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3 - The Language of Anger

from Part II - Þe Deuylys Doghtyr of Hellë Fyre: Felony and Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2019

Elizabeth Papp Kamali
Affiliation:
Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
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Summary

Opening with a dramatic encounter between two angry lords and their opposing retinues of loyal men, Chapter 3 explores the role played by anger in medieval English legal and literary culture. Following a brief introduction to the field of the history of emotion, the chapter explores the etymology of several anger-related words in Latin, Anglo-Norman French, and Middle English. Using John Gower’s Mirour de l’Homme, the chapter demonstrates the complexities of medieval English understandings of the passion of anger. Moving from literature to legal texts, the chapter then explores the language used in the plea rolls to describe sudden anger, long-standing hatred, and other emotion-filled states. The chapter closes with another Gower tale in which the sin of incest is treated as secondary to the damnable sin of uncontrolled wrath.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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