SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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23 The werres ben so general Among the cristene overal, That every man now secheth wreche, And yet these clerkes alday preche And sein, good dede may non be Which stant noght upon charite: Pr. 891-902 The root of all man’s woes is thus identified as lack of love; the microcosm can be torn apart when any one of the estates shirks its responsibilities, as the poet has demonstrated that they have done. The solution is moderate, appropriate, sound love; the Prologue ends with a wish that God provide a king that could weave a song of harmony like Arion did on his harp. 5 With the king leading the nation in concord the lion and the hart, the sheep and the wolf, and the hare and the hound (Pr. 1059-61) live in peace, and Als wel the lord as the schepherde, He broghte hem alle in good acord; So that the comun with the lord, And lord with the comun also, He sette in love bothe tuo And putte awey malencolie. Pr. 1063-9 Most importantly, this kind of love can pacify the wildest beasts—a theme that will become increasingly apparent as the Confessio Amantis progresses. After the Prologue’s lament for the social division of England, book one seems to go in an entirely new direction by turning to the individual and personal with the 5 Arion was famous for his musical/poetic compositions, so harmonious that fighting ceased and storms calmed. He is often depicted riding a dolphin because of the myth that dolphins rescued him from the sea after he was kidnapped by pirates.
24 introduction of Amans, the unsuccessful lover who must be instructed by Genius. The ambiguity of English word love is crucial to Amans’ education because he fails to understand its three possible meanings: lust or cupiditas, lawful romantic love expressed in marriage, and spiritual love or charity. Gower prepares us for this ambituity when, despite his celebration of love as the source of social harmony in the prologue, he also foreshadows that the rest of the poem will modulate between love as “vertu” and as “vice” (Pr. 79-80). It is this second sense of love, which may be either virtuous or vicious, that Gower focuses on in book one and the subsequent books of the Confession Amantis. Love, then, in all its forms and perversions—Godly, kingly, parental, impersonal, lustful, and most of all incestuous—will become the controlling concern of the poem. Love in Confessio Amantis bears careful scrutiny, for ambiguity haunts the meaning of the term. D.W. Robertson, in his examination of the medieval mind-set, identifies a dichotomy: [Charity is] the New Law which Christ brought so that mankind might be saved. Under the Old Law. . . salvation was not possible. . . . The opposite of charity is cupidity [named for the pagan, incestuous god of love], the love of one’s self or of any other creature—man, woman, child, or inanimate object—for the sake of the creature rather than for the sake of God. Just as charity is the source of all virtues, cupidity is the source of all vices, and is responsible for the discontents of civilization. The two loves, both of which inflame, and both of which make one humble, are accompanied by two fears. Charity, like wisdom, begins with the fear of the Lord; and the fear of earthly misfortune leads to cupidity and ultimately to despair and damnation. . . .charity builds the city of Jerusalem, and cupidity builds the city of Babylon. . . . This opposition between the two loves, or the two cities, is fundamental to an understanding of medieval Christianity (Robertson 5).
Page 1 and 2: SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading
Page 3 and 4: READING INCEST: TYRANNY, SUBVERSION
Page 5 and 6: APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has
Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. R
Page 9 and 10: 2 of it, despite its familiarity to
Page 11 and 12: 4 about incest was influenced by th
Page 13 and 14: 6 clarification. Pope Gregory II ad
Page 15 and 16: 8 sibling, and mother-son. 2 She no
Page 17 and 18: 10 is viewed by both. Incest in eig
Page 19 and 20: 12 subverts both the social and the
Page 21 and 22: 14 CHAPTER II ‘SWICHE UNKYNDE ABH
Page 23 and 24: 16 a book to each of the seven dead
Page 25 and 26: 18 Richard” (111). The dedication
Page 27 and 28: 20 an idea familiar to Gower’s me
Page 29: 22 laboring-folk and Piers, in retu
Page 33 and 34: 26 learns. Augustine takes up the i
Page 35 and 36: 28 of the king, whose primary duty
Page 37 and 38: 30 bribed two priests to convince P
Page 39 and 40: 32 story of incest implied, averted
Page 41 and 42: 34 Again, her response impassions h
Page 43 and 44: 36 in the most extreme sense. When
Page 45 and 46: 38 in the first book, and relates t
Page 47 and 48: 40 benign, sympathetic interpretati
Page 49 and 50: 42 and Machaire, and at the same ti
Page 51 and 52: 44 To finish the turn in the narrat
Page 53 and 54: 46 oghne prest” (V.1382-3). Geniu
Page 55 and 56: 48 incestuous. When she vows to tel
Page 57 and 58: 50 epilogue that acts as a prayer f
Page 59 and 60: 52 Of wommen were absent as thanne;
Page 61 and 62: 54 speak at length and discover the
Page 63 and 64: 56 Biblical incest, mostly unjudged
Page 65 and 66: 58 of a king and the function of la
Page 67 and 68: 60 country. But the incest—the wo
Page 69 and 70: 62 As chivalry is a controlling the
Page 71 and 72: 64 conflicting demands of love and
Page 73 and 74: 66 material for adaptation or trans
Page 75 and 76: 68 four sons, Gawain, Gaheris, Agra
Page 77 and 78: 70 can not be ameliorated, at least
Page 79 and 80: 72 killed save Mordred, who was fou
Page 81 and 82:
74 surrogate son-knights. Cherewatu
Page 83 and 84:
76 Lo ye all Englysshemen, se ye ha
Page 85 and 86:
78 demonstrated to all present on t
Page 87 and 88:
80 corruption that plagues the Pend
Page 89 and 90:
82 CHAPTER III ‘INCEST IS IN ME
Page 91 and 92:
84 wished to rid himself of Anne Bo
Page 93 and 94:
86 societal forces. The plays focus
Page 95 and 96:
88 in the family and on a national
Page 97 and 98:
90 reputation shifted such that vie
Page 99 and 100:
92 comes not from an instinctive ap
Page 101 and 102:
94 virtue, resists and is made whol
Page 103 and 104:
96 willingness to sacrifice the liv
Page 105 and 106:
98 Rejection of God and divine orde
Page 107 and 108:
100 is as an “ungodly sickness”
Page 109 and 110:
102 exercise her own agency. Though
Page 111 and 112:
104 potential problem of having a f
Page 113 and 114:
106 The plots of these three plays
Page 115 and 116:
108 play, the Duchess will have bee
Page 117 and 118:
110 As we have seen, the Duchess us
Page 119 and 120:
112 BOSOLA. It seems you would crea
Page 121 and 122:
114 But as Ferdinand’s outrages i
Page 123 and 124:
116 knife as phallus. Eros (Cupid)
Page 125 and 126:
118 posed by his slide into unreaso
Page 127 and 128:
120 and, as Kenneth Graham notes, i
Page 129 and 130:
122 Castle of Otranto displays the
Page 131 and 132:
124 Theodore is killed a group of k
Page 133 and 134:
126 memory, and regard your highnes
Page 135 and 136:
128 first Gothic playwright, publis
Page 137 and 138:
130 the castle is there primarily t
Page 139 and 140:
132 strength, and the men enter the
Page 141 and 142:
134 God bless me; and pass’d on.
Page 143 and 144:
136 familiar. It is more usual for
Page 145 and 146:
138 sensation of horror in the audi
Page 147 and 148:
140 foil to the Countess, with her
Page 149 and 150:
142 And when he knelt, weeping, to
Page 151 and 152:
144 Castle of Otranto, the knife is
Page 153 and 154:
146 and political realities during
Page 155 and 156:
149 destruction and disaster. One o
Page 157 and 158:
151 subvert both patriarchy and mon
Page 159 and 160:
153 BIBLIOGRAPHY Aers, David,ed. Me
Page 161 and 162:
155 Classen, Albrecht, ed. Violence
Page 163 and 164:
157 Ford, Jane M. Patriarchy and In
Page 165 and 166:
159 Lenz, Joseph. The Promised End:
Page 167 and 168:
161 Riddy, Felicity. Sir Thomas Mal
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