Literature and Culture in Late Medieval East Anglia

Order Number 8820335 Literature and culture in late medieval East Anglia Page, Stephen Frederick, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1988 Copyright ©1988 by Page, Stephen Frederick. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 LITERATURE AND CULTURE IN LATE MEDIEVAL EAST ANGLIA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Stephen Frederick Page, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1988 Dissertation Committee: Approved By: Stanley J. Kahrl Lisa J. Kiser layiser Daniel R. Barnes Department: of English (0 Copyright by Stephen F. Page 1988 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the Graduate School of The Ohio State University for a Graduate Student Alumni Research Award which enabled me to study manuscripts and documents in London, Norwich, Cambridge, and Bury St. Edmunds. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Daniel Barnes for his careful reading of the draft and especially to Lisa Kiser for her suggestions which helped resolve some important methodological problems. I wish to acknowledge in particular Stanley Kahrl, who suggested the need for this study and whose enthusiasm for it, and so much else, has been a constant source of encouragement. Finally, I owe my greatest debt to Linda Walters-Page for her constant support and love, without which this work would have not come to fru itio n . VITA February 15, 1951. Born - Tulsa, Oklahoma 1973 ......................................... B.A., Rollins College Winter Park, Florida 1980 ......................................... M.A., The University of Florida 1980-1981 .......................... Assistant Editor, The Graduate School, The University of Florida 1981-1987 .......................... Teaching Associate, English Department, The Ohio State University 1988 ......................................... Lecture, English Department, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: English Literature Studies in Medieval English L iterature. Professor Stanley J. Kahrl Studies in the History of the English Language. Professor Alan K. Brown Studies in Literature of the English Renaissance. Professor David 0. Frantz Studies in the History of Medieval Art. Professor Frank M. Ludden TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ ii VITA................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I. AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL EAST ANGLIA.................................................................. 1 II. MEDIEVAL READERS IN EAST ANGLIA. ........................................................................ 45 III. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH POPULAR ROMANCE IN EAST ANGLIA .................................... 80 Part I: Some East Anglian Romance Manuscripts .......................... 80 Part II: The Themes of Some Romances Known in East Anglia.............................................. 95 IV. THE POPULAR DRAMA OF MEDIEVAL EAST ANGLIA.................................................................. 143 Part I: Provenance and P o p u la rity .............................................. 143 Part II: Some Themes in East Anglian Drama .......................... 162 V. CONCLUSIONS.................................................................. 196 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................. 215 iv CHAPTER I: AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL EAST ANGLIA Albert Baugh points out in A Literary History of Engl and that while Chaucer's poetry is often seen as the apogee of fourteenth-century English poetry, his works and those of other court poets represent only a small portion of the literature that was being written "from one end of the country to the other" (232). While Baugh's comment prefaces a discussion of the alliterative revival, that is, the lite ra tu re of the North and West England of which the Gawain poet and Langland are the chief figures, it could well apply to another region which participated in the "intense literary activity" of the fourteenth century, and which was probably the most active region in the fifteenth century: East Anglia. The boundaries which circumscribe this region are not clearly defined, but this study will focus on the shires of Norfolk and Suffolk, which, in addition to a small portion of southeastern Cambridgeshire, constitute the traditional limits of the diocese of Norwich. It should be noted that during the medieval period, however, reciprocal economic and cultural ties extended beyond the diocesan boundaries as far west as Peterborough, including the Fenlands, 1 Huntingdonshire, the Isle of Ely, all of Cambridgeshire, and southern Lincolnshire. I will occasionally draw on information about these areas as well. East Anglian poets and dramatists of the late medieval period produced a considerable body of works. The plays assigned to this region by linguistic analyses comprise much of the extant medieval English drama and include important works such as the N-Town Cycle, The Castle of Perseverance. The Play of Mary Magdalene, and Mankind. According to similar analyses, the editors of The Handbook of Middle English have located the area of the East Midlands as the area of composition for twenty-six anony mous Middle English romances. While dialectal studies of the romances have not yet been able to pinpoint more precise locations--overlapping dialects make this task difficult--it has been suggested that a group of twenty- three tail-rhyme romances originated in East Anglia and that the poets of these works formed a "school . in the direct line of development of English literature, and prepared the way for Chaucer" (Trounce, "The English Tail- Rhyme Romances" III 47). Certainly Chaucer was well acquainted with the techniques of these tail-rhyme roman ces, which he parodied in "The Tale of Sir Thopas." Next in the direct line of descent of English poetry was East Anglian John Lydgate, the most influential poet of the fif teenth century. A monk at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, Lydgate, a follower of Chaucer, wrote in a variety of genres for patrons of diverse social positions--from kings to wealthy merchants. Other East Anglian poets were influenced by Lydgate and imitated his aureate style. These poets include John Metham, the author of several biblical legends and romances, of which only one survives; Osbern Bokenham and John Capgrave, both authors of s a in ts 1 lives for influential East Anglian patrons. In addition, William Worcester, Sir John Fastolf's secretary, translated a number of classical works in the early humanist period. Finally, this brief survey of East Anglian literature may also include Malory's Morte Darthur. for recent evidence suggests that Malory was a land holder in Cambridgeshire and that the "French book" was perhaps obtained from Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, whose primary residence was in Norfolk. The works and authors referred to above are merely the most prominent to be included in a discussion of East Anglian literature. They bespeak a host of other works- some now part of the lost literature of medieval England-- which issued forth from East Anglia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In spite of the number and quality of these works, no study to date has sought to explain in any detail the reason for this extensive literary activity as has been sought, as mentioned above, for the regional literature of the North and West of England. Nor has any study sought to discover if the works produced in this area are interrelated in ways other than dialectally. Yet recent studies by anthropologist Victor Turner suggest that if a body of literary works is the~product of a single cultural community, those works must be in terrelated and reflect the world-view of that community. According to Turner, "Every type of cultural performance, including ritu a l, ceremony, carnival, theatre, and poetry, is an explanation and explication of life itself" (From Ritual to Theatre 13). I believe that East Anglia in the late medieval period did, in fact, comprise a such a community and also that the romances and drama written there directly reflect the popular ideology of the region. The presumption which underlies this consideration of East Anglia as a cultural unit is that the shires of Norfolk and Suffolk were integrally connected in the later Middle Ages. It presumes that the term "East Anglia" is not simply a designation reflecting the region's early medieval history and one which therefore has no real significance for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. An examination of the social, economic, and historical background will demonstrate that there is ample authority for regarding the region as such a unit in the late medieval period. Such an examination will also help define the social milieu out of which the literature arose. The religious organization of England for much of the medieval period maintained jurisdiction that largely coin cides with the counties under discussion, and perhaps this jurisdiction is responsible for a more limited definition of the region than other factors would warrant. When the area was converted to Christianity in the seventh century, an early bishopric was established at Elmham, Norfolk, but that was later divided into the dioceses of Elmham and the lost site of Dommoc, areas corresponding to Norfolk and Suffolk, respectively. This dual ecclesiastical adminis tration of East Anglia remained until the Viking invasions in the later

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