Languages of Power in the Age of Richard II. By Lynn Staley. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005. Pp. xiv + 394; 20 illustrations. $58 (cloth); $30 (paper).

From the moment Richard II ascended the throne in 1377, he and his troubled reign have prompted considerable interest and comment. Faced with the Peasants' Revolt, England's poor showing in the wars against France and Scotland, and the high drama of the "Merciless" and "Revenge" parliaments, as well as the king's deposition and murder, historians have asked "what went wrong?" Literary scholars, for their part, have also focused considerable attention on this era, thanks to the contemporary flowering of Middle English literature. Moreover, the close connection between much of this literature and the royal court, on the one hand, and the rise of Lollardy and insurrection, on the other, has occasioned a rich and complex conversation among historians and literary scholars of a historicist bent. Staley's book is the most recent product of and contribution to this discussion. Her historicist treatment looks at "ways in which late-fourteenth-century English writers used, analyzed, and altered the languages of power" (p. ix). According to Staley, the Merciless Parliament not only precipitated a crisis of authority but

Charles F. Briggs
Georgia Southern University