Medieval marriage : literary approaches, 1100-1300

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Bibliographic Information

Medieval marriage : literary approaches, 1100-1300

Neil Cartlidge

D.S. Brewer, 1997

  • : hbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-241) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Evidence for medieval thinking about marriage, drawn from a number of literary texts. This book uses literary texts to trace the development of medieval thinking about marriage in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, taking into account not only important developments in theological and legal thinking about marriage during this period, but conventions such as `courtly love', which affect its portrayal in literary texts. The focus of this study is upon England, and specifically three groups of texts linked together by English manuscripts -the `AB'-Group, containing the Ancrene Wisse; The Owl and the Nightingale and its companion-pieces; and finally the Life of St Christina of Markyate and the Chanson de Saint Alexiswhich she once owned. The author demonstrates the continuity of these texts in their attitude towards marriage, along with continental works such as the letters of Abelard and Heloise, and Chretien de Troyes' Erec et Enide. Throughout, the volume clearly and accessibly shows how the imaginative literature of the period participated in the evolution of a new and enduring ideology of marriage. Dr NEIL CARTLIDGEis a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 Perspectives upon medieval marriage: modern theories of medieval marriage - the two models
  • medieval theories of marriage - canon law and theology
  • Guilhem IX of Aquitaine - "champion of adultery"?
  • Andreas Capellanus - "adultery's legislator"? Part 2 Literary paradigms: "Ruodlieb"
  • "Le Mystere d'Adam"
  • "Erec et Enide"
  • the letters of Abelard and Heloise. Part 3 "The St Albans Psalter": the development of the legend of St Alexis
  • the "Chanson de St Alexis" and its treatment of marriage
  • St Alexis and Guy of Warwick
  • "The Life of St Christina of Markyate". Part 4 Corpus Christ College Cambridge MS 402 and Oxford Bodley MS 34 (the "AB-Group"): wooing - "Ancrene Wisse", Part VII
  • wooing - the "Lives" of Juliana, Margaret and Katherine
  • virginity and marriage - "Hali Meithhad". Part 5 Jesus College Oxford MS 29 and BL MS Cotton Caligula A9: the Middle English lyrics
  • Chardri - "Le Petit Plet"
  • "The Owl and the Nightingale" - introduction
  • the death of the nightingale
  • the nightingale's defence - ll 1331-1416
  • maidens and wives - ll 1417-1602.

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