative Morte Arthure), but the compression of the narrative prevents the sentiment from becoming excessive. The poet's interest in the feelings of his characters humanizes them, just as his omission of the philosophical interest in Fortune, so important in the French, focuses the tragedy upon the real people caught in a real web of tragic circumstances.

My own observations:

* The intro is correct: SMA is pretty exactly like Malory, but with tiresome formulaic rhymes. Didn't like it. The AMA, though, is energetic and different.

* King Arthur is a real bastard in the AMA: sending chests full of dead Roman nobles as tribute to the Roman senate, ordering the death of Mordred's children with his dying breath. Gawain is a berserker: he has a flyting with the Roman nobles before the battle, he dies in the throes of battle rage.

* The Wheel of Fortune/Nine Worthies dream is genuinely affecting and (more importantly) Boethian. (Obviously.)

* The giant of St. Michael's Mount is a dark parody of medieval battle.

Sir Perceval of Galles & Ywain and Gawain

Sir Perceval of Galles and Ywain and Gawain, edited by Mary Flowers Braswell of UAB (PBUH), contains the two edited romances of those titles.

I. Sir Perceval of Galles (ca. early 1300s)

An etext of this Sir Perceval edition is available here. Here's the ms. information from Flowers herself:

The unique copy of Sir Perceval of Galles is contained in the Thornton Manuscript, preserved in Lincoln Cathedral as MS 91. The 322-page manuscript contains sixty-four pieces in all, ranging from saints' lives to medical treatises, and including seven additional romances: the Alliterative Morte Arthure, The Romance of Octovyane, The Romance of Sir Ysambrace, The Romance of Dyoclicyane, Sir Degrevante, Sir Eglamour, and The Awentyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne. The contents are all written in one hand, a variable mid-fifteenth-century Anglicana Formata, and the dialect - which may not be the original - is northern, reflecting the North Riding Yorkshire district of the scribe. Decorations are confined to initials outlined in black with tinted sprays and foliage, red initials flourished in black or violet, and various touches of red, marking headings and paragraphs. The manuscript is written on paper and is in generally good condition, although certain of its pages have been damaged with loss of text. Worm holes occasionally obscure the writing; ink blots and water stains appear throughout. The original binding, probably the "thick oaken boards, covered with white leather, and fastened with a clasp," referred to by Madden, has been replaced by later oak boards covered with a pig-skin leather.

The scribe was one Robert Thornton of East Newton, Yorkshire, whose own name (and that of various family members) appears several times throughout the work. The British Library Additional Manuscript 31042, containing the unique copy of Wynnere and Wastoure, was apparently also copied by Thornton who appears to have been an educated amateur. A manor lord who died between 1456 and 1465, Thornton likely copied his texts over the years as materials became available to him. At his death, his library passed on to his family where it remained for several generations. In the late seventeenth century, Thomas Comber, husband of Alice Thornton, either gave or sold the manuscript to Daniel Brevint, Dean of Lincoln, and the work has remained in the possession of the Cathedral Library since that time.

In lieu of my own summary, here's the one by Flowers:

Sir Perceval of Galles is the first (and besides Malory, the only) English rendering of the naive and bungling knight made popular in Chrétien de Troyes' twelfth-century Conte del Graal. The young Perceval, his father killed in battle, is raised in the forest by his mother, who abhors chivalry and the courtly world. He wears goatskins, hunts animals with his spear, and, after his first introduction to civilization, rides a pregnant mare that he thinks is a stallion. Encountering three knights in the woods one day, he determines to become like them, and, despite his mother's reluctance to let him go, he sets off for Arthur's court wearing his mother's ring. Coming upon a lady sleeping in a tent, he exchanges his ring for her (unknown to him) magic one, a ring which has the ability to protect its wearer from harm. He then follows adventures familiar to readers of romance where a "childe" triumphs over seemingly insurmountable odds. Young Perceval defeats successively the Red Knight, the Black Knight, the Sudan, and the giant Gollerothirame. He liberates Lady Lufamore, marries her, and becomes a king. He then decides to restore his mother. On his return to the woods of his origin he rescues the "tent lady" and restores to her her rightful ring; and he finds his mother in time to release her from the insanity she suffered at believing her son was dead. Finally, Perceval leaves for the Holy Land where he wins many cities before he is killed. And "thusgate," notes the poet, "endis hee."

A few comments:

* There is no Grail in this Perceval story -- none whatsoever. Ditto no Fisher King, no Wasteland, no screaming maidens accusing Perceval of unknown crimes, no abused jester dwarves. The poet seems to have been interested only with a few episodes of his source material.

* Perceval is, if anything, more endearingly dimwitted: assuming all horses are called "mares", trying to burn knights out of their armor.

* Perceval illustrates the necessity of socialization. His mother instructs him in the rules of basic courtesy, but his general ignorance of human society leads him to observe the letter of his mother's law, while violating the spirit with unthinking enthusiasm. Example: Mother tells him to live moderately, so he only eats half the food on the table when he invades someone's home uninvited.

II. Ywain and Gawain (ca. 1300s)

An etext of this Ywain and Gawain edition is available here. Again, let's leave the heavy lifting to the inestimable Prof. Braswell:

Ywain and Gawain survives in a single copy preserved in the British Library as Cotton Galba E. ix. The parchment manuscript contains 114 folios, seventeen separate pieces. Most of these - The Gospel of Nicodemus, a treatise on the Seven Deadly Sins, The Pricke of Conscience, a "Book of Penance," a Rood poem, and a Pater Noster, for example - are didactic. But others, such as notes on the points of a horse, The Prophecies of Merlin, and the satirical poem, "Sir Penny," represent a diversity of secular tastes. The hands of six individual scribes can be discerned in the collection, four of these dating from the early fifteenth century. The first hand - that of Ywain and Gawain and The Seven Sages of Rome - is a clear Anglicana Formata and the text is in a Northern dialect. Because certain North-East Midland forms are often reflected in the rhyme, the language is assumed to be that of the original author, who probably composed the work some fifty to one hundred years before this particular version was written down. A lack of topical references in the text makes it impossible to date the composition of the poem precisely.

The manuscript is in generally good condition, although its upper edges show water damage, probably from the 1731 fire in the library of Robert Bruce Cotton, the book's only identifiable owner. The top portion is often marred by shrinkage, splitting, and staining; worm holes, tearing, and ink blots occur throughout. Few of these defects present difficulties for the reader, however. The text contains little decoration. It begins with a large, ornate blue capital, picked in red, and a long, downward flourish, extending through the title and four lines of the manuscript. A number of smaller initials, alternately red and blue, are scattered throughout the text, normally coinciding with our modern practice of paragraphing. Such initials contain non-representational foliage and sport tendrils both upward and downward into the margins. The text contains numerous paragraph markings, which are generally not consistent with modern usage. There is little punctuation, and capitalization is sporadically employed.

Ditto for the summary:

The poem itself, a translation and adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes' Le Chevalier au Lion, is the story of Ywain, son of Urien, and a knight of King Arthur's court, whom the English poet assumed to have been a king and who is historically believed to have fought against the Angles in the sixth century. Unlike most romances, this one is a tale of married love: Ywain weds his lady, only to lose her through the breaking of a vow, whereafter he must perform many feats of valor before winning her again. The story begins at Arthur's court when Sir Colgrevance tells of his adventure along a perilous path which led him to a monster herdsman, a magic storm-producing well, and an avenging knight who some time ago had defeated Colgrevance in battle. Immediately Ywain, fired by the prospect of such an encounter and hoping to be more successful than his kinsman, sets out on the path himself, followed at some distance by Arthur and his retinue. Ywain defeats the knight, who, mortally wounded, flees to his castle. Ywain pursues him, but upon reaching the castle, he is trapped by the portcullis which crashes down upon him, killing his horse. He is rescued by Lunette, the companion of the dead knight's wife, whom he has unknowingly befriended in the past, and she gives him a ring that makes him invisible. Thus he is able to escape capture within the castle walls. He falls in love with the grieving widow, Alundyne; subsequently, he marries her and becomes the protector of her property. When Arthur and his knights arrive, Ywain defeats Sir Kay and proudly entertains them all as host and lord.

His happiness is short-lived, however, for soon Gawain, who had accompanied Arthur to the castle, persuades Ywain to "follow arms" with him to prove his manliness alongside his friend in tournaments. Alundyne agrees to the venture - but only for the space of a year. When Ywain forgets to return on the appointed day, she publicly renounces him and subsequently withdraws her magic ring which had served to protect him from harm. Having lost his love, Ywain also loses his mind, roaming the forest like a wild "beste" until the kindness of a hermit and the magic of still another lady restore him. Brought, in effect, to his senses, he now fights for justice and truth. Seeing a dragon battling a lion, he saves the lion and the beast becomes his companion. He rescues hapless maidens, defeats an oppressing giant, and overcomes an evil steward. When at last he returns to Alundyne's castle, Lunette aids him in a reconciliation with his wife. Then all live happily, the poet assures us, "Until that death haves dreven tham down" (line 4026).

Some comments:

* Lunette, the clever maidservant, is not at all shy about manipulating her lady, Alundyne, if she thinks it will do no harm and benefit those she loves. She is, if anything, even more brazen in the English version than in Chretien.

* I love the lion: he reminds me of Perceval, diving into fights with simpleminded zeal, heedless even of Ywain's wishes.

Pursuing History (Ralph Hanna)

Ralph Hanna's Pursuing History is a complex work, both in thought and form. The major ideas themselves, though not difficult conceptually, are problematic in application (which Hanna acknowledges). Moreover, their presentation within the book is not systematic: instead of a sustained and developed argument, what Hanna presents is a series of thematically related book chapters and articles. Some of the disjointedness of the presentation is mitigated by Hanna's introduction and initial chapters, which orient the reader conceptually; however, the later chapters, which apply the notions put worth earlier, were generally written without reference to the preceding chapters -- the reader is left the connect the dots on his own. Nonetheless, Hanna is a lucid writer and, in spite of the difficulties involved, the book's lessons are well worth internalizing.

Hanna's overall project is to anchor our understanding of Middle English literature more firmly in the actual material artifacts -- the manuscripts -- and in the actual historical situations of those artifacts and their production. His concerns are largely not "theoretical" but practical; even his more abstractly phrased arguments about the dominance of edited versions over the actual extant ms. are based in desire for the accurate representation of the concrete, not a (strictly) ideological point. (I like him!)

Some of Hanna's observations about medieval book manufacture:

* The content of medieval books was open-ended and flexible. Individual books were produced by special order, and contained whatever suited the customers' tastes, though the availability of exemplar texts was often a limitation.

* Medieval books were often produced asynchronously, with new quires and leaves added as formerly unavailable exemplars are acquired.

* Medieval books were often written piecemeal, in the form of semi-independent booklets: whole works occupying full quires. These booklets could be inserted into a book anywhere the arranger desired. Booklets permitted booksellers to stock popular items, while giving the customer freedom to use the booklet as he chose. Booklets also allowed a work to be broken into discreet parts, to facilitate copying of one large work by different scribes simultaneously.

Some conclusions Hanna draws based on these observations (and similar materialist considerations):

* Stemmatics are not a reliable method for determining the primacy of one ms. version vs. another. A single work in ms. may in fact be composed of multiple quires copied by separate scribes from different exemplars of the same work; no single ms. is necessarily the single immediate ancestor of any other ms.

* Modern print editions do not adequately represent the complicated material evidence underlying the presented text, nor the multiple levels of editorial intervention that mediate that material evidence.

* Editorial judgment will always be necessary, since they will never be a real "best text" (contra the Hengwrt fetishists among the Chaucerians, i.e. Manly & Rickert). The best options are (1) the attempt to recover the ancestral copy of the existing ms. traditions (using judgment to choose between attested readings), (2) the attempt to recover the author's own holograph (using judgment to sometimes recreate readings not even attested), and (3) "responsible best-textism," which chooses an existing ms. as the most reliable version in aggregate (trusting the "best text" in general, but still using judgments for particular readings).

* Why try to present just one version of a text? Why not publish the major ms. versions and let the differences stand? After all, the existing ms. are the ones that were actually read. Also, mimic as closely as possible the page layout of the source ms. And why not bind it along with the random miscellany of works it was found with? Then we can read the miscellany!

Middle English Romances

Though Middle English Romances: authoritative texts, sources and background criticism is only one item on my ME list, it actually contains several different works. However, I will still blog them in the same post, though not all at once: this post will be updated as I complete each work.

I. Havelok (ca. 1300)

This romance is one of only two (?) in this anthology that aren't related to the Arthurian milieu, the Matter of Britain. Instead, it is part of the Matter of England, romances celebrating heroes from the Anglo-Saxon period of English history. Some textual info, via Wikipedia:

The story of Havelok is first attested in lines 37-818 of Geoffrey Gaimar's Anglo-Norman Estorie des Engles of about 1135-40. This was the basis for another Anglo-Norman poem, which in turn may have influenced Havelok the Dane. Havelok is the second oldest surviving romance written in English. It is often categorized in the so-called Matter of England. It is believed to have been composed somewhere between 1295-1310. The romance survives in one imperfect version, as well some fragments.

The Wikipedia summary is at least as good as any I could spontaneously compose, so here 'tis:

Havelok is intricately constructed, consisting of a double arc of usurpation and restoration of rightful heirs through their marriage. The poem starts in England, with the reign of Athelwold, described extensively as just and lawful, but is then imperiled when Athelwold dies without an adult successor. His daughter Goldborow is still a child, and Athelwold appoints Godrich, the Earl of Cornwall, to rule as regent until she can be married (to the “highest man in England”). When Athelwold dies Godrich immediately betrays his oath, imprisoning Goldborow in a remote tower in Dover.

The poem then shifts to Denmark, where a similarly virtuous king, Birkabein, dies leaving behind two daughters, Swanborow and Helfled, and his son, Havelok. Godard, a wealthy retainer, is appointed regent. Another betrayal, and Godard brutally murders the daughters and hands the three-year old Havelok over to a thrall, the fisherman Grim, to be thrown into the sea. Grim recognizes Havelok as the rightful heir when he sees a pair of miraculous signs: a bright light that emerges from the boy’s mouth and blazing red-gold “kynemerk,” a cross-shaped birthmark on his shoulder. Sparing the boy, Grim flees with Havelok and his family to Lincolnshire. There they raise Havelok as their own and fish the North Sea. Havelok, during this time has grown into a very tall and strong lad, with a huge appetite. (Several versions tell that Havelok was raised under a false name, Cuaran, in order to protect his identity, though the Middle English version omits this detail.)

During a famine, Havelok is forced to leave home to seek his subsistence in Lincoln. There he is taken in by Bertram, a cook in a noble house. During a festival, Havelok bests the other servants and kitchen-boys in a shot-putting contest. This victory brings him to the attention of Godrich, who notices Havelok’s height and strength. Godrich then decides to marry off Goldborow in order to dispossess her once and for all. Havelok protests the wedding, because he is too poor to support a wife, but submits to the union after being threatened and abused by Godrich. Later, Havelok and Goldborow flee back to Grimsby, where they are taken in by Grim’s children. That night, Goldborow is awakened by a bright light, and sees Havelok’s mouth glowing. She is then told by an angel of Havelok’s lineage and destiny.

Havelok returns to Denmark with Goldborow and Grim’s three eldest sons in order to reclaim his kingdom. In disguise as a merchant, Havelok is sheltered by Ubbe, a Danish nobleman. Ubbe sees the light and immediately pledges his support to Havelok in overthrowing Godard. Godard is defeated and Havelok invades England to overthrow Godrich and restores Goldborow. Now king of Denmark and England, Havelok rules justly and assures his realm’s stability through siring fifteen children, of whom "the sons were all kings and the daughters were all queens." ("Plot Summary"

Here are some bullet points of my own reactions to Havelok:

* Unlike the Arthurian romances of France and their English translations/adaptations, Havelok seems especially sympathetic to, and concerned with, the plight of the lower and middle classes. Though Havelok is royalty, he is raised by a fisherman (Grim) and looked after in Lincoln by a cook. Havelok never forgets their kindness and rewards the cook and Grim's heirs.

* Havelok asserts that no-one should be ashamed of putting in a good day's work and that anyone who doesn't work, shouldn't eat. This celebration of manual labor seems almost Puritan.

* Havelok seems to view class structure as arbitrary and alterable: he elevates Grim's sons to positions of nobility, and marries Grim's daughters to earls -- one an earl by birth, and the other the cook whom Havelok elevated to earldom. In most other romances, if those of low estate are raised to high estate, it is because their origins were in the high estate (Perceval, "Beaumains"/Gareth). In Havelok, those of wholly low estate may be raised to high estate, for which they are seen as fitted by innate virtue and "nobility".

II. Ywain and Gawain

III. Sir Orfeo (ca. late 1200s-early 1300s)

Another non-Arthurian romance, Sir Orfeo is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. On to Wikipedia! The text:

Dated to the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, it represents a mixture of the Greek myth of Orpheus with Celtic mythology and folklore concerning fairies, introduced into the English culture via the Old French Breton lais of poets like Marie de France. Sir Orfeo is preserved in three manuscripts, Advocates 19.2.1 known as the Auchinleck MS. and dated at about 1330, the oldest. The next oldest manuscript, Harley 3810, is from about the beginning of the fifteenth century. The third, Ashmole 61, was compiled over the course of several years; the portion of the MS. containing Sir Orfeo is c. 1488. The beginning of the poem describes itself as a Breton lai, and says it is derived from a no longer extant text, the Lai d'Orphey.

The plot:

In the poem, Sir Orfeo, king of Thrace, loses his wife Heurodis (i.e. Eurydice) to the fairy king, who steals her away from under a ympe-tre (grafted tree) that happened to be haunted by the fairies, and takes her to his underworld kingdom. Orfeo, distraught by this, leaves his court and wanders in a forest. After ten years, he sees Heurodis riding past in the company of the fairy host. He follows them to the realm of the fairy king, where he entertains the fairy king by playing his harp. The fairy king, pleased with Orfeo's music, offers him the chance to choose a reward; he chooses Heurodis. Orfeo returns with Heurodis and reclaims his throne.

Some commentary:

While this is not the classical myth of Orpheus, the poet shows substantial ingenuity in merging the Orpheus of mythology, who tries and fails to obtain the return of his wife Eurydice from Hades, the underworld, with the traditional fairy motifs of the fairy raid or hunt, the fairies' otherworldly kingdom, their attempts to abduct mortals, and the magical transformations endured by those who are captured by them. These motifs are shared by both Sir Orfeo and later-collected versions of the ballad fairy-lore in such works as the ballads of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin.

IV. Sir Launfal (ca. late 1300s)

The text:

Sir Launfal is a 1045-line Middle English romance or Breton lay written by Thomas Chestre dating from the late 14th century. It is based primarily on the 538-line Middle English poem Sir Landevale, which in turn was based on Marie de France's lai Lanval, written in a form of French understood in the courts of both England and France in the 12th century.

The summary:

Sir Launfal participates in the chivalric tradition of gift giving to such an extent that he is made King Arthur's steward, in charge of celebrations. He eventually leaves King Arthur's court when Guenevere, King Arthur's new wife, shows ill will to him by not giving him a gift at the wedding. He leaves Arthur's court and so loses his status, income, and retainers. On Trinity Sunday he borrows a horse and goes for a ride. He stops to rest under a tree. Two ladies then appear and bring him to a lady they call Tryamour, daughter of the King of Olyroun and of Fayrye. She offers him herself and several material gifts including a bag that will always produce goin coins, all on the condition that he keeps their relationship secret from the rest of the world. She tells him she will come to him whenever he is all alone and wishes for her.

Sir Launfal uses his new wealth to perform many acts of charity. He also wins in a local tournament, thanks to the horse and banner given him by the lady. A knight of Lombardy, Sir Valentyne, challenges him (on the honor of his beloved lady) to come fight him. Launfal makes the voyage, and defeats Valentyne, thanks to his invisible servant who picks up his helmet and shield when Valentyne knocks them down. Launfal kills Valentyne and then has to kill a number of his fellow Lombardy knights in order to get away.

Launfal now, seven years after leaving court, comes again to King Arthur's attention and is asked to serve as steward for a long festival beginning at the Feast of St. John. During some revelry at the court, Guenevere offers herself to Sir Launfal. Sir Launfal refuses, Guenevere says some harsh words, and Launfal boasts that he has a mistress whose ugliest handmaiden would be a better Queen than Guenevere. Guenevere is furious. She goes to Arthur and accuses Launfal of trying to seduce her and also of his actual boast. Knights are sent to arrest him for this insult to Arthur.

Sir Launfal realizes that, because of his boast, Tryamour will no longer come to him when he wishes for her, and her gifts have disappeared or changed. Now he is brought to trial. Since his jury of peers all know the Queen is more likely to have propositioned Launfal than the other way around, they believe Launfal's version of the encounter. However, he is given a year and a fortnight to produce the beautiful lady as proof of his boast; Guenevere says she is willing to be blinded if he manages to produce such a woman. As the day of the proof progresses, the Queen presses for him to be executed while others express doubt, particularly when two parties of gorgeous women ride up. Finally Tryamour arrives and exculpates Launfal on both counts; she also breathes on Guinevere and blinds her. His former invisible servant brings his former horse up, and Tryamour, Launfal, and her ladies ride away to the island of Olyroun. Once a year Launfal's horse is heard and a knight may joust with him in that place.

V. The Awentyrs of Arthure (ca. 1300s)

The text (taken from the TEAMS edition):

The Awntyrs off Arthur survives complete in four separate medieval manuscripts, none of which is based upon any of the other extant copies. Though its language and meter indisputably indicate northern composition - perhaps in Cumberland, whose seat is Carlisle - the four copies were made in different parts of England, including Yorkshire, the Midlands, and the London area. The number and pattern of surviving copies constitute material evidence that Awntyrs enjoyed a remarkable popularity outside (and also presumably within) the region in which it originated. Such popularity seems even more extraordinary since the poem did not begin as an oral tale, like Ragnelle, Carlisle, Turke, or the ballads. While its supernatural and chivalric storylines have affinities with popular tales, the complex rhyme scheme, narrative structure, written sources, allusions, and content demonstrate that Awntyrs was a distinctively literary effort. Awntyrs emerges from a transitional cultural context, in which a literate author has fully exploited oral stylistics and techniques.

The summary (taken from the TEAMS edition):

Until fairly recently, editors and critics have regarded Awntyrs (meaning "adventures") as deficient in structural and thematic unity. The poem divides neatly - almost perfectly, according to Spearing's arguments - into two halves: the first part (lines 1-338) transforms a popular legend associated with Pope Gregory the Great - the Mass or Trental of Saint Gregory - into a chivalric episode. Awntyrs begins with the standard opening for a Gawain romance: as in Ragnelle, Carlisle, Avowyng, and other tales, Arthur and his companions go off to hunt in Inglewood Forest. The "adventure" of Awntyrs, its encounter with the alien, takes the form of a gothic fantasy: a ghost, described in screeching and grotesque detail, appears to Gawain and Guenevere at the Tarn Wathelene. The specter turns out to be the tormented soul of Guenevere's mother, who suffers now for the hidden sins of the flesh she committed on earth. The ghost laments the split within her own life, between a brilliant, splendid appearance and a fetid inner corruption, and then goes on to commend her own condition as a general warning to the entire court. She cautions Gawain and Guenevere, as representatives of the Round Table, that the conduct of knights and ladies must conform to Christian precept, and that the court must narrow the chasm between its excessive consumption and the desperate poverty that besets others in the community: material and spiritual concerns must coincide. Her own visitation typifies this link, in her ghostly intervention into the worldly life of the court, and, perhaps more strikingly, in her requesting Masses for her soul, making clear that those still in the flesh may affect the fate of those in the spirit world.

The apparition passes and the hunt ends, and the second part (lines 339-702) follows a scenario familiar in chivalric romance: as Arthur and the Round Table are seated at dinner in Rondoles Halle, a strange knight enters, accuses Arthur and Gawain of being in false possession of his lands, and demands an honorable combat. Sir Galeron of Galloway's challenge falls to Sir Gawain - a fitting outcome, given Gawain's popular title as the Lord of Galloway during the Middle Ages and after. The narrative lingers over the courage, skill, and ferocity of the fight; neither knight can gain early victory, and each does great damage to his opponent. Just as Gawain seems at the point of a lethal triumph, Galeron's lady and then Guenevere intervene, and Arthur halts the combat. Galeron submits to Gawain's prowess (and to Arthur's lordship), but the king composes the dispute by assigning other lands to Gawain, and having his nephew restore lands to Galeron. Galeron marries his lady, and becomes a knight of the Round Table. In the last stanza of Awntyrs, Guenevere arranges the Masses for her mother, and the poem ends with a verbal repetition of its opening line.

VI. Weddyng of Syr Gawen (ca. 1400s)

The text:

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle is one of several versions of the "loathly lady" story popular during the Middle Ages; an earlier version appears as "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and the later folk ballad "The Marriage of Sir Gawain" is essentially a retelling, though its relationship to the medieval poem is uncertain. The Wedding of Sir Gawain survives in a poorly copied 16th-century manuscript located in the Bodleian Library (Bodleian 11951, formerly Rawlinson C.86) though it was probably written in the 15th century.

The summary:

The story begins when the mystical knight Gromer Somer Joure challenges King Arthur to discover what women desire most, or face dire consequences. Arthur's nephew and knight Gawain sets out to answer the riddle for him, and eventually Gromer's sister, the hag Ragnelle, offers the solution if Gawain will marry her. Gawain selflessly consents to save his uncle, and Ragnelle reveals that what women desire most is sovereynté, to make their own decisions. With this answer Arthur wins Gromer's challenge, and much to his despair, the wedding of Gawain and Ragnelle goes ahead as planned.

Later, the new pair retire to the bedroom. After a brief pause, Gawain assents to treat his new bride as he would if she were attractive, but when he looks up, he is astonished to see the most beautiful woman he has ever seen standing before him. She explains she had been under a spell to look like a hag until a good knight married her; now her looks will be restored half the day. She gives him the choice to have her beautiful at night, when they are together, or during the day, when they are with others. Instead, he gives her the sovereynté to make the choice herself. This answer lifts the curse for good, and Ragnelle's beauty returns permanently.

The couple live happily, and the court is overjoyed when they hear Ragnelle's story. Ragnelle lives for only five more years, after which Gawain mourns her for the rest of his life. According to the poem, Ragnelle bore Gawain his son Gingalain, who is the hero of his own romance (though in most versions of his story, his mother is a fay who raises him ignorant of his father). The poem concludes with the poet's plea that God will help him out of jail.

King Alfred's Orosius

As a translation, this work has two main "authors" associated with it: Paulus Orosius (the original Latin author) and King Alfred the Great (the Anglo-Saxon translator/editor/continuator). Here's the lowdown on these gentlemen, via Wikipedia:

Paulus Orosius (b. circa 375, d. 418?) was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of St. Augustine who came from Gallaecia (a sub-province of Hispania Tarraconensis, comprising modern Galicia, in Spain, and northern Portugal), probably from the capital city Bracara Augusta. He is best known for his Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII ("Seven Books of History Against the Pagans"), which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of Christianity.

Alfred the Great (also Ælfred from the Old English Ælfrēd, pronounced [ˈælfreːd]) (c. 849 – 26 October 899) was king of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defense of the kingdom against the Danish Vikings, becoming the only English King to be awarded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the English". Details of his life are discussed in a work by the Welsh scholar Asser. Alfred was a learned man, and encouraged education and improved his kingdom's law system as well as its military structure.

The purpose of Orosius's history was to more fully apply the historical perspective of Augustine's City of God:

The Historiae adversum paganos was undertaken at the suggestion of Augustine, to whom it is dedicated. Orosius argues that the world has improved since the introduction of Christianity rather than declined as others had argued. In response to those who pointed to contemporary disasters, he simply argues out that previous ones occurring before Christianity were much worse. The work, a universal history of the calamities that have happened to mankind from the fall down to about 417, was the first attempt to write the history of the world as a history of God guiding humanity. ("His work")

The work was well received and came to be seen as the official world history of post-classical and medieval Christendom. Unlike the older histories of pagan writers, such as Livy and Tacitus, Orosius's history interpreted world events through the assumptions of Christian -- specifically, Augustinian -- theology. Thus, two levels of narrative are present at all times: the mundane perspective of earthly actions and the heavenly perspective of divine intention.

Alfred seems to have agreed with this general high regard for Orosius's history, selecting it as one of a handful of books in his "essential library": Latin works that he translated (or had translated) into Old English, to foster a wider readership for them. Alfred was not a strict translator, however, freely elaborating, cutting, abridging, and amending the text according to his own interests and priorities. The result is less properly a translation than it is a conversion:

OROSIUS'S HISTORY

ALFRED'S TRANSLATION OF OROSIUS'S HISTORY

Now, on to the bullet points!

Orosius's History

* The history begins with a geographical and topographical description of the known world: Europe, Asia (mainly the Levant and Caucasus, but as far east as India), and Africa (north Africa specifically, with vague references to regions further south).

* The historical narrative follows a general pattern. Orosius first orients his reader chronologically, nationally, and politically: "X years before the founding of Rome, King Y reigned in country Z." He then recounts the major events associated with that time, place, and situation: usually wars, political conflicts, and portentous disasters. He usually concludes each episode by criticizing his contemporary Romans for complaining about their current plight (Gothic domination): "You think you have it hard? People back in the day had it hard! Their wars were bigger, their calamities worse, their kings cruel and despotic, and their gods no help whatsoever!"

* Orosius's major revisited themes are (1) that the world has been a better and more peaceful place since the coming of Christ, and (2) that the Christian God controls the destiny of all nations, decreeing their rise and fall for His own purposes.

Alfred's Additions

* Alfred adds in geographical information to the first chapter of book one. Apparently he felt that Orosius's geographic and national descriptions of northern Europe and Scandinavia were lacking. He includes the first-hand accounts of two ocean-going merchants, Ohthere and Wulfstan, whom he personally questioned regarding the coastal regions of the North Sea, the White Sea, and the Baltic Sea. These additions give important ethnographic information regarding the lesser-known people groups of northern Europe, such as the Lapps (Sami) and the various Slavic tribes of the Baltic coast.

* Alfred also frequently inserts historical and cultural information from other classical sources, to aid Anglo-Saxon readers in understanding this much older work. For instance, he explains the Roman tradition of giving a "triumph" for conquering consuls -- helpful, since a consul getting (or not getting) a "triumph" figures significantly in many of his accounts of Roman political/military history. Less helpfully, he informs his readers that Theseus's minotaur was "half man, half lion", perhaps indicating his unfamiliarity with the story from any other source.

My Middle English Exam List: UPDATED!

The Middle English list contains works written in England between the Conquest (1066) and the first English printed books of the late 1400s, which established the dominance of the London dialect of Chancery Standard. This list was compiled under the direction of Dr. Andrew Cole. Unlike the Old English and Renaissance lists, this list is fairly evenly split between primary and secondary sources: Middle English is my weakest of the three areas, and extensive secondary reading will help remedy that.

This second list is, to my mind, the most challenging of the three. Unlike the Old English list, in which I am permitted to read translations, and the Renaissance list, in which the language is close enough to current English to be easily readable, the primary sources of the Middle English list are left in their original dialects and spellings. The London-based Middle English of Chaucer is fairly straightforward, once one gets the hang of its spelling tendencies; but the dialects of northern England (Northumbria and York, for example) are more difficult, closer in many ways to Old English, but with Scandinavian and French loanwords added in for extra confusion. The result: Middle English halves -- even quarters -- my average reading speed, like trying to sprint through knee-deep water. But I shouldn't complain too much: I find most of the subject matter interesting, and some of it entertaining.

UPDATE: Some items dropped and others added. Under "Early Middle English", Layamon's Brut is dropped, and two debate poems -- "The Owl and the Nightingale" and "Winner and Waster" -- have been added; under "15th-Century English Poetry", Lydgate's Fall of Princes has been dropped, and the first EETS volume of his minor verse added, mainly for the sake of his religious verse.

Also, after some clarification from my adviser, I ought now to specify that those critical works designated as "secondary" were placed on the list as references, to be consulted as needed. They are not properly the subjects of my comprehensive exams, as are the "Big 15" in the "Discipline of Middle English" section and the primary works listed in the remaining categories. In short, this list has been rendered vastly less daunting and even (gasp!) surmountable.

I. THE DISCIPLINE OF MIDDLE ENGLISH

* Aers, David, Chaucer, Langland, and the Creative Imagination (London, 1980)
* Beckwith, Sarah, Christ’s Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings (London, 1993)
* Copeland, Rita, Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts (Cambridge, 1991)
* Dinshaw, Carolyn, Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics (Madison, Wisconsin, 1989)
* Doyle, A. I. and M. B. Parkes, “The Production of Copies of the Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis in the Early Fifteenth Century,” Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker, ed. M. B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson (London: Scolar Press, 1978). 163-210.
* Hanna, Ralph, Pursuing History (Stanford, 1989)
* Hudson, Anne, The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and Lollard History (Oxford, 1988)
* Justice, Steven, Writing and Rebellion. England in 1381 (Berkeley, 1994)
* Lawton, David, “Dullness in the Fifteenth Century,” ELH 54.4 (1987): 761-799.
* Patterson, Lee, Chaucer and the Subject of History (Madison, 1991)
* Patterson, Lee, Negotiating the Past: the Historical Understanding of Medieval Literature (Madison, 1987)
* Scanlon, Larry, Narrative, Authority and Power: the Medieval Exemplum and the Chaucerian Tradition (Cambridge, 1994)
* Simpson, James, Reform and Cultural Revolution. The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 2, 1350-1547 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
* Strohm, Paul, Social Chaucer (Cambridge, MA, 1989)
* Wallace, David, Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy (Stanford, Ca., 1997)

II. CHAUCER

Primary
* Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edition, ed. Larry D. Benson (Boston, 1987)

Primary Sources
* Vergil, Aeneid, trans. David West (London, 2003)
* Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. David Raeburn (London, 2004)
* Ovid, Heroides,trans. Harold Isbell (London, 1990)
* Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Victor Watts (London, 1999)
* Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, trans. W.H. Stahl (New York, 1952)
* The Romance of the Rose, trans. Frances Horgan (Oxford, 1994)
* Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. John D. Sinclair (New York: 1961)

Secondary
* Brewer, Derek, Chaucer and his World (London, 1978)
* Minnis, A.J., Chaucer and Pagan Antiquity (Cambridge, 1982)

III. LANGLAND

Primary
* The Vision of Piers Plowman: A Critical Edition of the B‑Text, ed. A.V.C. Schmidt, 2nd edn (London, 1995)

Secondary
* Aers, David, Piers Plowman and Christian Allegory (London, 1975)

IV. THE GAWAIN-POET

Primary
* Andrew, Malcolm and Ronald Waldron, ed. The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience (Everyman, London, 1991)

Secondary
* Bowers, John M., The Politics of Pearl: Court Poetry in the Age of Richard II (Cambridge, 2001)
* Clein, W., Concepts of Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Norman, Oklahoma, 1987)
* Putter, Ad, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance (Oxford, 1995)

V. EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH

Primary
* Ancrene Wisse, ed. J.R.R. Tolkien, EETS 249 (London, 1962)
* The Owl and the Nightingale, ed. J. H. G. Grattan and G. F. H. Sykes, EETS Extra Series 119 (Oxford, 1935)
* Wynnere and Wastour, ed. Stephanie Trigg, EETS 297 (Oxford, 1990)

Secondary
* Vinaver, Eugene, The Rise of Romance (1971), Ch. 1‑3

VI. GOWER

Primary
* Confessio Amantis, ed. Russell A. Peck. TEAMS (Kalamazoo, 2000)

Secondary
* Olsson, Kurt, John Gower and the Structures of Conversion: A Reading of the Confessio Amantis (Cambridge, 1992)

VII. ROMANCES AND NARRATIVE VERSE

Primary
* King Arthur’s Death: The Middle English The Stanzaic Morte Arthur and The Alliterative Morte Arthur, ed. Larry D. Benson and Edward E. Foster (Kalamazoo, 1996)
* Sir Perceval of Galles and Ywain and Gawain, ed. Mary Flowers Braswell (Kalamazoo, 1995)
* Middle English Romances: authoritative texts, sources and background criticism, ed. Stephen H. S. Shepherd (Norton, New York, 1995)

Secondary
* Putter, Ad, and Jane Gilbert, ed., The Spirit of Medieval English Popular Romance (Harlow, 2000)
* Ramsey, Lee C., Chivalric Romances: Popular Literature in Medieval England (Bloomington, 1983)

VIII. MYSTICS AND RELIGIOUS PROSE

Primary
* Julian of Norwich, The Shewings of Julian of Norwich, ed. Georgia Ronan Crampton, TEAMS (Kalamazoo, 1994)
* Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. S.B. Meech and H.E. Allen, EETS (London, 1940)
* The Cloud of Unknowing, ed. Phyllis Hodgson, EETS (London, 1944)

Secondary
* Aers, David, and Lynn Staley, The Powers of the Holy: Religion, Politics and Gender in Late Medieval English Culture (University Park, Pa., 1996)
* Aers, Davis. “The Making of Margery Kempe: Individual and Community.” Community, gender, and individual identity (London, 1988)

IX. MALORY

Primary
* The Works of Thomas Malory, ed. Eugène Vinaver, rev. P.J.C. Field, 3 vols (Oxford, 1990); unrevised version in a one‑volume Oxford paperback.

Secondary
* Field, P.J.C., The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory (Cambridge, 1993)
* Hanks, D. Thomas, Jr, and Jessica G. Brogdon, The Social and Literary Contexts of Malory’s Morte Darthur (Cambridge, 2000)

X. 15TH-CENTURY ENGLISH POETRY

Primary
* John Lydgate, Troy Book: Selections, ed. Robert R. Edwards, TEAMS (Kalamazoo, 1998)
* ---. The Siege of Thebes, ed. Robert R. Edwards, TEAMS (Kalamazoo, 2001)
* ---. The Minor Poems of John Lydgate: Part One, ed. Henry Noble MacCracken, EETS 107 (Oxford, 1962)
* Thomas Hoccleve, Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS 72 (New York, 1988)

Secondary
* Pearsall, Derek, John Lydgate (London, 1970)
* Perkins, Nicholas, Hoccleve’s Regiment of Princes: Counsel and Constraint (Cambridge, 2001)

XI. DRAMA

Primary
* The York Plays, ed. Richard Beadle (London, 1982)

The Fall of the Angels, 49-53
The Creation, 54-58
The Creation of Adam and Eve, 59-64
Adam and Eve in Eden, 62-64
The Fall of Man 64-69
The Expulsion, 69-73
Cain and Abel, 74-78
The Building of the Ark, 78-82
The Flood, 83-90
Abraham and Isaac, 91-100
The Last Supper, 228-233
Crucifixion, 315-323
Death of Christ, 323-333
Harrowing of Hell, 333-343
Resurrection, 344-355
Christ’s appearance to Mary Magdalene, 356-359

* The Chester Mystery Cycle, ed. R.M. Lumiansky and David Mills, 2 vols, EETS (London, 1974-1986)

Lucifer, 1-13
Adam, 13-31
Cain, 31-41
Noah, 42-56
Abraham, 58-79
The Last Supper, 268-283
Crucifixion, 303-324
Harrowing of Hell, 325-339
Resurrection, 339-356

My Old English Exam List

The first of my reading lists is focused on Old English literature: works written in Anglo-Saxon England from the time of Cædmon (late 600s) till a bit after the Norman Conquest (1066). I assembled this list with the direction and approval of my major professor, Dr. Jonathan Evans. It's heavily weighted towards primary texts, but includes a smattering of secondary texts.

I. PRIMARY WORKS

Poetry:

Junius II
* Genesis A & B
* Exodus
* Daniel
* Christ and Satan

* Vercelli Book
* Andreas
* “The Fates of the Apostles”
* “The Dream of the Rood”
* Elene

The Exeter Book
* “Christ I”
* “Christ II”
* “Christ III”
* Guthlac A & B
* “The Phoenix”
* Juliana
* “The Wanderer”
* “The Gifts of Men”
* “The Seafarer”
* “Widsith”
* “The Fortunes of Men”
* “Maxims I”
* “The Order of the World”
* “The Rhyming Poem”
* “The Panther”
* “The Whale”
* “Soul and Body II”
* “Deor”
* “Wulf and Eadwacer”
* Riddles [selections]
* “The Wife's Lament”
* “The Husband's Message”
* “Resignation”
* “The Descent into Hell”
* “The Ruin”

Cotton Vitelius A XV
* Beowulf
* Judith

Other Ms.
* “Cædmon's Hymn”
* “Bede's Death Song”
* “The Battle of Finnsburh”
* “Waldere”
* “Maxims II”
* “The Battle of Brunanburh”
* “The Battle of Maldon”
* Metrical Charms [selections]

PROSE:

The Venerable Bede
* Ecclesiastical History of England
* Life of Cuthbert
* Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow
* Other prose selections

King Alfred the Great
* translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History
* translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy
* translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care
* translation of Orosius's history
* Other prose selections

Ælfric, Abbot of Eynsham
* “De Falsis Diis”
* Heptateuch (introduction)
* Sermones Catholici (selected)
* Other prose selections

Wulstan
* “On the False Gods”
* “Sermo Lupi ad Anglos”
* Other prose selections

Other prose works
* Alcuin's Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York
* Eddius Stephanus's Life of Wilfred
* Life of St. Giles
* Life of St. Nicholas
* The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
* The Blickling Homilies (selected)
* The Vercelli Book Homilies (selected)
* The Voyage of St. Brendan

II. SECONDARY WORKS

* Bjork, Robert E. and John D. Niles, Beowulf Handbook (Lincoln, 1997)
* Dumézil, Georges, Gods of the Ancient Northmen (Berkeley, 1973)
* Frantzen, Allen J., Desire for Origins (New Brunswick, 1990)
* Glosecki, Stephen O., Shamanism and Old English Poetry (New York, 1989)
* Nicholson, Lewis, ed., An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism (Notre Dame, 1963)
* Orchard, Andy, Pride and Prodigies (Cambridge, 1995)
* Rauer, Christine, Beowulf and the Dragon (Cambridge, 2000)
* Robinson, Fred C., Beowulf and the Appositive Style (Knoxville, 1985)
* Tolkien, J. R. R., Beowulf and the Critics (Tempe, 2002)

Let the reading begin!

Kind and almost certainly imaginary reader, I pray indulgence. This blog will (more than likely) not be entertaining; indeed, such is not its purpose. Instead, it serves but one function: to give me an outlet for recording my thoughts on the many, many books on my comprehensive exam reading lists.

But why blog for such an odd reason? says my imagined interlocutor. Why not simply write them -- or type them -- in some private venue, when only your own edification is needful?

An excellent question, and one explained without much effort. I am a performative writer: I write to be read by others, and find private writing dull and uninspiring. Therefore, the mere possibility of an audience will (I hope) encourage me to post on this blog, while a notebook would lie gathering dust, as empty as [apt pop culture reference]'s mind. Here I may record and review my thoughts -- the practical purpose -- while also letting myself think that someone else might be reading and benefiting. Perhaps it will be true, or not -- but it remains a motivating fiction.

My modus operandi: first, I shall post my reading lists; then, as I read them, I will post summaries/responses. So, sit tight, let me post the lists, then let the reading begin!