Silence

"The Roman de Silence, an Arthurian romance of the thirteenth century, is finally recovering its voice after seven hundred years of undeserved neglect. Drawing on traditional themes (the warrior maiden, Potiphar's wife and Merlin's laughter), it tells of a girl raised as a boy, equally accomplished as a minstrel and knight, whose final task, the capture of Merlin, leads to her unmasking. All three major female characters, Silence, Eupheme and Euphemie, are figures of speech that raise disturbing questions about women's lack of voice and men's discourse--matters that the modern reader might expect to find expressed so explicitly and with such emphasis on linguistic play in French feminist criticism of the 1970s rather than in a medieval text. The appearance of Nature and Nurture as quarrelsome allegories profoundly challenges the 'natural' foundation of social order that defines women as defective and subordinate to men. This bilingual edition, based on careful reexamination of the unique Old French manuscript, makes Silence available to specialists and students in various fields of literature, to those concentrating in women's studies, and, most importantly, to anyone who loves a first-rate story." -- Back cover