'La Priere du Plus Grand Peril' in Medieval English Literature

Author / Editor
Pearcy, Roy J.

Title
'La Priere du Plus Grand Peril' in Medieval English Literature

Published
Leeds Studies in English 20 (1989): 119-41.

Description
Surveys the tradition of the "prayer of the greatest peril" from Old French "chansons de geste" to Middle English adaptations of "romans d'aventure," arguing that the tradition underlies one of the prayers of Custance in MLT and several of the narrator's elaborate rhetorical questions. These passages in MLT are not found in Trevet and are better traced to the "priere" tradition than to hagiography.

Chaucer Subjects
Man of Law and His Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.