Women of words in 'Le morte Darthur' : The autonomy of speech in Malory's female characters

Offering a new reading of Malory’s famed text, __Le Morte Darthur__, this book provides the first full-length survey of the alterations Malory made to female characters in his source texts. Through detailed comparisons with both Old French and Middle English material, Siobhán M. Wyatt discusses how Malory radically altered his French and English source texts to create a gendered pattern in the reliability of speech, depicting female discourse as valuable and truthful. Malory’s authorial crafting indicates his preference for a certain “type” of female character: self-governing, opinionated, and strong. Simultaneously, the portrayal of this very readable “type” yields characterization. While late medieval court records indicate an increasingly negative attitude towards female speech and a tendency to punish vociferous women as “scolds,” Malory makes the words of chiding damsels constructive. While his contemporary writers suppress the powers of magical women, Malory empowers his enchantress characters; while the authors of his French source texts accentuate Guinevere’s flaws, Malory portrays her with sympathy. Dedication 6 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 Abbreviations 10 Chapter 1: Introduction 11 Notes 21 Chapter 2: The Ill-Speaking Woman and the Marriageable Lady 24 2.1 Lyonet and Lyonesse 29 2.1.1 Ipomadon and Gareth 33 2.1.2 Gareth, Lybeaus Desconus, Perceval and La Cote Male Tayle 38 2.1.3 The Beheading Scenes in Ipomadon and Gareth 39 2.1.4 The Marriageable Lady 41 2.2 Maledysaunte 43 2.3 Morgan, Alys and Morgan’s Cousin 48 2.4 The Damsels of Arroy, and Nynyve and Ettarde 51 Notes 61 Chapter 3: Magical and Miraculous Women 68 3.1 Malory’s Magic in Context: Portrayals of Eleanor Cobham’s Witchcraft in Late Medieval England 70 3.1.1 Morgan le Fay 74 3.1.2 Female Sorceresses in Late Medieval Romances 82 3.1.3 Malory’s Morgan and Caxton’s Medea 83 3.1.4 Morgan in Arthur’s Death Scene and the Stanzaic Morte Arthur 85 3.2 Nynyve 86 3.3 Percival’s Sister 95 3.4 A Note on the Grail Demons 107 Notes 109 Chapter 4: ‘Whyle She Might Be Suffirde’: Ladies In (Unrequited) Love 116 4.1 Lust and Treason: Women as Seductresses and Decoys in ‘The Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake’ 118 4.2 Malory’s Elaynes 123 4.2.1 Elayne of Corbyn 124 4.2.2 Elayne of Ascolat 134 Notes 145 Chapter 5: True Lovers and Adulterous Queens 148 5.1 Generous Love in Malory’s Episode of the Knight of the Cart 151 5.2 Displacement Anxiety: Lancelot and Guinevere in the Final Stages of Le Morte Darthur 164 5.3 Isode 172 Notes 186 Chapter 6: Conclusion 191 Notes 194 Bibliography 195 Manuscripts/Facsimiles 195 Primary Texts 195 Secondary Sources 198 Index 206 Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction....Pages 1-13 The Ill-Speaking Woman and the Marriageable Lady....Pages 15-58 Magical and Miraculous Women....Pages 59-106 ‘Whyle She Might Be Suffirde’: Ladies In (Unrequited) Love....Pages 107-138 True Lovers and Adulterous Queens....Pages 139-181 Conclusion....Pages 183-186 Back Matter....Pages 187-203