Literature and Religion in the Later Middle Ages : Philological Studies in Honor of Siegfried Wenzel / Edited by Richard Newhauser and John A

Literature and Religion In the Later Middle Ages Philological Studies in Honor of SIEGFRIED WENZEL Literature and Religion In the Later Middle Ages Philological Studies in Honor of SIEGFRIED WEN2EL Literature and Religion In the Later Middle Ages Philological Studies in Honor of SIEGFRIED WENZEL Edited by RICHARD G. NEWHAUSER and JOHN A. ALFORD Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies Binghamton, New York 1995 ® Copyright 1995 Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies State University of New York at Binghamton Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Literature and religion in the later Middle Ages : philological studies in honor of Siegfried Wenzel / edited by Richard Newhauser and John A. Alford. p. cm. — (Medieval & Renaissance texts & studies ; v. 118) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-86698-172-1 1. Christian literature, English (Middle)—History and criticism. 2. Christian literature, Latin (Medieval and modern)—History and criticism. 3. English philology—Middle English, 1100-1500. 4. Latin philology. Medieval and modern. 5. Religion and literature. I. Newhauser, Richard, 1947- . 11. Alford, John A., 1938- . m. Wenzel, Siegfried. IV. Series. PR275.R4L58 1994 820.9'382—dc20 94-9465 CIP This book is made to last. It is set in Garmond Antiqua and printed on acid-free paper to library specifications Printed in the United States of America CDe&ievAL & RewAissAKice rexTS & STuOies Volume 118 Tabula Gratulatoria John A. A [ford James A. Devereux, SJ. David Anderson A. L Doyle Stephen A. Barney Hoyt N. Duggan Peter G. Beidler Patricia J. Eberle Larry D. Benson and John Leyerle Robert G. Benson Kent Emery, Jr. Thomas H. Bestul Eugene Falk Charles Blyth Joerg and Renate Fichte Joan Heiges Blythe John Hurt Fisher Marie E. Borroff Allen J. Frantzen Betsy Bowden Delores Warwick Frese David Lorenzo Boyd Helmut Gneuss Leonard E. Boyle, O.P. Joseph Goering George LI. and Judah and Grace Goldin Phyllis R. Brown Ralph Hanna, III Ronald E. Buckalew Albert E. Hartung Martin J. Camargo Thomas John Heffernan Lawrence M. Clopper Thomas D. Hill Thomas H. Connolly John C. Hirsh Giles Constable Henry Hoenigswald and Stanley J. Damberger Gabriele Hoenigswald Helen Damico Patrick J. Horner Ruth Dean Anne Hudson TABULA GRATULATORIA VII Edward B. Irving Florence H. Ridley James John Wolfgang Riehle George Kane George Rigg Carol Kaske Fred C Robinson Edward Donald Kennedy William Elford Rogers Georg Knauer Mary A. Rouse Robert E. Lewis and Richard H. Rouse Erica Lindemann Howard H. Schless Albert Lloyd Albrecht Strauss E. Ann Matter Michael Twomey Paul and Ann Meyvaert University of Pennsylvania: Anne Middleton Dean of the School of Walter Naumann A rts and Sciences Richard G. Newhauser Department of English James O'Donnell Department of Religious Glending Olson Studies Kurt Olsson Linda Ehrsam Voigts Lee Patterson Christina von Nolcken Derek Pearsall Luke Wenger Richard Pfaff Edward Wilson Julian G. Plante James L Wimsatt Dale B. J. Randall Joseph S. Wittig Karl J. ReichI Susan Yager Carter Revard Table of Contents Tabula Gratulatoria vi Introduction 1 Chaucer THEO STEMMLER Chaucer's Ballade "To Rosemounde" —a Parody^ 11 PIERO BOITANI "My Tale is of a Cock" or The Problems of Literal Interpretation 25 EDWARD B. IRVING, JR. Heroic Worlds: "The Knight's Tale" and "Beowulf" 43 ALBERT E. HARTUNG "The Parson's Tale" and Chaucer's Penance 61 Piers Plowman RALPH HANNA III Robert the Ruyflare and His Companions 81 JOHN A. ALFORD Langland's Exegetical Drama: The Sources of the Banquet Scene in "Piers Plowman" 97 JOAN HEIGES BLYTHE Sins of the Tongue and Rhetorical Prudence in "Piers Plowman" 119 Pastoral Literature JOSEPH GOERING The Summa "Qui bene presunt" and Its Author 143 A. G. RIGG "De motu et pena peccandi": A Latin Poem on the Causes and Effects of Sin 161 TABLE OF CONTENTS IX A. I. DOYLE "Lectulus noster floridus": An Allegory of the Penitent Soul 179 CHRISTINA VON NOLCKEN A "Certain Sameness" and Our Response to It in English Wycliffite Texts 191 Scripture and Homiletics A. J. MINNIS Medium and Message: Henry of Ghent on Scriptural Style 209 KENT EMERY, JR. Monastic "Collectaria"from the Abhey of St. Trudo (Limhurg) and the Reception of Writings by Denys the Carthusian 237 D. L. D'AVRAY Philosophy in Preaching: The Case of a Franciscan Based in Thirteenth-Century Florence (Servasanto da Faenza) 263 DAVID ANDERSON "Dominus Ludovicus" in the Sermons of Jacobus of Viterbo (Arch. S. Pietro D. 213) 275 Lyric Poetry KARL REICHL "No more ne willi wiked be": Religious Poetry in a Franciscan Manuscript (Digby 2) 297 RICHARD NEWHAUSER "Strong it is to flitte"—A Middle English Poem on Death and Its Pastoral Context 319 Siegfried Wenzel — List of Publications 337 Bibliographies Manuscript References 347 Works Cited 351 Index 393 Literature and Religion In the Later Middle Ages Introduction THE ESSAYS IN THIS VOLUME are presented to Siegfried Wenzel as our way of assessing and appreciating those concerns of philological scholarship in medieval studies of which he has been a leading practi- tioner for three decades. It is particularly important at this point in the development of medieval disciplines within the academy to recall that philology, in the terms in which Professor Wenzel himself has presented the case, will remain the foundation for all of our future insights into literary discourse (cf. "Reflections on [New] Philology," Speculum 65 [1990]: 11-18). Recently developed forms of elucidating literary texts as cultural, political, psychological, and gender-marked documents have proved to be valuable to the medieval community, but their starting point must be a philological analysis of the text if they hope to make a lasting contribution to the understanding of literature and its contexts. The approaches that have come after philology are perfectly valid and have a firm place in the history of literary and cultural studies, but they will not supersede philology. The essays in this volume not only represent a continuation of scholarship in the areas of Professor Wenzel's interests but also serve as a reminder of the vitality and continuity of the philological orientation at the heart of that scholarship. The diversity of the areas touched on by philology understood in its most inclusive terms is indicated by the breadth of Professor Wenzel's published scholarship (see the bibliography of his works at the end of this volume): from the literary analysis of canonized texts (for example, Chaucer's Troilus) to an archaeology of the literary artifacts of popular culture (particularly lyrics embedded in sermons); from the broad reaches of intellectual history, as documented in his INTRODUCTION book on accidia, to detailed and focused editorial work on individual manuscripts, such as those containing copies of the Fasciculus morum; from the examination of historical concepts of aesthetics and literary structure, seen in his studies of the sermon as an art form and the pilgrimage of life as a verifiable medieval genre, to source criticism, as illustrated in his work on Chaucer's Parson's Tale; from the literary history of institutions (specifically, the development of peniten- tial doctrine in medieval ecclesiastical history) to the documentation of ways in which literary texts negotiate their relationships to other significant systems of discourse (in particular, that of the seven deadly sins). Always at the center of Professor Wenzel's philological concerns is the text in its historical surroundings. The directions in philology represented in Professor Wenzel's scholarship have served as the guidelines for the contributions to this volume. The literary analysis of Chaucer's poetry from a historical perspective was an early focus of his scholarship, and four contributions to this volume demonstrate the same concern with belles-lettres and the dominant author of Middle English literature. Historical de- limitations on the interpretative process are at the center of Stemm- ler's essay, for his contribution to this volume is a historical-philological rejoinder both to the feeling of critical futility which maintains that ultimately we cannot reconstruct a medieval reading of 7b Rose- mounde at all, and to the majority of modern responses to the ballade which interpret it as humorous or even as a parody of love lyrics. Stemmler's recovery of what was common (that is to say, unmarked) usage in the vocabulary and imagery of medieval expressions of love in Old French and Middle English is a corrective to many modern critics' recourse to the "ironic fallacy" when dealing with this poem. Boitani thematizes Chaucer's reflections on fictionality itself in The Nun's Priest's Tale, that is, on the possibility of unlimited (or any) significance in literary discourse beyond the literal level. He demonstrates the fallacy of a "Robertsonian" reading of the tale by showing how the context of allusions in the Nun's Priest's call to take the morality and leave the chaff aside is designed to deflect the reader from precisely such a pursuit. He notes that by the fourteenth century, Paul's dictum ("whatever was written was written for our in- struction"), which Chaucer has the Nun's Priest employ as a herme- neutic guideline, implicated the chaff as well as the fruit. What underlies the priest's assertion that his story is as true as the fiction INTRODUCTION of Lancelot is neither biblical typology nor allegorical exegesis but rather, as Boitani shows, a free acceptance and justification of the letter by itself, without excluding the morality. Irving takes as his purpose the elucidation of the themes and images that place The Knight's Tale in the same "dark traditional dimension" of epic out of which Beowulf wzs written. Despite the differences that separate the two poems, Chaucer's work shows a single-minded focus on the heroic responses to mortality, the threat of entropy, and the forces of decay—a focus that demonstrates its affinity to the same epic point of view that produced the Old English work.

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