ABSTRACT
According to much modern critical opinion, Sir Tristrem typifies the worst aspects of Middle English popular romance. It is a greatly condensed translation of an acknowledged masterpiece, an aristocratic and courtly French-language romance: Thomas of Britain's Anglo-Norman Roman de Tristan. This chapter focuses on gender, and on the contribution the various configurations of gender make, both to the heroine's conviction for adultery and to her disculpation. Many of Sir Tristrem's 'uncourtly' and 'incompetent' features are shared with Beroul's poem; but whereas they have been castigated in Sir Tristrem, recent readings of Beroul have interpreted them as creative challenges to literary convention. The situation of the extratextual audience is essentially the same in Beroul's Tristan and in Sir Tristrem. The chapter suggests a revaluation of the Tristrem-poet's project and achievement. Yseut's bawdy and blatant innuendo works indirectly, like the rest of her selfpresentation, to convince her intratextual audience of her innocence.
