By the Will of the King: Majestic and Political
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BY THE WILL OF THE KING: MAJESTIC AND POLITICAL RHETORIC IN RICARDIAN POETRY by WILLIAM D. DRISCOLL A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2017 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: William D. Driscoll Title: By the Will of the King: Majestic and Political Rhetoric in Ricardian Poetry This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: Anne Laskaya Chairperson Warren Ginsberg Core Member Louise Bishop Core Member Deborah Baumgold Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded March 2017 ii © 2017 William D. Driscoll iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT William D. Driscoll Doctor of Philosophy Department of English March 2017 Title: By the Will of the King: Majestic and Political Rhetoric in Ricardian Poetry The stories we tell give meaning and coherence to our political situation; they reproduce, interrogate, and, at times, challenge the discourse of authority. Thus, when the political situation changes so do our narratives. In the thirteenth century, responding to a majestic rhetoric of vis et voluntas (force and will), the barons strengthened the community of the realm by turning it into a powerful collective identity that fostered political alliances with the gentry. By The Will of the King demonstrates how Ricardian poetry was shaped by and responded to the conflict between majestic and political rhetoric that crystallized in the politically turbulent years culminating in the Second Barons’ War (1258-1265). By placing Gower’s Confessio Amantis and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in dialogue with this political tradition, I demonstrate how narrative became a site of conflict between vertical, cosmic descriptions of power and horizontal realities of power, a conflict from which the contours of a civic habit of mind began to emerge. Over the past twenty years, scholars have begun to investigate the evolution of this habit of mind in the late Middle Ages. By looking at the narrative practice of Gower and Chaucer through the lens of thirteenth-century political innovation, I extend and fill in this depiction of a nascent political imaginary. Each poet responds to the new political iv circumstances in their own way. Gower, placing the political community at the center of Book VII of the Confessio, rigorously reworks the mirror for princes genre into a schematic analysis of political power. For Chaucer, political rhetoric becomes visible at the moment that the traditional majestic rhetoric of kingship collapses. The Canterbury Tales, as such, restages the conflict of the thirteenth century in aesthetic terms—giving form to the crisis of authority. Ultimately, Ricardian poetry exposes and works through an anxiety of sovereignty; it registers the limits of a majestic paradigm of kingship; and reshaping narrative, aesthetic, and hermeneutic practice, it conjures a new political imaginary capable of speaking to and for a community which had emerged during the reign of Henry III. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: William D. Driscoll GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Teacher’s College, New York City Boston University, Boston DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, English, 2017, University of Oregon Masters of Arts, Teaching, 2001, Teachers College Bachelor of Arts, English, 1998, Boston University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Medieval English Literature Medieval Political History Rhetoric and Composition Early Modern Literature PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of Humanities, University of Oregon, 2015-2016 Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of English, University of Oregon, 2010- 2015 Research Assistant, Department of English, University of Oregon, 2009-2010 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Stanley Maveety Fellowship for Renaissance Studies, University of Oregon, 2009 PUBLICATIONS: Driscoll, William. “A Bibliography of the New Rhetoric Project,” co-authored with David Frank. Philosophy and Rhetoric 43.4 (2010). ---, “The Metaphor of Syphilis in Grand’s Heavenly Twins” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies 5.1 (2009). Web. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The dissertation—like the proverbial iceberg—is but the visible part of so much more, so many more; it is, then, only right that I take this opportunity to thank and ‘cite’ those whose contributions could not fit in parenthesis. The rough outlines of this project began to form in a Medieval Romance seminar taught by Anne Laskaya. In this seminar, I first started thinking about the political implications of trouthe in the Ricardian poetry. As my dissertation advisor, she helped me transform these broad outlines into a meaningful project. Without her patience, encouragement and critical insight this dissertation would not have been completed. Further, I am indebted to Professor Ginsberg whose feedback, particularly on Gower and Chaucer, challenged me to develop more nuanced readings of political and majestic rhetoric in the Confessio Amantis and Canterbury Tales. I would also like to acknowledge Louise Bishop whose commentary helped reshape and sharpen my initial argument. Finally, Deborah Baumgold’s incisive questions and comments helped me establish the political framework central to this dissertation. Along the road, I have been blessed with many mentors who have made me a better scholar, as well as, a better person. Brother Cavet, my high-school forensics coach, helped me find my voice and gave me the confidence to use it. Robert Levine, the professor who introduced me to Chaucer, awakened my interest in the Middle Ages but also fundamentally changed the way I think about words and the world. Most of all, I must thank family. My parents made learning a priority and a passion. It was my mother taught me to write, revise, and revise again (thank you); and my dad, who helped me construct Saturn, Stonehenge and the Eiffel Tower, braved an ice vii storm to make copies of my fourth-grade “dissertation.” I carry these moments with me. I must thank my sisters whose flattering encouragement was always appreciated and naïvely believed. Finally, I must acknowledge the two people who helped me most with the daily grind of the writing process—my seven-year old daughter, Bijoux Rose and my partner, Anna Rose Penny. While working on her ‘dissertation,’ Bijoux frequently gave me encouragement in the form of family portraits and hearts; and at particularly difficult moments, she reminded me—wresting the lyrics from the Chili Peppers—that “life is more than just a read through.” Finally, and most importantly, Anna gave the emotional, mental and practical support (love’s difficult quotidian labors) for the duration—her contribution runs deeper than I can fathom. viii For my parents ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL AND REALISM AND THE COSMIC FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................ 1 II. THE SECOND BARONS’ WAR AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE POLITICAL COMMUNITY .................................................................................. 19 III. FROM ETHICS TO LAW: THE REVISION OF THE PRINCE’S MIRROR IN THE CONFESSIO AMANTIS ........................................................................... 91 IV. FROM KING’S PEACE TO READER’S PEACE: CHAUCER’S SOCIO- POLITICAL HERMENEUTICS ........................................................................... 174 V. A RETROSPECTIVE: THE COMMUNITY OF THE REALM AND THE AESTHETIC OF NATION .................................................................................... 293 REFERENCES CITED ................................................................................................ 319 x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL REALISM AND THE COSMIC FRAMEWORK The dotage of Edward III, the 1381 Uprising, the Wonderful Parliament, the Merciless Parliament, the deposition of Richard II, and finally the accession of the Lancastrian dynasty—it can be said, with little hyperbole, that the years between 1377- 1399 constitute one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of English authority. Much of this turmoil was caused or exacerbated by Richard II’s failure to adopt a rhetoric of kingship that could maintain the king-nobility networks necessary for the stability of sovereign authority. Richard projected an image of kingship, which, emphasizing royal dignitas and prerogative, “recall[ed] the Angevin world of vis and voluntas”(Saul, “Kingship” 37)—a vision that exasperated the nobility. Rather than drawing his baronage into his inner circle, he excluded them and surrounded himself with courtiers that shared his vision.1 Frustrated by the diminishment of the role of the baronage, Arundel at the Salisbury parliament in 1384 openly denounced the king’s governance: You are aware, my lords, that any kingdom in which prudent government is lacking stands in peril of destruction; and the fact is now being illustrated before your eyes . Unless remedies are promptly applied for its relief . there is reason to fear it will very soon suffer enormous setbacks and crippling losses, leading to its total collapse. (Westminster Chronicle 68-9) Arundel’s open critique of English governance does not simply describe a threat to the English community of the