ABSTRACT
The close relation of ‘violence’ to emotion in medieval and Early Modern Europe was a major topic for twentieth-century historians and continues to attract close attention. Together with brief reference to early and late medieval poetic works, the author pays special attention to two texts. One is the Alliterative Morte Arthure, a late fourteenth-century poem in the Arthurian tradition stemming from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 1130s Historia regum Brittanie. The Tale of Melibee is an exercise in the tradition of prudential counsel. The other text is The Siege of Jerusalem, another anonymous alliterative poem, variously dated as between 1370 and 1400. It describes the total destruction of Jerusalem in CE 70 after a siege led by the Romans Vespasian and Titus. The Roman general Vespasian is miraculously cured of illness by hearing of the Vernicle, and becomes a fervent Christian, along with his son Titus.
