CONTENTS

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS v
3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
4. Introduction: The Contemporary and the Contemporaneous 1
5. CHAPTER ONE Secular Law: Rape and Raptus 33
6. CHAPTER TWO The Church: Canon Law, Theology and Popular Teaching 76
7. CHAPTER THREE The Threat of Rape: Saintly Women 120
8. CHAPTER FOUR Legendary History: Lucretia and Helen of Troy 152
9. CHAPTER FIVE Middle English Romance: Structures of Possession 187
10. CHAPTER SIX Malory’s Morte Darthur: A Romance Retrospective 234
11. CHAPTER SEVEN ‘A Dede of Men’: Chaucer’s Narrative of Rape 265
12. CONCLUSION 311
13. BIBLIOGRAPHY 319
14. INDEX 337