SOURCE: McKenna, Steven R. “The Structure of Tragic Action.” In Robert Henryson's Tragic Vision, pp. 19-34. New York: Peter Lang, 1994.

In this essay, McKenna scrutinizes Henryson's structural treatment of tragic action and the sense of identity of the tragic figure.

Before dealing directly with the issue of the tragic figure's sense of identity, I wish to examine briefly Henryson's structural treatment of tragic action. In general, the poet's conception of tragedy most obviously concerns the downfalls of the various tragic figures in The Testament of Cresseid and the Fables. Broadly speaking, these figures can be seen to experience reversals of fortune, and in this Henryson reflects the general tragic notions of his age. The tragic figures experience adversity, and an attendant gloom informs their fates. The general notion of tragedy's link to the workings of an unpredictable and uncaring Dame Fortune derives in part from Boethius' Consolation of...