Originally published in 1926, this volume contains the full text of The Testament of Cresseid by Scottish poet Robert Henryson.

"Situational Poetics is a deep, cultural history of Henryson's problematic Testament of Cresseid. This book offers wonderful insights throughout, from its analysis of the hybrid "dislocations and double consciousness" of late medieval Scottish literature, Henryson's "Virgilian" career, his admixture of tragedy and satire in the Testament, and the anamorphic temporalities that link Chaucer, Henryson and Shakespeare in their telling and re-telling of the Troilus and Criseyde story. This is an utterly compelling study of Henryson's Testament, one that promises to re-shape completely our understanding of the poem." --Stephanie Trigg, Professor of English, University of Melbourne "A remarkably ambitious attempt to re-situate Henryson's Testament of Cresseid within literary history and to recover the author's deliberately constructed career-profile from the many accidents of transmission. ... the first ever view of Henryson "in the round." --Tom Shippey, Professor Emeritus, St. Louis University "Nickolas Haydock's new book on the great Scot poet Robert Henryson manages to do several things at once that seemed to the rest of us to be incompatible. He firmly places Henryson's work in literary history, but renders him accessible and even in dialogue with new ways of thinking about literature and culture. He is respectful of Henryson's canonical place in Scottish identity but raises questions about how literature works in making national and ethnic identities. Haydock gives us a Henryson for the twenty-first century." --John M. Ganim, Professor of English, University of California, Riverside

A wide-ranging survey of the most important medieval authors and genres, designed for students of English.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Medieval English Literatures II, language: English, abstract: “Music, through the sweetness of its melody, brings pleasure and comfort to the soul.” This citation by Nigel Wilkin in “Music in the Age of Chaucer” ascribes a special own form of power to music; the power to affect someone’s soul. Also in the poem of Orpheus and Eurydice by the Scottish poet Robert Henryson , music plays a decisive role and implies a special power to the protagonist. The poem, which approximately was written in the late fifteenth century, leans on the Greek myth of Orpheus. King Orpheus, who is introduced as the grandson of Memoria and Jupiter, the son of the “michty god Phebuss“ and the muse Caliope, “that madin mervalouss,/ The ferd sistir, of all musik maistress“, gains his bond to music through his mother’s milk, quod vide “gart him souk of hir twa paupis quhyte/ The sueit lecour of all musik perfyte“. Henryson describes Orpheus as “fair and wyse,/ Gentill and gud, full of liberalitie”. His “noble fame“ was extensive, so that the queen of “Trace”, called Eurydice, heard about him, too. They get married and live their life full of happiness, pleasure and enjoyment.