Artistry, Decorum, and Purpose in Three Middle English Retellings of the Cecilia Legend
- Author / Editor
- Reames, Sherry L.
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.