Exemplars in Medieval English Texts

Abstract

parts is a bolder work than one might expect. Early on she declares “the story of Orpheus is the story of humanism” (17). This, it seems to me, is the larger claim Mann professes not to be making—the idea that all the captivating and terrifying tensions of human language and culture inhere in the figure of Orpheus, whose song could tame rocks and trees but could not save him from the savage fury of the Bacchantes. Indeed, she observes that “the moment words fail to persuade is precisely the moment that they become Orphic poetry” (186). This provocative and poignant claim is a reminder that Orpheus has much to say about poetry’s power, but also about its failures and limitations. It is one of the many reasons this book is sure to draw a wide and enthusiastic readership among scholars of Renaissance English literature.