Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1989. / Text in Dutch and Middle Dutch; summary in English and French. Includes bibliographical references (p. 533-550) and indexes.

This study argues that treason is understood as a breach of allegiance in medieval popular tradition as well as in legal definitions of the crime in Roman, Anglo-Saxon, military, and medieval French and English law. The scope of treason in Malory's Morte Darthur owes much to the crimes of treason in military, English, and archaic French law. But Malory also reflects extra-legal acts of treason such as adultery. He synthesises from these diverse laws and ideas a reasonably consistent body of pseudo-historical custom, which contributes to his Arthurian society's material plausibility and realism. Malory's treatment of the traitor is greatly indebted to extralegal thought, most notably in that his traitors are evaluated in terms of their motivations and ethical characters as well as their culpability of objective traitorous acts. Malice, mortal sin, unnatural tendencies and repeated treasons characterise the traitor as villain: the traitor as hero is depicted as fundamentally virtuous, non-malicious, and generally commits one treason only with the best of motivations. Treason, however, always involves sin, and in the last three tales Malory begins to acknowledge that treason therefore implies a crime against God as well as society. Infidelity to God in the last two tales is expressed through the coinciding treasons, disloyalties and overvalued worldly loyalties of Malory's characters, and these, regardless of the moral intentions of the perpetrators, bring about the downfall of the Arthurian kingdom. The fall of the nation can be interpreted as a retribution for the characters' sins against God which leads the surviving members to realign their allegiances and embrace heavenly chivalry and the religious life in recognition of and in penance for their previous misdeeds.

Sir Thomas Malory’s ‘Book of Sir Tristram’, a condensation of the Old French Tristan en prose, has not received the attention it deserves. Previous studies notice the two texts’ differences in characterisation, style, moral emphasis, structural arrangements, and so on, but no study has sufficiently demonstrated the overall strategy and the moral purposes behind Malory’s changes. This thesis offers an evaluation of both texts’ approaches to some ethical questions, including identity, violence, justice, and passion, through a close analysis of their presentation of romance motifs. The comparison draws on traditional treatments of these motifs and reveals that the authors of romance can incorporate stratified perspectives to voice ideological interpretations. Malory’s treatment of the moral discourse in the ‘Tristram’ articulates the chivalric ideal in the characters’ expressions of how they understand identity, honour, courtesy, courage, faithfulness, justice, compassion, and love. This analysis shows how Malory renews the meaning of the romance motifs borrowed from his sources by changing the characters’ response to the ethical problems underlying the archetypal actions. Thus, Malory’s narrative generates experiential edification, as it engages the reader in the active moral evaluation of the events.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisors: Marjorie Woods and Andrew Zissos. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

No description available.

Issued also with thesis note as the author's inaugural dissertation, Heidelberg, 1895.

Issued in 1936 as thesis, Paris. / Bibliography: p. [411]-419, [426]-427.

Issued also with thesis note as the author's inaugural dissertation, Heidelberg, 1895.