TY - BOOK AU - Ferster,Judith TI - Fictions of Advice: The Literature and Politics of Counsel in Late Medieval England T2 - The Middle Ages Series SN - 9780812233322 AV - PR275.D53 U1 - 820.9/358/09023 20 PY - 2016///] CY - Philadelphia : PB - University of Pennsylvania Press, KW - Authors, English KW - Middle English, 1100-1500 KW - Political and social views KW - Civilization, Medieval, in literature KW - Didactic literature, English (Middle) KW - History and criticism KW - Education of princes in literature KW - Kings and rulers in literature KW - Politics and literature KW - Great Britain KW - History KW - To 1500 KW - LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Medieval KW - bisacsh N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; 1. Introduction --; 2. The Context for Literature: Public Discourse in the Late Middle Ages --; 3. The Secretum Secretorum and the Governance of Kings --; 4. The Secretum Secretorum in Ireland --; 5. Council, Counsel, and the Politics of Advice --; 6. Chaucer's Tale of Melibee: Advice to the King and Advice to the King's Advisers --; 7. O Political Gower --; 8. A Mirror for the Prince of Wales: Hoccleve's Regement of Princes --; 9. Machiavelli's Prince --; 10. Conclusion --; Works Cited --; Index; restricted access N2 - Fictions of Advice historicizes the late medieval mirrors (or handbooks) for princes to reveal how the ambiguities and contradictions characteristic of the genre are responses to--as well as attempts to manage--the risks implicit in advising a king. Often thought of as moralizing advice unable to engage political conflicts, the mirrors for princes have been taken for dull and conventionalized testimonies to the medieval taste for platitude. Judith Ferster maintains that advice was at the center of one of the important political debates in the late Middle Ages: how to constrain the king and allow for his subjects' participation. Fictions of Advice rereads the English mirrors for princes to show how their moralizing was often highly topical and even subversive. Although overtly deferential to the rulers they address, the mirrors' authors were surprisingly capable of criticism and opposition. In putting the texts back into their historical contexts, Ferster reveals the vital cultural and political function they fulfilled in their societies UR - https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512805529 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781512805529 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781512805529.jpg ER -