New Readings of Late Medieval Love Poems

This collection offers new and challenging scholarly interpretations of six major 'Chaucerian' love poems from Clanvowe's Cuckoo and the Nightingale (1385) to the early Renaissance Court of Love (c. 1530). This study reveals previously overlooked subtlety and irony of these works, including an original, in-depth look at the neglected icon of this erotic poetry, the hawthorn tree. The contributors' critical approach emphasizes the texts themselves, their cultural context, and the literary tradition of the genre. The focus is decidedly on the poems' likely meaning to their original audiences; Chamberlain sketches fifteenth century literary taste in his introduction. This book contributes to the ongoing debate about the meaning of love in Middle English, and medieval, poetry. Contents: 'Under the Schaddow of the Hawthorne Greene': The Hawthorn in Medieval Love Poetry, Susan Schoon Everly and David Chamberlain; Clanvowe's Cuckoo, David Chamberlain; Venus Unveiled: Lydgate's 'Temple of Glas' and the Religion of Love, Bryan Crockett; 'The air': The Plight of the Courtly Lover, Clair F. James; The Hope for 'Pleasaunce': Richard Roos' Translation of Alain Chartier's 'La Belle Dame Sans Mercy', Melissa Brown Tomus; 'The Floure and the Leafe': An Alternative Approach, Cynthia Lockard Snyder; In Love's Thrall: 'The Court of Love' and its Captives, Bonita Friedman.