Rise and fall: tropes of verticality in Middle English literature

ABSTRACT
While excellent scholarly work exists on medieval space, especially in
cultural geography, no book-­length study of the conceptual implications of
medieval vertical space exists. Attention has been lavished on the surface of
the medieval world, while the heights go unseen and the depths go
unplumbed. Using theories of space by scholars such as Henri Lefebvre and
Jacques Le Goff, this project explores this lacuna through close reading of
three late medieval English texts. The emphasis within Christian theology on
a vertically-­oriented model of virtue and the afterlife (ascending to Heaven,
falling to Hell) was likely the initial reason for the prominence of verticality
in the Middle Ages;; the work of religious writers such as Bernard of
Clairvaux and Walter Hilton set the stage for an explosion of the vertical
imagination, as a blossoming of the incredible variety of what could be called
“vertical thought.” These ideas foreshadowed and accompanied similar
developments in the secular arena, soon becoming an integral part of
medieval life. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, closely interrelated—
and strongly vertical—frameworks arose to structure complex concepts such
as moral virtue, social class and kinship relations. The fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries saw several major developments in what can be called
“vertical thought.” The evolution of Augustinian ideas of religion and
morality led to a nuanced vertical hierarchy of virtues and vices, while the
rise of the middle class helped define the explicit division of class into vertical
tiers. A shift in conceptions of kinship, from a synchronous network to a
diachronic tree of ancestry, affected perceptions of gender and family. Finally,
the growth of parliamentary and urban political capital in late medieval
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England, especially in response to the reign of child-­king Henry VI, led to a
battle of wills between the powerful men of London and their king.
These concerns with verticality were not limited to the realms of
religious belief or temporal power, but manifested themselves in medieval
literature and iconography as well. Highness and lowness feature in the
plots, characters, and settings of many texts, and tropes of height and depth
and rising and falling make frequent appearances textually and visually.
Depictions of Heaven and Hell, for example, frequently make use of height
and depth, and instances such as the Virgin Mary’s ascension to Heaven or
Lucifer’s fall from Heaven to Hell involve explicitly vertical movement which
parallels the perceived virtue of said figures. The Jesse tree, a genealogy of
Christ, is usually illustrated as a tree emerging from a recumbent man’s
body, and reflects a newly vertical visualization of familial ties, while the
concept of degree or scale, often represented as a ladder or stairs, is explicitly
used as a framework for both moral virtue and socioeconomic status. Through
discussion of three specific medieval tropes in literature and art— the tree of
Jesse in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, the Dead Sea in Cleanness, and the giant
of Lydgate’s Triumphal Entry of Henry VI—this project attempts to
demonstrate the importance of verticality in late medieval English literature
from 1300-­1500 and show how these tropes responded to and influenced
changes in the way medieval, and modern, audiences perceived social class,
kinship, politics, and religion.
Abstract Approved: ____________________________________________________
Thesis Supervisor
____________________________________________________
Title and Department
____________________________________________________
Date
RISE AND FALL: TROPES OF VERTICALITY IN MIDDLE ENGLISH
LITERATURE
by
Joseph Paul Rodriguez
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of
Philosophy degree in English in the Graduate College of The University of
Iowa
July 2012
Thesis Supervisor: Professor Claire Sponsler
Copyright by
JOSEPH PAUL RODRIGUEZ
2012
All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
______________________________
PH.D. THESIS
______________
This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of
Joseph Paul Rodriguez
has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement
for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English at the July 2012 graduation.
Thesis Committee: _____________________________________________________
Claire Sponsler, Thesis Supervisor
______________________________________________________
Kathy Lavezzo
______________________________________________________
Jon Wilcox
______________________________________________________
Judith Pascoe
______________________________________________________
Robert Bork
ii
To Mom and Ben
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor,
Claire Sponsler. She has guided this project from its inception, and helped me
overcome many of the problems I have encountered during its composition
with her valuable advice. She always had my and my project’s interests at
heart, and was willing to be laid-­back when that was needed as well as
holding me accountable when that was needed. This dissertation would not
exist without her.
I would also like to thank the other faculty on my doctoral committee:
Jon Wilcox, Kathy Lavezzo, Judith Pascoe, and Rob Bork. All were generous
with their time and help, and gave incredibly helpful feedback on this project
from the prospectus meeting through to the dissertation defense.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support
during this project, especially Stephanie Blalock, Ben Furnish, and Linda
Rodriguez, without whom I would have given up on this project long ago.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
Scholarship on Verticality 4
Terminology, Methodology, and Chapter List 16
CHAPTER I “A TREE/CHARGED WAS
WITH FRUYT”: GENDER,
GENEALOGY, AND THE TREE
OF JESSE IN CHAUCER’S
MERCHANT’S TALE 24
“I fare as dooth a tree”: The Tree of January and the
Merchant’s Tale 28
Radix, Virga, Flos: The Tree of Jesse and Genealogy
in Medieval Thought and Art 31
“Ah! lewd woman, what is this thou doest?”: The
Merchant’s Tale and the Lidia 46
“A tree/Charged was with fruyt”: May as Second
Eve and Second Mary 50
“Partaker of the root”: The Grafting of Damian 61
The Ravishing Radix and the Virtuous Virga: May,
January, and the Genealogical Struggle 67
Conclusion 69
CHAPTER II “FRO HEUEN TO HELLE”:
THE DEAD SEA, THE
PEASANTS’ REVOLT, AND
VERTICAL MOBILITY IN
CLEANNESS 72
Verticality and the Medieval Imagination 79
“Þe derrest at þe hyhe dese”: The Parable of the
Wedding-­Guest 84
“When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then
the gentleman?”: The Cleanness-­Poet and the
Peasants’ Revolt 87
“I schal telde vp my trone in þe tramountayne”:
Cleanness and Lucifer 93
“Deth in þe depe stremes”: Cleanness and the Flood 96
Death by Degree: Cleanness and the Destruction of
Sodom 99
Medieval Accounts of the Dead Sea 106
“God of þe grounde”: Cleanness and the Babylonian
Kings 113
Mene mene tekel upharsin: The Images of
Cleanness 116
Conclusion 119
CHAPTER III “WITH THE GRACE OFF GOD
AT TH’ENTRYNG OFF THE
v
BRIGGE”: CROWN VERSUS
TOWN AND THE GIANT OF
LONDON BRIDGE IN
LYDGATE’S TRIUMPHAL
ENTRY OF HENRY VI 121
The Verticality of the Giant 128
“Tamed” Giants in Medieval Romance 131
“The geaunt wolde abyde”: English Civic
Ceremony and the Giants of London Bridge 133
“A sturdy champeoun”: Gogmagog and St.
Christopher 139
“Cristis champioun”: Spiritual and Secular
Authority in Henry VI’s Reign 151
“A pyler reysed lyk a tour”: London Bridge and its
Gate-­Towers 157
Conclusion 160
CODA 162
BIBLIOGRAPHY 166

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