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OverviewMedieval England had a thriving culture of rewriting the Bible in art, drama, and literature in Latin, French and English. Middle English biblical poetry was central to this culture, and although these poems have suffered from critical neglect, sometimes dismissed as mere ""paraphrase"", they are rich, innovative and politically engaged. Read in the same gentry and noble households as secular romance, biblical poems borrow and adapt romance plots and motifs, present romance-inflected exotic settings, and share similar concerns: reputation, order, family and marriage. This book explores six poems from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that retell episodes from the Old Testament: the ballad-like Iacob and Iosep, two lives of Adam and Eve; an alliterative version of the Susanna story, the Pistel of Susan; and the Gawain-poet's Patience and Cleanness. Each chapter identifies new sources and influences for the poems, including from biblical glosses and manuscript illustration. The book also investigates the poems' relationships with contemporary cultures of literature and religion, including with secular romance, and offers new readings of each poem and its cultural functions, showing how they bridge the chasm between medieval Christian England and the Jews and pagans of the pre-Christian Mediterranean world. It also considers reading contexts, arguing that the poems and their manuscripts offer hints about the social class and gender of their household audiences. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Cathy Hume (Customer)Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd Imprint: D.S. Brewer Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 23.40cm Weight: 0.666kg ISBN: 9781843846055ISBN 10: 1843846055 Pages: 240 Publication Date: 20 August 2021 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Note on Translations Introduction 1 Iacob and Iosep: a happy tale of a knightly family 2 Two lives of Adam and Eve: exemplarity after the Fall 3 A Pistel of Susan: beauty in a Babylonian garden 4 Patience: anti-romance 5 Cleanness: household virtues, familiar sins Conclusion Bibliography Index of Manuscripts General IndexReviewsAuthor InformationCATHY HUME is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |