Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Virginia S. Hale and Catherine Barnes Stevenson

Critical Essay by Virginia S. Hale and Catherine Barnes Stevenson

SOURCE: Hale, Virginia S., and Catherine Barnes Stevenson. “Morris' Medieval Queen: A Paradox Resolved.” Victorian Poetry 30, no. 2 (summer 1992): 171-78.

In the following essay, Hale and Stevenson determine Queen Guenevere's guilt in “Defence of Guenevere,” contending that “Morris created a fully sexual woman who makes no apology for her adulterous love but rather celebrates herself and her status as loyal queen.”

William Morris' “Defence of Guenevere” has perplexed a number of scholars because of a seeming dichotomy between the Queen's apparent denial of the accusation of adultery—“you, O Sir Gauwaine, lie” (l. 46)—and her vivid evocation of her adulterous love for Launcelot (to which she devotes a full eighty lines of the poem).¹ Focusing on this perceived contradiction, some critics characterize Guenevere as inconsistent and her defense as paradoxical. Carole Silver, for example, argues that “the poem's title is ironic. Guenevere intends a speech of self-vindication, but her...
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