The late Derek Pearsall was Emeritus Gurney Professor of Middle English Literature at Harvard University; he wrote extensively on Chaucer, Gower, Langland and Lydgate, including biographies of Chaucer and Lydgate, an edition of the C-text of Langland's Piers Plowman. JUDITH WEISS is a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, UK. MARIANNE AILES is Professor of French at the University of Bristol. PHILLIPA HARDMAN is Reader in Medieval English Literature (retired) at the University of Reading. ROBERT ROUSE Associate Professor, Department of English at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

• Introduction: Romance and its Medieval Contexts - Rhiannon Purdie and Michael CichonThe Pleasure of Popular Romance: A Prefatory Essay - Derek PearsallRepresentations of Peasant Speech: Some Literary and Social Contexts for The Taill of Rauf Coilyear - Nancy Mason Bradbury'As ye have brewd, so shal ye drink': the Proverbial Context of Eger and Grime - Michael CichonEkphrasis and Narrative in Emaré and Sir Eglamour of Artois - Nicholas PerkinsWhat's in a name? Anglo-Norman Romances or Chansons de geste? - Marianne Ailes'For Goddes love, sir, mercy!': Recontextualising the Modern Critical Text of Floris and Blancheflor - John A. GeckRoland in England: Contextualising the Middle English Song of Roland - Phillipa HardmanRomance Baptisms and Theological Contexts in The King of Tars and Sir Ferumbras - Siobhain Bly CalkinModern and Medieval Views on Swooning: the Literary and Medical Contexts of Fainting in Romance - Judith WeissWalking [between] the Lines: Romance as Itinerary/Map - Robert RouseRomances of Continuity in the English Rous Roll - Yin Liu'Ex libris domini Duncani Campbell de Glenwrquhay/miles': The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour in the household of Sir Duncan Campbell, seventh laird of Glenorchy - Emily Wingfield'Pur les francs homes amender': Clerical Authors and the Thirteenth-Century Context of Historical Romance - Rosalind Field

[T]his fine collection offers romance scholars much to think about.