Covert Operations: The Medieval Uses of Secrecy 9780812207194

Covert Operations brings the categories and cultural meanings of secrecy in the Middle Ages out into the open. Isolating

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English Pages 304 [298] Year 2012

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Table of contents :
Contents
Introduction, or Dark Matter
1. Tongues Untied: Confession and Its Secrets
2. Tongues Wagging: Gossip, Women, and Indiscreet Secrets
3. Men's Ways of Knowing: The Secret of Secrets and the Secrets of Women
4. Covert Women and Their Mysteries
5. Sodomy and Other Female Perversions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
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Covert Operations

THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES Ruth Mazo IZarras, General Editor Edward Peters, Founding ,Editor

A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.

Covert Operations The Medieval Uses of Secrecy

I(arma Lochrie

PENN University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia

Copyright © 1999 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10

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Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lochrie, Karma. Covert operations : the medieval uses of secrecy / Karma Lochrie. p. cm. - (The Middle Ages series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN: 978-0-8122-2174-9 1. English literature - Middle English, ca. 1100-1500 - History and criticism. 2. Women andliterature-England-History- To 1500. 3. Women-EnglandHistory- Middle Ages, 500-1500. 4. Marriage customs and rites, Medieval. 5. England - Social conditions - 1066-1485. 6. Science, Medieval, in literature. 7. Law, Medieval, in literature. 8. Marriage in literature. 9. Secrecy in literature. 10. Gossip in literature. 11. Sodomy in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PR275.W6L63 1999 820.9' 001 - dC21 98-11694

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Contents

Introduction, or Dark Matter

I

I.

Tongues Untied: Confession and Its Secrets

12

2.

Tongues Wagging: Gossip, Women, and Indiscreet Secrets

56

3. Men's Ways ofI