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THE LITERARY GEOGRAPHY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH ALLITERATIVE LONG-LINE POETRY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY PATRICIA ANN BYLES CATHCART PRICE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Calvin B. Kendall, Advisor July, 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9738470 Copyright 1997 by Price, Patricia Ann All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9738470 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UNIVERSITY OF MINN ESOTA This is to certify that I have examined this copy of a doctoral thesis by Patricia A. Price and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final .examining committee have been made. Calvin B. Kendall Name of Faculty Adviser(s) O JJ Signature of Faculty Adviserfs) GRADUATE SCHOOL Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ® Patricia Ann Byles Cathcart Price Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS An endeavor of this size and scope is not accomplished without the help and support of a number of people. I am grateful to all who offered suggestions, proofread, discussed issues, or provided other practical support as I grappled with this often unwieldy project. My first steps were guided by Lea Thompson Olsan, who encouraged me to ask questions and seek information by whatever means necessary. I have also been fortunate in my committee members at the University of Minnesota, past and present, including Fred Suppe, Oliver Nicholson, David Wallace, John Watkins, Edward Savage, Stephanie Cain Van D’Elden, and Barbara Hanawalt. My director, Calvin B. Kendall, has assisted me with generosity, fortitude, and patience throughout the project, for which I thank him. I owe a great debt to the various members of my "shadow committee," including Jill Averil Keen, Patricia Eldred, Elizabeth Dachowski, Gloria Betcher and Jana Schulman, for their astute questions and essential critiques. Other colleagues offered different types of support: Donna White, Roy and Elan Stephens, Shari Horner, Sonia Feder-Lewis, and Sonia Apgar. My greatest debt is to my family, who have endured the past decade with equanimity and grace. My mother, Patricia Cathcart, has supported my educational efforts from childhood. My stepsons Ben and Jeremiah, have been kind and helpful throughout the process. Christopher has urged me forward, and Catherine has provided both moral and practical support to enable me to finish this endeavor. Ken is a man for all seasons: computer maven, chef, parent, and boon companion on the journey, whether down the London streets of Winner and Waster and Piers Plowman or on the road to the post office and copy shop. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 Overview ........................................................................................................................ 1 Alliterative Long-Line Poetry and Its Geography .................................................. 3 Selection of Texts ......................................................................................................... 6 Literary Geography ...................................................................................................... 8 Prior Studies Focused on Geographical Allusions................................................ 10 Historical Background................................................................................................ 13 Literary Studies and Place Name Allusions ........................................................... 17 Late Medieval Geography ......................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2. GEOGRAPHICAL RESOURCES IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 20 Medieval Geography................................................................................................... 22 British Travelers.......................................................................................................... 33 Narrative Sources ....................................................................................................... 37 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 47 Chapter 3. THE GEOGRAPHY OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY .................................... 47 Patience and Cleanness............................................................................................... 48 Patience......................................................................................................................... 50 Overview ............................................................................................................ 50 Literary Geography .......................................................................................... 57 Cleanness...................................................................................................................... 60 Overview ............................................................................................................ 60 Literary Geography .......................................................................................... 65 The Siege of Jerusalem............................................................................................... 71 Overview ........... 71 Literary Geography .......................................................................................... 80 St. Erkenwald............................................................................................................... 84 Overview ............................................................................................................ 84 Literary Geography .......................................................................................... 91 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 97 Chapter 4. POETRY ON CONTEMPORARY THEMES.......................................... 100 Winner and Waster and The Parlement of the Three Ages ............................. 102 Winner and Waster ................................................................................................. 103 Overview ................................................................................................... 103 Literary Geography ....................................................................................... 110 The Parlement of the Three Ages.......................................................................... 120 Overview ....................... 120 Literary Geography ....................................................................................... 128 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. R-dxarri the Redness 2nd Mum and me Somsegger.......................................... I 3c Richard toe Reddess................................................................................................ ‘35 Ov«v3e» ........ 138 Literary Geography ........................................................................................ 1-2 Mtttti and Sotfasegoer ............................................................................................... 150 Overview ................................................................................................ 150 literary Geography ....................................................................................... 15-i Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 158 Chapters. THE GEOGRAPHY OF LEGENDARY HISTORY ............................. 16C The Wars of Alexander .......................................................................................... 160 Overview ............. 160' Literary Geography ........................................................................................ 168 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 189 William of Palerne ................................................................................................... 191 Overview ..................................................................................................... 191 Literary Geography ........................................................................................ 196 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 205 Morte Arthure ........................................................................................................... 206 Overview ......................................................................................................... 206 Literary Geography ........................................................................................ 217 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 241 Chapter 6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 243 Appendix 1. PLACE NAME ALLUSIONS IN SELECTED POEMS .................... 253 Appendix 2. PNA COUNTS ............................................................................................ 256 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 257 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Overview Little has been written exploring the complex relationship between graphic representations of the medieval world and their verbal counterparts. Nonetheless, as geographical knowledge and interest progressively expanded from the mid-thirteenth century onward, such knowledge was expressed in a variety of writings: chronicles, travel tales, wonder books, romances, and quasi-histories of the period. In turn, travel narratives fueled the imaginations of travelers like the anonymous makers of the first portalan charts, graphic aids to coastal navigation which became increasingly accurate and ambitious as the fourteenth century unfolded. The zeal for travel and discovery culminated by the late fifteenth century in the extraordinary exploits of those who navigated from the known world to the margins of the map. In 1488, Bartholomew Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope; by 1492, Columbus was bound for the new world.1 This virtual explosion of geographical knowledge offered authors, artists, and artisans (including book illustrators and mapmakers) new raw material to incorporate in their work whether graphic, fictional, legendary, or personal. Thus, there is a close correspondence between the world portrayed on mappae mundi with their often extensive written texts and the world of medieval narrative with its embedded geography of pilgrimage, trade, diplomacy and war. The inclusion of often long and complex written texts on maps like the Ebsdorf or Hereford mappae mundi, and the integration of rather explicit travel 1 For discussion of medieval travel writing and "the other" see Mary B. Campbell, The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel 400-1600 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988). For an account of Early Modem representations of the New World and how they were influenced by wonder books and accounts like those of Mandeville, see Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.