The late medieval Digby Mary Magdalene play is dominated by its female protagonist. The playwright seems deliberately to have crafted an especially complex version of the popular saint: a multivalent female figure who both challenges boundaries and presents an exemplar of active, virtuous womanhood. This study begins by examining the play's use of imagery common in lyric poetry. Phrases from Latin scripture, liturgy and hymns accentuate the depiction of a protagonist who represents a meshing of genres, conventions, languages and modes of signification. The play is also a fusion of romantic and spiritual adventure which deploys two major romance 'memes,' creating a figure who redefines the romance heroine as both Lady and Hero. In echoing the fabliaux and other comic intertexts, the play straddles generic boundaries to explore contemporary social issues. Finally, the play's use of space and stagecraft highlights Mary's ability to defy conventional gender boundaries. Since the Digby playwright demonstrates a broad knowledge of secular literature, this study situates his Mary Magdalene within the landscape of literary intertexts and contemporary concerns that might have shaped his thinking. It examines the ways in which the audience might have responded to a liminal figure who, marked by ambivalence and paradox, occupies the space between earth and heaven, ordinary time and eternity, sensuality and sanctity.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 822/.051609
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 22
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm)
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781771101004 9780888441737
- LCCN
- PR643.M37
- LCCN Item number
- F56 2011eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (232 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00913018 (OCoLC)887636895 (CaOOCEL)439260
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Lady Hero Saint 1
- The Digby Plays Mary Magdalene 3
- Acknowledgement 4
- Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication 4
- Context and Intertext 23
- Fifteenth-Century English Writing 24
- East Anglian Drama 30
- Sermons and Meditations 34
- The East Anglian Audience 40
- Womens Lives Womens Words 50
- Reading Mary Magdalene in the Twenty-First Century 56
- Daisies Lilies and Light Mary Magdalene and Lyric Poetry 59
- Secular and Religious Lyrics 59
- Cyruss Praise of His Daughters 65
- The Description of Lady Lechery Gems and Femynyte 66
- Lady Lecherys Flattery Light and Brightness 69
- Curiositys Flattery Daisies and Lilies 71
- The Arbour Scene My Valentynys 83
- The King and Queen of Marseilles Animals Plants Jewels 87
- Swete SypresseCypresse 91
- Conclusion 96
- Arbours and Ships Intersections with Medieval Romance 97
- Romance Conventions 97
- Romance and Seduction 99
- Defining Romance Memes 101
- Napping in the Arbour 101
- The Woman Cast Adrift or Not 112
- Romance and the Audience 126
- Conclusion 128
- Fantasy Women and Lustful Men The Function of Comedy 130
- Medieval Humour 131
- The Lovers Malady 134
- The Carnivalesque 135
- Parody and Satire 139
- The Influence of Terence 139
- Intertextual Echoes 140
- Priests and Sailors 141
- The Pagan Priest and His Assistant 143
- The Shipman and His Boy 149
- Money Talks 154
- I Wax All Seke 161
- Comic Men Serious Women 163
- Conclusion 164
- The Poetics of Gendered Space 165
- Decoding Space 165
- Performance Space 168
- Domestic Space 171
- From Magdalen Castle to Simons House 174
- From the Castle of Marseilles to the Pagan Temple and Back 177
- The Voyage of the King and Queen From Marseilles to Jerusalem and Back 185
- From City to Wilderness to Heaven 190
- Women and Space Womens Space 193
- Heroic Space 195
- Conclusion 196
- Conclusion 198
- Appendix 201
- Mary Magdalene 201
- Bibliography 207
- Abbreviations 207
- Primary Sources 207
- Secondary Sources 212
- Index 233
