I mene this by myself: Defining the self of "The Kingis Quair".

Abstract

Despite universal acknowledgment that The Kingis Quair is one of the most important Middle Scots poems, there are no published book-length examinations of this work. This study interprets The Kingis Quair through the focus of subjectivity. Subjectivity is the self's negotiation between its own desires and the demands placed on it by societal norms and physical contingencies. Although some medieval scholars have argued for medieval subjectivity, specifically Chaucer's, renaissance scholars have tended to claim that this topic came to be of interest only after the Middle Ages. In The Kingis Quair, the narrator's desires most obviously inhere in his love for the lady and his longing for freedom; his external constraints consist of not only the physical boundaries of his prison, but also the societal rules which he must follow. Using The Kingis Quair as his vehicle for self-expression and exploration, the narrator traces the route his project of self-definition took from his early youth to his present age, and justifies that path--despite its difference from the accepted authority of such works as Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Moreover, the narrator encourages members of his audience to participate in their own self-definitions. All of these projects are justified by the end of the poem, making The Kingis Quair one of the few medieval literary dreams whose ambiguity is dispelled by a seemingly perfect belief in the operation of God's providence in individual life.