Meta Notes Part 5: "Project of the Text" for everything else

The Paston Letters: a primary document of letters from a gentry family, this text generally demonstrates the daily life and economic realities for such a family in late medieval England, specifically demonstrating the this role for women. 

Confessio Amantis: with a prologue and eight books, this text covers a heck of a lot. In sum, each book treats a different sin or topic, but each of these is filtered through the text's larger interest in love. As Gower's intended role is to be the satirist pointing his bow at the world, love seems to be the common denominator that allows him to cover all of this topics across society. (more could be said for each particular book as well).

"Traitie": this text is interested in married lovers, in that Gower promotes this state as the ideal rather than virginal marriage.

Mirour de L'Omme: opens with a focus on untrue lovers, but at large is interested in the genealogies of sins and virtues, producing a system of causation.

Visio Anglie: the disruption is primarily related to the socially transgressive acts of the peasantry, depicted as beasts, who stop acting as the peasantry is supposed to act causing chaos all around them. (read: Gower hates poor people).

The Book of Margery Kempe: material mysticism; Margery is interested in self-consciously promoting her own mysticism, but does so through a clear understanding of the material world utilizing much of her own experience in the process. 

The Vision of Piers Plowman: honestly, I feel this text intentionally defies any attempts to apply teleological readings to it. Each stage of the text tears down what has been constructed in the previous, almost suggesting the impossibility of obtaining a universal methodology for "do well, do bet, and do best." This could relate to a mystic/dream vision approach, where at each stage of understanding everything that has led to that point becomes valueless.

Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur: this text is generally all over the place, but as a whole I would argue that the text is about the attempt to ameliorate the martial and social roles of the knight, to temper the former with the Pentecostal Oath and later the Grail Quest, all while these attempts are foiled and challenged by the destabilization caused by war and the absence of Arthur and his court from Camelot. 

The Middle English Emare: many critics suggest this text is about passivity, but I would argue that it is about acting within the bounds of one's power to illicit change, which Emare does through her mastery of the domestic labor of silk working. 

The Middle English Sir Degare: this text focuses on matters of exogamy, with an unbeknownst Degare righting the socially disruptive and incestuous acts of his grandfather.   

The Middle English Sir Orfeo: this text deals with the moves from chaos to order, with chaos incited by Orfeo's wife being taken and order eventually restored through his music, often seen as a mathematical concept of order in medieval and classical writing. 

The Middle English Sir Launfal: as the Marie de France's lay of similar title, this text is even more interested in the proper roles of feudal responsibilities, outlining in some detail the manner in which Arthur fails to uphold this role with his knight. 

 

Meta Notes 4: "Project of the Text" from April posts

 Maistre Nicole Oresme: Le livre de Yconomique d‘Aristote: this text deals with the proper management of the household, but often does so through modern economic methods. Oresme's marginalia about the investment a wife represents is particularly interesting in this regard.

The Shewings of Julian of Norwich: this text deals with proximity and the mystic, shown in the sense of physical proximity and description provided by Julian. In this proximity comes Julian's mantra: "Synne is behovabil, but al shal be wel, and al shal be wel, and al manner of thyng shal be wele" (938-939).

Canterbury Tales Fragment I: the General Prologue and first few tales demonstrate Chaucer's project of dealing with a cross-section of society that fails to fit within the specific categories of the estates model. The Knight's Tale is a play on romance and the problems of courtly love, and the Millers and Reeve's tales are the first bit of quitying we recieve, with the Miller telling a ribald story involving a clerk and the Reeve one that has the Miller getting the best of him. 

Canterbury Tales Fragments II-V: these tales involve more quyting. The Man of Law's Tale is a lesson on proper faith and constancy, The Wife of Bath and Clerk's Tale are dialogues of the proper role of wives and authority, and the Friar and Summoner work hard to take pot shots at each other. 

Book of the Duchess: likely a commission piece for a recently deceased lady, this dream vision deals with the elusiveness of courtly love followed properly (this feels like a cop out, as there's probably something more poignant at work here). 

Parliament of Fowles: involving a larger discussion between the various hierarchies of birds, this text is concerned with the problems of both an estates model/greater chain of being paradigm and the (in)efficiency of parliamentary procedure, requiring a monarch to step in and make order from chaos.

House of Fame: this is Chaucer's text that seems most interested in writing itself, dealing with matters of renown and fickle nature of fame that acts irrelevant of talent or merit. 

Canterbury Tales Fragment VI: the Squire's tale is more interested in the marvelous than the narrative, the Franklin's and Physician's Tales are interested in female authority and purity in somewhat diametrically opposed perspectives, and the Pardoner's Tale focuses on the matters of corruption in the clergy, specifically surrounding spiritual commodification.

De moneta: while set as advice for monarch's proper maintenance of currency, Oresme is mostly concerned with the stability of currency, which is particularly poignant considering that the currency was changed or revalued over 80 times in France during Oresme's lifetime. 

Canterbury Tales Fragment VII: The Shipman's Tale is interested in the correlation between sex and economics, the Prioress with the couching of xenophobic approaches couched in religious arguments, Sir Thopas critiques shallow romances, Melibee is concerned with matters of wifely authority, the Monk with tragedy and exempla, and the Nun's Priest Tale with matters of pride and social hierarchy. 

The Pearl Poet: as a whole, the Pearl Poet seems to be concerned with the disparity between words and deeds, between spiritual understanding and worldly obsession, and between feudal obligation and loyalty. 

The Consolation of Philosophy: this text argues that Fortune is fickle and that one should depend upon the grace of God to better one's lot. Worldly goods and fame are transient and thus are poor sources of faith. 

The Nichomachean Ethics: The Golden Mean is pretty much applicable to everything; what is best is that which is equidistant between disparity and surplus. 

Meta Notes 3: "Project of the Text" for March posts

Capgrave's Life of St. Katherine: this text is largely interested in agency and identity in the story of the virigin martyr, in her attempts first to prevent being subsumed in a husband's identity and later to promote her new identity as a Christian. 

Regiment of Princes: this text deals with the rival forces of economic and spiritual need coupled with the loyalty to one's employer, specifically flavored by the changing state of Hoccleve's employment. The Boethian dialogue promotes the ameliorative aspects of poverty, but Hoccleve also lays out the economic realities of late medieval urban English life. 

"My Compleinte": this text is largely interested with the interior versus exterior psychology, summed up in the well known image of Hoccleve leaping in front of a mirror to try and catch his outer state.

"La Male Regle de T. Hoccleue": as with much of Hoccleve's texts, this poem deals with the psychology of regret for a sinful youth that is coupled with, and may have partially caused, a current economically and spiritually destitute state. 

The Legend of Good Women: generally, this text is more about the legend of bad men, focusing largely on the inability of several classical male figures to adhere to agreements, contracts, or just be outright loyal.

Ywain and Gawain: this text is mostly concerned with warring responsibilities, the contradictary obligations of domestic and feudal sources. This also ties into a common thread in Arthurian texts of the knight spending too much time at home becoming weakened, but too much time abroad leading to instability at home. 

Sir Perceval: this text emphasizes the necessity for young nobility to remain active in the world, specifically that his young knight not be denied his role in the Arthurian world. 

Troilus and Criseyde: this text is about the tension between public and private, both in relationships and information. If Troilus and Criseyde had been more public with their relationship things would likely have gone differently.

Alliterative Morte Arthure: this text is about the prominence of England over foreign powers, establishing the right of England as a nation separate from connections to Rome. It also deals with matters of primogeniture and, as with many Arthurian texts, the issues of a king waging foreign wars for domestic stability. 

Marie de France's "Equitan": this text is another anti-feminist text that constructs the seneschal's wife as a socially disruptive figure who ruins an otherwise virtuous king. 

Marie de France's "Le Fresne": also somewhat anti-feminist, this text provides dual examples of the bad woman, Le Fresne's mother, and the good one, Le Fresne herself, based on the criteria of proper submissiveness.

Marie de France's "Bisclavret": this text is about proper faithfulness, a fairy tale version of Samson and Delilah that ends with a wolf biting off the unfaithful wife's nose, a condition which then becomes genetic. 

Marie de France's "Lanval": this text is about the necessity to maintain feudal agreements. Much of the initial trouble is that Lanval feels slighted for Arthur failing to do so, and his mistake is breaking his own contract with his fairy sponsor. 

Meta Notes Part 2: "Project of the Text" for January posts

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle: predominantly, this text is interested in the tension between public and private roles of the domestic sphere; if Gawain has this loathly lady by day he will have improved sexual access, but if he reverses it he will personally suffer while increasing his social standing.

Stanzaic Life of Margaret: this text is largely interested in the maintenance of purity in the face of temptation; Olibrus makes offers to Margaret in a series of logical negotiations, but Margaret remains firm.

Stanzaic Life of Katherine: this text is about the preeminence of Christian theology over pagan philosophy, emphasized by the lack of physical consequences Katherine suffers until the end. This could be a bit of push back against the rediscovery and use of classical philosophy by Christian theologians. 

"The Simonie": this text is convinced that, stemming from the practice of simony, the Church has itself become a commodified institution more concerned with its bottom line than the salvation of men's souls. 

"Above All Thing Thow Arte a Kyng": this text is concerned with the socially transgressive aspect of money, that it crosses social barriers and supersedes the proper goals of each estate.

"In Erth It Es a Litill Thing": through its allegorical figure of "Sir Penny," this text is about the social inconsistency of money, which can be used for the aims of whomever happens to currently have access to it. 

"London Lickpenny": this poem identifies that as sources of lay and clerical authority have become commodified they deny access and justice to the poor, creating a system that protects only the wealthy and ignores the existence of the poor.

Lydgate's Siege of Thebes: I'm not sure if I've yet wrapped my head around this one, but if I had to guess I would say that this text is about loyalty and the inevitable tragedy caused by breaking loyalty. Many agents attempt to end the conflict between these brothers peacefully, but at each stage peaceful solutions break down to lead to the eventual tragic ending.

Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle: this text is a bit tricky, but I'd have to say that overall the "project" here is focused on the necessity of properly following social etiquette, even with those that are technically lower in estate than you. 

The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers: these short texts are often interested most in using various famous figures as the mouthpieces of a spit fire of gnomic phrases. Some themes can be pieced together from these, however, such as in the Aristotle section where the philosopher's advice to a young Alexander promotes a society that is utterly interdependent upon each group in that society, suggesting not hierarchy but separate and necessary roles for each estate.  

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.