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Guillaume de Machaut' 'The Fountain of Love' ('La fonteinne amoureuse') and Two Other Love Vision Poems, ed. and trans. R. Barton Palmer, Garland Library of Medieval Literature A 54 (New York and London: Garland, 1993;). xcvi + 251 pp. ISBN o-8240-8781-X. $52.00.
The two other love-vision poems are Machaut's Prologue to his complete works and his Dit du Vergier. R. Barton Palmer thus continues the useful series of his bilingual editions of Machaut's dits with facing English translation, intended more for Chaucer enthusiasts needing help with Middle French than for students of French. It comes as something of a shock to those of us to whom Machaut is a very old friend to read: 'The creation of a "postmodern" Machaut has rightly restored the poet's reputation by demonstrating that he should be read according to his age's conception of the literary'; so we had it right all the time! But each generation feels sure of having discovered everything for the first time.
The lengthy introduction is useful, if derivative,...