2 Lessons in shame
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Mary C. Flannery
Abstract
This chapter shows that medieval English conduct texts exhort women to be invested in being hypervigilant against the possibility of shame, and that they function as guides for practising that shamefastness, advocating and describing ‘manipulations of body and mind’ that are intended to intensify and communicate a woman’s sense of shame. The chapter begins by situating conduct literature in relation to the education of girls and young women in medieval England, and in relation to the chaste ideals to which medieval women were expected to adhere. It then turns to the conduct texts themselves, focusing primarily on four examples of conduct literature in Middle English and Middle Scots: the Middle English translation of Le livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry pour l’enseignement de ses filles, and the poems How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter, The Good Wife Would a Pilgrimage, and the Middle Scots Thewis of Good Women. The final section of the chapter demonstrates how the Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry situates its advice regarding how to secure womanly ‘honoure and goodnesse’ within a recognizably literary frame, one that recasts the pursuit of female honour in heroic terms.
Abstract
This chapter shows that medieval English conduct texts exhort women to be invested in being hypervigilant against the possibility of shame, and that they function as guides for practising that shamefastness, advocating and describing ‘manipulations of body and mind’ that are intended to intensify and communicate a woman’s sense of shame. The chapter begins by situating conduct literature in relation to the education of girls and young women in medieval England, and in relation to the chaste ideals to which medieval women were expected to adhere. It then turns to the conduct texts themselves, focusing primarily on four examples of conduct literature in Middle English and Middle Scots: the Middle English translation of Le livre du Chevalier de la Tour Landry pour l’enseignement de ses filles, and the poems How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter, The Good Wife Would a Pilgrimage, and the Middle Scots Thewis of Good Women. The final section of the chapter demonstrates how the Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry situates its advice regarding how to secure womanly ‘honoure and goodnesse’ within a recognizably literary frame, one that recasts the pursuit of female honour in heroic terms.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Preface viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Abbreviations xiv
- Introduction 1
- 1 Show and tell 34
- 2 Lessons in shame 60
- 3 Shame under suspicion, shame under siege 90
- 4 Death or dishonour 122
- 5 Shamefast Hoccleve and shameless craving 160
- Afterword 186
- Bibliography 192
- Index 210
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Preface viii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Abbreviations xiv
- Introduction 1
- 1 Show and tell 34
- 2 Lessons in shame 60
- 3 Shame under suspicion, shame under siege 90
- 4 Death or dishonour 122
- 5 Shamefast Hoccleve and shameless craving 160
- Afterword 186
- Bibliography 192
- Index 210
