Records of Early Drama: Wales ed. by David N. Klausner (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS75 order ro make the medieval less distant from the modern and more acceprable towhat we would like history to have been,' such a Chaucer is to be found far less often than the one uncovered by Marion Turner, who 'cannot find a positive image ofthe social anywhere in Chaucer's texts.' In part constructed in opposition to the humanistic Chaucer of an earlier generation of scholars, the Chaucer portrayed, serially and cumulatively, in these essays—conservative, patriarchal, homophobic, misogynistic, a rapist (probably!), a time-serving lackey of an elite class that oppressed peasants and women and whose culture celebrared male aggression and violence—is only infrequenrly countered bysuch observations as Elizabeth Robertson's final comment: 'And yet, although many of the universalizing tendencies of earlier criticism have been abandoned, and we have now turned to those concerns such criticism seemed wilfully [sic] to shut out—the concerns of social class, the effects ofwar and race, gender and sexuality issues, the presence of the unconscious—nonetheless we still value Chaucer both for the sweep ofhis comic vision and for his humanity, and we should continue to recognize the degree to which out own new presentisms shape our critical preoccupations.' Vox clamatis in deserto. RICHARD H. OSBERG Santa Clara University David N. Klausner, ed., Records ofEarly Drama: Wales. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. isbn: 0-8020—907-9 (NorthAmerica). London: British Library, isbn: 0-7123-4911-1 (European Union). $250. In Records ofEarly Drama: Wales (the eighteenth volume of the Univetsity of Toronto/British Library series on Records of Early English Drama), David N. Klausner has diligently collected, otganized, and annotated the essential legal and literary documents that describe the diverse secular and seasonal activities ofmusic and drama in Wales from the sub-Roman period to 1700. This work should find a dedicated space in the libraries of literary scholars, novelists, musicologists and musicians, historians, anthropologists, geographers, or anyone with a passion for the life of'Wales and its complex growth as a nation. Organized by Principality, Shire, Parish, Towns/Villages, and Households, this reference work lays the foundation for much future academic and popular exploration into the social history ofWales, its secular music and drama, and its celebration ofa cultural and national life. Not since Marion Eames's historical novel ofseventeenthcentury Wales Y Stafell Ddirgel ('The Secret Room,' Landyb'ie, 1969) has such a complete human portrait ofdrama, music, and entertainment paraded into textual existence—this time, it is reality rather than fiction. Exploring Klausner's editorial range oflegal and lirerary documents, one shifts slowly from collecting official and mundane facts to pursuing questions more visceral as they arise from the silent space ofhuman history surrounding even the smallest ephemera within the records: ^-Where do the native British 'still in heaps goe one pilgrimage to the wonted welles and places of superstición, and in the nightes after the feasts...'? [d. 1572, p. 29] I want to go too—Pennant Melangell would be my favorite spot. **Upon what instrument does one ofthree unnamed suitors play when wooing LadyAgnes under her window at night while her husband is away at Pailiament, and ?6ARTHURIANA why does she eventually murder her husband with poison? Was one ofher paramours really a priest? [d. 1572, p. 45] A flat-back bandora rather than a lute would offer more portability in such nocturnal circumstances. **-Did the village of Dolbenmaen ever recover after William ap Evan does 'entertayne enterlude "players" at the same house where there were three persons vnknown disguised in change of apparel that acted sometymes in one habit & sometymes in another habitt behaveing themselues very disorderly and vncivill. . .'? [d. 1654, p. 65] Obviously, the person complaining has never seen or put on a costume —is this the beginning ofdrama critics? **-Who is Thorny Mostyn, and why does he want a lute from London? [d. 1619, p. 70] The end-notes reveal all. *How do the streets ofthe village ofTregaron endure the effect ofone Griffith ap Evan of Caron, tried and convicted for 'liuinge in vnlawfull Callinge, or Course ofLife, but wandering vpp, & downe, with a taber, & pipe, roguinge & begginge'? [d. 1687, p. 8y] Nowadays, the Welsh Tourist Board would probably hire him. **Why do two...