The Unruly Tongue in Early Modern England

Three Treatises

By (author) Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin

Publication date:

01 March 2012

Length of book:

300 pages

Publisher

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Dimensions:

235x157mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781611474695

The Unruly Tongue in Early Modern England is a scholarly edition of three early modern treatises on the unruly tongue: Jean de Marconville, A Treatise of the Good and Evell Tounge (ca.1592), William Perkins, A Direction for the Government of the Tongue according to Gods worde (1595), and George Webbe, The Araignement of an unruly Tongue (1619). “The tongue can no man tame” says the Bible (James 3:8), and yet these texts try to tame the tongues of men and tell them how they should rule this little but essential organ and avoid swearing, blaspheming, cursing, lying, flattering, railing, slandering, quarrelling, babbling, jesting, or mocking. This volume excavates the biblical and classical sources in which these early modern texts are embedded and gives a panorama of the sins of the tongue that the Elizabethan society both cultivates and strives to contain. Vienne-Guerrin provides the reader with early modern images of what Erasmus described as a “slippery” and “ambivalent” organ that is both sweet and sour, a source of life and death.

Acknowledgments
Table of illustrations
Table of abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
Editorial note
Jean de MARCONVILLE,
A Treatise of the Good and Evell Tounge. ca. 1592
A note on the text
The text
William PERKINS,
A Direction for the Government of the Tongue according to Gods worde. 1595[1593]
A note on the text
The text
George WEBBE,
The Araignement of an unruly Tongue. 1619.
A note on the text
The text
Appendices
Appendix A: Marconville’s Treatise in French
Appendix B: Additions to Perkins’ 1593 text
Appendix C: Outline of Perkins’ treatise
Appendix D: Outline of Webbe’s treatise
Appendix E: Tongue Stories: some variations
Appendix F: Images of the tongue
Works cited

Vienne-Guerrin provides a deft overview of the scholarship on the tongue over the past twenty-five years. She traces the biblical and classical sources that the authors reference while presenting a brief overview of the anatomy of the tongue and the relationship between the tongue and heart....One of the most useful features of the book is the collection of striking images relating to the tongue that Vienne-Guerrin has collected in the appendix...Vienne-Guerrin's edition effectively situates the representation of the tongue in the noisy world of the early modern England.