Much can and has been said regarding Robert Thornton’s awareness of genre distinctions, and rightly so: the careful division of Lincoln Cathedral Library, MS 91 into three fairly clear sections for romance, sacred and medicinal pieces is remarkable for a household book of the fifteenth century. Yet his selection of pieces, whether by plan or by accident, indicates something even more remarkable: how medieval readers such as Thornton appreciate not only genre distinctions but also genre cohesion. By recognizing generic tropes and signals across the manuscript’s texts, we may begin to understand the literary experience of its readers. A careful examination of the evocative language used in the alliterative Morte Arthure (Lincoln art. 8) illustrates not only the anonymous author’s skill in weaving a litany of medieval traditions together, but also Thornton’s ability, as compiler, to incorporate the individual text into the context of the manuscript – allowing further illumination on the ambiguous Morte itself. In order to understand this context, I will examine the variety of devotional items found in Thornton’s religious collection. In particular, I will focus on the centrality of the Passion narrative in both of Thornton’s volumes, the Lincoln manuscript and London, BL, MS Additional 31042, providing close readings of Jesus Thy Sweetness (Lincoln art. 72), the Privity of the Passion (Lincoln art. 38) and the Northern Passion (London art. 4) to gain an understanding of how they deploy an imagery of violence. By examining the graphic language used to describe heart, chest and head wounds, I will explore the relation between Passion violence and the secular violence of the alliterative Morte Arthure, before focusing on the close relationship between chivalric sacrifice and the Passion, evident in the Morte and the Siege of Jersusalem (London art. 6). In the identification of a shared language of violence between genres, exemplified by the Morte, we can begin to understand the sympathies and judge-ments passed upon the knights who are encountering the affective language.

‘Mixed’ items in Lincoln Cathedral Library, MS 91

It is not my intention to analyse the composition of the Lincoln manuscript, but its arrangement of texts is of importance to the Morte’s use of religious imagery and language. It is clear that Thornton wished to demarcate genre by section. However, the religious and secular works in his volume are also inseparable; they speak to each other’s language and tropes.