Anglo-norman literature and hagiography.

[Now available through open access from Speculum: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0038713415002316]

Among those witnesses of John Gower's works that are known to have been produced during his lifetime, the Trentham manuscript (London, British Library, Additional MS 59495) stands out for its remarkable design as a seemingly planned trilingual collection. The manuscript, usually dated to the first year of Henry IV's reign, exclusively contains Gower's poetry—showcasing his virtuosity in English, French, and Latin. A number of its poems are either addressed to or invoke Henry, yet nothing is known about the history of this manuscript before the seventeenth century. As a result, scholarship on the Trentham manuscript (henceforth Trentham) tends to foreground the question whether this compilation was ever presented to Henry. I will adduce fresh evidence to establish the early provenance of Trentham and show that the manuscript remained in Southwark until the middle of the sixteenth century. Second, I will offer a new context for the composition of Trentham by reading the collection against the background of Anglo-French relations during the first months of Henry's rule. Finally, I will argue for Gower's personal involvement in and continued ownership of this manuscript.

Sebastian Sobecki (2015). Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, In Praise of Peace, and John Gower's Autograph Hand. Speculum, 90, pp 925-959. doi: 10.1017/S0038713415002316.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0038713415002316

Après avoir présenté les hypothèses antérieures relatives à l’identification de Robert le Fiz Tiout, un noble caenais du milieu du XIIe siècle et commanditaire de Wace dans la Vie de saint Nicolas, l’auteur s’intéresse à l’édition récente du cartulaire de l’abbaye Saint-Étienne de Caen. L’un des documents de ce cartulaire date du milieu du XIIe siècle et contient des références à un certain Robertus filius Tedaldi. Ce Robert serait, en toute probabilité, le commanditaire de Wace. Les détails fournis par le document invitent aussi à soupçonner les motivations du patronage littéraire de Robert: un acte de pénitence accompli sans doute vers la fin de sa vie.

Horn by Thomas and Boeve de Haumtone, two Anglo-Norman epic poems composed in England during the last quarter of the twelfth century, show a similar plot structure: both works tell the hero's full life, from childhood to death. However, in the episode narrating the children's chivalric initiation -which in both cases entails coming out of the city, thus, activating the inside/outside dynamics-the narrative patterns of these poems take opposite directions. Boeve's poet, on the one hand, multiplies the con icts motivating the hero to leave the city's ease behind, and prove his military value. Thomas, on the other hand, delays the child's initiation with a proli c description of a joyful and festive city, inhabited by maidens willing to enclose the hero within the urban walls. The aim of this article is to analyze those differences apparent in the inside/outside dynamics, since they provide a clear hint of the particular relationship established by the authors of each work with the genre within which they inscribe their works, the chanson de geste.