Maintenance, Meed, and Marriage in Medieval English Literature

"Kennedy's original study of maintenance is a welcome addition to our understanding of the literature as well as social relations in later medieval England. Drawing on an impressive body of literary and historical sources, Kennedy casts old sources into a new light and gives some lesser known literary works a new importance. What is particularly admirable is her searching and subtle consideration of the myriad forms of dependence and social doubt that underlay the notions and practices of maintenance by law and service. She helps us to see the durability of social dependence as well as its historically specific weight as it bore down on women and men, the law as well as literature. Maintenance, Meed, and Marriage in Medieval English Literature will engage both students of literature and historians and should stimulate new lines of debate on the nature of medieval social practices and their associated legal frameworks." - David Gary Shaw, Professor of History, Wesleyan University