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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
This paper explores the possibilities of a feminist reading of the Middle English life of St Margaret of Antioch, whose status as a virgin-martyr is sometimes held to have made her an unattainable role model, suitable only for virgins who had dedicated themselves to God. Using both written and painted English narratives of St Margaret’s life dating mainly from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it shows that many elements of these could have been interpreted by all women as a validation of themselves and their experiences. The paper uncovers certain common themes and similarities of presentation, to see how far a general picture of Margaret emerges from them and what they say about the construction of femininity and the female. Although the narrative of the legend takes a variety of forms, both written and painted, it is sufficiently stable (largely ‘controlled’ by the Legenda Aurea) to allow different versions to be drawn on in this way.
1 This paper is based on the second chapter of my M. A. thesis, ‘“The ruler of the world is present, woman, in you”: The life of St Margaret of Antioch; validation of the female and feminine experience’ (University of York, 1992). I am extremely grateful to Felicity Riddy and Jeremy Goldberg for their constructive criticism of this paper in its various incarnations. I am also very grateful to Marcus Jones for photographing St Margaret for me.
2 For extant wall painting narratives see Tristram, E. W., English Medieval Wall Paintings of the Fourteenth Century (Oxford, 1954)Google Scholar, also Keyser, C. E., A List of Buildings in Great Britain and Ireland Having Mural and Other Painted Decorations, 3rd edn (London, 1883)Google Scholar; Caiger-Smith, A., English Medieval Mural Paintings (Oxford, 1963)Google Scholar; Rouse, E. Clive, Medieval Wall Paintings, 4th edn (Haverford West, 1991)Google Scholar. For the life of St Margaret contained in the South English Legendary, written 1270–8 5 (hereafter SEL), see Charlotte D’Evelyn and Anna J. Mills, eds, The South English Legendary, vol. 1, EETS, os 235 (London, 1956), pp. 291–302. Although this life was written in the thirteenth century I include it here because the seventeen extant manuscripts which contain it date from the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries; see Gorlach, Manfred: The Textual Tradition of the South English Legendary (Leeds, 1974)Google Scholar. For John Mirk’s sermon life of St Margaret, written at the end of the fourteenth century and extant in at least twelve fifteenth-century manuscripts [hereafter F] see Erbe, Theodor, ed., Mirk’s Festial: A Collection of Homilies by Johannes Mirkus (John Mirk), EETS, es 96 (London, 1905), pp. 199–202.Google Scholar
3 For Meidan Margarete [hereafter MM] see C. Horstmann, ed., Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge (Heilbronn, 18 81), pp. 489–98. This life is extant in five manuscripts dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Horstmann edited the text from Cambridge, Trinity College, MS 323. For the life of St Margaret contained in the Auchinleck manuscript, compiled at the beginning of the fourteenth century [hereafter A], see ibid., pp. 225–35. F°r the life of St Margaret in short couplets, extant in two fifteenth-century manuscripts [hereafter AB], see ibid., pp. 236–41 (text from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61). This version is also to be found in the Brome Commonplace Book; see Smith, Lucy Toulmin, ed., A Commonplace Book of the Fifteenth Century (London, 1886), pp. 107–18 Google Scholar. I shall refer to Horstmann’s edition. For the life of St Margaret contained in the Scottish Legendary, composed in the late fourteenth century and extant in a unique late fifteenth-century manuscript [hereafter ScL], see Metcalf, W. M., ed., Legends of the Saints in the Scottish Dialect of the Fourteenth Century: Part 3, Scottish Text Society, 24 (Edinburgh, 1890), pp. 47–68 Google Scholar. For the life composed by Osbern Bokenham in 1443 [hereafter OB], see Serjeantson, Mary S., ed., Legendys of Hooly Wummen, EETS, $os 206 (London, 1938), pp. 7–38.Google Scholar
4 For John Lydgate’s Legend of Saynte Margarete [hereafter L] see MacCracken, Henry Noble, ed., The Minor Poems of John Lydgate: Part 1, EETS, es 107 (London, 1911), pp. 173–92 Google Scholar. For Lydgate and his female patrons, including Lady March, see Meale, Carol M., ‘“… alle the bokes that I haue in latyn, englisch, and frensch”: laywomen and their books in late medieval England’, in Meale, Carol M., ed., Women and Literature in Britain, 1100–1500 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 128–58 Google Scholar. Bokenham’s life of St Margaret was originally written for Thomas Burgh, who subsequently arranged for the compilation of Bokenham’s female saints’ lives into a manuscript for his sister’s nunnery in Cambridge: Serjeantson, Legendys of Hooly Wummen, p. xx.
5 For the nunnery at Tarrant Crawford and its putative connection with the wall paintings of St Margaret see Rouse, E. Clive, ‘St Mary’s Church Tarrant Crawford’ (pamphlet), and Gilchrist, Roberta, Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women (London, 1994), pp. 179–80 Google Scholar, fig. 70. For Tristram’s description of the cycle see his Fourteenth Century, p. 261.
6 I have found Cadden’s, Joan Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science and Culture (Cambridge, 1993)Google Scholar a very useful introduction to medieval theories of sex and gender. My reading of virgin martyr lives has also been influenced by Judith Butler’s theory of performative gender, see her Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York and London, 1990), especially pp. 1–34. The exception to the rule is the life of St Katherine of Alexandria which includes some male pagans whose conversion to Christianity is seen to entail their feminization. This issue is discussed at length in ch. 4 of my D. Phil. thesis, The cult of St Katherine of Alexandria in later medieval England’ (University of York, 1996).
7 For the introduction of Margaret’s status and her father: SEL, pp. 291–2; MM, p. 489; A, p. 226; AB, p. 236; ScL, pp. 48–9; F, p. 200; L, p. 176; OB, p. 10.
8 SEL, p. 292; MM, p. 489; A, p. 227; AB, p. 236; ScL, p. 49; F, p. 200; L, p. 176; OB, p. 11.
9 For original photographs of the Battle cycle see Lewis, ‘The life of St Margaret of Antioch’, appendix, figs 26–9. St Margaret is handed over to the Nurse in fig. 26. For a schematic diagram of the paintings see Rouse, E. Clive, ‘Wall paintings in St Mary’s Church Battle’, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 117 (1979), pp. 154–5 Google Scholar. This is the most complete extant wall-painting cycle of St Margaret’s life to be found in England and Rouse’s article provides the most detailed description of it.
10 SEL, p. 292. See also F, p. 49; OB, p. 11.
11 AB, p. 236. See also MM, p. 489; A, p. 226.
12 MM, p. 489. See also A, p. 226; AB, p. 236.
13 SEL, pp. 293–4.
14 AB, p. 236. See also MM, p. 490; A, p. 226.
15 OB, p. 11.
16 The Scottish life alone does not impute Margaret’s education to the Nurse (who is present in the text), but to an unidentified man. He plays no further part in her life or passion, however, and so does not significantly affect my argument: ScL, p. 49.
17 For this image and the rest of the Tarrant Crawford cycle see Lewis, The life of St Margaret of Antioch’, appendix, figs 13a-22.
18 F, p. 200. See also SEL, p. 293; MM, p. 490; A, p. 226; AB, p. 236; L, p. 177.
19 Unfortunately, the paintings are in a poor state of preservation, and although the elements which will be pointed out are visible in the original, they are not easy to make out from a photograph. For ease of reference the sketches of this cycle made by Tristram should be consulted. For the immediate instance, see Tristram, Fourteenth Century, pi. 50b. Tristram dated the cycle to c. 1330.
20 Lewis, The life of St Margaret of Antioch’, appendix, fig. 26.
21 Husenbeth, F. C., ‘On some mural paintings discovered in Limpenhoe Church, Norfolk’, Norfolk Archaeology, 5 (1859)Google Scholar, fig. 3.
22 Warner, George, Queen Mary’s Psalter: Miniatures and Drawings by an English Artist of the Fourteenth Century (London, 1912), p. 314.Google Scholar
23 Riches, S. J. E., ‘“The pot of oure hope”: images of St Anne in the late medieval world’ (University of York, D. Phil, thesis, 1991), p. 67 Google Scholar; Norton, Christopher, Park, David and Binski, Paul, Dominican Painting in East Anglia: The Thomham Parva Retable and the Musée de Cluny Frontal (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 51–2.Google Scholar
24 Riches, ‘Images of St Anne’, p. 66.
25 Ibid. See also Sheingorn, Pamela, ‘“The wise mother”: the image of St Anne teaching the Virgin Mary’, Cesta, 32 (1993), pp. 69–80 Google Scholar; Scase, Wendy, ‘St Anne and the education of the Virgin: literary and artistic traditions and their implications’, in Rogers, Nicholas, ed., England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1991 Harlaxton Symposium (Stamford, 1993), pp. 81–96.Google Scholar
26 For the contents of these manuscripts see Guddat-Figge, Gisela, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Middle English Romances (Munich, 1976), pp. 94–9, 121–7, 249–52.Google Scholar
27 Both saints’ lives appear in the Auchinleck Manuscript and CUL, MS Ff.2.38; also in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS 14528 (Rawlinson Poet 34); Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 237; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 142; and BL, MS Harley 4012.
28 Dutton, Anne, ‘Women’s use of religious literature in late medieval England’ (University of York, D. Phil, thesis, 1995)Google Scholar; Felicity Riddy, ‘“Women talking about the things of God”: a late-medieval sub-culture’, in Meale, Women and Literature, pp. 104–27; Meale, ‘… alle the bokes that I haue’.
29 Riddy, ‘Women talking about the things of God’, pp. 109–10; Cross, Claire, ‘“Great reasoners in Scripture”: the activities of women Lollards 1380–1530’, in Baker, Derek, ed., Medieval Women, SCH. S, 1 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 359–80 Google Scholar. For the most recent examination of the role of women in Lollardy see McSheffrey, Shannon, Gender and Heresy: Women and Men in Lollard Communities, 1520–1530 (Philadelphia, PA, 1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 Happe, Peter, ed., English Mystery Plays (Harmondsworth, 1975), pp. 126–7.Google Scholar
31 For examples of such readings see Warner, Marina, Alone of All Her Sex The Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary, 2nd edn (London, 1991), p. 71 Google Scholar; Miles, Margaret R., ‘“Becoming Male”: women martyrs and ascetics’, in her Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West (Boston, MA, 1989), pp. 359–80.Google Scholar
32 Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn, ‘The Virgin’s Tale’, in Evans, Ruth and Johnson, Lesley, eds, The Wife of Bath and All Her Sect: Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature (London and New York, 1994), pp. 165–94, esp. p. 180.Google Scholar
33 Eamon Duffy argues that virgin martyrs were perceived solely as conduits of intercessory power by the vast majority of medieval devotees; see his ‘Holy maydens, holy wyfes: the cult of women saints in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England’, SCH, 27 (1990), pp. 175–9°-
34 L, p. 177. See also SEL, p. 293; MM, p. 490; A, p. 226; AB, p. 236; ScL, p. 49; F, p. 200; OB, p. 13.
35 Bennett, Judith M., Women in the Medieval English Countryside: Gender and Household in Brigstock before the Plague (New York and Oxford, 1987), pp. 116–17.Google Scholar
36 SEL, p. 293. See also MM, p. 490; A, p. 227; AB, p. 236; ScL, pp. 49–50; F, p. 200; OB, p. 13.
37 See Husenbeth, ‘Limpenhoe Church’, fig. 1. For the Battle version see Lewis, ‘Life of St Margaret of Antioch’, appendix, fig. 27. For a description of the cycle at Charlwood in Surrey see Tristram, Fourteenth Century, pp. 155–6. For photographs of the cycle see Lewis, ‘Life of St Margaret of Antioch’, appendix, figs 5–7. The fragmentary life of St Margaret to be found in Wiston Church, Suffolk contains part of this scene, showing Margaret spinning with sheep at her feet, looking up to a non-extant figure in front of her. See Tristram, E. W., English Medieval Wall Painting: The Thirteenth Century (Oxford, 1950), pl. 18b.Google Scholar
38 Warner, Queen Mary’s Psalter, p. 307. The Pienza Cope (1315-35) has a representation of this scene, Christie, A. G. I., English Medieval Embroidery (Oxford, 1938), pp. 178–83 Google Scholar, pis 139–42. A panel of stained glass dating from the early fifteenth century, now in the west window of North Tuddenham Church, Norfolk, also depicts this scene: Woodforde, C., The Norwich School of Glass-Painting in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1955), p. 55.Google Scholar
39 For Tristram’s sketch of this painting see her Fourteenth Century, pi. 49.
40 This reading was suggested to me by Delbert Russell. This element is barely visible in the painting at Wendens Ambo, but does feature in Tristram’s sketch. The two rams can still be seen in the glass panel at Tuddenham and at Battle, however, indicating that it was a fairly standard ingredient in the iconography of this scene. For a lengthier discussion of the significance of the rams within this context see Cordelia Beattie, ‘“For I see myself, Lord, harassed and beset like a lamb among rabid wolves”: a study of a stained glass panel in North Tuddenham’ (unpublished paper). I am grateful to Cordelia Beattie for sharing with me her observations on this scene.
41 SEL, p. 293; MM, p. 491M, p. 228; AB, p. 237;ScL, p. 53;F, p. 200;L, p. 173; OB, p. 14.
42 Meech, Sanford Brown and Allen, Hope Emily, eds, The Book of Margery Kempe, EETS, os 212 (Oxford, 1940), p. 129 Google Scholar; see also Bennett, Women in the Medieval English Countryside, p. 117. Beattie provides a more detailed discussion of the spinning motif, ‘A study of a stained glass panel in North Tuddenham’, pp. 9–12.
43 Miles, Margaret R., Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture (Boston, MA, 1985), pp. 65–75 Google Scholar; Ringbon, Sixten, ‘Devotional images and imaginative devotions: notes on the place of art in late medieval private piety’, Gazette des beaux arts, 73 (1969), pp. 159–70.Google Scholar
44 For examples of Margaret’s rhetorical excellence see SEL, p. 295; MM, pp. 492–3; A, p. 228; AB, p. 237; ScL, pp. 53–4; L, pp. 180–1; OB, p. 22.
45 For Olibrius’ rage and the tortures he inflicts upon Margaret see, e.g., SEL, p. 295; MM, p. 496; A, p. 233; AB, p. 240; ScL, pp. 62–3; F, p. 200; L, pp. 62–3; OB, p. 22.
46 I am indebted to Jeremy Goldberg for this suggestion.
47 Offord, M. Y., ed., The Book of the Knight of the Tower, translated by William Caxton, EETS, ss 2 (1971), p. xiv.Google Scholar
48 Ibid., p. 91.
49 Pisan, Christine de, The Treasure of the City of Ladies, trans. Lawson, Sarah (Harmondsworth, 1985), pp. 161–2.Google Scholar