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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achieve attributes behavior blood body Bokenham Bors Capgrave Capgrave's century chapter characters chaste chastity chivalric Christ Christian church comes court critics death describes devotion earthly England English Studies established evidence examination example faith fifteenth fifteenth-century English Finally follows Galahad Grail quest Grail story grete hagiographic hears heavenly Henry holy human identified important instance John Katherine King knight knows kynge Lancelot later Legend lineage literary lives Lydgate Malory Malory's Grail Mary medieval Middle Ages miraculous events moral never noble Norbert notes Oxford patrons Percival Percival's sister period person political presents readers religious remains romance royal sainthood saintly saints Sankgreal says secular seems shows sinfulness spiritual suggests Table Tale tells thou thys virginity virtue woman women writes York žat