Full-length analysis of one of the most politically and socially engaged medieval poems The late fourteenth-century English poem Winner and Waster narrates a debate between the forces of avarice (Winner) and generosity (Waster); it ranges widely over a number of major issues in the political life of England during Edward III's reign. This book sets out to re-date the poem from the 1350s to the 1360s, and in so doing to question whether its principal message really revolves (as so much earlier scholarship has insisted) around the state of public order and the costs of warfare in the 1350s. Instead, it proposes that the poem echoes debates about Edward III's ability to maintain concord between the members of his household, to manage the extravagance in clothing that prompted the sumptuary laws of 1363, and to run his peace-time finances of the 1360s in such a way as to guarantee the solvency of the crown. Drawing extensively on the records of parliament and on contemporary chronicles, this volume sets Winner and Waster within the wider context of other complaint literature of the fourteenth century, and characterizes it as one of the most politically - and socially - engaged works of the period.

About the Author
The late W. MARK ORMROD was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of York; he published extensively on later medieval history.

Reviews
In his closing lines, Ormrod modestly hopes that his book's "one contribution" is "to show that historicism need not be a reductive device but can substantively enhance the meaning and value of a text both as history and as literature" . On this count, it more than succeeds. * SPECULUM *



Book Information
ISBN 9781843847090
Author W Mark Ormrod
Format Paperback
Page Count 202
Imprint D.S. Brewer
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd