SOURCE: "Interlacing in Bevis of Hampton" in Studies in "The Bovo Buch" and "Bevis of Hampton," 1976, pp. 22-49, 229-30.

In the excerpt below, Spector identifies a structural principle in Bevis known as interlacing, in which seemingly unrelated narrative threads are woven together—as in a silken tapestry or an illuminated letter in a medieval book of psalms—to achieve a unified whole. The poem begins with chaos and ends with the restoration of order, the critic argues, paralleling Josian's development from an unworthy pagan to an ideal Christian woman.

The fourteenth century romance, Bevis of Hampton, though certainly not a first-rate poem, has more merit than most of its critics are willing to grant it. At first glance, it may appear an "almost formless story,"¹ with "episodic rambling and embellishment,"² because of its unusual length;³ but it does contain a structural principle which not only provides its unity...