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Reading Beds and Chambers in Late-Medieval England

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Reading Beds and Chambers in Late-Medieval England Between the Sheets: Reading Beds and Chambers in Late-Medieval England Hollie Louise Spencer Morgan Doctor of Philosophy University of York Centre for Medieval Studies August 2014 Hollie L. S. Morgan ABSTRACT This thesis explores the cultural meanings of beds and chambers in late-medieval England. It argues that the cultural phenomenon of the chamber, which emerged in England in the later middle ages, had profound and wide-reaching effects on late- medieval society and affected both those who had chambers and those who did not. This thesis has a strictly interdisciplinary approach, using a range of literary, documentary, visual and archaeological sources, and demonstrates how these sources informed and were informed by cultural associations and assumptions surrounding the bed and chamber. Its analysis of how members of society considered and interacted with the bed and chamber contributes to current discourse on space and objects. Additionally, its in-depth analysis of how cultural meanings of the bed and chamber were articulated and perpetuated sheds new light on late-medieval literature and social practice. This thesis is structured around a set of precepts known as “Arise Early”. Chapter One, “Fyrst Arysse Erly”, reconstructs the physical components of both real and ideal beds and chambers. Chapter Two, “Serve Thy God Deuly”, focuses on the bed and chamber as an appropriate space in which to encounter God and engage in domestic piety. Chapter Three, “Do Thy Warke Wyssely […] And Awnswer the Pepll Curtesly”, analyses how the cultural associations of the bed and chamber with intimacy and sound judgement impacted on personal and political communication and administration. Chapter Four, “Go to Thy Bed Myrely/ And Lye Therin Jocundly”, explores the chamber as a space for communal and individual leisure, the cultural link between beds and books, and the chamber as a space for the appropriate expression of emotion. Chapter Five, “Plesse and Loffe Thy Wyffe Dewly/ And Basse Hyr Onys or Tewys Myrely”, focuses on the ways in which the bed and chamber were understood in relation to both licit and illicit sex and demonstrates that the marital bed was considered to be the only acceptable locus for sex. Chapter Six, “The Invisible Woman”, explores the powerful link between women and beds and chambers in late-medieval England and demonstrates that chambers both contained and empowered women. Finally, my conclusion demonstrates how these complex cultural meanings were interwoven and highlights the importance of interdisciplinarity in approaching an understanding of the past. 2 Contents CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. 2 CONTENTS ................................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................... 5 DEDICATION ............................................................................................................. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... 7 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION .................................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 10 ‘FYRST ARYSSE ERLY’ ......................................................................................... 23 The Chamber .......................................................................................................... 25 The Bed .................................................................................................................. 31 Canvas ................................................................................................................ 35 Mattresses and Featherbeds................................................................................ 36 Sheets, Fustians and Blankets ............................................................................ 38 Coverlets ............................................................................................................ 41 Bankers ............................................................................................................... 42 Pillows, Bolsters and Headsheets ....................................................................... 43 Canopies and Curtains........................................................................................ 44 The Bedstead ...................................................................................................... 46 The Complete Ensemble .................................................................................... 47 The Idea of the Bed and Chamber ......................................................................... 51 Arising Early .......................................................................................................... 53 ‘SERVE THY GOD DEULY’ ................................................................................... 57 Encountering God in Bed ....................................................................................... 58 Devotional Practice in the Chamber ...................................................................... 67 Bringing the Chamber to the Church and Street .................................................... 82 In Bed with Jesus ................................................................................................... 88 ‘DO THY WARKE WYSSELY/ […] AND AWNSWER THE PEPLL CURTESLY’ .................................................................................................................................... 90 Being Open in a Closed Space ............................................................................... 90 The King’s Chambers .......................................................................................... 107 In Bed with the King ............................................................................................ 120 ‘GOO TO THY BED MYRELY/ AND LYE THERIN JOCUNDLY’ ................... 123 Merrymaking in the Chamber .............................................................................. 123 3 Hollie L. S. Morgan Beds and Books .................................................................................................... 134 ‘Bywayling in his chambre thus allone’: Emotions in the Chamber ................... 142 ‘Goo to Thy Bed Myrely’ .................................................................................... 148 ‘PLESSE AND LOFFE THY WYFFE DEWLY/ AND BASSE HYR ONYS OR TEWYS MYRELY’ ................................................................................................. 149 The Sexuality of the Bed ...................................................................................... 149 ‘To be Bonour and Buxom in Bed’: Beds in Marriage ........................................ 155 Breaking Chambers and Bleeding Beds: Extra-marital Sex ................................ 166 A Space for Sex .................................................................................................... 178 THE INVISIBLE WOMAN .................................................................................... 179 Linguistic Ownership ........................................................................................... 183 Material Ownership and Control .......................................................................... 190 Female Power and Male Anxiety ......................................................................... 197 Women of the Chamber: Empowered or Encapsulated? ..................................... 220 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 222 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. 231 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 232 Manuscripts .......................................................................................................... 232 Art and Objects .................................................................................................... 233 Printed Primary Sources ....................................................................................... 233 Secondary Sources ............................................................................................... 248 Digital Resources ................................................................................................. 270 4 Illustrations LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1, p. 27. Word cloud representing inventories of chambers in the York Diocese, 1350-1500 Fig. 2, p. 29. The Birth of St. Edmund from London, British Library, Harley MS. 2278, f. 13v, annotated with terminology from Fig. 1 Fig. 3, p. 34. Word cloud representing Middle English bed terminology Fig. 4, p. 48. The stratigraphy of a bed, shown from the foot of the bed, comprising each item discussed above, excluding the bankers, cushions and third curtain, for clarity Fig. 5, p. 49. A stratigraphy of the minimum layers required to make a late-medieval English bourgeois or aristocratic bed, shown from the foot of the bed Fig. 6, p. 68. Detail from the mid-sixteenth-century inscription in the Northern room on the second floor of 3 Cornmarket Street, Oxford Fig. 7,
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