Abstract
While it is well known that medieval theologians often took up the subject of the mystery of the Incarnation and the topos of the ‘Word made flesh’ (John 1:14), this innovative new study looks at how this concept takes on the status of a formal literary aesthetic in a number of English vernacular texts from the second half of the 14th century. Cervone connects the devotional interest in the Incarnation found in vernacular poems and lyrics to a range of other Middle English writings, including the Long Charter of Christ, as well as texts by Langland, Julian of Norwich, and Walter Hilton. She argues that the Incarnation is a structural principle in these texts, and she shows how the poetic strategies of these medieval writers are subtly informed by precise theological concerns. Most interestingly, she looks at three image groups found in late medieval English writings: ‘Christ’s body as language or writing, as clothing or enwrapment, and as botanical growth or life force’ (p. 163). These unusual image groups, while little-studied, are deeply alive in English devotional literature. For example, plant and botanical imagery of religious import is widespread in lyric and manuscript art, and sometimes appears in connection with the genre of ‘Truelove’ poems. These poems often depict an actual plant known as the ‘crux Christi,’ which has leaves that form the shape of a cross. Cervone elucidates the ways in which the imagery of springing, sprouting, and spiritual inflorescence found in this genre has clear Incarnational overtones, and can be further tied to the ‘Leaps of Christ’ tradition, known to many readers through Langland’s Piers Plowman, which portrays the Incarnation as Love’s leap from heaven. In this tradition, the Incarnation is the first leap (into Mary’s womb), usually followed by the Crucifixion (leap onto the cross), and the Ascension (leap into heaven). Cervone maps out the contours of these unusual, understudied areas of medieval thought and reveals new ways for understanding the Incarnational aesthetic that informs them.
The book often relies on a formalist approach and some of its fine close readings stand to be very influential in the years to come. The attention to cognitive theory, linguistics, and metaphor is timely and well-informed. However, the thread of argument is at times hard to follow and seems overly sinuous, perhaps because many of the detailed close readings are not always tied back to the book’s wider arguments. In other words, some of the glittering local readings overshadow the larger, global ones. One is left with the impression that the theological intricacy of the devotional texts explored finds some parallel here. This reservation aside, there is an enormous amount of original research distilled in this book, and the author has identified some of the most interesting but least well-known aspects of late medieval English literature, especially in the religious lyric. Indeed, her discussion of clothing imagery is highly suggestive, and she has identified many themes in Middle English writing that merit further research. Furthermore, she picks some thorny, knotty passages from Langland, Julian, and Walter Hilton, and commendably teases fresh insights out of them. Her incisive analysis of the Long Charter of Christ in chapters three and five are the most successful and cohesive in the book, and she contributes new ways of conceptualizing the poem beyond its well-known concern with law and literacy. For example, she contrasts the thematics and iconography of the Short and Long Charter to great effect, showing that the latter contains more images of lordship and kingship and is more actively undergirded by an incarnational poetic. She also briefly looks at the lily crucifixion, a unique subject in the visual arts from late medieval Britain, which she persuasively connects to some of the texts that are her focus. She notes this imagery was widespread in England and Wales from the mid-14th century to the early 16th century, and provides a useful catalogue of 19 examples from stained glass, manuscript art, and church furnishings. Here, as elsewhere in the book, she is interested in the way this imagery refracts moments of time, collapsing different narrative events in the life of Christ to create temporal simultaneity. This highly original, carefully researched book will serve as an inspiring companion for anyone interested in late medieval English devotional literature and culture as well as for others interested in the Incarnational aesthetic of the period.