Meta Notes: "The Project of the Text" for January texts

I begin my written PhD candidacy exams on Friday, so for today and tomorrow my goals involve physically preparing the space I'll be writing in, constructing meta notes of what I've read, and trying not to panic. 

This post is about a suggestion from one of my committee members, that I be prepared to discuss "the project of the text." To prepare, I'm going over each of my primary text notes and churning out a brief statement of about two sentences or so involving my overall reading of the text. 

My fear in this aspect is that my understanding of the "project" of the text may differ from the more standard readings thereof. One committee member, for example, mentioned Piers Plowman as a text that is generally concerned with the balance between justice and mercy. Hearing that statement, I can see how the text could be seen that way, but that's not the way I was introduced to the text. Instead, many of my classes have come from professors focused on newer criticism, most of which intentionally pushes back against classic readings of text. My intro to Piers Plowman suggests more that this is a text that inevitably breaks downs attempts at teleological readings because it has a rhythm of construction and destruction, that as Will moves forward in his journey he is shown a proper method that has all of the answers and then almost immediately sees that method torn down. I'll talk about this below, but my concern is that if I'm not providing the readings that are expected of me I may run into trouble. That said, I know that, logically, if I provide clear and logical basis for my readings I should be fine, but that doesn't do much to settle my nervousness. 

King Horn: a "Matter of England" romance, King Horn spends a great deal of time on male beauty, but the whole seems to be about the social instabilities caused when a leader is absent. Each time Horn leaves one place to dispel Saracens from another, trouble brews where he has left. 

Havelok the Dane: a Cinderella tale, Havelok involves a double plot in which two kingdoms suffer usurpation, Havelok's and Goldborrow's. Havelok at large seems to be about the social values of the rising "middle class"; Havelok grows up among laborers and tradesmen and is constantly willing to put in a hard day's work; additionally, Havelok's upholds contracts and agreements while his opponents are constantly willing to break contracts. 

Bevis of Hampton: this text is about a hero and his horse. Beyond that, Bevis of Hampton is a romance about the inconsistencies of women; Bevis' father and Bevis himself are betrayed by his mother, and thus Bevis is continuously unable to trust his eventual bride Josain, despite all of her acts of loyalty. 

Athelston: for this text I would turn to Richard Firth Green's Crisis of Truth to argue that the text is about the tension between the shifting definitions of the term "truth"; the four brothers all make a pact, falling under the older meaning of the term, but acting under the "truth of the facts" as Athelston understands them causes Athelston to break his pact. 

Sir Amadace: this text is largely interested in the moderation of largesse. Amadace's extreme generosity lands him in poverty, a la MC Hammer, but in the end it is that same generosity, of a more moderate variety, that ameliorates his condition. This also feeds into the Golden Mean. 

The Martyrdom of St. George: With its gratuitous explorations of new and more creative ways to attempt to martyr St. George, this text is less about the act of martyrdom and more the audience seeing those extreme acts failing, ultimately suggesting the performative nature of martyrdom. 

St. George and the Dragon: Reading like a romance disguised as hagiography, this text revolves around the agency of St. George taming the dragon and saving a princess in the meantime; there may be some meat to the TEAMS introduction that suggests that hagiography like this that involves dragons are really about the defeat of pagan religions. 

St. Jerome and the Lion: this text is about the dangers of a profit economy to interrupt spiritual labor; the lion is working under contract for the monastery's "profyght," but when the merchants arrive and steal the ass they are disabling the honest work to continue. 

The Life of St. Francis: Much like St. Jerome and the Lion, this text is concerned with the disruption that the profit economy can represent to spiritual labor. St. Francis uses his father's goods to engage in proper divine work, but fears the worldly retribution his father may exact on him and hides in a ditch to avoid it. 

Wynnere and Wastoure: this text is, predominantly, about maintaining the proper balance between spending and saving, as embodied by the allegorical figures of Wynnere (Earner) and Wastoure (spender). The overall solution is to strike a balance between the two, falling into the Golden Mean. 

"The Killing of Abel" from the Towneley Play Cycle: containing a great deal of comedic relief, the predominant issue in this play revolves around Cain's inability to discern the spiritual economy as separate and ultimately preempting of the agricultural economy. 

"Noah" from the Chester Mystery Play Cycle: part of a larger tradition focusing on Noah's wife, this play is generally an anti-feminist treatise displaying the poor qualities of a women that interfere with Noah's God-given purpose. That said, there is some contrast with Noah's daughters-in-law who work alongside their husbands, but their identities are subsumed therein. 

"Abraham and Isaac" from the Brome, Suffolk Play: this play is largely interested in the pathos of sacrifice from both Abraham and Isaac, emphasizing this with a few hundred lines of discussion between the father and son. 

"The Second Shepherd's Play" from the Towneley Cycle: the best way I can understand this play is from a carnivalesque perspective. The play is supposed to function as a witness to the birth of Christ, yet this plays a small role. Instead, what we have is an very comedic scene in which Mak attempts to pass off a small lamb as his newborn child in order to swindle the shepherds, subverting around the expected roles of representation of the Lamb of God. 

"The Crucifixion" from the York Cycle: what struck me in this play is the focus on the soldiers conducting the "work" of crucifixion, that they are more interested in the specifics of their labor and see Christ as an object thereof. My good friend Case Tompkins added in my previous post on this text that this is part of the focus on work for both the soldiers and guild actors alike, "Yet Christ manifests in that work, as he does amid their chapel, almost without their notice."

Everyman: this play is focused on the transience of this life, taking a man who is well established in goods, kin, and friends and reducing him to nothing as he moves towards the end of his life, desperately trying to settle the balance on the account of his soul. 

Joel Kaye, Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century

Kaye, Joel. Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century: Money, Market Exchange, and the Emergence of the Scientific Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998. Print.

Kaye's monograph sets out to trace the shift in economic thought and monetary consciousness in the fourteenth century. Kaye's introduction sets up the historical backdrop to this shift, discussing the economic changes in this period of Europe that Diana Wood sets up rather effectively in her book. For example, Kaye discusses Oresme's position in the University of Paris as a method of understanding the concerns raised in De moneta more effectively. In De moneta, Oresme spends a great deal of time discussing the issues of seignorage, the changing of coin currency which could be misused to generate profit. Kaye points out that during Oresme's lifetime the currency in France was either changed or revalued more the eighty times, a period of monetary instability that most certainly had some impact on Oresme and sheds light on his text. 

For me, Kaye's plotting of the shift in economic models over this period is very interesting. Moving from Aristotle's models of arithmetic price, Kaye considers how philosophers such as Jean Buridan and Walter Burley modified Aristotle to reflect their own perception of the shifting medieval marketplace. Specifically, Kaye rather effectively lays out how the perception of market exchanges in these philosopher's writing expanded to include a need based economy. Somewhat of an early model of supply and demand, the need of the buyer and seller respectively is considered to have an impact on the just price of a commodity or labor. Rather than just price occupying a fixed point in exchange, just price instead falls in the range between the need of the buyer and seller. Thus, a starving man would certainly be more willing to pay a greater price for bread, or a fruit seller may be willing to sell his fruit at a significantly reduced cost if it is close to spoiling. While I would agree with some of the book reviews that Kaye's book does not do much to discuss this impact in labor prices and wages, the models that Kaye plots out are incredibly useful regardless.

Aristotle, the Nichomachean Ethics

My post here will focus on the sections of the Nichomachean Ethics that are most related to my research interests. Deep into my exam reading I realized that there is also a small section of the Politics that I should read as well, but that can wait until after the exam.

The Nichomachean Ethics contains two sections that are of specific interest to me: the Golden Mean and the section Justice. A larger issue of discussion in regards to medieval economic thought centers around the issue of arithmetic versus geometric price in economic exchanges. Arithmetic price is a set price that a commodity has regardless of market conditions. In a way, this is something like a platonic approach to price, that all commodities have a "true" price that simply has to be discovered to determine if an exchange was just. Geometric price, however, is proportional, changing depending on the specific market conditions. Geometric price takes supply and demand into consideration, as well as other factors revolving around need that can affect price in exchange. 

At this point, it is beneficial to note that The Nichomachean Ethics is a collection of notes from Aristotle's students rather than a composed text from Aristotle himself. I point this out because the Nichomachean Ethics provides support for both arithmetic and geometric price. 

In the section on the Golden Mean, Aristotle states what is ideal is that which is equidistant between disparity and surplus. However, this ideal point, or the Golden Mean as it is often termed, is largely dependent upon the specific factors of the situation. The example Aristotle brings up is food, suggesting that an athlete focused on running should ideally take in an amount of food that fuels running but does not encourage weight gain as this would inhibit is effectiveness. The wrestler, on the other hand, should have a much larger diet to support muscle and mass gain, but does not lead to fat growth that would make his efforts inefficient. The Golden Mean is thus the ideal balance between intake and output, and is applied to many contexts by aristotelian scholastics. 

In the section on Justice, however, the focus shifts to determining what is just and unjust. To that end, Aristotle plots out lines of just price for a judge to determine whether an exchange has been conducted justly. Oddly, this pushes towards proportionality for the entire exchange, by making the gains of both the buyer and seller equalized, but this moves away from geometric proportions in that the equality is determined from an arithmetic basis, not taking into consideration divergent levels of need. A starving man, for example, may be all too willing to pay a substantially inflated price for bread, but according to Aristotle's model of just price such an exchange would be unjust and require a judge to alter the conditions of the exchange. 

The section on justice also discusses the nature of money itself, how it is intended to operate as the medium and measure of goods in exchange. For Aristotle, money itself is worthless and only contains value when those who use it ascribe value to it. Instead, the function of money is to provide a medium for efficient exchange between parties that produce commodities or labor that are not otherwise equitable. For example, a shoemaker could not, necessarily, buy a house with his shoes directly. After all, how many shoes equal a house? Instead, the shoemaker is able to exchange his shoes for a certain amount of money, and a certain amount of money will purchase a house. Thus, money is the medium through which a shoemaker can exchange his labor for other commodities. 

These models are altered a great deal by later economic thinkers, but the core of medieval economic thought goes back to Aristotle. 

Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy.

Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy. Trans. Richard Green. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co., 1962. Print.

Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy is pervasive throughout Middle English literature and, accordingly, scholarship thereon. The text itself is a dialectical philosophy, following the model of Plato's Republic, in which Boethius laments his plight and is visited by Lady Philosophy. The majority of the text is thus a dialogue between Boethius and Lady Philosophy, in which the latter uses a Socratic approach to push Boethius to the proper conclusions. In the beginning, Boethius attempts to call upon the classic muses, which Lady Philosophy rejects and refers to as harlots. This section early on is interesting in that it suggests that the muses themselves are available to anyone who chooses to utilize them, comprising somewhat sexual language as part of the eventual reason why Boethius should not trust them. This line of discussion runs somewhat similar to the points Diane Cady makes in "The Gender of Money," namely that women, like money, are likely to be exchanged freely unless tightly controlled. 

Following the Socratic method,  Boethius presents a series of points and positions that he holds that Lady Philosophy systematically breaks down, showing Boethius where he is wrong and leading him by the nose to the positions he should be taking. A large part of this is a rejection of Fortune, who is also treated with gendered and sexualized language. Boethius decries his mistreatment at the hands of Fortune, but Lady Philosophy corrects him, citing Fortune's fickle nature and the subsequent necessity of not putting one's trust in her. The text moves towards a syllogism, which seems somewhat optimistic for a Boethius awaiting a trial that will harshly punish him: 

1: Human action is dependent on will and capability.

2: Humans aim towards happiness and good

Conclusion: those who achieve their aim are said to have power, thus only the good have power. 

Cotton Nero A.x, Patience, Cleanness, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The Complete Works of the Pearl Poet. Trans. Casey Finch. Berkeley: U of Cal. P., 1993. Print.

            [with Middle English Text ed. by Malcolm Andrew, Ronald Waldron, and Clifford Peterson]

·         Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

·         Pearl

·         Patience

·         Cleanness

NB: All images below are from the wonderful scans of The Cotton Nero A.x Project, which is available for free online. I highly suggest everyone check it out: http://gawain.ucalgary.ca/

Patience: 

Patience is a poem about obedience. The narrator opens by explaining that he favors patience when adversity sets in, as this is one of the Beatitudes espoused in Matthew. The narrator then launches into an exempla utilizing Jonah, who generally tries to shirk his proper role as God's prophet. When tasked with preaching to the Ninevites, Jonah fears retribution and flees by boat. After rough seas beset the ship, the passengers realize that someone has angered God and eventually heave Jonah overboard (which I always find hilarious, as the logic of casting Jonah over isn't entirely extensive and mostly boils down to "Hey, let's try throwing that guy over. It could work"). Jonah is swallowed by a whale and, after sulking long enough, beseeches God's aid and resumes his task to preach to the Ninevites. They all convert, God spares them, and Jonah yells at god for making him a liar when he prophesied their destruction. God further punishes Jonah, who eventually catches on.  

Cleanness:

      In Cleanness, the Pearl poet offers three exempla on the matter of cleanness, specifically

      spiritual cleanness. After the introductory section, the first exempla is the parable of the

      Wedding Guest, where the poet emphasizes that, as the wedding guest's clothes are not appropriate for a wedding, so too must one have a clean soul when meeting his maker. The poet then moves to an exempla on Abraham and Lot, emphasizing God's vengeance. The final exempla involves the Nebuchadnezzar conquest of Jerusalem and eventual succession by Belshazzar, but the real focus is on the writing on the temple wall that Daniel has to translate. At this point, the topic seems to shift away from cleanness, despite the narrators conclusion to reiterate its importance. 

Pearl:

      One of the better known works of the, ahem, Pearl poet, Pearl is a dream vision from the perspective of a father mourning his deceased daughter. Once in the dream, this jeweler finds himself in a miraculous land that is across a river from the Kingdom of Heaven. The jeweler is greeted by a wonderful maiden who he discerns is his daughter, the Pearl. Their dialogue revolves around the daughter's new status in heaven as a queen, due to her unblemished nature, and the proper methodology of how the jeweler may "pay" for his own way into this heavenly city. Eventually, the jeweler awakens and vows to follow the Pearl's advice. In this read through, I got much more out of the economic language the Pearl and her father use in their dialogue. This will be of particular interest when considering spiritual economies, related perhaps to the Pearl's now married status to Christ. 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

       Sir Gawain and the Green Knight may be my favorite piece of Middle English literature, or perhaps favorite piece of literature period. I love it so much that I keep trying to come up with ways to include it in my work, which I haven't quite managed yet. To briefly summarize, a strange knight bursts into Arthur's court during a Yule celebration, demanding to play a beheading game. No knights answer so Arthur steps up to the challenge, at which point Gawain steps in and convinces the king to let him play instead. After chopping off the Green Knight's head, Gawain is surprised to see that knight pick up said head and replace it, and then give Gawain a year reprieve till the Green Knight gets his stroke, which will happen at the Green Chapel. Later in the year, in October, Gawain sets off with a shield that has a five pointed star on one side, the Virgin Mary on the other. After much questing in the woods, Gawain finds a castle whose host invites him to stay until Gawain's appointment, as the host, Bert(c)ilak informs the knight that the Green Chapel is close by. Bertilak and Gawain agree to an exchange game, where each shall give to the other what is gained in their respective hunts, Bertilak in the forest and Gawain in the castle. The first day Bertilak hunts a deer and Gawain receives a kiss from Bertilak's wife, who is not so subtly pursuing the knight. The second day sees Bertilak hunting boar and Gawain receiving two kisses, which he again gives to Bertilak. On the third day, Bertilak hunts a fox, and Gawain is effectively outmaneuvered by Lady Bertilak, who gives him three kisses and convinces the knight to take her green girdle as a token, which she says has magical properties that could help Gawain survive his encounter with the knight. Gawain fails to give Bertilak the girdle, breaking his word in the game, and rides out to meet the Green Knight. After nearly striking Gawain twice and finally nicking his neck, the Green Knight reveals that he is Bertilak, his wife has been acting at his behest, and all was arranged by Morgan le Fay. Gawain sulkily returns home, wearing the green belt as a token to remind him of his folly, which Arthur and the other knight's do not seem to entirely grasp the relevance of.

I could go on at length about the critical relevance of this text, which is legion. A lot builds upon how one reads Arthur's court, either as young and foolish or as reasonably fearful of this intruder. Supporters of the former tend to side with a Ricardian composition of this text, suggesting that Arthur, like Richard II, was surrounded by a court that was doing more harm than good to his rule. Much has also been made of the structure of the poem, revolving around the framing and three hunts, but Kathryn Kerby Fulton's recent Opening Middle English Texts has an interesting correction to this. For about a century, this poem has been taught in a five fitt structure, emphasizing a specific construction and pacing of the poem. The single extant manuscript, however, does not break into these fitts or give any indication that it should be. Instead, the poem is broken into nine parts that changes some of the dynamics of how it is read. This is an example of critical intervention, as the scholar that worked on the text in the early 20th century put it into five fitts, and scholars since have gone on assuming that this is simply the way it is supposed to be. 

      Also, due to the scribe's hand it is almost impossible to know if the Green Knight's name is Bertilak or Bercilak, as the c and t forms of this anglicana script are indeterminable. Check the image below and see what I mean.

Diane Cady, "The Gender of Money"

Cady, Diane. “The Gender of Money.” Genders. 44 (2006). Web. 5 Dec. 2009.

Diane Cady's article was a large part of the methodology of my thesis, and it's safe to say that I appreciate her work. "The Gender of Money" focuses on how money and women become associated in the medieval imaginary, specifically in how concern over the instability of money transferred to and fed concerns over dialogues of the inconstancy of women. Bringing in medieval economic thought from Aristotle and Augustine, Cady demonstrates how the language and terminology of money as a medium of exchange is applied to women. Cady reads this dynamic into the Lady Mede section of Piers Plowman and Sir Launfal, showing in the former that "women, like money, are likely to wander if they are not controlled by society" (19) and in the latter that "women threaten homosocial bonds" just as "money threatens traditional social relations" (24). 

I very much enjoy this article, and I've seen Cady as a model for approaching readings of gender and economics. This read through was more elucidating than in the past as I had better context for Cady's brief overview of the changing role of money in the late medieval European economy. Moreover, I think that Oresme's concerns could also be folded into this reading, as he is specifically worried about the reprinting and devaluing of money and raises specific issues that would be interesting to bring into the perceptions of women, notably the socially disruptive aspects of inconstant currency. 

Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales Fragment VII

The Shipman's Tale:

The Shipman's Tale  doesn't receive the greatest share of critical attention, possibly because it is seen as somewhat straightforward. A merchant has a close friend, who is a young monk, that pays a visit to his wife while the merchant is away on business. Complaining of her husband's tightfisted approach to finances, the wife asks the monk for 100 francs to pay her debts in exchange for sex. The monk agrees, then goes to see the merchant in town and asks to borrow 100 francs. The monk returns to the wife, gives her the money, and has his dalliance. Later, when speaking to the merchant, the monk tells him he has already returned the money to the merchant's wife, who, caught in the act, must make amends with her husband. This is interesting in regards to the correlation between exchange and marriage, but it does read somewhat shallowly. 

The Prioress' Tale: 

Honestly, I'd like to say as little as possible about this tale. Hugely antisemitic, The Prioress' Tale involves a nameless group of Jews who conspire to murder and hide an innocent Christian child. 

Sir Thopas:

Incredibly insipid, Sir Thopas is Chaucer-the-pilgrim's first tale that is so full of romance cliche that the host cuts him off after only a few hundred lines. The tale starts sketching out the titular figure, his birthplace and physical appearance, but is so overly flowery that it is hard to take it as more than satire. 

Tale of Melibee:

The Tale of Melibee is the second attempt from Chaucer-the-pilgrim, and is generally more successful. Melibee is a lord who's household is attacked while he is away. Most notably, the attackers beat his wife and severely wound his daughter. Distraught, Melibee grieves for a period then calls a council of his neighbors. He is offered advice and support from the crowd, and declares that he will go to war against the attackers. His wife, however, takes Melibee aside and enters into a long dialectic with her husband, advising caution and temperance. This seems to be another example of Chaucer's interest in the wise wife able to make extensive and effective argumentation with a wide range of exempla (such as The Wife of Bath's Prologue). Also, the section in which Melibee's wife advises on the proper use of wealth is of specific relevance to my interests. 

The Monk's Tale: 

The Monk is asked to tell a jolly tale, as might be expected considering his dress and general demeanor. Instead, the Monk chooses to launch into a scattershot of seventeen exempla on tragedy of various types. The examples range from biblical to mythological to historical stories, and the specific theme of tragedy varies from tale to tale. 

The Nun's Priest's Tale:

One of the more well known tales, the Nun's Priest's Tale is surprisingly well told and composed considering its previously quiet teller. The rooster of a yard, Chauntecleer, wakes in a fit after a nightmare involving his death at the hands of a fox. One of his seven wives attempts to calm him, advising laxatives, but Chauntecleer is not convinced as his parents both died at the fox's hands. Later, the fox arrives and, tricking the rooster's pride, is able to capture the bird. After successfully evading the pursuers, however, the fox is himself tricked as the rooster convinces him to taunt the pursuers. Once the fox opens his mouth Chauntecleer escapes and, regardless of the fox's attempts to convince him to fly back down, foils the fox's plans. The style of the tale mirror romances, and is generally rather amusing.