DOCSLIB.ORG

When, Early in the Fifteenth Century, a Visiting Friar of Considerable Reputation Arrived In

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
When, Early in the Fifteenth Century, a Visiting Friar of Considerable Reputation Arrived In THE VITAE OF BODLEIAN LIBRARY MS DOUCE 114 Brian C. Vander Veen Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2007 Abstract Bodleian Library MS Douce 114 contains the unique copy of four Middle English texts, translations of Latin vitae, all describing Continental women saints whose unusual forms of devotion set them apart from the often more sober atmosphere of late-medieval English spirituality in which the texts appeared. The texts first attracted scholarly notice following the publication of The Book of Margery Kempe and the subsequent interest in the lives of the Continental women mystics whom Kempe resembled far more than her own English contemporaries; however, the texts have yet to be examined in any detail. This study investigates both the physical production of the translation and the context of book production in which the manuscript appeared, as well as the ideological context and controversies which would have informed the reading and reception of the texts. Acknowledgments This thesis could not have been completed without the patience and dedicated help of my supervisor, Prof Thorlac Turville-Petre. I would also like to thank Prof Janette Dillon for her valuable advice during the formative stages of this project; my examiners Prof Vincent Gillespie and Dr. Nicola Royan for providing helpful suggestions for the elaboration and refinement of my future research on late-medieval devotional texts; the staff of the Hallward Library at the University of Nottingham, the staff of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the staff of the Pollak Library at California State University Fullerton; and finally, my family and friends without whose support the completion of this thesis would not have been possible. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Literary Production at Beauvale Priory ..................................................... 34 Chapter 3: The Beguine Movement ................................................................................. 70 Chapter 4: Douce 114 and the Defence of Orthodoxy ....................................... 123 Chapter 5: Idiosyncratic Devotion and Its Critics ..................................................... 191 1 Introduction When, early in the fifteenth century, a visiting friar of considerable reputation arrived in King's Lynn, Norfolk, he was forewarned by the priest of St James' parish about the unusual behaviour of one of the local residents. The individual, Margery Kempe, daughter of Lynn's former mayor, had earned some local notoriety for her unusual devotion, and specifically, for her fits of loud weeping in response to any mention of Christ's passion. These outbursts had so far been patiently tolerated by the parish priest as well as the parishioners, and he instructed the visiting friar to do likewise. During his first sermon in Lynn, the friar voiced no objection when Margery began to sob loudly, but he afterwards excluded her from attending any church in which he was preaching, despite attempts by local clergy and lay supporters of Kempe to persuade him otherwise. The resulting tension between the friar, on the one hand, and Kempe's friends and supporters, on the other, reached an impasse on St James' Day, 1420, when the friar preached a pulpit-pounding sermon against Kempe, making thinly-veiled threats against those who persisted in supporting her: 'Yyf I here any mor thes matyrs rehersyd,' the 1 friar warned, 'I schal so smytyn the nayl on the hed . that it schal schamyn alle hyr mayntenowyrs'. At that, many of Kempe's friends withdrew their support and friendship, capitulating instead to the friar's reputation. Even the priest who would later serve as Margery's amanuensis and help produce the book of her life and revelations was momentarily dissuaded from endorsing her unusual form of devotion. He did, of course, later regret his decision and returned to Margery's support, but only after discovering ample precedent for Margery's ecstatic weeping. The account of his change of mind, preserved in The Book of Margery Kempe, lists several books of contemporary devotion mentioning the gift of tears, the first of which is the vita of Marie of Oignies (d.1213). The anecdote that Margery's priest relates from the vita is in many ways strikingly parallel to Kempe's own experiences, and it is this similarity, as well as the ecclesiastical sanction already given to Marie's form of devotion, that seems to have persuaded Margery's priest to put his own reputation at stake rather than withdraw his support. Like Margery, Marie of Oignies was excluded by a clergyman because of her loud weeping. In Marie's case, however, the priest was himself later so overwhelmed during the gospel reading that he soaked his vestments with tears, and thus was forced to admit the authenticity of Marie's special grace. It is this miraculous precedent that for Margery's amanuensis serves as his primary justification for accepting Margery's experiences as equally valid. 1 The similarities between Kempe's spirituality and that of Marie of Oignies, and indeed that of a number of continental women mystics, are numerous, and comparisons with continental saints have been a staple of Kempe studies ever since Hope Emily Allen's preface and notes for the EETS edition of The Book of Margery Kempe first called attention 1 The story of Margery’s conflict with the friar, and her priest’s crisis of loyalties, is related in Ch. 61- 62 of The Book of Margery Kempe. Quotations are from the edition by Sanford Brown Meech and Hope Emily Allen, The Book of Margery Kempe (OS 212, London: EETS, 1940). 2 to the 'accumulation of coincidental commonplaces' shared by Kempe and a number of continental holy women.2 As a result, Douce 114, the manuscript preserving the unique copy of the Middle English translation of Marie of Oignies's life, together with the vitae of Elizabeth of Spalbeek (d.1274) and Christina Mirabilis (d.1224) and a letter concerning Catherine of Siena (d.1380), has since been often cited in discussions of Kempe. Even works produced for non-specialists, such as the introduction to B.A.Windeatt's translation of The Book of Margery Kempe, have since included allusions to Douce 114, in this case citing the volume as 'a collection which in itself suggests the kind of reading that some of Margery's advisors would draw upon'.3 Yet, despite the frequent allusions made to Douce 114 in the context of Kempe studies, few have yet examined the manuscript itself in any depth. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne and Marie-Élisabeth Henneau lament this oversight in their introduction to a recent collection of essays discussing the influence of women mystics of the Low Countries: 'Yet for what are arguably the most important texts concerning the women of Liége and English vernacular culture, there currently exists no edition later than that to be found in 2 Meech and Allen, The Book of Margery Kempe, p.lv. Summaries of the parallels between Marie of Oignies and Margery Kempe can also be found in Barry Windeatt’s useful introduction to his translation of The Book of Margery Kempe (London: Penguin, 1994), p.19-20; in Ellen M. Ross, The Grief of God: Images of the Suffering Jesus in Late Medieval England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p.120-21; and in Clarissa W. Atkinson, Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the World of Margery Kempe, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), p.31-34. One particular similarity, Marie of Oignies’ Candlemas vision, is discussed more extensively by Carolyne Larrington in 'Representing the Presentation: The Candlemas Vision and Marie d'Oignies' Role in its Dissemination' in Juliette Dor et al., eds., New Trends in Feminine Spirituality (Hull: Brepols, 1999), p. 195-214. Other comparisons of Margery Kempe to continental women mystics can be found in Julia Bolton Holloway, 'Bride, Margery, Julian, and Alice: Bridget of Sweden’s Textual Community in Medieval England' in Sarah J. McEntire, ed., Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays (New York: Garland, 1992), p.203-21; Alexandra Barratt, 'Margery Kempe and the King’s Daughter of Hungary' in McEntire, Margery Kempe, p.189-201; Susan Dickman, 'Margery Kempe and the Continental Tradition of the Pious Woman' in Marion Glasscoe, ed., The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England (Woodbridge: D.S.Brewer, 1984), p.150-68; Janette Dillon, 'Holy Women and their Confessors or Confessors and their Holy Women? Margery Kempe and Continental Tradition' in Rosalynn Voaden, ed., Prophets Abroad: The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late Medieval England, (Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 1996), p.115-40. 3 Windeatt, The Book of Margery Kempe, p.20 3 a scholarly journal of 1886 [sic] and very few studies'.4 The collection of essays on the women of Liége, edited by Wogan-Browne and Henneau, goes some way toward correcting the imbalance, containing valuable articles on Christina Mirabilis and Marie of Oignies.5 None of the articles, however, deals specifically with the Middle-English translations of the vitae found in Douce 114, nor with the reception of these texts within the context of late-medieval English spirituality. Moreover, Wogan-Browne and Henneau's description of the manuscript as 'the fifteenth- century Middle English versions of the vitae of Marie of Oignies, Christina Mirabilis, and Elizabeth of Spalbeek, grouped together with a translation of the German mystic Henry Suso's Horologium and prepared for an unidentified English woman by her chaplain' is perhaps unfortunate. First, by omitting the letter concerning the life of Catherine of Siena from its list of contents, it gives the impression that the manuscript is concerned solely with the vitae of saints associated with the Liége Beguines. Instead, the inclusion in Douce 114 of a letter describing the life of Catherine of Siena indicates a different principle of organisation, one that I suggest is based principally on thematic similarities rather than geographic or historical associations.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Medieval-Renaissance Studies Program NEW COLLEGE of USF 5700 N
    Medieval-Renaissance Studies Program NEW COLLEGE OF USF 5700 N. Tamiami Trail Sarasota, Florida 34243-2197 THE ELEVENTH BIENNIAL NEW COLLEGE CONFERENCE ON MEDIEVAL-RENAISSANCE STUDIES Sarasota, Florida March 12, 13, 14, 1998 I 1998 Conference Summar A B c D E Italian Art History Medieval Renais- 1998 Conference Summary Studies History Literature sance Literature D E A B c Medieval Renais- Session V Chronicles, Northern Late Dante: New Italian Art History Literature sance Friday Notaries, Italian Medieval Poetry Readings Studies History Literature 9-10:30 and Wills Paintings Nether- & Poetics of Hamlet AM lands I Early Medieval Italian Session I Civic Dante Medieval German Literature Thursday Humanism II History Literature Session VI Dressing Dante Late Italian Hamlet 9-10:30 Friday Women, In Renais- Medieval Intertext- II AM 11-12;30 Sex and sance Nether- ualities AM Marriage Art lands II Renais- Religion Medi evalia Medieval Chretien Session II sance and /Medieval- Spain de Troyes Thursday French Plenary 2:00 PM Alison "New New Politics isms l I-12:30 Literature Session I: Macmillan Men, Mores?" AM Brown: Medieval Northern Session Piety Italian Huizinga Sexuality Italian Session III Bishops, Late Medieval French Humanism vn & Renais- and New m Literary Thursday Nuns, Renais- English Literature Friday Politics sance Interpreta- Medieval Explora- 2-3:30 & Reform sance History Rome 3:30-5 Painting tion Literature tions PM PM Medieval Teaching Session IV Domestic Renais- War Individual: Shake- Thursday Life sance and Theory to speare 3:45-5: 15 Sculpture Chivalry Practice 1998 Conference Summar PM Session Renais- Early Burgun- Medieval English VIII sance Italian dian Music Literature Reception Bayfront Saturday Politics Art Studies and & Politics 5:30-7:00 9-10:30 Culture AM Plenary Saturday Linda "Consider Flowers Session II 11:00AM Seidel: the Lilies: in 15th C.
    [Show full text]
  • Nottinghamshire's Sustainable Community Strategy
    Nottinghamshire’s Sustainable Community Strategy the nottinghamshire partnership all together better 2010-2020 Contents 1 Foreword 5 2 Introduction 7 3 Nottinghamshire - our vision for 2020 9 4 How we put this strategy together What is this document based on? 11 How this document links with other important documents 11 Our evidence base 12 5 Nottinghamshire - the timeline 13 6 Nottinghamshire today 15 7 Key background issues 17 8 Nottinghamshire’s economy - recession and recovery 19 9 Key strategic challenges 21 10 Our priorities for the future A greener Nottinghamshire 23 A place where Nottinghamshire’s children achieve their full potential 27 A safer Nottinghamshire 33 Health and well-being for all 37 A more prosperous Nottinghamshire 43 Making Nottinghamshire’s communities stronger 47 11 Borough/District community strategies 51 12 Next steps and contacts 57 Nottinghamshire’s Sustainable Community Strategy 2010-2020 l p.3 Appendices I The Nottinghamshire Partnership 59 II Underpinning principles 61 III Our evidence base 63 IV Consultation 65 V Nottinghamshire - the timeline 67 VI Borough/District chapters Ashfield 69 Bassetlaw 74 Broxtowe 79 Gedling 83 Mansfield 87 Newark and Sherwood 92 Rushcliffe 94 VII Case studies 99 VIII Other relevant strategies and action plans 105 IX Performance management - how will we know that we have achieved our targets? 107 X List of acronyms 109 XI Glossary of terms 111 XII Equality impact assessment 117 p.4 l Nottinghamshire’s Sustainable Community Strategy 2010-2020 1 l Foreword This document, the second community strategy for Nottinghamshire, outlines the key priorities for the county over the next ten years.
    [Show full text]
  • The Book of Margery Kempe- Medieval Mysticism and Sanity Abstract: Since the Discovery of Margery Kempe's Book the Validity O
    1 The Book of Margery Kempe- Medieval Mysticism and Sanity Abstract: Since the discovery of Margery Kempe’s Book the validity of her visionary experiences has been called scrutinized by those within the literary and medical communies. Indeed there were many individuals when The Book was written, including her very own scribe, who have questioned Kempe’s sanity. Kempe claimed herself to be an unusual woman who was prone to visionary experiences of divine nature that were often accompanied by loud lamenting, crying, and shaking and self-inflicted punishment. By admission these antics were off-putting to many and at times even disturbing to those closest to her. But is The Book of Margery Kempe a tale of madness? It is unfair to judge all medieval mystics as hysterics. Margery Kempe through her persistence and use of scribes has given a first-hand account of life as a mystic in the early 15th century. English Literature 2410-1N Fall/2011 Deb Koelling 2 The Book of Margery Kempe- Medieval Mysticism and Sanity The Book Margery Kempe tells the story of medieval mystic Margery Kempe’s transformation from sinner to saint by her own recollections, beginning at the time of the birth of her first of 14 children. Kempe (ca. 1373-1438) tells of being troubled by an unnamed sin, tortured by the devil, and being locked away, with her hands bound for fear she would injure herself; for greater than six months, when she had her first visionary experience of Jesus dressed in purple silk by her bedside. Kempe relates: Our merciful Lord Christ Jesus, ever
    [Show full text]
  • 9780521650601 Index.Pdf
    Cambridge University Press 0521650607 - Pragmatic Utopias: Ideals and Communities, 1200-1630 Edited by Rosemary Horrox and Sarah Rees Jones Index More information Index Aberdeen, Baxter,Richard, Abingdon,Edmund of,archbp of Canterbury, Bayly,Thomas, , Beauchamp,Richard,earl of Warwick, – Acthorp,Margaret of, Beaufort,Henry,bp of Winchester, adultery, –, Beaufort,Margaret,countess of Richmond, Aelred, , , , , , Aix en Provence, Beauvale Priory, Alexander III,pope, , Beckwith,William, Alexander IV,pope, Bedford,duke of, see John,duke of Bedford Alexander V,pope, beggars, –, , Allen,Robert, , Bell,John,bp of Worcester, All Souls College,Oxford, Belsham,John, , almshouses, , , , –, , –, Benedictines, , , , , –, , , , , , –, , – Americas, , Bereford,William, , anchoresses, , – Bergersh,Maud, Ancrene Riwle, Bernard,Richard, –, Ancrene Wisse, –, Bernwood Forest, Anglesey Priory, Besan¸con, Antwerp, , Beverley,Yorks, , , , apostasy, , , – Bicardike,John, appropriations, –, , , , Bildeston,Suff, , –, , Arthington,Henry, Bingham,William, – Asceles,Simon de, Black Death, , attorneys, – Blackwoode,Robert, – Augustinians, , , , , , Bohemia, Aumale,William of,earl of Yorkshire, Bonde,Thomas, , , –, Austria, , , , Boniface VIII,pope, Avignon, Botreaux,Margaret, –, , Aylmer,John,bp of London, Bradwardine,Thomas, Aymon,P`eire, , , , –, Brandesby,John, Bray,Reynold, Bainbridge,Christopher,archbp of York, Brinton,Thomas,bp of Rochester, Bristol, Balliol College,Oxford, , , , , , Brokley,John, Broomhall
    [Show full text]
  • Sche Knelyd Upon Hir Kneys, Hir Boke in Hir Hand: Manuscript Travel, Devotional Pedagogy, and the Textual Communities of the Book of Margery Kemp
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2006-7: Penn Humanities Forum Undergraduate Travel Research Fellows April 2007 Sche knelyd upon hir kneys, hir boke in hir hand: Manuscript Travel, Devotional Pedagogy, and the Textual Communities of The Book of Margery Kemp Sara Gorman University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2007 Gorman, Sara, "Sche knelyd upon hir kneys, hir boke in hir hand: Manuscript Travel, Devotional Pedagogy, and the Textual Communities of The Book of Margery Kemp" (2007). Undergraduate Humanities Forum 2006-7: Travel. 4. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2007/4 2006-2007 Penn Humanities Forum on Travel, Undergraduate Mellon Research Fellows. URL: http://humanities.sas.upenn.edu/06-07/uhf_fellows.shtml This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/uhf_2007/4 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sche knelyd upon hir kneys, hir boke in hir hand: Manuscript Travel, Devotional Pedagogy, and the Textual Communities of The Book of Margery Kemp Abstract The simplest, and yet most knotty, place to start with The Book of Margery Kempe is to ask plainly: what is it? It has most frequently been proclaimed the first autobiography in English, seemingly more as a marketing ploy than as a result of careful analysis of genre. In reality, Kempe's book occupies an uncomfortable space between first person and third person, written (and even this is problematic) by a self who calls herself "this creature." Yet it is not hagiography either. The Book falls short of the criteria of hagiography for practical reasons – to name only a few, Margery Kempe has not been canonized and she has no proper "vita," the primary criterion for which is posthumous creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Chapter 1 Mapping Martyrdom
    Notes Introduction 1 'Why be now no martyris as were wone to ben?'; 'We han pese dayys mar­ tyris al to manye in pis lond'; 'For pe mor martyris pe mor morde and manslaute & pe mor schadyng of innocentis blood ... And now Englych nacioun hat mad many martyris; pey sparyn neyper here owyn kyng ne her buschopys, no dignyte, non ordre, no stat, no degree'. Dives et Pauper, P.H. Barnum (ed.) 2 vols., EETS o.s. 275 (London, 1976), vol. I, pp. 208-9. 2 ].c. Russell, 'The Canonization of Opposition to the King in Angevin England', in Anniversary Essays in Medieval History: By Students of Charles Homer Haskins, Presented in His Completion of Forty Years of Teaching, C.H. Taylor and].L. Monte (eds) (Boston and NY, 1929), pp. 279-90. 3 For reactions to ].F. Kennedy's assassination and his posthumous portrayal as martyr see E.]. Naveh, Crown of Thoms: Political Martyrdom in America from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King Jr. (NY and London, 1990), pp. 172-4. 4 ].W. McKenna, 'Popular Canonization As Political Propaganda: The Cult of Archbishop Scrope', Speculum 45 (1970), pp. 608-23; J.W. McKenna, 'Piety and Propaganda: The Cult of King Henry VI', in Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honour of Rossell Hope Robbins, B. Rowland (ed.) (London, 1974), pp. 72-88. Also ].M. Theilmann, 'A Study of the Canonization of Political Figures in England by Popular Opinion, 1066-1509' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Georgia, 1978); J.M. Theilmann, 'Political Canoniza­ tion and Political Symbolism in Medieval England', Journal ofBritish Studies 29 (1990), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Margery Kempe: Madwoman Or Mystic – a Narrative Approach to the Representation of Madness and Mysticism in Medieval England
    University of Huddersfield Repository Torn, Alison Margery Kempe: Madwoman or Mystic – A Narrative Approach to the Representation of Madness and Mysticism in Medieval England Original Citation Torn, Alison (2008) Margery Kempe: Madwoman or Mystic – A Narrative Approach to the Representation of Madness and Mysticism in Medieval England. In: Narrative and Fiction: an Interdisciplinary Approach. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, pp. 79-89. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/4830/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ 9 Margery Kempe: Madwoman or Mystic – A Narrative Approach to the Representation of Madness and Mysticism in Medieval England ALISON TORN Introduction Historically, the boundaries between madness and mysticism have been characterised by fluidity. However, since the emergence of psychiatry in the 1800s, attempts have been made to place a firm distinction between the two experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • English Monks Suppression of the Monasteries
    ENGLISH MONKS and the SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES ENGLISH MONKS and the SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES by GEOFFREY BAS KER VILLE M.A. (I) JONA THAN CAPE THIRTY BEDFORD SQUARE LONDON FIRST PUBLISHED I937 JONATHAN CAPE LTD. JO BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON AND 91 WELLINGTON STREET WEST, TORONTO PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN IN THE CITY OF OXFORD AT THE ALDEN PRESS PAPER MADE BY JOHN DICKINSON & CO. LTD. BOUND BY A. W. BAIN & CO. LTD. CONTENTS PREFACE 7 INTRODUCTION 9 I MONASTIC DUTIES AND ACTIVITIES I 9 II LAY INTERFERENCE IN MONASTIC AFFAIRS 45 III ECCLESIASTICAL INTERFERENCE IN MONASTIC AFFAIRS 72 IV PRECEDENTS FOR SUPPRESSION I 308- I 534 96 V THE ROYAL VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES 1535 120 VI SUPPRESSION OF THE SMALLER MONASTERIES AND THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE 1536-1537 144 VII FROM THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE TO THE FINAL SUPPRESSION 153 7- I 540 169 VIII NUNS 205 IX THE FRIARS 2 2 7 X THE FATE OF THE DISPOSSESSED RELIGIOUS 246 EPILOGUE 273 APPENDIX 293 INDEX 301 5 PREFACE THE four hundredth anniversary of the suppression of the English monasteries would seem a fit occasion on which to attempt a summary of the latest views on a thorny subject. This book cannot be expected to please everybody, and it makes no attempt to conciliate those who prefer sentiment to truth, or who allow their reading of historical events to be distorted by present-day controversies, whether ecclesiastical or political. In that respect it tries to live up to the dictum of Samuel Butler that 'he excels most who hits the golden mean most exactly in the middle'.
    [Show full text]
  • Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in the Medieval West
    Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in the Medieval West The International Library of Historical Studies Series ISBN 1 86064 079 6 Editorial Board: Professor David N.␣ Cannadine, Director, Institute of Historical Research, University of London; Wm. Roger Louis, Dis- tinguished Teaching Professor and Kerr Chair in English History and Culture, University of Texas, Austin; Gene R. Garthwaite, Jane and Raphael Bernstein Professor of Asian Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; Andrew N. Porter, Rhodes Professor of Imperial History, King’s College London; Professor James Piscatori, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford; Professor Dr Erik J. Zürcher, Chair, Turkish Studies, University of Leiden Series Editors: Andrew Ayton, University of Hull (medieval history); Christopher J. Wrigley, Professor of Modern British History, University of Nottingham The International Library of Historical Studies (ILHS) brings together the work of leading historians from universities in the English-speaking world and beyond. It constitutes a forum for original scholarship from the United Kingdom, continental Europe, the USA, the Common- wealth and the Developing World. The books are the fruit of original research and thinking and they contribute to the most advanced historiographical debate and are exhaustively assessed by the authors’ academic peers. The Library consists of a numbered series, covers a wide subject range and is truly international in its geographical scope. It provides a unique and authoritative resource for libraries
    [Show full text]
  • Margery Kempe 1373?-1438?
    Wulf and Eadwacer 419 Germanic elegies known as frauenlieder, lamentations sung and possibly composed by women. Like its counterpart, "The Wife's Lament," "Wulf and Eadwacer" demonstrates less hope of relief from suffering than do such male-voiced elegies as "The Wanderer" and "!he Seafarer," which also appear in The Exeter Book. The rhetorical and emotional power of the female voice in "Wulf and Eadwacer" makes it an important poem to consider as part of any women's liter­ ary tradition in English, whether or not a woman actually wrote it. Law codes, wills, and historical documents reveal that some religious and lay women had significant societal powers during the Anglo-Saxon period; they could own, inherit, and bequeath property, administer abbeys or nunneries, and manage estates in their husbands' absence or as widows. Yet most Old English literature portrays a male-centered code of war, heroism, and revenge, a world in which women were absent or, at best, marginal. Female-voiced elegies such as "Wulf and Eadwacer" thus provide a rare picture of Anglo-Saxon women's emo­ tional landscapes, revealing what the historical records sometimes did not: that women were vulnerable to a double sexual standard that punished their transgressions more harshly than those of men and subjected them to the whims of husbands who might be vengeful or abusive. ~ Wulf and Eadwacer ~ For my clan he would be like a gift of booty­ they will waste him if he crosses their path. With us it isn't like that. Wulf is on one island, I on another- 5 his island is made fast, girded by fens.
    [Show full text]
  • Ambler (ASUID# 1204282984), Dissertation
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ASU Digital Repository Same-soul Desire in Late Medieval England by B. Joy Ambler A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved November 2017 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Robert S. Sturges, Chair Richard G. Newhauser Tracy Fessenden ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY DECEMBER 2017 ABSTRACT In this study, I explore to what extent an erotic orientation toward others’ spiritual characteristics, specifically with regard to “clean” souls, was strongly idealized in at least two medieval English locales, the central Midlands and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Where a hetero-genital orientation was pervasively considered proper with regard to erotic attraction then as today, I propose that, additionally, a desire to associate on a spiritual level with not only those of the same religion but also of like spiritual purity governed desire. As I will argue, this orientation to a spiritual sameness stemmed from a meme of preferred association in life with other Christians with clean souls. I refer to this desire for association with Christian sameness as a homo-spiritual orientation. As I will argue, this homospirituality was the primary basis of erotic desire portrayed and prescribed in the evidence considered in this study. In sum, I argue that fifteenth-century English ways of knowing and feeling desire, reflected in models of desire in romance poetry in these two locales, evidences an erotic orientation based on homospiritual lines of attraction. Moreover, in each area, the models of lay homospiritual erotics were preceded by and coincided with religious writings on the subject that contributed to an overall intellectual current.
    [Show full text]
  • 4. the Observatory Compound
    THE KING’S OBSERVATORY OLD DEER PARK, RICHMOND HISTORICAL REPORT BY JOHN CLOAKE VOL. 1 TEXT THE KING’S OBSERVATORY HISTORICAL REPORT VOL. 1 – TEXT – CONTENTS 1. Chronology of occupants of the Observatory – and responsible Government agencies 2. Early history of the site 3. The Observatory building 4. The Observatory compound 5. The work of the Observatory while in Royal hands – and the Royal collections 6. The work of the Observatory for scientific purposes 1842-1980 a. The British Association for the Advancement of Science 1842-1871 b. The Royal Society 1871-1899 c. The National Physical Laboratory 1900-1910 d. The Meteorological Office 1910-1980 7. The internal arrangement of the Observatory building 8. The outbuildings 9. Adaptation to use as a commercial office 10. Archaeological remains Appendix I General chronology II Site chronology III Sources – documents IV Sources – books and articles Note: Maps, plans and illustrations (with a note of their sources) are in Vol.2. 1. CHRONOLOGY OF OCCUPANTS 1768-69 Observatory built 1769-1840 Directly in Crown hands [1840-1842 negotiations with Royal Society] 1842-71 British Association for the Advancement of Science (by ‘grace & favour grant’) (Kew Committee established 1849) 19.6.1871 Handed over to Kew Committee of Royal Society 1881-82 Office of Works finds that no official notification of the 1871 handover was given. The Queen’s permission was given for continued occupation by the Royal Society, still on a grace & favour licence (but with ‘acknowledgement’ rent of 55 shillings p.a.) 30.11.1882 Licence to Royal Society issued: enrolled 22.12.1882 6.4.1883 Revised licence enrolled 1.1.1900 National Physical Laboratory (under auspices of Royal Society) takes over 1.7.1910 Meteorological Office (under auspices of Royal Society) takes over (1910-1913 – all NPL work transferred to Bushy House) 1920 Meteorological Office transferred to control of Air Ministry 1964 Air Ministry merged into Ministry of Defence 1980 Meteorological Office work at ‘Kew’ terminated.
    [Show full text]