British Outlaws of Literature and History

The medieval outlaws of Britain maintain a hold on the present-day imagination, judging by their presence in literature and on film. Exploring the nature of both historical and fictional outlaws, these twelve critical essays survey the literary, historical, and cultural environments that produced them, namely the medieval and early modern periods. Divided into three parts, the text examines the historical records of real outlawed men and women and the representation of Jews in medieval Britain as possible outlaws, outlaws associated specifically with Wales, and the popular figure of Robin Hood and the context of the late medieval poems and plays that feature him as a prominent figure.

Alexander L. Kaufman is an associate professor of English at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama. This is his second book.

Edited by Alexander L. Kaufman
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 272
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5877-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8512-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix

Abbreviations      xi

Introduction
(ALEXANDER L. KAUFMAN)      1

Part I : Outlaws as Outcasts and Outsiders

1. English Jews as Outlaws or Outcasts: The Ritual Murder of Little St. Hugh of Lincoln in Matthew Paris’s Chronica Majora

(KATE MCGRATH)      11

2. Let Her Be Waived: Outlawing Women in Yorkshire, 1293–1294

( JENNIFER BREWER)      28

3. Portraits of Outlaws, Felons, and Rebels in Late Medieval England

(BARBARA A. HANAWALT)      45

Part II : Wales and the Marches

4. Fouke le Fitz Waryn and King John: Rebellion and Reconciliation

(CATHERINE A. ROCK)      67

5. Fouke le Fitz Waryn: Outlaw or Chivalric Hero?

(KATHRYN BEDFORD)      97

6. Social Protest and Narrative Technique in Prichard’s Twm Shon Catty

(MICA DAWN GOULD)      114

Part III : The Robin Hood Tradition

7. Robin Hood: Outlaw or Exile?

(ANTHA COTTEN-SPRECKELMEYER)      133

8. Histories of Contexts: Form, Argument, and Ideology in A Gest of Robyn Hode

(ALEXANDER L. KAUFMAN)      146

9. Popular Devotion and Prosperity Gospel in Early Robin

Hood Tales (CRYSTAL KIRGISS)      165

10. The Late Medieval Robin Hood Ballads: Economics Revisited

(KIMBERLY A. MACUARE THOMPSON)      179

11. “Where Shall We Rob?”: Fantasies of Justice in the Early Robin Hood Ballads

(MARK LEAHY)      204

12. “All the yemandry that ys here”: Mankind and Robin Hood

(MICHELLE M. BUTLER)      219

Bibliography      239

Notes on Contributors      251

Index      253

“a very worthwhile volume..an excellent educational tool”—Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching.