The genre of medieval romance examined through the lens of their
physical and their metrical forms.
Romances were immensely popular with medieval readers, as evidenced by
their ubiquity in manuscripts and early print. The essays collected here
deal with the textual transmission of medieval romances in England and
Scotland, combining this with investigations into their metre and form;
this comparison of the romances in both their material form and their
verse form sheds new light on their cultural and social contexts. Topics
addressed include the textualhistory of Sir Orfeo; the singing of Middle
English romances; their rhythms and rhyme schemes; their printed
transmission from Caxton to Wynkyn de Worde; and the representation of
the Otherworld in manuscript miscellanies.
AD PUTTER is Professor of Medieval English at the University of Bristol;
JUDITH A. JEFFERSON is Research Associate at the University of Bristol.
Contributors: Michelle de Groot, Judith A. Jefferson, RebeccaE. Lyons,
Carol M. Meale, Donka Minkova, Nicholas Mylkebust, Derek Pearsall,
Rhiannon Purdie, Ad Putter, Elizabeth Robertson, Jordi Sánchez-Martí,
Thorlac Turville-Petre