Description
Book SynopsisThe disparate texts in this anthology, produced in England between the late thirteenth and the early sixteenth centuries, challenge, and in some cases parody and satirize, the institution of marriage. In so doing, according to the Introduction, they allow us to interrogate the traditional assumptions that shape the idea of the medieval household. The trials of marriage seem to outweigh its joys at times and, as some of these texts suggest, maintaining a sense of humor in the face of what must have been great difficulty could have been no easy task. The texts bridge generic categories. Some are obscure, written by anonymous authors; others are familiar, written by the likes of John Lydgate, John Wyclif, and William Dunbar. Taken together they suggest that, despite the fact that marriage had become a sacrament in the twelfth century and was increasingly recognized by ecclesiastical and secular authorities as a valuable social institution, it was not always a stabilizing and orderly social force.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments General Introduction Select Bibliography Satire and Fabliaux in Verse and ProseDame Sirith Select Bibliography and Notes to Dame SirithInterludium de clerico et puella Select Bibliography and Notes to Interludium de clerico et puellaThe Wright's Chaste Wife Select Bibliography and Notes to The Wright's Chaste WifeBallad of a Tyrannical Husband Select Bibliography and Notes to Ballad of a Tyrannical HusbandA Talk of Ten Wives on Their Husbands' Ware Select Bibliography and Notes to A Talk of Ten Wives on Their Husbands' Ware John Lydgate (?),Prohemy of a Mariage Betwixt an Olde Man and a Yonge Wife, and the Counsail Select Bibliography and Notes to Prohemy of a Mariage Betwixt an Olde Man and a Yonge Wife, and the CounsailThe Meaning of Marriage Select Bibliography and Notes to The Meaning of Marriage William Dunbar, The Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo Select Bibliography and Notes to The Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the WedoDidactic Prose and Exempla Emperator Felicianus (How a Wife Employed a Necromancer to Cause the Death of Her Husband, and How He Was Saved by a Clerk) Gesta Romanorum Godfridus a Wise Emperoure (Of the Magic Ring, Brooch, and Cloth, Which an Emperor Left to His Son: How He Lost Them, and How They Were Recovered) Gesta Romanorum The Punished of Adulterers or The Bawd and the Adulterers Gesta Romanorum Select Bibliography and Notes to Excerpts from the Gesta Romanorum John Wyclif (?), Of Weddid Men and Wifis and of Here Children Also Select Bibliography and Notes to Of Weddid Men and Wifis and of Here Children Also John Lydgate, Payne and Sorowe of Evyll Maryage Select Bibliography and Notes to Payne and Sorowe of Evyll MaryageHow the Goode Wife Taught Hyr Doughter Select Bibliography and Notes to How the Goode Wife Taught Hyr DoughterHow the Goode Man Taght Hys Sone Select Bibliography and Notes to How the Goode Man Taght Hys SoneSelect Secular Lyrics of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries< In Praise of Women Abuse of Women The Trials of Marriage Against Hasty Marriage, I Against Hasty Marriage, II A Young and Henpecked Husband's Complaint A Henpecked Husband's Complaint Old Hogyn's Adventure I Have a Gentle Cock Select Bibliographies and Notes to Select Secular Lyrics Glossary
