Artistry, Decorum, and Purpose in Three Middle English Retellings of the Cecilia Legend

Author / Editor
Reames, Sherry L.

Title
Artistry, Decorum, and Purpose in Three Middle English Retellings of the Cecilia Legend

Published
Teresa Tavormina and R. F. Yeager, eds. The Endless Knot: Essays on Old and Middle English in Honor of Marie Borroff (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995), pp. 177-99.

Description
Retellings of the Cecilia legend exemplify the range and flexibility of Middle English hagiography.
The "Northern Homily Cycle" "presents Cecilia as a model of ladylike behavior"; the "South English Legendary" "makes her quite bold and transgressive."
Chaucer treads a middle ground in SNT, presenting his heroine in a restrained fashion that effects a "satiric commentary on a contemporary ruler or rulers whom he saw as re-enacting the sins" of ancient Roman persecutors.

Alternative Title
The Endless Knot: Essays on Old and Middle English in Honor of Marie Borroff.

Chaucer Subjects
Second Nun and Her Tale.