Guy of Warwick is England's other Arthur. Elevated to the status of national hero, his legend occupied a central place in the nation's cultural heritage from the Middle Ages to the modern period. Guy of Warwick: Icon and Ancestor spans the Guy tradition from its beginnings in Anglo-Norman and Middle English romance right through to the plays and prints of the early modern period and Spenser's Faerie Queene, including the visual tradition in manuscript illustration and material culture as well as the intersection of the legend with local and national history. This volume addresses important questions regarding the continuities and remaking of romance material, and the relation between life and literature. Topics discussed are sensitive to current critical concerns and include translation, reception, magnate ambition, East-West relations, the construction of 'Englishness' and national identity, and the literary value of 'popular' romance.
Author(s): Alison Wiggins
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 264
CONTENTS
......Page 6
ILLUSTRATIONS
......Page 8
CONTRIBUTORS
......Page 10
ABBREVIATIONS
......Page 12
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION: Namoore of this! How to read Guy of Warwick and why......Page 16
1. Gui de Warewic at Home and Abroad: A Hero for Europe......Page 24
2. Gui de Warewic in its Manuscript Context......Page 35
3. Guy of Warwick as a Translation......Page 50
4. From Gui to Guy: The Fashioning of a Popular Romance......Page 67
5. The Manuscripts and Texts of the Middle English Guy of Warwick......Page 84
6. The Speculum Guy de Warwick and Lydgate’s Guy of Warwick: The Non-Romance Middle English Tradition......Page 104
7. An Exemplary Life: Guy of Warwick as Medieval Culture-Hero......Page 117
8. The Visual History of Guy of Warwick......Page 133
9. ‘In her owne persone semly and bewteus’: Representing Women in Stories of Guy of Warwick......Page 156
10. Of Dragons and Saracens: Guy and Bevis in Early Print Illustration......Page 177
11. Guy of Warwick and The Faerie Queene, Book II: Chivalry Through the Ages......Page 192
12. Guy as Early Modern English Hero......Page 208
APPENDIX: Synopsis of the Guy of Warwick narrative......Page 224
INDEX
......Page 238
