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First full-length interdisciplinary study of the effect of these everyday surroundings on literature, culture and the collective consciousness of the late middle ages.
The bed, and the chamber which contained it, was something of a cultural and social phenomenon in late-medieval England. Their introduction into some aristocratic and bourgeois households captured the imagination of late-medievalEnglish society. The bed and chamber stood for much more than simply a place to rest one's head: they were symbols of authority, unparalleled spaces of intimacy, sanctuaries both for the powerless and the powerful. This change inphysical domestic space shaped the ways in which people thought about less tangible concepts such as gender politics, communication, God, sex and emotions. Furthermore, the practical uses of beds and chambers shaped and were shaped by artistic and literary production.
This volume offers the first interdisciplinary study of the cultural meanings of beds and chambers in late-medieval England. It draws on a vast array of literary, pragmatic and visual sources, including romances, saints' lives, lyrics, plays, wills, probate inventories, letters, church and civil court documents, manuscript illumination and physical objects, to shed new light on the ways in which beds and chambersfunctioned as both physical and conceptual spaces.
Hollie L.S. Morgan is a Research Fellow in the School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln.
The bed, and the chamber which contained it, was something of a cultural and social phenomenon in late-medieval England. Their introduction into some aristocratic and bourgeois households captured the imagination of late-medievalEnglish society. The bed and chamber stood for much more than simply a place to rest one's head: they were symbols of authority, unparalleled spaces of intimacy, sanctuaries both for the powerless and the powerful. This change inphysical domestic space shaped the ways in which people thought about less tangible concepts such as gender politics, communication, God, sex and emotions. Furthermore, the practical uses of beds and chambers shaped and were shaped by artistic and literary production.
This volume offers the first interdisciplinary study of the cultural meanings of beds and chambers in late-medieval England. It draws on a vast array of literary, pragmatic and visual sources, including romances, saints' lives, lyrics, plays, wills, probate inventories, letters, church and civil court documents, manuscript illumination and physical objects, to shed new light on the ways in which beds and chambersfunctioned as both physical and conceptual spaces.
Hollie L.S. Morgan is a Research Fellow in the School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln.
Price: $130.00
Pages: 266
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: York Medieval Press
Publication Date:
17 February 2017
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781903153710
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / Medieval, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval, European history: medieval period, middle ages
[A]mbitious and entertaining.
For readers interested in the interplay among household objects, spaces, and ideology in late medieval England, this book provides an essential resource.
Offers a rich and insightful discussion of the nature of the bed, providing material not just for medievalists but for historians exploring such questions in later centuries.
[W]ell worth reading: not only for medievalists (whether historians or not), but also for social and cultural historians of other eras who are interested in just how complex the relationship between spaces, objects, and representations can be, even for something as taken for granted as a bed.
Morgan has provided new approaches to the cultural history of England in the late Middle Ages.
[O]pens up important discussions for the relationship between the literary and physical world.
Morgan's beautifully produced study of beds and chambers helps the reader to understand how their symbolism shaped relationships in late medieval England. . . . [A] delightful read that will be appreciated by scholars and students in a wide variety of fields.
— Sara M. Butler
Morgan's book makes an important contribution to the cultural, material and literary history of medieval life. This is a novel and important interdisciplinary book that will speak to scholars of the medieval and early modern worlds.
For readers interested in the interplay among household objects, spaces, and ideology in late medieval England, this book provides an essential resource.
Offers a rich and insightful discussion of the nature of the bed, providing material not just for medievalists but for historians exploring such questions in later centuries.
[W]ell worth reading: not only for medievalists (whether historians or not), but also for social and cultural historians of other eras who are interested in just how complex the relationship between spaces, objects, and representations can be, even for something as taken for granted as a bed.
Morgan has provided new approaches to the cultural history of England in the late Middle Ages.
[O]pens up important discussions for the relationship between the literary and physical world.
Morgan's beautifully produced study of beds and chambers helps the reader to understand how their symbolism shaped relationships in late medieval England. . . . [A] delightful read that will be appreciated by scholars and students in a wide variety of fields.
— Sara M. Butler
Morgan's book makes an important contribution to the cultural, material and literary history of medieval life. This is a novel and important interdisciplinary book that will speak to scholars of the medieval and early modern worlds.
Introduction
'Fyrst arysse erly'
'Serve thy God deuly'
'Do thy warke wyssely/ [...] and awnswer the pepll curtesly'
'Goo to thy bed myrely/ and lye therin jocundly'
'Plesse and loffe thy wyffe dewly/ and basse hyr onys or tewys myrely'
The invisible woman
Conclusion
Bibliography
'Fyrst arysse erly'
'Serve thy God deuly'
'Do thy warke wyssely/ [...] and awnswer the pepll curtesly'
'Goo to thy bed myrely/ and lye therin jocundly'
'Plesse and loffe thy wyffe dewly/ and basse hyr onys or tewys myrely'
The invisible woman
Conclusion
Bibliography