Malory's Grail Seekers and Fifteenth-century English HagiographyMalory's version of the Grail Quest in The Morte Darthur presents several difficulties for scholars, most important, whether it should be read as a chivalric romance or as a theological treatise like its source, the French Queste. This study looks at a popular fifteenth-century English genre - the saints' lives - and shows that Malory's Grail story reads very much like the saints' lives written by Lydgate, Capgrave, and Bokenham, which satisfied the same readership that Malory enjoyed. As Vinaver observed, Malory's Grail story had «more in common with the lives of saints» than with chivalric romance. |
Contents
FifteenthCentury English Interest In Saints Lives | 15 |
Generic Features of FifteenthCentury English | 31 |
Generic Features of Saints Lives in Malorys | 65 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve the Grail Albon Amphibalus Arthurian Augustine Bagdemagus behavior Bokenham Bors Capgrave century chapter chaste chastity Christ Christian church CKA Bk clepyd dede devotion earthly Edmund Eugène Vinaver faith fifteenth genre Gilbert Gilbert of Sempringham Golden Legend Grail quest Grail seekers grete hagiographic heavenly Henry Henry VI holy human Ihle John Capgrave Katherine of Alexandria King kynge Lancelot Later Middle Ages Legend Legenda Aurea literary lives Lydgate Lydgate's Malory presents Malory's Grail Quest Malory's Grail story Malory's readers Malory's version Mary Middle English miraculous events moral Nicholas Orme noble Norbert Oxford patrons Percival Percival's sister Régis Boyer religious Reprinted by permission royal lineage sainthood saintly Sankgreal Sarras Scattergood secular seyde sholde sinfulness sir Galahad spiritual tells thou thys Vinaver virginity Weinstein and Bell whan whech whych whyght woman Wych wyth þat þis