An asset to any study of gender in medieval England, this volume contains three late-fifteenth-century allegorical dream visions that thematize the relations between the sexes. The Floure and the Leafe explores the courtly imagery of the flower and leaf, wherein the flower symbolizes the fickle, shallow attraction characteristic of men, compared to the evergreen persistence of the leaf, likened to the long-suffering of women. Meanwhile, The Assembly of Ladies recounts the activities of a group of women while describing the differences between the sexes. Finally, The Isle of Ladies details a male dreamer’s interactions with the ladies of an all-female island. The texts draw on tropes of French love visions, like those of Guillaume de Machaut or the authors of Le Roman de la Rose. Once attributed to Chaucer, all three Middle English texts are now thought to be anonymously authored in a Chaucerian style—as Derek Pearsall recounts.
- ISBN10 0918720435
- ISBN13 9780918720436
- Publish Date 1 December 1990
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Medieval Institute Publications
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 152
- Language English