Reading Malory in the Fifteenth Century: Aural Reception and Performance Dynamics
Author(s): JOYCE COLEMAN
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Arthuriana, Vol. 13, No. 4, Reading Malory Aloud, Then and Now (WINTER 2003), pp.
48-70
Published by: Scriptorium Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27870562 .
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in the Fifteenth
Reading Malory
and
Century: Aural Reception
Performance
JOYCE
This
Dynamics
COLEMAN
article
the external and internal evidence
that Malory
explores
theMorte
for public reading, then speculates about how such a
(JC)
reading session would
proceed.
wrote
a very late, very
long prose romance,1 Sir Thomas Malory's Morte
. Darthur has been
context of
As
generally placed in the
rising literacy and
an established
Most
of
overviews
of latemedieval
practice
private reading.2
English reading close out the era of orality' with the advent of Chaucer,
whose literary complexities could supposedly have been
appreciated only by
a
privately reading audience. The account of the post-Chaucerian Middle
Ages has been less developed, but the assumption seems to be that private
reading maintained its ascendance, accelerating with the increasing influence
of humanism, prosification, and print.
This article aims to place Malory
in a different context, based on the
that
both
argument
Malory and Caxton expected that theMorte would be
received aurally?that
is, by hearing someone read it aloud. In support of
that argument, I will examine three aspects of the
question: the external
evidence for aural reception of the work; the internal evidence for aural
reception; and the performance dynamics that might attend on a public
a text in the late fifteenth century.
reading of such
EXTERNAL
EVIDENCE
OF
AURAL
RECEPTION
is no direct evidence as to
Malory's immediate intended audience, if
was
since
the
Morte
written
in prison under unknown circumstances.
any,
But there is a great deal of collateral evidence
suggesting that theMorte
was
meant
to
and
to,
the armigerous class from
to,
appealed
probably
appeal
which Malory himself came, as well as the
higher ranks of nobility and the
men
own
of
Caxton's
ilk.3
If
Earl Rivers,
aspiring City
Anthony Woodville,
didn't commission the book, he probably was the one
[gentleman] in specyal'
There
ARTH U RI AN A 1 3 .4
48
(2003)
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
49
defended Arthur s historicity to Caxton, and who broughr him the
Winchester Manuscript.4 Caxton himself not only attributes the instigation
of this printing project to many noble and dyvers gentylmen,'5 but goes on
to note itspotential appeal to 'al noble lordes and ladyeswyth al other estates,
of what estate or degree they been of,' or again to alle noble prynces, lordes
and ladyes, gentylmen or gentylwymmen
(xv). As often in his prefaces,
Caxton emphasizes the noble and gentle audience forhis book, while keeping
an eye on the lower estates and degrees who had the means to buy his
who
products, and who could be enticed by such aristocratic associations.
We don't know who bought Caxton's print ofMalory, or who may have
owned other exemplars of themanuscript, but copies of similar Arthurian
material can be traced to the same mixed class of old blood and new men.
Richard of Gloucester, before he was Richard III, owned a Prose Tristan as
well as a copy ofGeoffrey ofMonmouth's Historia regumBritanniae. Elizabeth
Edward IV's queen, had a large anthology containing most of
Woodville,
the French Vulgate cycle (BL Royal 14E.iii), which apparently passed on to
her daughters and later to Sir Richard Roos.6 Carol Meale has noted a book
of Tristram, an Estoire del Saint Graal, and aMerlin owned by two sets of
Yorkshire gentry.7 An inventory of Sir John Fastolf s books, compiled c.
1450, includes a 'liber de Roy Artour,' along with other works of probable
Arthurian content such as 'Cronicles d'Angleterre,' 'Brute in ryme,' and
?ber de Cronykes de Grant Bretagne in ryme.'8 Fastolf s
neighbors and
heirs, the Pastons, also had a taste forArthuriana, though inclining more to
the romance side of the subject. A list of Sir John Paston's books (bet. 1475
the Dethe
at
off Arthr
1479) records 'A bokc.off
begynyng
as
as
romances
as
well
other
such
Cassab[elaun],'
Guy ofWarwick, Richard
Coeur de Lion, and Troilus and Criseyde.9
and
Itmakes
Arthurian
sense that the late
good enough
fifteenth-century audience for
romance and/or chronicle consisted of thewealthier middle class,
the gentry, and nobility. These were people rich
to acquire books,
enough
and literate and leisured enough to read them. Given these
demographics?
along with the book's length and the author's choice to write in prose?it
seems tomake
sense to assume that
equal
Malory's readers read theMorte in
the modern, post-oral fashion; i.e., to themselves,
privately. But as I have
at
most
common
the
form
of literary reading
elsewhere,10
argued
length
was
medieval
such
late
elite
audiences
among
public reading, or 'prelection'
as
a
a
text
to
aloud
(defined
group of listeners').11 In that book Iwas
'reading
able to assemble extensive evidence to show that public
was
enjoyed
reading
literate
and
audiences?all-male,
all-female, or
by highly
book-owning
50
ARTHURIANA
up to and beyond the end of theMiddle Ages. The practice
mixed?right
was not associated with illiteracy or scarcity of books. Rather, it
a
performed
number of important social functions: in different contexts public reading
served to broadcast political messages, to create a medieval form of public
to promote
spiritual community, to inspire emulation, and (most
sphere,'
often in England) to pass time in a mutually engaging and socially bonding
manner.12
In one of his compilations,
4
Chaucer's Knight sTale' to
for example, John Shirley addresses a copy of
yee so noble and worthi pryncis and princesse other estatis or degrees what
euer yee beo thathaue disposicione or pleasaunce to redeor here the storiesof
olde tymispassed to kepe yow fromydelnesse and slowthe in eschewing other
folies thatmight be cause ofmore harome [sic]filowyng.1^
Since Shirley, likeMalory, served at one time in the household of Richard
to
Beauchamp, earl ofWarwick, before retiring compile and circulate literary
of audience reception should be valid. So should
anthologies,14 his judgment
are
to notice, Caxton addresses his printed
as
scholars
and
Caxton's,
beginning
men
and women who 'desyre to rede or here
Morte to all noble and gentle
redde of the noble and joyous hystorye' of Arthur (xv). Caxton's usage of
can be correlated to the genre of text he was publishing,
reception phrases
case of the likely audience and
a
so
conscious
and
suggests
judgment in each
mode of reading.15 In his preface to theMorte Caxton emphasizes Arthurs
It isnot surprising, therefore,
place among theThree Christian Worthies (xiv).
or hear' phrase in his printed accounts of Godfrey
to find him
'read
the
using
of Boulogne and Charlemagne. Caxton directs the Siege ofJerusalem (1481)
to theChristians of England, 't'encourage them by the redyngand heeryng of
themerveyllous historyes herin comprysed.'16 In the prologue to Charles the
Great (1485) he goes so far as to assure 'the redar and h erer that the table of
contents will direct them to 'the mater of whyche the persone shal have
or rede!11
desyre to here
Other material of knightly interest also merits aural phraseology. The
Game ofChess (2d edn., c. 1483)?of which Sir John Paston owned a copy18?
concludes with Caxton's wish that everyman of what condycion he be that
or
this litel book redde take therby ensaumple to amende hym.'19
redyth herith
As a final example Iwould cite the first edition of theDiets or Sayings of the
after noting that he had inserted Socrates'
Philosophers (1477), where Caxton,
remarks, apologizes to 'my sayd lord or ony other persone
misogynistic
whatsomever he or she be that shal rede or here it.'20 Since 'my sayd lord' in
we can assume that the invocation of
this case was Anthony Woodville,
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
DYNAMICS
PERFORMANCE
aural reception carried no negative connotations;
have thus insulted his most important patron.
surely Caxton would
51
not
sources confirm the English association of public reading with
IV's household regulations?an
updated redaction of
that squires, visitors, and lordswould assemble to
Edward Ill's rules?notes
talk of cronycles of kinges and of other polycyez.'21 The lack of any editorial
Other
elite readers. Edward
was current in the
reign of both Edwards.
implies that the practice
I
of
Romans'
his lords, knights,
of
with
Scotland
James
enjoyed credying
on
in
the
before
his
assassination
and squires
1437.22 John Fortescue,
evening
chief justice of the King's Bench under Henry VI, reports that students in
the Inns of Court enjoyed the reading, after the divine services, of Holy
annotation
Scripture and of chronicles.'23 The statutes ofmany Oxford and Cambridge
(founded 1379) in stipulating that
colleges followed those of New College
the scholars and fellows could occasionally entertain themselves in hall with
'poems, chronicles of kings, and wonders of thisworld, or other thingswhich
suit the clerical state.'24 English or French books would
probably have
the readings at court, while Latin textswould have provided the
entertainment at the Inns of Court and the
colleges. If kings, courtiers,
and
scholars
embraced
three
lawyers,
public reading, in all of England's
exact
in
the
languages, and
period during which Malory was active, itmakes
sense to accept that in its time theMorte was often ifnot
always read aloud,
and thatMalory wrote in the expectation that thiswould be the case.
dominated
Malory, at the point of writing theMorte, was clearly working
closely with his written sources,we can also suppose that his earlier experiences
of literaturewere embedded in aurality. The young
Malory would probably
have heartily endorsed the description of a young
gentleman's perfect day,
provided by The Parliament of theThree Ages (written between 1353and 1370).
After a stimulating falcon-hunt, says Youth, he likes to go back to court,
While
dance and flirtwith damsels, and then
Riche Romance to rede and rekken the sothe
Of kempes [warriors]and of conquerours, of
kynges full noblee,
How tha[y]wirchipe and welthe wanne in thaire lyues;
With renkes [comrades] in ryotte
[merry-making]to reuelle in
haulle,
With
coundythes [conduts, part-songs] and carolles and compaynyes
sere,
And chese me to the chesse that chefe es of gamnes;
And this es lifefor to ledewhile I schalle lyfehere.25
52
ARTHURIANA
The Parliament's
editor, M.Y.
Offbrd, pins this comradely reading to the
that
the author was probably
tradition, noting
thinking here of
as
or
'the "epic" type of "romance" such Morte Arthure
poems dealing with
Alexander theGreat or the legends ofTroy.'26 This fictional account
strongly
recalls the historical records, cited above, of prelection sessions among
courtly
all-male groups. Nor was this ideal of
knightly life confined to the young.
Arthurian
One
of the virtues forwhich
John Berkeley'
...
the deceased is praised, inThe Lament for Sir
(written c. 1375), is that anyone visiting his manor
haf metes
myght
and mirthes
manerly
amonge,
And of his semli seruandes sembland and songe,
Daliance of damisels to driue away tho day,
To
We
rede him
oright
romance
were
redi on
aray.27
can
easily imagine Malory?as
squire and knight, eager admirer of
on
Tristram's work
venery, and frequenter of knightly, ducal, and sometimes
even royal
inmany similar sessions.
courts28?participating
Another setting appropriate for public reading would be the gathering of
soldiers around a campfire or in a shared tent.Olivier de laMarche
recalls
that Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, would have his chamberlain read
and other ancient nobles to him in the evenings while on
Charles'
purpose was not merely to relax, but also to inculcate
campaign.29
himself with these examples of nobility?a
function frequently invoked in
the prologues of chronicles. Whether or not Malory served in the army of
Years' War,30 he certainly
Richard Beauchamp
during the Hundred
in
the siege of Alnwick and Bamborough castles, and possibly
participated
stories of Caesar
saw service in Gascony as well.31 Like Charles the Bold, Malory and the
other English 'goddams' fighting in France may also have passed the evenings
or
of books they had brought
telling
reading aloud epic romances'?out
or
even out of books looted from their enemies. Also like
perhaps
along,
Charles, the English soldiers may have turned to stories of Arthur for the
double benefit of entertainment and the inspiration to be found in accounts
of the first great 'English' conqueror.
INTERNAL
EVIDENCE
OF
AURAL
RECEPTION
itself is rich in evidence of aurality.Malory habitually uses aural
to orient his audience.32 Sir Lancelot, for example, finds
reception-phrases
The Morte
in theGrail ship, holding a wrytte whych he rad, that
tolde hym all the aventures thai ye have herde before (594).33 Lancelot reads
to himself here, because he is the only (live) person on the ship; but this
demonstration of literacy doesn't preclude, forMalory, the assumption that
Perceval's sister dead
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
53
his equally literate audience would be hearing his book read aloud. Twice he
to the prelection of books. Of Tristram he remarks:
refers unambiguously
aftir, as he growed
and in hawkynge?never
inmyght and strength, he laboured in huntynge
more that ever we herde rede
jantylman
of (232).
in reviewing the evidence about Arthurs death,
At the end of theMorte,
no more wrytten in bokis that
Malory concludes: 'Thus of Arthur I fynde
more
of the verry sertaynt? of hys dethe harde I
bene auctorysed, nothir
And
never rede (717). As Mark Lambert has noted, references toArthurian artifacts
and textual sources accumulate in the last books of theMorte, suggesting
thatArthur and his age are slipping furtherand further away from the reader s
can combine the report of his research
present.34The fact thatMalory
through
auctorysed' textswith the hearing of books suggests that for him aurality
was a current and acceptable practice of his own time.
The Morte
rarely depicts its characters reading, but when such scenes
occur, private reading is usually associated with social fragmentation. Public
or
performance
reading, by contrast, dissipates anti-social motivations and
a
communal focus. 'Privyness,' for example, surrounds both
re-establishes
the sending and the reading ofKing Mark's slanderous letters toArthur and
Isode and Tristram plot to 'se the prevyt?' ofMark's letters, but
are foiled;Mark sends them on 'pryvaylyand secretely' Arthur and Guinevere
'opened the lettirsprevayly,' and Guinevere angrily and 'prevayly sends hers
Guinevere.
All these privy readings are mandated by and reflect the
the
of
privy behaviors involved: the adultery between Lancelot and
dangers
that will ultimately lead to the downfall of Arthur's kingdom.
Guinevere
saves the day, at this point, pivots the word 'privy' into a suddenly
What
context. Dinadan, whose manner itwas 'to be prevy with all
good
benign
on to Lancelot.
a
to broadcast a scurrilous attack on Mark, 'whyche
knyghtes,' sends harper
or with ony other
ever
was the worste lay that
harper songe with harpe
instrument.' A cluster of 'harp' and 'sing' words make a contrast between
the publicity of this procedure and the dangerous privacy it has, for the
time, counteracted
(381-82). Reading a letter aloud, however, dissipates
to know
suspicion and preserves the social collective. When Arthur wanted
the contents of Elaine ofAstolat's
last letter, 'he called many knyghtes aboute
wete
that
he
wolde
and
hym
seyde
opynly what was wryten within that
lettir.Than the kynge brake hit and made a clerke to rede hit.' Lancelot is
sent for, and Arthur 'made the lettir to be rad to hym.' Lancelot offers an
explanation, endures Guinevere's criticism, and the episode isover; the court
goes back to 'huntynge and hawkynge,' 'justis and turneyes' (641?42).
54
ARTHURIANA
sort of evidence is provided byMalory's diction. Some attention
has been paid to itspossible aural bases or oral affinities.35 In an unpublished
dissertation of 1967, Donald Hobar argued that the devices used byMalory
were predominately the oral devices of narrative poetry transferred to prose,
locates
necessitated by a predominately aural medieval audience.'36 Hobar
inMalory points of style?'direct address, incipit, benediction, digression,
students
references to spoken language, and recapitulation of action'37?that
a
at
of oral tradition have associated with literature aimed
hearing audience.38
Another
an
he called the
in
underlying orality what
Larry D. Benson, in 1976, found
'thematic structure' of theMorte and other romances. Such a structure is 'an
to oral delivery.. .Thematically organized
essentially simple device, well suited
narratives...turn not on small narrative details but on broad contours of
action that can be grasped even by relatively inattentive hearers.' This does
not mean, he emphasizes, that authors could not use the technique to subtle
effect.39Both analyses probably reflect the influence of Albert Lord's Singer
in the possible oral-formulaic bases
ofTales, published in i960.40 As interest
ofmedieval literature has declined, or been diverted tomore popular genres,
there has been little follow-up on orality inworks such as theMorte.
The effect of a text on hearers remains a relevant issue, however, when
one considers Malory's romance as a written work thatwould be read aloud.
context when he remarks
Jeremy Smith seems to be placing theMorte in this
were
'characteristic of Germanic prose
that traits such as collective discourse
use of
attention toMalory's
calls
Smith
also
for
oral
delivery.'41
designed
to each other,'42 a practice Mark
in
close
proximity
repeated expressions
Lambert called confirmation.'43 Both scholars explore how repetition of
an
episode.
keywords communicates and enhances the underlying meaning of
Neither has remarked, however, how perfectly adapted this device is to a
work intended for public reading. In such a setting the authors words were
by broadcasting important words (and stock
quickly spoken and gone?but
across a whole area of narration, Malory made sure that the essential
as Karen Cherewatuk's
message got through. This is a realization that,
to
issue
this
introduction
discusses, pervades the 'Malory Aloud' project
phrases)
launched by Cherewatuk and D. Thomas Hanks, Jr.The effective aurality
of strategic repetition may be heard in the excerpt from 'The Knight of the
Two Swords' read on theChaucer Studio CD byMary Hamel and Michael
the two pages (38.8-40.5) describing themysterious damsel
Twomey. Within
whose sword only Balin could draw, 'sword' appears 17 times and 'assay'
nine, while variations on 'passing good knight of his hands' occur four times,
and 'without villainy other treachery'pops up six times in one form or another.
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
55
No listeneris likelytomiss thepoint thatonly a passinggood knightofhis
hands, without villainy or treachery, could successfully assay to pull the sword
from its sheath.
This device could go beyondsimpleemphasisto tracksubtleshiftsinthe
in the first days of
action. An early example isArthurs battle with Accolon
his reign. The narrator informs us of the young king: 'he dred hym sore to
be dede,' 'sirArthure was passynge fyeble and [wente] veryly to have dyed,'
'hewas in grete feare to dye.' Arthur refuses to give ground, however, and
when Accolon demands his surrender, retorts: 'I had levir to dye with honour
than to lyvewith shame. And ifhit were possible forme to dye an hondred
tymes, I had levir to dye so oufte than yelde me to the' (86). As he rises above
his 'feare to dye/ Arthur transforms the word into a badge of his defiance.
The word then reappears immediately as Accolon exclaims, 'Now kepe the
frome, for thou art but a dede manf (86-87), initiating a new series in
as an
which death is a thing received or given?externalized
objective
condition rather than internalized as an incapacitating fear.
can be drawn from the 'scandalous letters'
example
episode,
referred to above, where in two pages (380-81) Malory uses thewords 'letter'
or 'letters' 27 times.
Significantly, the barrage of'letters' stops abruptly when
to resolve the
Dinadan
forward
steps
problem, just as theword 'privy,'which
a
context
had occurred in menacing
four times on one page, flips into a
is said to be 'prevywith all
positive context when Dinadan
good knyghtes'
insert
these
doesn't
(381). Malory
key words at random; as this example
demonstrates, he embeds themwithin the dilemmas of a particular episode,
Another
then signals the resolution of the episode by some significant reversal of the
pressure ormeaning ascribed to theword. Medieval prelectors, I think,would
have instinctively 'pointed/ or emphasized, such key words, and medieval
listenerswould have felt the effect of this deep semantic play whether or not
were conscious of it.
they
Aiding them would be their 'audiacy,' their
as
in the traditions behind the text
both
listeners,
competence
they were
to
in
and
their
retain
structure
the
and
details and
of
grasp
ability
hearing
such
texts.44
HOW WOULD
THE Morte
HAVE BEEN
READ?
to
suggest thatMalory expected theMorte
enough evidence
to be read aloud. Itwould have been
enjoyed by people of his own class or
wove the Arthurian story
both
for
the
skill
with
which
he
above,
together
and for the high example set bywhat Robert
Mannyng of Brunne had earlier
called Arthur's 'noble dedis of honoure.'45 Certainly, literate individuals could
so they would have been
have read the story alone; but in
doing
turning
There
is certainly
56
ARTHURIANA
their back on the social interaction and entertainment that many of their
to
contemporaries found in public reading. It is easy
imagine themembers
and friends of a household like the Pastons, for example, assembling at some
point of mutual leisure, to listen as one of them read theMorte aloud. What
manner of this
we know, or have
public reading.
thought, less about is the
Who would do the reading? How would theymake theirway through the
book? How much interactionwould there be between hearers and prelector?
the person reading aloud? How much of the textwould they read?And how
would
the prelector present the material? Unfortunately, we lack direct
evidence of how a public reading of theMorte or similar text from the same
some idea of these sessions, Iwill draw on
period would proceed. To build
as other romances, rhetoricalmanuals, and sermons.
subsidiary evidence such
Setting
Performance
In a variety of French romances, characters entering a courtly setting find
the family or household group listening to a young woman read a romance
aloud. In Chr?tien deTroyes' Yvain (late twelfth century), for example, Yvain
finds a girl reading to her father and mother in the orchard of the Chateau
de Pesme Avanture.46 Li Chevaliers a deus espees (early thirteenth century)
not only recapitulates the Gawain
scene,47 but also has a messenger who
a
in a garden, holding A romance
fountain
Guinevere
findsQueen
sitting by
from which she read /To knights and to maidens/48 InHunbaut
(second
a
thirteenth
with
and
find
ch?telaine,
quarter
young
century), Kay
Sagremor
and ten knights, 'listening to a fair poem from a romance /
was
that themaiden
having read.'49
romance seems to offer fewer of these scenes. The Yvain episode
English
her sixmaidens
is preserved in the English version of the tale, Ywain and Gawain (c. 1325
50).50And of course there isTroilus and Criseyde (c. 1385), inwhich Criseyde's
maiden prelects The Siege ofThebes to her mistress and her other women;51
and The Canterbury Tales (1390s), where theWife of Bath's husband reads
his misogynistic miscellany to her in the evenings by the hearth.52 Ifhis lady
'To rede and here ofTroilus,' says John Gower's Amans, in Confessio
Amantis (1390), he is 'al redi to consente.'53 In The Isle of Ladies (c. 1475),
wishes
some of the ladies pass a
therpleasaunces.'54
night reading 'old romansys... for
In contrast to these all-female ormixed-gender groups, the reports of Edward
IV's squires and James I of Scotland's last night, discussed above, feature all
male groups combining their chronicle- and romance-reading with a variety
of other pleasant activities, such as chess, backgammon, and singing.55
Literary and historical evidence together suggest, therefore, that the public
romance could play out in many ways, depending on region,
reading of
AURAL
DYNAMICS
PERFORMANCE
AND
RECEPTION
57
setting, and the gender and relationship of the participants. Records of the
to household clerics as the prelectors,
reading of devotional material point
but there is no such evidence for recreational reading. Rather, the prelector
of romances was usually a person of low or equal status relative to the
a
a suitor, or some anonymous member of the
a
assembly:
daughter, damsel,
group, not worth identifying.The only exception isQueen Guinevere, inLi
Chevaliers as deus espees; theWife of Baths husband?though
technically
to her in both age and power. When
a household
her superior?was
junior
a new book?we
can return to the Pastons, perhaps,
imagining Sir
acquired
a
it
read
with
of
Caxton's
John
Morte?they
presumably
print
right through.
to launch such
Holidays might be particularly suitable times
readings. Jean
to the court of the count of Foix
Froissart prelected his romance M?liador
over theChristmas holidays,
brightening up the coldest, darkest time of the
an endless series ofArthurian adventures.56
ten
of
with
full
weeks
(a
them)
year
The Morte would
read theMorte
take less time. For his dissertation research, Donald Hobar
aloud himself, to his wife, noting the natural breaks that
could mark the boundaries between one nights
s
reading took just under 33 hours; read
hours per night, theMorte would thus provide
of entertainment.57 After everyone had heard
Hobar
next. In toto
reading and the
one to two
for
continuously,
about two and a half weeks
once?or
through
had read itprivately, since the two modes co-existed in this time?they had
the choice of further full-scale readings or of hearing excerpts read as part of
a
as those
pleasant evening of varied entertainment, such
enjoyed by Edward
a
IV's squires. In such
the
audience
would
setting
actively help choose the
an empowerment made stillmore feasible
by the lower
evenings reading,
status of the prelector, as noted.
Performance
Style
and Audience
the work
Interaction
more difficult to
as I am aware, there is
style is
pinpoint. As far
treatise extant commenting on the prelection style appropriate
to prose romance, and the romances themselves
provide little commentary
on the
some ways
seem to be the
in
The
closest
subject.
analogue
might
minstrels and jongleurs. These performers, however, were always professionals,
who sang or recited in verse and from memory, accompanied by music.58
Thus their rules and professional rivalries really bear little comparison with
the non-musical reading-aloud of prose romance by nonprofessionals.
There are plenty of comments about performance in two other genres in
Performance
no medieval
some way closer to household
Most
rhetoric
manuals
contain
prelection:
a
section
i.e., Latin
on
rhetoric and sermons.
'pronuntiatio,'
a
term
usually
58
arthuriana
translated as 'Delivery.'59 Since any individual educated in Latin was likely
us our
to have been exposed to this sort of text, their comments may
give
closest possible glimpse of how nonprofessionals conceived of performance.
topic ofDelivery goes back as far asTheophrastus (fourth century b.c.e.),
but the locus classicus for theMiddle Ages was the Rhetorica ad Herennium,
The
written in the first century B.C.E.
and widely, though inaccurately, attributed
to Cicero. The
the
advice was political oratory, but in the
of
original object
Middle Ages itwas accepted as guidance for any sort of ambitious public
Latin performance. The Ad Herennium provides quite detailed instructions
on voice,
expression, and gesture, appropriate to three basic modes of
Delivery:
The Tone ofConversation is relaxed, and is closest to daily speech.The Tone
ofDebate is energetic,and is suited to both proof and refutation.The Tone of
Amplification either rouses thehearer towrath ormoves him to pity.
The Conversational
tone has four subdivisions:
theDignified, theExplicative, theNarrative, and theFacetious. The Dignified,
or Serious, Tone ofConversation ismarked by some degree of impressiveness
and by vocal restraint.
The Explicative in a calm voice explains how something
could or could not have been brought to pass. The Narrative sets forthevents
that have
occurred
or
might
have
occurred.
The
Facetious
can on
the basis
of
some circumstance elicit a laughwhich ismodest and refined.60
Debate may be less relevant, but theAd Herennium s description of the tones
of Conversation
and Amplification sounds appropriate to the prelection of
a romance such as theMorte. A baseline Narrative tone could move to
dignity
or facetiousness as the text
moments ofmore intense action
required, rising at
or emotion to the
tone?a variety that, themanual notes,
Amplified
'gives
extreme pleasure to the hearer too, since now the conversational tone holds
the attention and now the full voice rouses it.'61
on the Narrative Conversational Tone, the Ad Herennium
Elaborating
a
to the
matter:
advocates
performance style adapted
subject
Our deliverywill be somewhat rapidwhen we narratewhat we wish to show
was done
we narrate
vigorously, and itwill be slowerwhen
something else
done in leisurelyfashion.Then, corresponding to the content of thewords,
we shallmodify thedelivery in all thekinds of tone, now to sharpness,now to
kindness,
or now
to sadness,
and
now
to
gaiety.
speaker's facial expression 'should show modesty and animation, and the
gestures should not be conspicuous for either elegance or grossness, lestwe give
the impression thatwe are either actors or day labourers.' Physical movements
should consort with tone:
The
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
59
For theDignified Conversational Tone, the speakermust stay inposition when
he speaks, lightly
moving his righthand, his countenance expressingan emotion
to
corresponding the sentimentsof the subject?gaiety or sadness or an emotion
intermediate...For
the Narrative
Conversational
Tone,
the
same
physical
movement as I have just set forth for the
Dignified will be appropriate. For
the Facetious
Conversational
Tone,
we
should
certain gaiety,without changing gestures.
by
our
countenance
express
a
The Pathetic tone evokes a stronger physicalization:
For thePatheticTone ofAmplification, one ought to slap ones thighand beat
one s head, and sometimes to use a calm and uniform
gesticulation and a sad
and disturbed expression.
'Good delivery,' theAd Herennium concludes,
is saying seems to come from his heart.'62
ensures thatwhat
the orator
Later rhetorics were less explicit about tones of delivery, but
preserved
and even elaborated on the acting instructions. Around 1210, for
example,
the premier English rhetorician,Geoffrey de Vinsauf, aimed his advice
directly
at reciters or prelectors of Latin verse:
As the subject behaves, so let the speaker behave.. .Ifyou represent the person
of [an] angryman, what, as a speaker,will you do? Imitate true rages.Yet be
not yourself
enraged; behave partially like the character,but not inwardly.Let
your behavior be the same in every detail but not to such an extent; and
suggestwrath becomingly.You can also present thegestureof a rusticcharacter
and be humorous. Your voice may suggest the characters voice, your face his
face, and your gestureshis gestures?through littleclues. This isa disciplined
charm; this technique of oral recitation is appealing and this food isflavorful
to the ear.63
To Chaucer, Vinsauf is his Meere maister soverayn,' whose eloquence he
envies, however ironically, in the 'Nun's Priest's Tale.'64 The Squire, though
wary himself of such attainments, praises the verbal skill with which the
'strange knyght' addresses Cambyuskan:
And forhis tale sholde seme the bettre,
Accordant to hiswordes was his cheere,
As techeth art of speche hem that it leere.65
the rather feckless young Squire can be expected to know the rules of
Delivery, and that Chaucer the civil servant knew them well enough to put
this reference in the Squire's mouth, suggests that the 'art of
speche' was a
common
and accessible subject of study among
fairly
England's noble and
A
same
was
classes.
after
the
advice
Chaucer,
century
professional
becoming
even more accessible, now rendered into
and
'applied to all kinds of
English
That
60
ARTHURIANA
oral communication.'66
The
(1509) learns from Rhetoric
knight
that
in Stephen Hawes'
Pastime ofPleasure
It is a thynge ryghtgretely conuenable
To
pronounce
the mater
as
it is conuenyent
And to the herers ryghtdelectable67
Hawes
echoes the standard advice about matching
text and audience; for
example:
voice and gesture to the
or rhetoricians]maners and also his chere
Beholdynge his [thepoet's
After themaner be it sad or ioyous
Yf itbe sadde his chere isdolorous.. .68
In 1527, Laurence Andrewe inserted a discussion of Delivery
of Caxton's Mirrour of theWorld:
into his reissue
to euerymater that thou shalt vtter / thoumust haue quement gesture / as
whan thou spekestof a solempnemater to st?ndevp ryghte
with lytell
meuynge
of thybody /but poyntynge itwith thyforefinger.69
Clearly
the classical advice tomimic
the text's nature and its content in
expression, gesture, and intonation survived through and beyond Malory's
time. Coming
into the early modern era, the discussion became not more
esoteric but ever more accessible, as itmoved into the
English vernacular
and into print. It is probably safe to assume, therefore, that the standard of
performance these comments setwould have been familiar among themore
privileged elements of English society, and may have influenced the prelection
of vernacular literature.
The performance style advocated by theAdHerennium and later rhetorics
seems close to what we would expect in a
good prelector today, ifperhaps
more formal and mannered?what
we would still call a rhetorical
style of
were
always careful to differentiate rhetorical
excesses
from
the
of mimi et histriones. By these terms the
performance
medieval rhetoricians, iftheywere not simply parroting their classical sources,
presumably meant minstrels and jongleurs. There were no professional actors
acting. Yet
the manuals
until very late in the medieval
period, and apart from the famous
melodramatics of Herod and Pilate, acting in the Corpus Christi plays was
probably stylized but not exaggerated.70 Indeed, the prologue to the twelfth
century Anglo-Norman Myst?re dAdam echoes the rhetorics in advising that
the performers speak composedly and make gestures matching the thing
they are speaking about.'71
Histrionics aside, the rhetorics clearly assume that performers will read
deeply into texts, drawing out their drama, comedy, and pathos. The
aural
reception
and
dynamics
performance
6l
to the intensity of the
emotionality invested into such readings corresponds
to
seem
have evoked. The
response that aural (and oral) performances
listeners enjoyment of these events is attested, indirectly, by sermons, where
romance over
preachers frequently deplored the audiences preference for
a late twelfth-century French cleric,
Scripture. Peter of Blois, for example,
noted with annoyance that when actors repeat certain tales about Arthur
and Tris tan,... the hearts of the audience are stirred with
and Gawain
to the point of tears/72
compassion and pierced
a
Caesarius of Heisterbach
(early thirteenth century) tells the story of
to his inattentive
now
preacher who announced
congregation that he would
tell an Arthurian tale. The response was as expected: 'See, my brothers/ he
I spoke of God you slept; but as
exclaimed, a great unhappiness. When
soon as I insert levities, you are all wide awake,
listening with pricked ears/73
In England John Bromyard and other, anonymous preachers noted the same
tendency. One Vernacular homilist/ according to G.R. Owst, confessed:
men deliten moche to heren of other mennys famouse dedes; and the
'Many
more
worthi
that such dedis
ben,
the more
men
profiten
bi
such
ensaumplis/74
Detailed
testimony to the emotional
in Petrarch's account
to Boccaccio
Griselda:
impact of prelected stories comes
a
of
reading of his Latin translation of
I gave it to one of ourmutual friends inPadua to read, aman of excellent parts
and wide attainments.When scarcelyhalf-way through the composition, he
was suddenly arrestedby a burst of tears.
When again, aftera short pause, he
made a manful attempt to continue, he was again interruptedby a sob. He
then realised thathe could go no fartherhimself, and handed the story to one
of his
companions...
to finish.?*
the prelector himself is so overcome that he cannot continue his reading.
to the enthusiasm with which Arthurian
Malory himself offers testimony
material could be received. Recommending
that gentlemen praise Tristram
Here
for inventing the terms of venery, he famously interpolates: Amen, sayde sir
Thomas Malleorr?' (416). And as Karen Cherewatuk notes inher introduction
to this issue of Arthuriana,
modern audiences also find that a performed
version takes on greater intensity.Karen quotes an audience member
'When you hear theMorte,
reading who exclaimed:
emotions?ALL?are
heightened.'
Kalamazoo
all
a
imagine that the prelector's dramatic reading of passage would
create a feedback loop,
exciting the audience's emotional response, which in
or shewas not too
turnwould influence the prelector's further
reading (ifhe
choked up to proceed). An audience that hated Guinevere, for instance,
We
can
at a
62
ARTHURIANA
evoke a different reading than one that found her sympathetic. An
that hated the text being read to them might, like theWife of
so
far as to tear out the books pages and knock the prelector into
Bath, go
the fire.76 The Canterbury Tales gives many further examples of listeners
would
audience
not only the story chosen and
influencing the oral telling of tales, affecting
details of the narrative, but not infrequently terminating the performance
theKnight's elegant
altogether. The Miller, for example, 'quites' (pays back)
classical romance by replicating the same basic plot in the form of a fabliau.
The Reeve, who is a carpenter, then quites theMiller for portraying a
cuckolded carpenter by shaping his tale around the cuckolding of a miller.
After the Friar teases theWife
of Bath, she launches her tale of'fayerye' with
friars have replaced elves as wanderers and
of
how
lengthy explanation
incubi.77 The Franklin gently stops the Squire's rambling tale; theHost rudely
terminates Chaucer's
'drasty' story of Sir Thopas; and theKnight, seconded
a
by theHost, asks theMonk to abandon his long series of depressing tragedies.
theHost shapes the event by his choice of the next story-teller
Throughout,
and by specifying the sort of tale he thinkswould be appropriate?although
several pilgrims happily ignore his suggestions.
a
Clearly,
reading-aloud session would have less of this free-flowing,
interactive dynamic, but as theWife of Bath's example suggests, the audiences
of recreational textswere not passive either. Their voices would be heard in
the choice of book to be read and of where to begin in that book, and their
influence the emphases of the reading, and
response would
sometimes perhaps terminate it.They may have responded verbally as well
or after the
textwith their own
during
reading, bracketing the performed
emotional
experience and interpretations.
Performance
Complexified
add one postscript about the reading ofMalory, however. As he
transcended so many rules of his genre, Malory may have by the end of the
Morte outgrown the stylized emotions of the rhetorics. Given the role of
I would
'Narrator' of some crucial closing scenes of the
Morte, in a dramatized reading
at the 2003 International Medieval
I found myself
Congress inKalamazoo,
a medieval prelector would have handled these passages.
how
wondering
Used to shaping gesture, expression, and intonation to one textual emotion
at a time, how would a reader have represented the complexity of motive
and consciousness thatmanifests itself in the post-Grail Morte? Heading for
Guinevere's chamber despite Bors's warning, for example, Lancelot proclaims:
'
nat be somuch a cowarde, but she shall undirstonde
[W]yte you well, Iwoll
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
63
narrator continues: 'So sirLauncelot departed
good grace.' The
and toke hys swerde undir hys arme, and so he walked in hys mantell, that
noble knyght, and put hymselff in grete joupart?' (675). Here we have classic
Iwoll
se her
a
to a
particularly ill-advised
phrases of heroism applied
knight keeping
as the
assignation with his king's wife. Should these lines be read heroically,
themselves suggest? Or are those heroic phrases to be read ironically?
In his Rhetorica antiqua (1215), Boncompagno
da Signa noted that irony can
be conveyed by a speaker's gestures, or by the presence in the text of manifest
evil and impure belief Anyone, he continues, could recognize the incongruity
words
of praising 'the Ethiopian for his whiteness, the thief for his guardianship,
in describing the 'noble
the lecher for his chastity.'78 IsMalory,
knyght'
Lancelot's
progress towards Guinevere's chamber, praising the lecher?or
the traitor?for his heroism? It is hard to deny the ironic overtones of the
passage, but it is also hard to believe thatMalory would surrender his hero
to irony, or transform him into an
completely
exemplum of'manifest evil.'
as
Should the prelector, then, portray Lancelot
simply deluded or foolish?
a
a note of
Would
desperation into Lancelot's reply to
good reader insert
Bors? My personal solution, asNarrator at Kalamazoo, was to (try to) express
Malory's faith in Lancelot; though his favorite knight was setting off to do
an
not abandon his belief in Lancelot's
arguably stupid thing,Malory would
heroic
spirit.
essentially
The bedchamber episode may also be explained as another example of
the sort of humor Tom Burton discusses, as quoted
in Cherewatuk's
introduction to this issue. Like Uther's lust for Ygerne, and like Lancelot
and Guinevere's quarrels and trysts,this comedy may be particularly activated
in descriptions of men led into rash action by their desires. So the
prelector
could try tomanage some combination of theNarrative and Facetious tones
But there are other complex passages where humor
cannot be suspected.With Arthur and Gawain
waste to his land
laying
during
the siege of Benwick, knight after knight urges Lancelot to act as befits
com of
as one, the seven
'knyghtes
kyngis blod' (700). Speaking last and
of the Ad Herennium.
brothers of North Wales
declare:
'we were never wonte
to coure in castels
nother in noble
townys.' Surely prelector and audience would endorse all
this heroic defiance. Yet Lancelot speaks, as 'mayster and governoure of hem
better ys pees
all,' in favor only of patience, delay, and negotiation?'for
tone of voice, what gesture, goes with this
than allwayes warre' (701). What
willful departure from the conventions of heroic romance? How does the
the proper
prelector handle Lancelot's heroic refusal to be heroic?Whatever
there is or was one?
interpretation of such passages should be?assuming
64
arthuriana
they imply a complex mix of emotions and perceptions that seem to challenge
the prescriptions of the rhetorics.
is not to say that the text becomes
unperformable. It is to say, rather,
that the textmay have invited readers?public
or private?to
read in a new
to
a
It
is
discover
what
medieval
audience
understood
of
way.
impossible
this textualmutation, still less how medieval prelectors
it.
I
presented
imagine
many tried their best to keep to the old performance script, assigning one
emotion per character per scene.
Perhaps the ironies and complexities
to communicate themselves
or were even activated
managed
regardless,
by
This
the hearers
recognition of the mismatch between text and context. Some
a less
readers may have adapted with and to the text,
stylized
developing
form of prelection open towhat we would consider more realistic
portrayals
of character.
Yet this efflorescence of individuality, which we
rightly celebrate in the
a
the
of
has
Morte,
closing chapters
peculiar parallel effect on the world
within theMorte, and on itshearers or readers. As the action, and with it the
prelector's performance, complexifies and individuates, the bonding power
of the old values?chivalric
and rhetorical?dissipates. The new complexities
of action and voice can only carry Lancelot to his
hermitage, and the readers
into the isolation of early modern
self-fashioning. This may be the effect
Malory was after: to make his readers and hearers experience viscerally the
loss of community, of common values and voice, implicit in the
passing of
Arthur and his age?and,
in
imminent
mnemonic
shift
perhaps,
England's
frommanuscript to print, from the closely localized creation and
performance
texts to the broad, anonymous
of hand-made
of identical
multiplication
copies.
As
the articles
in this issue of Arthuriana
demonstrate, the idea of
new
of
ways
Malory's aurality opens up
understanding and appreciating his
work. The scope of ownership and readership broadens when we consider
theMorte as a text shared among and
constituting household and courtly
at
The
of
his
discovers
groups.
investigation
style
strategies, all levels, designed
to ensure the audience's
simultaneously
comprehension and to augment the
a
scene
or
of
The
underlying message
episode.
principles of rhetoricalDelivery
to the
scenarios
and
of
suggest
emphases
reading that may be clues
text.
of
contemporary understanding
Malory's
university
of
north
dakota
is an associate
at the
of North
Joyce Coleman
professor of English
University
Her research focuses on
Dakota.
in the
reading practices and literary reception
laterMiddle
Ages.
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
65
NOTES
1 I am
grateful to theArts and Humanities ScholarlyActivities Committee of the
University ofNorth Dakota for a 1999 grantwhich enabled me to begin the
research
for this article.
2
E.g., Margaret Schlauch, Antecedents of theEnglish Novel (London: Oxford
University Press, 1963), p. 5; Derek Pearsall, 'The English Romance in the
FifteenthCentury,' Essays and Studies 29 (1976): 71-72 [56-83].
3 See, e.g., P.J.C. Field, The Life and Times ofSir ThomasMalory (Woodbridge:
Brewer, 1993); Hilton Kelliher, 'The Early History of theMalory Manuscript,'
inToshiyuki Takamiya and Derek Brewer, eds., Aspects ofMalory, Arthurian
Studies 1 (Cambridge: Brewer, 1981), pp. 143-58; Karen Cherewatuk, '"Gentyl"
Audiences and "Grete Bookes": Chivalric Manuals and theMorte Darthur,"
Arthurian Literature 15 (1997): 205-16.
4 Kelliher, 'EarlyHistory,' pp. 154-55.
5 Sir Thomas Malory, The Works ofSir ThomasMalory, ed. Eug?ne Vinaver, 2d
edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. xiii. All furthercitations from
LeMorte Darthur are from this edition and will be noted parenthetically in the
text.Any italics in quotations from thiswork aremine.
6 Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard Ills Books: Ideals and Reality in
theLife and Library ofaMedieval Prince (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1977), pp.
219,
160-63,
35 n- 59; on Roos's
ownership,
see also Carol
Meale,
'Manuscripts,
Readers, and Patrons in Fifteenth-Century England: Sir Thomas Malory
Arthurian Romance,' Arthurian Literature 4 (1985): 103 [93-126].
7 Meale,
'Manuscripts,
Readers,
and
Patrons,'
p.
and
105.
8 H.S. Bennett, The Pastons and Their England: Studies in an Age ofTransition, 2nd
edn. (1932; repr.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 111.
Paston
Letters and Papers of theFifteenth Century, 2 vols., ed. Norman Davis
9
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971 [vol 1]; 1976 [vol. 2]), no. 316, items 1-2; A.R.
Myers,
ed., English Historical
Spottiswoode,
1969),
p.
1205 nn.
Documents:
1-2.
1327?1485
(London:
Eyre &
10 JoyceColeman, Public Reading and theReading Public inLateMedieval England
and France (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
11 See Coleman, Public Reading, pp. 35-37.
12 Coleman, Public Reading, pp. 109-47.
13 London, BL Harley 7333 (mid-i5thc), f. 37;my italics.
14 A.I. Doyle, 'More Light on John Shirley,'Medium Aevum 30 (1961): 93-101.
15 JoyceColeman, 'The Audible Caxton: Reading and Hearing in theWritings of
England's First Publisher,' Fifteenth-CenturyStudies 16 (1990): 83-109.
16
William Caxton, Caxtons Own Prose, ed. N.F. Blake (London: Deutsch, 1973), p.
140; any italics in quotations from thisbook aremine.
17 Caxtons
18 Paston
19 Caxtons
Own
Letters,
Own
Prose,
p. 67.
1: no.
ed. Davis
Prose,
p. 88.
316,
item 4.
66
ARTHURIANA
20 Caxtoris Own Prose, p. 76.
21A.R. Myers, ed., TheHousehold ofEdward IV: The Black Book and theOrdinance
of 14/8 (Manchester:Manchester University Press, 1959), p. 129.
22 John Shirley,The Dethe of theKynge of Scotis/ in Joseph Stevenson, ed., The
no.
Life and Death ofKing James theFirst ofScotland (Edinburgh:Maitland Club
42, 1837), pp. 53-54 [47-67].
23 '...scripture et cronicorum leccioni post divina obsequia se confert'; Sir John
Fortescue, De laudibus legumAnglie, ed. and trans. S.B. Chrimes (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1942), pp. 118-19.
24 \. .in aula Sociis ministratur; tune scholaribus et Sociis, post tempus prandii aut
coenae, liceat gratia recreationis in aula in cantilenis et aliis solatiis honestis
moram
facere
condecentem,
ac caetera
mirabilia,
quae
et poemata,
statum
regnorum
clericalem
chronicas,
et mundi
seriosius
condecorant,
hujus
pertractare';
Statutes oftheColleges ofOxford, 3vols. (Oxford: Parker, 1853),vol. 1:New College,
p. 42;
the translation
in the text ismine.
For discussion
of the historical
records
cited in this paragraph, see Coleman, Public Reading, pp. 117-28; or Joyce
Coleman, 'TalkingofChronicles: The Public Reading ofHistory inLateMedieval
England and France/ Cahiers de Litt?ratureOrale 36 (1994): 91-111.
25 The Parlement of theThre Ages, ed. M.Y. Offord (EETS 246; London: Oxford
University Press, 1959), lines 250-56.
26 The Parlement of theThreAges, p. 51,n. to lines 250-52.
27 Thorlac Turville-Petre, ed., 'The Lament for Sir John Berkeley/ Speculum 57
(1982): 332-39; lines 41-44.
28 Richard Barber, 'Malory s LeMorte Darthur and Court Culture under Edward
IV/Arthurian Literature 15 (1993), p. 152 [133-55].
29 Olivier de laMarche, M?moires, vol. 2, ed. Henri Beaune and J. d'Arbaumont
(Paris: Soci?t? de l'Histoire de France, 1884), p. 334; seeColeman, Public Reading,
pp.
120-22.
30 P.J.C. Field rejects this long-standing assumption (see, e.g., Edward Hicks, Sir
Thomas Malory: His Turbulent Career [Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1928], pp. 10-17) inhis biography ofMalory, but alleges no proof other than his
conviction
that the author
of Le Morte
Darthur
must
have
been
a
younger
man
than this connection would allow (Field, Life and Times, p. 64).
31 Field, Life and Times, pp. 26-30, 86-87.
32 Some of thepoints below repeat or expand on comments fromColeman, Public
Reading,
pp.
213-14.
33 See also pp. 180, 195, 385, 391,423, 440, 471, 577, 594, 630, 637, 678, 717.
34Mark Lambert,Malory: Styleand Vision in Le Morte Darthur (New Haven: Yale
University
Press,
1975),
pp.
125-38.
35 'Oral' literatureisgenerallyunderstood to be literaturecomposed and performed
with littleor no use ofwriting; 'aural' literaturedescribes literatureread aloud
from a written
36 Donald
text.
Hobar, 'The Oral Tradition inMalory's Morte Darthur,'
dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1967, p. 2.
Ph.D.
AURAL
RECEPTION
AND
PERFORMANCE
DYNAMICS
67
'The Oral Tradition inMalory's Morte Darthur,' p. 34; see furtherpp.
37Hobar,
87-147.
particularly cites Ruth Crosby, 'Oral Delivery in theMiddle Ages/
11 (1936): 88-110; andWalter J.Ong, 'Oral Residue inTudor Prose
Speculum
Style' (1965), repr. inOng, Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the
Interaction ofExpression and Culture (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971), pp.
38 Hobar
23-47
39LarryD. Benson,Malory sMorte Darthur (Cambridge,Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1976), p. 80. Shunichi Noguchi's 'ReadingMalory's Text Aloud' (in Bonnie
Wheeler, Robert L. Kindrick, and Michael N. Saida, eds., The Malory Debate:
Essays on theTexts of theMorte Darthur [Cambridge: Brewer, 2000], pp. 301-14)
sounds likeanother discussion relevant toMalory's aurality,but in fact itfocuses
on narrative
voice,
dialogue,
and
related
editing
issues.
40 Albert Lord, The Singer ofTales (i960; repr.New York: Atheneum, 1973).
41 Jeremy Smith, 'Language and Style inMalory,' in Elizabeth Archibald and
A.S.G.Edwards, eds.,A Companion to
Malory (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer,
102
[97-113].
1996), p.
42
Ibid.,
p.
111.
43 Lambert,Malory, pp. 8-13.
44 Coleman, Public Reading, pp. 30-31.
45 Robert Mannyng of Brunne, The Chronicle, ed. Idelle Sullens (Medieval &
Renaissance Texts and Studies 153;Binghamton: State University ofNew York,
1996), 1: 10416.
Chr?tien
46
deTroyes, Les Romans de Chr?tien de Troyes;vol. 4: Le Chevalier au Lion
Mario Roques (Paris:Champion, 1968), lines 5354-66.
ed.
(Yvain),
as Deus Espees, ed.Wendelin Foerster (Halle: Niemeyer, 1877),
Li
Chevaliers
47
lines 4268-73.
48 'Vn romant dont ele lisoit /As cheualiers et as pucieles'; ibid., lines 8951-53,
quote from lines 8952-53.
49 'D'un roumant o?nt uns biaus dis /La pucele le faissoit lire';The Romance of
Hunbaut: An Arthurian Poem of theThirteenthCentury, ed. Margaret Winters
(Leiden: Brill, 1984), lines 3048-53, quote from lines 3052-53. For discussion of
these and other depictions of public reading in French romances, see Evelyn
BirgeVitz, Orality and Performance inEarly FrenchRomance (Cambridge: Brewer,
i999)>
PP- 207-15.
50 Ywain and Gawain, ed. Albert B. Friedman and Norman T. Harrington (EETS
254; London: Oxford University Press, 1964), lines 3084-94.
51GeoffreyChaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, lines 78-84, inThe Riverside Chaucer, 3d
edn., ed. Larry D. Benson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
52GeoffreyChaucer, The Canterbury Tales, 3: 669-93, inThe Riverside Chaucer, 3d
edn.,
ed. Benson.
53 JohnGower, CompleteWorks, vols. 2-3: ConfessioAmantis, ed. G.C. Macaulay
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901), 4: 2795, 2797.
54 The Isle of Ladies, or The He ofPleasaunce, ed. Anthony Jenkins (New York:
68
ARTHURIANA
Garland, 1980), lines 973-74.
55Shirley, 'Dethe,' pp. 53-54;Myers, ed.,Household ofEdward IV, pp. 128-29.
56 Froissart describes this reading in two locations: theDit du florin (1389), lines
282-387 (Froissart,Oeuvres: Po?sies, vol. 2: Le Dit duflorin, ed. Auguste Scheler
[Brussels: Devaux, 1871]); and in book 3 of his Chroniques (1390) (Froissart,
vol. 11, ed. Kervyn
de Lettenhove
Chroniques,
Public
also Coleman,
pp. 111-12.
Reading,
'Oral Tradition,'
pp. 65-68.
Oeuvres:
[Brussels:
Devaux,
1870]),
p. 85. See
57 Hobar,
58 For a detailed and engaging discussion ofminstrel or jongleur peformance, see
Vitz, Orality and Performance.
59 For
60
a survey
on
of comments
from medieval
pronuntiatio
see
rhetoric manuals,
Beryl Rowland, 'Pronuntiatio and ItsEffect on Chaucer's Audience,' Studies in
theAge ofChaucer 4 (1982): 33-51.
est oratio
'Sermo
et finitima
remissa
cotidianae
locutioni.
est oratio
Contentio
acris et ad confirmandum et ad confutandum adcommodata. Amplificatio est
oratio
aut
quae
in iracundiam
animum...Sermo
aut
inducit,
in partes
dividitur
ad misericordiam
trahit
auditoris
demonstrationem,
dignitatem,
cum
et vocis
aliqua
gravitate
voce
remissione.
remissa
Demonstratio
docet
quae
quomodo
quid
aut non
ut
est rerum
aut
Narratio
fieri potuerit
gestarum
potuerit.
proinde
ex
re risum
est oratio
et
Iocatio
quae
gestarum
expositio.
aliqua
pudentem
Ad C. Herennium,
liberalem
de ratione dicendi,
ed. and trans.
potest conparare';
iocationem.
narrationem,
61
p.
'.. .auditorem
translation,
62
'Strenue quod
retardabimus.
partes
hilaritate,
erit
volumus
ostendere
modo
cum
sermone
ratione dicendi,
animum
retinet
ed. Caplan,
p.
194;
esse,
tum
dicemus;
clementer,
maeste,
at aliud
hilare
otiose,
in omnes
ne
item pronuntiationem..
in vultu
.Convenit
igitur
nec venustatem
nec
in gestu
conspiciendam
aut histriones
aut
si erit
esse...Nam
videamur
operarii
esse,
stantis
dignitate,
tristitia, mediocritate
in narratione
celeriuscule
factum,
acriter,
ut verba
et acrimoniam
demonstrabatur
hilaritatem
de
195.
Deinde
turpitudinem
sermo
cum
delectat,
Ad C. Herennium,
commutabimus
pudorem
maxime
varietas
clamore';
p.
1954), p. 196;
197.
quidem
aut exsuscitat
quattuor:
est oratio
(Loeb Classical Library; London: Heinemann,
Harry Caplan
translation,
Dignitas
est oratio
in
levi dexterae
motu,
loqui oportebit,
vestigio,
sententias
vultus ad sermonis
adcommodata..
.Sin
idem
sermo,
motus
poterit
esse
idoneus
qui
in dignitate. Sin in iocatione, vultu quandam
sine
commutatione
utemur
paulo
ante
debebimus
amplificatione
et
sedato
ictu, nonnumquam
capitis
tarnen scire
vultu uti oportebit...Hoc
ut res ex animo
bonam
id proficere,
Ad
oportet,
pronuntiationem
agi videatur';
de ratione dicendi,ed.
C Herennium,
202;
200,
translation,
198,
pp.
pp.
Caplan,
significare
feminis
per
conquestionem,
maesto
constanti
gestu,
199, 201,
plangore
et conturbato
gestus...Sin
et
203.
63 In recitante sonent tr?s linguae: prima
Altera rhetorici vultus, et tertia gestus.
sit oris,
AURAL
AND
RECEPTION
Sunt
in voce
suae
res sicut habet
Sic vocem
PERFORMANCE
leges,
DYNAMICS
69
et eas ita serves
se,
recitator habe.
si geris ejus,
recitator ages? Veros
Personam
Quid
Non
Non
imitare furores.
ut ille,
tarnen esto furens: partim movearis
tuus
in
sit
omnibus
idem,
penitus; motusque
sed rem, sicut decet, innue. Gestum
potes agrestis et esse facetus.
Vox vocem, vultus vultum gestusque
figuret
est moderata
Gestum
venustas,
per notulas. Haec
venustus et auri
in
Hic modus
lingua recitante
Hic cibus est sapidus
Non
tantus;
Praesentare
(GeoffreyofVinsauf, PoetriaNova, ed. Ernest Gallo, inGallo, The PoetriaNova
and ItsSources inEarly RhetoricalDoctrine [TheHague: Mouton, 1971], 11.2036
38, 2044-45, 2052-61; trans. Jane Baltzell Kopp, fromGeoffrey ofVinsauf, The
New Poetics [PoetriaNova], in James J.Murphy, ed., ThreeMedieval Rhetorical
Arts [Berkeley:University of California Press, 1971], pp. 105).
64 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, 7: 3347-52.
65 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, 5: 89,102-104.
66 Rowland,
'Pronuntiatio,"
p. 40.
67 Stephen Hawes, The Pastime ofPleasure, ed.William Edward Mead (EETS OS
173;London: Oxford University Press, 1928), lines 1205?7.
68 Hawes, The Pastime ofPleasure, lines 1228-30.
69 Rowland, 'Pronuntiatio,' p. 41, quoting fromWilliam Caxton, ed. Laurence
Andrewe, The Myrrour: & dyscrypscyonof the worlde with many meruaylles
(London: Andrewe, 1527), sig.D3r-D3v.
70 Richard Beadle, 'General Introduction,' in Beadle and Pamela M. King, eds.,
YorkMystery Plays: A Selection inModern Spelling (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1995), pp. xxiii?xxiv [ix?xxx].
71 \.
.composite
loquantur
et
gestum
faciant
convenientem
rei, de qua
loquuntur';
LeMyst?re dAdam: An Anglo-Norman Drama of theTwelfthCentury, ed. Paul
Studer (1918; repr.Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1967), p. 1.
72
'...de
et
Arturo
quorum
auditu
Gangano
concutiuntur
et Tristanno
fabulosa
ad compassionem
quaedam
audientium
referunt
corda,
histriones,
et
usque
ad
lacrymascompunguntur'; quoted inand trans.ErichAuerbach, LiteraryLanguage
and Its Public in Late Latin Antiquity and in theMiddle Ages, trans. Ralph
Manheim (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965), p. 304.
73Quoted in and trans.Charles Runacres, Art and Ethics in theExempla ofConfessio
Amantis,"
in A.J.
Minnis,
ed.,
Gower's
Confessio
Amantis:
Responses
and
Reassessments (Cambridge: Brewer, 1983), p. 119 [106-34].
74 G.R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit inMedieval England, 2nd edn. (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1961), pp. 13-14; quote fromp. 14.
75 '[L]egit earn primum communis amicus Patauinus uir altissimi ingenii,
multiplicisque notitiae, & cum epistolae medium uix transisset, subito fletu
70
praeuentus
animo
substitit,
perlecturus,
Fassus
interrumpit.
ARTHURIANA
uero cum inman
post modicum
ecce iterum,
ad condictum
quasi
se non
posse
itaque
prodesse,
us earn
resumpsisset,
lecturam
rediens,
earn
uni
suorum
firmato
gemitus
comitum
docto satis uiro legendam tradidit'; Francis Petrarch, Francisci Petrarchae
Florentini,
pbilosophi,
oratoris,
etpoetae
clarissimi,
...
opera
extant
quae
2
omnia,
vols. (Basil: Henrichus Petri, 1554; repr. Farnborough, Hampshire: Gregg
International Publishers, 1965), 1: 606; trans, in JamesHarvey Robinson and
Henry Winchester Rolfe, Petrarch: The FirstModern Scholar andMan ofLetters
(New York: Putnam, 1898), p. 195.
76 Chaucer, Canterbury Tales 3: 788-93.
77 Chaucer, Canterbury Tales 3: 859, 864-81.
78 'Verumtamen si videretur ille qui proponit yroniam, per gestus comprehendi
posset
voluntas
conscientia
loquentis.
recipientem
In absentia
accusant...
nempe
Ceterum
manifestum
vix
aliquis
delictum
adeo
qui non intelligat si de eo quod non est conlaudetur. Nam
Ethyopem
de
albedine,
latronem
de
custodia,
luxuriosum
de
et immunda
fatuus
reperitur
si commendares
castitate,...';
ed.
and trans. John F. Benton, 'Clio and Venus: An Historical View ofMedieval
Love,' inEX. Newman, ed., TheMeaning ofCourtlyLove (Albany: StateUniversity
ofNew York Press, 1968), p. 37; translation,pp. 28-29 [t9-42].