Copyright by Donna Elaine Hobbs 2012
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Copyright by Donna Elaine Hobbs 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Donna Elaine Hobbs Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Telling Tales out of School: Schoolbooks, Audiences, and the Production of Vernacular Literature in Late Medieval England Committee: Marjorie Curry Woods, Co-Supervisor Elizabeth D. Scala, Co-Supervisor Mary E. Blockley Timothy J. Moore Wayne A. Rebhorn, Jr. Wayne Lesser Telling Tales out of School: Schoolbooks, Audiences, and the Production of Vernacular Literature in Late Medieval England by Donna Elaine Hobbs, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2012 In fond remembrance of past joys Roberta LaRue Jacobe Robert Leo Hartwiger Garnet LaRue Hartwiger and in celebration of present delights Elena LaRue Hobbs Cameron William Hobbs Adeliza LaRue Hobbs Acknowledgments While “Telling Tales out of School” recognizes that the books encountered in the classroom influence adult compositions, the completion of this project demonstrates that the relationships forged both in and out of school become an intrinsic part of one’s writing as well. The encouragement and kindness of my teachers, friends, and family have left a deep impression on my life and work, and for them I am grateful. My supervisors have been supportive of my studies since my first days at the University of Texas at Austin. Marjorie Curry Woods shared with me not only her passion for medieval education but also her unwavering belief in the value of my insights. Elizabeth Scala challenged me to make obscure Latin texts interesting to a wider range of scholars. Together, they improved my work with their impressive knowledge, thoughtful comments, and stimulating questions and strengthened my resolve with their enthusiasm, persistence, and patience. The members of my dissertation committee have graciously contributed their expertise and experience. Mary Blockley, among my first teachers at the University, encouraged the diversity of my explorations and inspired me with her devotion to v rigorous academic work; I respect her as a scholar and value her as a friend. Timothy Moore, now of Washington University in St. Louis, gave careful attention to my Latin; his enthusiasm for teaching and for a project on medieval Latin energized me both in my final class at UT and in this dissertation. Wayne Rebhorn welcomed my ideas on medieval rhetoric and humanism, and I am thankful for the approval of such an eminent scholar. Wayne Lesser offered his assistance both by serving on the committee and by supporting my studies in his role as Graduate Advisor. Writing with the specializations of these distinguished professors in mind has made this dissertation a more carefully considered piece of scholarship. My colleagues at the University of Texas were instrumental in the early stages of this project. Cathryn Meyer acted as a mentor as I made the transition from coursework to dissertation writing. The critiques provided by Vessela Valiavitcharska and Kristin Dorsey, members of my reading group, helped me to refine my prospectus. I feel very fortunate to call these three women my friends. I am grateful for the institutional support I have received for this project. Generous awards from the University of Texas, including the Crow Fellowship in Chaucer Studies and Professional Development Awards from the English Department and from the Medieval Studies Committee, enabled me to receive responses to early versions of the material in this dissertation at several conferences. With a Tuition Scholarship from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and a Research Fellowship from UT I was honored to study Latin Paleography and Codicology with Albert Derolez at the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. The Schallek Award from the vi Medieval Academy of America allowed me to examine manuscripts held in the various libraries of the University of Cambridge in situ; the manuscript list in the Appendix of this dissertation is more complete and will be of greater use to other scholars because of this experience. I have been blessed to have the unflagging encouragement of others who offered their friendship and love outside of my graduate studies. I may never have attended graduate school were it not for my first college English professor, Kenneth Mason at Washington & Jefferson College. He was the first to urge me to study English, and he helped me plan my future when I felt quite alone and rudderless. His words have driven me to endure in times of despair. My most sincere appreciation goes to my children: Elena, who asked me to write a book for her and then offered to illustrate it; Cameron, who cheered me along and happily carried my books through the library; and Adeliza, who shared her earliest days with the final stages of this project, brightening my life with her smiles and laughter. I hope that my efforts will inspire you as you have me. I adore you today and always. Finally, to Bryon. I would not have wanted to do this, or anything else in life, without you. vii Telling Tales out of School: Schoolbooks, Audiences, and the Production of Vernacular Literature in Late Medieval England Publication No._____________ Donna Elaine Hobbs, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisors: Marjorie Curry Woods, Elizabeth D. Scala My dissertation demonstrates the importance of an examination of the literary works included as part of the curriculum in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century English grammar schools both for understanding the instruction of generations of schoolchildren and for reading the Middle English literature created and read by those trained in these schools. As Chapter 1 explains, thirty-four extant manuscripts used in an educational context in late medieval England, listed with their contents in the Appendix, suggest the identification of seven literary works that appear to have been taught most often: Disticha Catonis, Stans puer ad mensam, Cartula, Peniteas cito, Facetus, Liber Parabolarum, and Ecloga Theoduli. Considering these schoolbooks both individually and as a group reveals their usefulness for teachers and the instruction that they share: an emphasis on epistolary conventions, an awareness of the malleability of selves and social hierarchies, and the viii prioritization of ordinary human experience. As this project shows, the influence of the lessons of the grammar classroom pervades the production of vernacular literature and the reading practices of contemporary audiences. In Chapter 2, a reading of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde informed with a knowledge of the formal features of letter writing, particularly the attention to audience stressed in the grammar schoolbooks, reveals Criseyde’s control of both the story’s ending and the responses of readers through her final letter to Troilus. Chapter 3 offers a reexamination of The Book of Margery Kempe that argues against Kempe’s presumed illiteracy and demonstrates how she utilizes classroom teachings on self presentation in both her lived experience and the writing of her Book to manipulate her reception by her contemporaries and readers of the text. The final chapter turns to the works of John Lydgate to show how he incorporated the schoolroom’s emphasis on the diversity of ordinary human experience into his influential Fall of Princes, thereby spreading grammar school lessons to new audiences. Appreciating the teachings of the literary schoolbooks thus enables not only a better understanding of the grammar curriculum that shaped schoolchildren for two centuries but also a recognition of schoolbooks’ profound effect on authors and audiences in late medieval England. ix Table of Contents Table of Contents.....................................................................................................x Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: The Experience of Schoolbooks in Late Medieval England................15 Manuscript Evidence of Grammar School Reading Practices......................15 Studying the Schoolbooks.............................................................................24 The Classroom Context.................................................................................47 Chapter 2: Learning by Letters: Epistolary Convention and Authorial “Entente” in Troilus and Criseyde.....................................................................................65 The Rhetoric of Letter Writing .....................................................................74 Reading Criseyde in Her Absence: The “Straunge” Expression of the “Litera Criseydis”.............................................................................................99 Chapter 3: Reading Society, Writing Selves: Education and Authorship in The Book of Margery Kempe ......................................................................................124 Educating the Self.......................................................................................136 On (Not) Knowing Latin: Kempe’s Defiance of Gender and Genre ..........150 Chapter 4: Revising Expectations: John Lydgate and the Exemplarity of the Ordinary .....................................................................................................................183 Reading the Individual................................................................................197