Description
Book SynopsisComparative study of Cornish literature, placing it in a wider context and looking in detail at major works.`This admirable survey...compact, smoothly written, easy to read and digest, yet indicative throughout of profound scholarship and an obvious mastery of the field,
Cornish Literatureprovides an enduring guide to this smallbut significant genre. The three Middle Cornish plays - in English titles,
The Creation of the World,
Life of St Meriasekand the tripartite
Ordinalia - accompany a long
Pascon agan Arluth, a verse `Passion of our Lord' and the odd fragment... His last chapter, `Survivals and Revivals', is a fair but detached account covering a long (1611 to 1992) phase that will also interest sociologists. The chief strength of his book is the textual analysis of the main plays, placing them alongside medieval English drama as well as the larger European manifestation of religious drama and the complex question of all their biblical and quasi-biblical sources. There is auseful bibliography. Modestly priced, Brian Murdoch's scholarly and attractive guide should appeal to many beyond medievalist circles; it will not be superseded for a long time.'
THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BRIAN MURDOCHis head of the Department of German at Stirling University.
Trade ReviewThis book was needed. It gives a clear, accurate and up-to-date account of a subject which has never before had the treatment it deserves. Murdoch's study at once becomes thebook on Cornish literature, essential for anyone concerned with Cornwall's past, but also breaking new ground for students of medieval drama, popular religion, and apocryphal literature.MEDIUM AEVUMThe chief strength of his book is t... [check orig.] plays, placing them alongside medieval English drama as well as the larger European manifestation of religious drama and the complex question of all their biblical and quasi-biblical sources. There is a useful bibliography, offering a sorely needed guide to a mass of local Cornish editions and publications. Modestly priced, Brian Murdoch's scholarly and attractive guide shoud appeal to many beyond medievalist circles; it will not be superseded for a long time. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTAn important book... a good half is devoted to the central texts of the `ancient Cornish drama', of which they provide the most illuminating presentation to date. YEAR'S WORK IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDIES 55 (`93) A most valuable introduction. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *
Table of ContentsConventions of reference; writing in Cornish - fragments and losses; "An Antient Manuscript . . ." the poem of the Passion; seeing and believing - the "Ordinalia"; the need to repent - "The Creacion of the World"; Church, State and salvation - the play of Saint Meriasek; "Nebbaz gerriau . . ." survivals and revivals.
