Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

by C.S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis's Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature is a collection of fourteen fascinating essays, half of which were never published in Lewis's lifetime. The first three provide a general introduction to medieval literature whilst the remaining essays turn to the works of major writers such as Dante (The Divine Comedy), Malory (Le Morte d'Arthur), Spenser (The Faerie Queene) and Milton (Comus). Lewis's insightful yet accessible writing will captivate anyone with an interest in medieval and Renaissance literature.

Genres: Medieval, Literary Criticism, Nonfiction, History, Essays, Cs Lewis, Renaissance

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Clive Staples Lewis was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954. He was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.

Lewis was married to poet Joy Davidman.
W.H. Lewis was his elder brother]

Reviews

[Danelley]

I LOVED this book. I got it through ILL through my county library, which I've never tried before. C.S.Lewis is characteristically wonderful, and in this book he discusses the La3amon's Brut (Layamon) which I had never heard of before, but it is close to one of the first depictions of the Arthur tale. It is written in early Middle English and is like reading Beowulf. An interesting theme that C.S. Lewis picks up on is how writers are influenced by other writers and books they have read, but how they can embellish and breathe new life into a tale. La3amon's Brut is like dusting the last telling of the tale off, refurbishing it, and making it a new thing. It was not an easy read but C.S. Lewis made the Brut more approachable to someone like me. He also discusses other Medieval and Renaissance Literature in other chapters. Lots of intriguing stuff for someone wanting to learn more about tales from the Medieval periods.

[Justin Wiggins]

One of the books I have finished reading in 2020 is C.S.Lewis's Studies In Medieval and Reinassance Literature edited by Walter Hooper. This collection of essays was a challenging and fascinating read, and made me want to read Ovid, Virgil, John Milton, Dante, Edmund Spender, and Sir Thomas Mallory. It must have been very captivating to actually hear Lewis lecture. He was such a brilliant scholar who knew how to translate complex things in the vernacular so well.

[Bryn Hammond]

Tolkien on Beowulf (found in The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays), CS Lewis on medieval/early renaissance poetry: unbeatable, better than their fictions, but only fiction writers grok old fiction in this way. My full heart to both.

[Tori Samar]

A solid collection of Lewis-as-literary-scholar essays. Lots of Faerie Queene goodness. I just wish I were more familiar with some of the works and authors he writes about!

[Ron]

Late in life, Cambrige University elevated Clive Staples Lewis to that position of honor which his alma mater and longtime employer at Oxford had denied him, a professorship in Medieval and Renaissance Literature.

This posthumous collection includes wide-ranging essays on period literature in general as well as specific analysis of Dante and Spenser.

The beginning student is advised to first read Lewis's The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Image is both and overview and a guide while Studies is a set of isolated, if insightful, essays.

[D'Anna]

Felt as if I was sitting in on several of Lewis’ lectures - what a treat!! Only, I hadn’t completed all the prerequisite reading! So glad he couldn’t call on me to answer questions! 😜

[Katherine Sas]

Lewis continually surprises me with his generosity as a critic. Also, I've never keyed into "The Faerie Queene" but damn if Lewis doesn't make it sound appealing - I should definitely give it another try.

[Jacob Aitken]

It is not easy to define "Medievalism," nor what makes a "medieval" book. The reader is right to expect glorious castles, fair maidens, and feats of arms. However, when we pick up a medieval book, those elements are often missing and we are then subjected to often tortuous philosophical and moralistic reasoning. What gives?

CS Lewis is aware of these difficulties and he mentions (in one of his chapters on Spenser) that what we call "medievalism" is actually late Renaissance projected back onto the middle ages. But, Lewis says, that's quite okay, too. In many ways, *Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature* is a running commentary on how to read allegory, mainly Dante's and Spenser's.

Lewis begins with the making of a Medieval book--and the bookish manner of medievals in general. Parts of this section (the first 3 chapters) are quite difficult reading, even to those who are intimately familiar with the issues involved. But through it we see a contrast between medieval ways of reading texts and (post)modern ways of reading. The former looks for harmony while the latter looks upon texts with suspicion--the essence of both the medieval and modernistic worldviews, respectively. Lewis then concludes this section with a fascinating essay on medieval cosmology: and for the perceptive readers, this essay is the foundation of his *Space Trilogy.*

The next chapters deal with Dante. Lewis takes several difficult passages in Dante and demonstrates to the reader how to run a literary critique upon them; the same technique applies to his chapters on Spenser. Lewis also deals with Morte D'Arthur and the "knightly" issues.

I had to read this book at different times. It was really difficult because Lewis rarely gives a context for his references. However, the difficulty should not deter readers; there are many jewels in this book if the reader is willing to dig.

[Craig]

I enjoyed these essays despite the fact of not having read any of the source materials(good ole american public education) or maybe because of that fact. Made me want to go back to school and amount to something.

[Catherine]

Probably more of a deep dive into literary analysis than most would want to go, but some good gems, and credentials for Lewis as a logophile, glossophile, and philologist. Personal highlights were the intro Spenser chapter and Le Morte.

[Steve Penner]

When one comes the more academic works that have been pieced together, frustration becomes the common theme. Men of Lewis's generation read more broadly, more deeply, more thoroughly than anybody thinks to read today. So the works that he is writing about may be familiar by title, they are strangers in body. The greatest frustration is that Lewis quotes so much from original sources in original languages that it very difficult to follow. Who today knows Italian so that Dante is comprehensible? How about basic Latin so that you can understand so much of medieval literature? It would have been nice for the editor(s) to give translations of the many quoted passages. Had they done so, I would not have considered so much of my time wasted.

[Brian]

Some really good C.S. Lewis essays in here and some very technical essays strictly to be read by those obsessed with Lewis or by those obsessed with the literature he writes on.

The best ones were
*De Audiendis Poetis - Lewis repeats many of the ideas found in his introduction to Athanasius' On the Incarnation and Experiment in Criticism, but it's still good.

* Dante's Similes - brilliant essay that not only distinguishes Homer from Virgil and Virgil from Dante, but gives a truthful understanding of metaphor that explains allegory, symbolism, and typology without strain; this is why I love Dante.

* The essays on Faerie Queene - These share many strengths with his reading of Dante. Makes you want to read Spenser again and again.

[Noah]

Despite most of it being over my head,
there's nothing like watching the master
at work in his element.

2nd time finished, 9/20/19
Noticed this time some interesting bits in 'De Audiendis Poetis'
which give me a hint of what Lewis might have made of Rene Girard.
For instance, "the poem is illuminating the myth," not the reverse. "The unknown
cannot illuminate the known." This was said of such literary methods as one
meets in 'The Golden Bough', which seek insights into, for instance, medieval texts
in ancient and pre-historic rituals and myths. (Jung too is mentioned
in this essay.)

[Liam Guilar]

Although the essays are scattered across a range of topics, whether writing about Medieval concepts of the world, Dante, Malory, Spenser, or Laȝamon, Lewis is still one of the more sane guides to the literature of the period. And Lewis the scholar wrote a clear precise prose a world away from the terrible sludge of his fiction.

But Fifty years have passed since these essays were written. Do they still have anything worthwhile to tell a modern reader, interested in this period, rather than someone who is reading Lewis because he's Lewis. Could a modern student of either period learn anything from them?

I'd say yes. The few things that date the material (other than the clear prose, the sense of an educated, intelligent informed expert eager to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with anyone who cares to listen) are not that important. What Lewis does is give reasons for reading poetry that is awkward by modern standards. One of those reasons, with Lewis, is always the pleasure of reading which is something that almost always gets lost in modern academic discussions of literature.

There are five essays on Spenser which are a good example. Three, 'Neoplatonism in Spenser's poetry', 'Spenser's Cruel Cupid' and 'Genius and Genius', are specialised pieces and feel as though they have historical interest for Spenser scholars. Of the other two, the general introduction to Spenser's work, 'Edmund Spenser, 1552-99', may be dated in places by recent biographical research, but it's probably as good as it gets as a single overview of the man and his work. His advice on what's worth reading and what is best left alone is sound. The advice on how to read 'The Faerie Queene' or why it's worth reading, in this essay and 'On Reading the Faerie Queene' won't date.

The essay on Laȝamon is worth the price of admission. Not only is it interesting if you're interested in Laȝamon but it makes a general point about medieval literature which can be applied to early modern texts as well.

[Hamster]

This book is a bit of a grab bag of content, featuring selections from books that Lewis never finished, published articles, lecture transcripts, and even book reviews. They're all united by a focus on the literature of the Long Middle Ages as Lewis scholars might call it (Lewis felt that the separation of Medieval and Renaissance was more misleading than helpful for students and scholars of literature).

The first few selections are a bit underwhelming, as they mostly restate what Lewis had already said elsewhere (The Discarded Image being the most significant source).

From there the collection shifts from Lewis's more general writings to an emphasis on specific authors and works. Most are about either Dante or Edmund Spenser. I was expecting these to be mostly tedious, but to my surprise Lewis actually makes almost everything really interesting. His love and excitement for the material is clear in his own writing and it's somewhat infectious. It makes me want to read all of The Fairie Queene and I thought Book 1 was unbearably boring when I read it before.

That may really have been one of Lewis's greatest talents. He could see what was worthy of admiration and even love in books the rest of us find too old and stuffy, and restate those so powerfully the rest of us have to think twice. For that alone, plus some interesting tidbits about writing and criticism in general thrown in here and there, I have to give this a high rating.

[James]

If I were a scholar of Mallory or Dante or Edmund Spenser, or of Medieval and Renaissance literature in general, I would no doubt give this book 5 stars. The same would be the case were I to rate only the chapter “Imagination and Thought”— which is a summary of Lewis’s book The Discarded Image, and worth the price of the whole book. But as it is, the book is rather technical, with untranslated Latin and assumptions of knowledge on the reader’s part that are not true of me. But a good read nonetheless, and a must read for any serious Lewis scholar. It is also, to my knowledge, the last of the Lewis corpus that I had yet to read; that is, with this book I have now read all his published works.

[OZM]

Z wyjątkiem jednego tekstu, który był recenzją książki o Spenserze i wdawał się w dosyć precyzyjne i specjalistyczne rozważania literaturoznawcze, wszystkie eseje były lekturą zajmującą i pożyteczną zarazem, częściowo dlatego, że traktowały o literaturze, którą po prostu lubię (kawał rycerskiej tradycji od Malory'ego, poprzez Boiarda, Ariosta i Tassa, aż po Sensera), i prezentowały podejście do literatury, które jest mi bliskie (większa koncentracja na tym, jak tekst działa, niż "co autor mógł mieć na myśli", przy jednoczesnym uwzględnieniu kontekstu historycznego i zmiennych znaczeń słów w dziejach języka), częściowo zaś dlatego, że i Lewis wszystkie książki, o których tu pisze, bardzo lubił. I to się czuje.

[Billie]

It is always exciting to stumble on a collection of Lewis essays which I have not yet read and this one did not disappoint. While there were several essays in the collection which require more study of their subjects than I have at present, there is also so much of Lewis' own thought and cast of mind that I hardly minded "wading through" the sections for which I am not yet well enough read.

[Samuel Valentino]

What can I say about C. S. Lewis that hasn't been said? He was an incredibly insightful guy, both in theology and academia, and it shows in the lectures in this book. I especially liked the essays on Dante and Spencer, which makes me want to re-read both. More on the academic side, but if you like the literature he's discussing it's fascinating.

[Lisa Brantly]

I blame the low rating on my American public education. Lewis assumes I have familiarity (in Latin) with several poets, their sources & differences between editions of their works. I do not. But I have a medieval lit class on the horizon and trust his lectures will bear fruit then...

[Alex McEwen]

This was a collection of some of Lewis’ academic writings and lectures in regards to medieval literature. I liked the content of Lewis’ works, but felt they were poorly anthologized. This would have benefitted from another round of editing and maybe a few more varied works from Lewis.

[Jay]

Lots of this was over my head.

[Jeffrey Thompson]

Some of the essays were too technical for me. The "Spenser" essay is my favorite. Overall, I was impressed by Lewis's clarity of writing and erudition even on technical topics.

[Mary Foxe]

Skimmed.

[Marin Hanna]

pp. 129-148

[bookishmom]

"A man who read the literature of the past with no allowance at all for the fact that manners, thought, and sentiments have changed since it was written, would make the maddest work of it." (Page 1)

[Zachary Waltz]

The essay "Neoplatonism in the Poetry of Spenser" helps one understand what Lewis might have been attempting with the Chronicles of Narnia.

“In Spenser, as in Milton and many others, Jove is often Jehovah incognito.” p. 152

“It was not felt desirable, much less necessary, when you mentioned, say, Jov, to exclude any of his meanings; the Christian God, the Pagan god, the planet as actually seen, the planet astrologically considered, were all welcome to enrich the figure, by turns or even simaltaneously.” p. 160

“A representation of, and hymn to, the cosmos as our ancestors believed it to be. There has been no delight (of that sort) in “nature” since the old cosmoloy was rejected. No one can respond in just that way to the Einsteinian, or even the Newtonian, universe.” p. 162

Michael Ward’s summation in his Planet Narnia

“This practice of using mythological untruths to hint at theological truths lasted as late as the composition of Milton’s Cosmos (1634) and was, for most poets and in most poems, by far the best method of writing poetry which was religious without being devotional.” p. 234

[Holly]

Anything Lewis writes about this type of literature is going into my brain to inform my own studies. I preferred it to _The Discarded Image_ but believe they both complement the other. In this book though I found the description of the universe, through the eyes of medieval man, to be breathtaking. Also, his analysis of Spenser's _Fairy Queen_ has made me chomp at the bit to go out and get it. I appreciate Lewis's emphasis on keeping an appropriate perspective and prohibiting ourselves as readers in projecting our own views and knowledge. It can be very difficult to suspend one's knowledge about something without having an alternative to replace it with: Lewis helps solve this problem.

[Dann Zinke]

A collection of some of Lewis' scholarly work, this book is difficult going at times. Chapters on Dante leave whole block quotes in the original untranslated Italian, for example, while other chapters, like the one on Neoplatonism in Spenser, deal with such obscure subject matter as to be practically unreadable. That being said, when I could understand what was going on, the book was superb. The first two chapters in particular, The Genesis of a Medieval Book and thought and Medieval Thought and Imagery, respectively, were two that I really enjoyed. The overview chapter on Spenser's life was also a joy to read.

[Maan Kawas]

A very interesting book about literature in Medieval and Renaissance times! I loved the point that one should not look at a poem/novel from a modern standpoint, as the manners, thought, sentiments, and values have changed since it was written. That is to say that one should not seek 'what a poem means, now, but 'what it once meant'. Hence, it is important to start by understanding the context of a work of literature, if one wants to appreciate it properly.