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SCRIBIT MATER
Mary and the Language Arts in the Literature of Medieval England
By GEORGIANA DONAVIN
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS
Copyright © 2012 The Catholic University of America Press
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8132-1885-4
Chapter One
THE ENGLISH LIVES OF MARY
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IN THE COURSE OF THIS BOOK, I will show how throughout medieval English literature, the virgin Mary is associated with academic and native arts of speech. By investigating the various English renditions of Mary's life story, this chapter seeks to provide a general context for the following chapters' presentations of her linguistic roles. All of the texts discussed in this chapter amplify the biblical narratives of the virgin's experience and show the diverse ways in which Mary was cast as a lady of learning. Although a large number of English works extend the treatment of Mary in the Bible, I have chosen here a sampling of contemplative, dramatic, and narrative resources that make the virgin and her wisdom their primary focus. These resources, as far as possible, will be treated in chronological order, acknowledging that some works are English translations of earlier Latin texts and others occur in late manuscripts that no doubt provide evidence of prior traditions. Through this rough chronology, as we pass from Anglo-Saxon poetry to late medieval writings more dependent upon continental models of Marian meditation, we can see a shift from a focus on single events in the virgin's life to comprehensive treatments of the virgin's biography and reiterations therein of her superior knowledge and its impact on salvation history. Each text considered in this chapter highlights Mary's knowledge in a distinct way, by characterizing the virgin as teacher or pupil, by underscoring her somatic or emotional experiences, by comparing her learning to Eucharistic food, or by spotlighting proofs of her wisdom with aureate diction. In Anglo-Saxon lyrics, the mystery plays, contemplative texts, and late medieval narrative poems, the virgin appears studious, intelligent, and articulate, all qualities that she needs in order to figure as a muse, mistress of grammar, Lady rhetoric, or oral performer in the literature analyzed later in this book.
The writings under discussion in this chapter are the Anglo-Saxon Advent Lyrics, John Gower's Mirour de l'Omme, the Bridgettine Myroure of Oure Ladye, the N-Town Mary Play, and John Lydgate's Life of Our Lady. These works written in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries rely on a host of apocryphal and meditative texts in order to flesh out a more complete biography of Mary's life. These resources include the Protevangelium of James, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and the Evangelium de nativitate Mariae, as well as more popular versions of these apocrypha such as the Old English Martyrology and Jacobus de voragine's Legenda Aurea; the resources for the texts covered in this chapter also include meditations on the lives of the holy family such as the Meditationes vitae Christi and nicholas Love's Middle English adaptation, the Mirrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ. This variety of resources offered Gower, Lydgate, and other, anonymous authors covered here a number of entryways into the subject of the virgin's life and wisdom. In the Advent Lyrics, a regal Mary is the teacher of humanity, figured by Joseph; in Gower's Mirour de l'Omme, a refined virgin expresses her knowledge of providence in her joys and sorrows; in the Bridgettine Myroure of Oure Ladye, Mary's wisdom provides salvific food to the nuns of syon Abbey; in the N-Town Mary Play, the young virgin is a model of studiousness for all; and finally, in Lydgate's Life of Our Lady, her sagacity shines brightly in scenes for meditation, and she herself is the poet's muse. Taken together, these English lives of Mary illustrate the divergent audiences—ecclesiastical and lay, courtly and popular—that took Mary to be the mother of wisdom. Once we understand how widespread and diversified belief in Mary's wisdom was during the English Middle Ages, her figuration as the Queen of the Liberal Arts in John of Garland's textbooks, the meditative poems of the English north, and Chaucer, as well as her characterization as mother of spoken and written discourse in the Middle English lyrics and Margery Kempe, will appear much more credible and representative of the age.
Advent Lyric VII
our first life story of the virgin Mary in English, the Advent Lyrics, or as these poems are alternatively called, Christ I, comes from the late Anglo-Saxon world. Although most of Scribit Mater evaluates cultural contexts and texts from the late English Middle Ages, it is important to note, as the introduction discussed briefly, that the later period inherited strong traditions of Marian piety from the Anglo-Saxons. According to Mary Clayton, Anglo-Saxon devotion to the virgin developed these traditions not only in the liturgy, but also in material and verbal arts. As an example of verbal art sprung from liturgical singing, the old English Advent Lyrics, or Christ I, is a series of twelve reflections upon antiphons sung during the Advent season. Unfortunately, the context for the contemplation or performance of the Advent Lyrics is unknown, but possibilities range from private devotion to enjoyment in a monastic refectory. Especially Advent Lyric VII bears upon an event in the virgin Mary's life while emphasizing the Mother's wisdom.
The twelve Advent Lyrics are included in the Exeter Book, a late-tenth-century compilation, and occur in a series of poems about Christ: Christ II and Christ III follow in the manuscript. Christ II bears Cynewulf's signature, but the other two works are anonymous and generally agreed to be by different authors. "In Christ I," George hardin Brown remarks of the work we shall focus on here, "it is marvelous, even miraculous, how extraordinarily apt the old English poetic lines are in expressing some of the most difficult and paradoxical Judaeo-Christian religious tenets." Brown's emphasis is on the suitability of the Anglo-Saxon poet's prosody for the revelation of mysteries. This chapter will reveal how often Mary delivers these instructive lines throughout the twelve lyrics and specifically how in Advent Lyric VII both her life and her speech manifest Christian teaching. As poems about the Advent season, the lyrics highlight the mystery of the incarnation (and the second Coming) and the human responses of wonder, dread, and joy. Mary's position in the Advent Lyrics is the key to understanding the paradox of Emmanuel—or to accepting the limitations of humankind's mental grasp. As Mary sometimes reminds her interlocutors in these lyrics of their intellectual limitations, her own superiority of mind is made clear.
Mary is central to Advent Lyric II, IV, VII, and IX and is mentioned throughout the twelve poems as the vehicle for Christ's coming to earth. Although the unity of Christ I has been disputed, and it is possible to regard each Advent Lyric as an autonomous poem, one crosscurrent is the way in which all of the poems treat the mystery of God's coming and some seek understanding of this mystery through Mary's participation in it. Several scholars regard the presentation of the virgin Mary as a thread weaving the poems; for instance, R. B. Burlin sees a movement from the questions asked of Mary in Lyric IV to the answers Mary supplies to Joseph in VII and finally to the culmination of Mary's wise comments in IX. Jane Chance regards the evolving presentation of Mary's role from maiden to bride of Christ as part of the binding for all of the lyrics. Chance points out that the earlier lyrics prepare the way for Mary's characterization as a teacher of providence's progress in Lyric VII. Lyric II introduces her as the "faemne geong" (young woman), who by remaining pure delivered "dryhtnes geryne" (the Lord's secret). in IV she responds to the inhabitants of Jerusalem who inquire into the paradox of the virgin Birth that she herself, "dauides dyrre maegan" (David's dear offspring), is the sign that God has given humankind to recognize. While Lyric II and IV, and later Lyric IX, which celebrates the bride as the prophesied gateway for God's passing into the city of humanity, all emphasize Mary's intimacy with the Lord's intentions and her sagacity in translating them for earthly comprehension, it is Lyric VII that presents the virgin as an instructor in divine things. There she explains to Joseph the meaning of the Annunciation, virgin Birth, and incarnation. This poem portrays Mary as a wise woman, while it develops a scene from Matthew 1:20 in which Joseph doubts her fidelity.
Advent Lyric VII is a reflection upon an antiphon from Alcuin's De laude Dei, in which Joseph is interrogated about his belief in the virgin Birth: "o Joseph, how did you believe that which before you feared? Well? he whom Gabriel announced would be the Christ to come is born of her by the holy spirit." Lyric VII is unusual among the twelve poems because its elaboration of the antiphon consists entirely of a dialogue between Mary and Joseph, while a community of praying petitioners is the governing narrator in the other lyrics. The dialogic structure and dramatic presentation allow us to see a unique representation of a scene from Mary's early life in Anglo-Saxon literature, but we must tease this representation out of scholarly debate over the poem.
The attribution of speeches within the dialogue of Lyric VII is the subject of much argument, representing differences in what old English scholars would consider appropriate words for either Mary or Joseph. The most popular reading of the poem, based on its presentation in the editions of Krapp and Dobbie and of Campbell, divides the dialogue into five speeches. According to this structure, Mary opens the poem with a lament that Joseph is intent on leaving her, and Joseph responds that he endures terrible grief over dishonor suffered for Mary's sake. Mary then wonders why Joseph sorrows so, since she has found no fault in him. Joseph explains that he bears too many insults over Mary's mysterious pregnancy and the depressing alternatives open to him of either seeing his betrothed stoned for adultery or pretending that the child is his and accepting the scorn due to a liar. In the final speech, Mary clears Joseph's doubts with a revelation of the Annunciation and the promise of the virgin Birth and incarnation to come.
In an alternative assignation of speeches in the dialogue, a group of critics often called the "unifiers" propose that Lyric VII offers three speeches, rather than the five defended by the "fragmenters." in the tripartite interpretation of the poem, Mary begins by bewailing Joseph's intention to leave her and the calumnious speeches of others that she has heard through him. Joseph explains that the sorrow he suffers over her mysterious pregnancy has caused him to bring these troubles to her and to contemplate the terrible alternatives ahead: her stoning or his enduring position as a perjured man. Mary then delivers the final speech on whose attribution both critical camps agree. The "fragmenters" have argued that the tripartite structure presents Mary in unlikely despair and confusion at the beginning of the poem, but my reading of her character in Advent Lyric VII will nevertheless follow the "unification" principle for the following reasons. First, the manuscript offers no punctuation or prompt that would indicate five different speeches. Lyric VII offers only three speech markers: two phrases with the apostrophe "eala" (o) and a transitional sentence explaining that Mary is about to speak. The poem opens "Eala Joseph min" (o my Joseph), clearly indicating Mary as the first speaker, and at lines 175b–176a Joseph cries out "eala faemne geong / mægd maria" (o young woman, maiden Mary). Before the final speech, the following introduction occurs: "þa seo faemne onwrah / ryht-geryno and þus reordade" (then the woman revealed the true mystery and thus replied). These introductions clearly set boundaries for different speakers in a way that is consonant with the rest of the Advent Lyrics, which all use "eala" to denote a change in speaker. Second, in regard to the inappropriateness of Mary's consternation at the beginning, her emotional outpouring is no less suitable than that at the Pietà. Similar to later depictions of Mary at the foot of the cross, the virgin acknowledges both her position in the divine scheme and the pain of her human situation.
Sorting out the speakers and their speeches is necessary for a close reading of Advent Lyric VII and its portrayal of the virgin's sagacious conduct. Allowing for three speeches in the poem, we hear in Mary's introductory words a conversation in medias res that demands a defense of her family's glory and a reminder of prophecy. Joseph has obviously just reported to her the insults he has heard about her pregnancy and has announced his intention to leave her. She bewails this news, but not before addressing Joseph as "Jacobes bearn / mæg dauides mæran cyninges" (son of Jacob, kin of David, the famous king), calling attention to the great lineage from which both she and her betrothed are derived and intimating the inappropriateness of any stigma against them. Theirs is the line from which the Messiah shall be born, so their issue should be beyond reproach. For Mary's opening lament about Joseph's impending abandonment, editors have ended the line with a question mark to indicate Mary's disbelief in Joseph's wavering: "nu þu freode scealt faeste gedælan / alætan lufan mine" (now you must from affection strictly part, leave my love?). As John C. Pope points out, Mary's syntax suggests a statement rather than a question, but he agrees with others who would underscore the virgin's doubt about her betrothed's abandonment. Pope's solution, then, is to suggest a scribal error there—"nu" accidentally written in for "na," the latter indicating Mary's emphatic commandment against Joseph's departure. While Pope's solution would add moral authority to the virgin's characterization, Mary does assume a mantle of spiritual power in gentler ways, first by the reminder of august lineage and second by noting that her retractors speak blasphemy. Although Mary is "deope gedrefed" (deeply troubled) by the aspersions cast on her pregnancy which she has just heard from Joseph's report, she nevertheless recognizes that her accusers are wrong and "sprecad hosp" (speak blasphemy). Without the interpolation of different punctuation or word choice into the Exeter Book's presentation, we can see that the virgin of Advent Lyric VII has confidence in her spiritual status and in surviving human injustice through the strength of her faith: "God eaþe mæg / gehælan hygesorge heortan minre / afrefran feasceaftne" (God might easily heal the anxiety of my heart, comfort this poor one). Mary sheds tears, but holds hope that God will make all well between her and Joseph, her and the larger community.
Joseph's thoughtless reply highlights the contrasting superiority of Mary's carefully chosen words. He mistakes her sorrow over his leave-taking and the community's misjudgment for an expression of guilt: "þu þa word spricest / swa þu sylfa sie synna gehwylcre / firena gefylled" (you speak those words as if you yourself were full of all sins and crimes). However, like Mary, who takes offense at the harsh words spoken against her, Joseph blanches at the suggestion that Mary has done any wrong or that he might accuse her himself. He declares to Mary, "ne ic culpan in þe / incan ænigne æfre onfunde" (I found neither fault nor any suspicion in you). Although he cannot imagine that Mary has sinned in lust, he believes that he must leave because he cannot explain how the "fæmne clæne" (pure woman) whom he took from the temple became pregnant, nor can he bear the alternatives presented to him by law, his beloved's stoning or his enduring disgrace.
At this point in the poem, Mary alleviates Joseph's anxiety in the same way that she hopes God will relieve hers—by making manifest the divine plan. As Chance remarks, Joseph becomes Mary's "pupil," while the virgin instructs him in the Annunciation, virgin Birth, and incarnation. According to Chance, in his speech, "Joseph remains faithful to the Law and the Letter. Mary saves him from this pernicious literalism—in anticipation of the later salvation of man performed by Christ—by revealing the truth.... Mary here becomes a spiritual mes senger instructing fallen man." Mary begins her instruction by swearing that she conceived the Christ child without sexual relations. Instead, Gabriel came to her and announced that the "swegles gast / leoman onlyhte" (the spirit of heaven would illuminate [her] with a ray of light). As the "beorhtne sunu" (bright son) alights, Mary becomes God's spotless dwelling place. She declares to Joseph, "nu ic his tempel eam" (now I am his temple), and in this way, she reconnects with the architectural motifs in Psalm 118/119:22–23 alluded to in Lyric I, where Jesus is called the wall-stone that was once rejected in the building. After relating to Joseph the details of the Annunciation and providing an apt metaphor for her chaste conception, Mary advises him to shake off his sorrow and consider the glory of the incarnation, when "mærum Meotudes sunu" (the mighty son of the Creator) will reign and Joseph will be called "faeder." Converting Joseph's grief to gladness, Mary substitutes for the angel who in Matthew 1:20 advises Joseph not to abandon Mary, who indeed bears the son of God.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from SCRIBIT MATER by GEORGIANA DONAVIN Copyright © 2012 by The Catholic University of America Press. Excerpted by permission of THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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