Arthuriana

ii8arthuriana fabliaux, a 'lewed' perspective in order to laugh at it. Burrow's 'Redundancy in Alliterative Verse: St. Erkenwald' is a brief but suggestive reflection on the narrative and stylistic 'economy' of the poem, and Henry offers a quantitative, exhaustive analysis of 'The Dramatic Function of Rhyme and Stanza Patterns in The Castle of Perseverance that is necessary reading for future studies ofthe play. Readers of this journal may want to be aware that two ofthe articles, Burrow's and David Lawtons excellent 'Titus Goes Hunting and Hawking: The Poetics ofRecreation and Revenge in The Siege ofJerusalem,' make passing references to Arthurian poems such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Awntyrs offArthure, and their respective arguments might well prompt some new thinking on alliterative Arthurian literature. It is not at all clear that this collection will (ot should) have the 'counterbalancing' effect that is intended for it, particularly since at least some ofthe approaches alluded to in the book's 'Preface' seem to be employed, ironically enough, in its essays. Individuality andAchievement in Middle English Poetry does contain, however, a good deal ofsolid and worthwhile scholarship, and its readers may find themselves turning to some seldom-read poems with fresh enthusiasm. DANIEL PINTI New Mexico State University N.F. blake, William Caxton and English Literary Culture. London and Rio Grande OH: Hambledon Press, 1991. Pp. x, 315. isbn: 1-85285-051-5. The eighteen articles by N.F. Blake assembled in this volume originally appeared between 1964 and 1989, years in which Caxton studies underwent the quantum changes helpfully and concisely described in Blake's introduction. The results ofthe changes are mirrored in the articles themselves. As fifteenth-century English literary culture was long regarded as lackcluster, and as the bulk of Caxton's output consisted of translations from French or Latin, his contributions to that culture were seen as slight. Bits of information about Caxton's life, patiently gathered by scholars, were commonly interpreted out oftheir full context, with the result that his career seemed to fall into two unrelated phases—first, the prosperous merchant, and later, the publisher who truckled to the whims of aristocratic patrons. Re-evaluation ofCaxton's life and work by Blake and others, however, has shown that the deference to patrons inferred from his prologues was really a canny marketing straregy—just the sott of tactic Caxton likely would have evolved as a merchant, an occupation he in fact continued to pursue after he began to publish. Indeed, Caxton's commercial success as a publisher contrasts with the bankruptcies of many contempofaries in the same business. His life and career thus comprise not an illassorted contrast but an integrated whole, his mercantile acumen informing his decisions and methods as a printer. So much is convincingly argued in the first six articles in the present volume. The next eleven consider the more recondite question of Caxton's contributions to fifteenth-century English literary culture. Here again the realization that Caxton was reviews119 a shrewd man of business, able and accustomed to market his wares by astutely elaborating the truth, points Blake's way through careful examinations of Caxton's prologues and epilogues, his merits as a critic, his relationship to courtly style, the preparation ofCaxton's editions ofthe Morte Darthur and the ConfessioAmantis, and relationships between Caxton's originals and his translations, especially the Gilte Legende and Reynard the Fox. The results are enlightening, at times amusing. Caxton may have claimed a Welsh origin for John Gower in order to camouflage the poet's possible origins in Kent, an area known in Caxton's day for the tudeness of its language. The printer lacked a well-developed critical vocabulary at the outset ofhis printingventures, but increased it by assimilating opinions on Chaucer from Lydgate's laudatory works and by developing an awareness ofthe preferences ofhis courtly clientele, Edward IVs sistet Duchess Margaret of Burgundy the best known among them. Blake concludes that Caxton's Chaucet criticism was indeed second-hand, but that his admiration for the author of The Canterbury Tales was none the less sincere for that. So far from representing an inferior aspect ofhis labors, Caxton's ttanslations shared in...