Women's writing in Middle English

377 Pages·2010·1.7 MB·English

by  Alexandra Barratt

WOMEN’S WRITING
MIDDLE ENGLISH
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Second Edition nIM
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edited by Alexandra Barratt itionLEN’S

General Editors: EW
Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford NR
H.R. Woudhuysen, University College London GI
Daniel Karlin, University of Sheffield LT
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A collection as accessible as it is important, Women’s Writing in Middle HG
English will prove an essential resource for all those concerned with
the history, religion and culture of the Middle Ages.
WOMEN’S WRITING
Alexandra Barratt has selected a range of texts both for their intrinsic
interest and for their contribution to our understanding of women’s
place in the literary culture of the period. There are extracts from texts MIDDLE
first written in Middle English by women, texts translated by women into Middle English, and texts
IN
composed by women in French and Latin that were available in Middle English translation. These
include accounts of religious experiences; prayers and meditations; scriptural commentary; personal
letters; educational writings; romance; and poetry. For this second edition, new texts have been added, Aed ENGLISH
including women’s wills and other legal documents, a nun’s form of confession, and more extracts leit
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from visionary writings. xd Second Edition
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A headnote accompanies each set of extracts, together with generous on-the-page annotations and d
explanatory glosses. The Introduction places the selections in context, and discusses whether such a r
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category as ‘women’s writing’ could be said to exist in the Middle Ages. This new edition also includes
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a full, updated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
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Alexandra Barratt a
is Professor of English at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. t
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WOMEN’S WRITING IN
MIDDLE ENGLISH
LONGMAN ANNOTATED TEXTS
GENERAL EDITORS
Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College, Oxford
H.R. Woudhuysen, University College London
Daniel Karlin, University of Sheffield
PUBLISHED TITLES
Chaucer’s Dream Poetry Helen Phillips and Nick Havely
Women Writers in Renaissance England Randall Martin
King Lear: A Parallel Text Edition René Weis
Alexander Pope: The Dunciad in Four Books Valerie Rumbold
William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose David Fuller
Victorian Women Poets Virginia Blain
Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems Tim Armstrong
Lyrical Ballads Michael Mason
WOMEN’S WRITING IN
MIDDLE ENGLISH
Second edition
Edited by
ALEXANDRA BARRATT
PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
Edinburgh Gate
Harlow CM20 2JE
United Kingdom
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Website: www.pearsoned.co.uk
First published under the Addison Wesley Longman imprint 1992
Second edition 2010
© Pearson Education Limited 1992, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4082-0414-6
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Women’s writing in Middle English/edited by Alexandra Barratt. – 2nd ed.
p. cm. – (Longman annotated texts)
First published under the Addison Wesley Longman, 1992.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4082-0414-6 (pbk.)
1. English literature–Middle English, 1100-1500. 2. literature, Medieval–Women
authors–Translations into English. 3. Women and literature–England–History–To
1500–Sources. 4. Women–England–History–Middle Ages, 500-1500–Sources.
5. English literature–Women authors. I. Barratt, Alexandra.
PR1120.W66 2010
808.8′992870902–dc22
2009034121
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior
written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying
in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. This book may not be lent,
resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form
of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the
prior consent of the Publishers .
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
13 12 11 10
Set by 35 in 9/12 pt Stone Serif
Printed in Malaysia ( CTP - KHL )
In memory of my sister
Mary-Clare Creer
1947–2007

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xii
List of Abbreviations xiii
Editorial Procedure xiv
Introduction to the First Edition (1992) 1
1 Women’s writing in Middle English? 1
2 Women’s education and culture in the Middle Ages 2
3 Women, authority and authorship 5
4 Three strategies for dealing with male authority 6
4.1 The authority of experience 6
4.2 Submission and silence 8
4.3 Appropriation and assimilation 10
5 Anonymous texts and poetry 13
6 Women’s writing: a continuing tradition? 17
7 The arrangement and selection of texts 18
Introduction to the Second Edition 20
THE TEXTS
1 Middle English Trotula Texts: 25
The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing
a) Prologue 27
b) Causes of Menstrual Problems 29

c) Some Cures for Failure to Menstruate 31
The Liber Trotuli
d) Some Recipes 34
The Book of Rota
e) Hysteria: Suffocation of the Womb 36
f) Infertility: Diagnosis and Cure 38
2 Marie de France: Lay le Freine 40
a) The Birth of Freine 41
b) The Seduction of Freine 45
vii
CONTENTS
3 Mechtild of Hackeborn and Gertrude the Great:
The Book of Ghostly Grace 50
a) Visions of the Birth of Christ 53
b) Union with God 57
c) The Spirit of a Dead Child Appears to Maud 59
d) Devotion of the Triple Ave and Prayers for
the Senses 61
4 Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls 65
a) A Dialogue between Love and Reason 67
b) The Simple Soul Abandons Herself to the Will of God 71
5 Elizabeth of Hungary: The Revelations of Saint Elizabeth 75
a) Elizabeth Enters the Service of the Virgin Mary 76
b) The Virgin Prepares to be the Mother of God 79
6 Bridget of Sweden: 88
The Revelations
a) Bridget Witnesses the Nativity 90
b) The Circumcision 93
c) The Virgin Teaches Bridget How to Praise Her Son 95
The Rule of Our Saviour
d) The Sisters’ Clothes 95
e) The Abbess 97
7 Catherine of Siena: The Orchard of Syon 99
a) Catherine Prays for her Spiritual Family 101
b) God Recalls Catherine’s Intellectual Vision of
the Eucharist 103
c) God on the Dominican Order: Its Original Ideals and
Present Corruption 105
d) Cleanness of Soul 110
8 Julian of Norwich: 112
The Short (Carthusian) Version of A Revelation of Love
a) The Opening 114
b) The Eighth Revelation 117
The Long (Benedictine) Version of A Revelation of Love
c) The Trinity as Father, Mother and Lord 122
d) Conclusion: The Cause of This Showing 136
viii
CONTENTS
9 Christine de Pisan: 138
The Epistle of Othea
a) Women Found Civilisation 141
b) Two Chaucerian Tales 144
c) A Last Word on Women’s Counsel 148
The Body of Policy
d) The Value of Higher Education 150
The Book of Faits of Arms and of Chivalry
e) The Prologue 158
10 A Revelation of Purgatory:
A Revelation Showed to a Holy Woman 162
a) The Haunting of a Holy Woman 163
b) Margaret’s Sufferings in Purgatory 166
c) Margaret Explains her Sufferings to her Friend 169
d) Margaret is Released into Heaven 172
11 Fifteen Prayers Revealed to a Recluse: The Fifteen Oes 175
12 Margery Kempe: The Book of Margery Kempe 184
a) Margery Moves from Conversion through Temptation to
Contemplation 185
b) Preparing for Pilgrimage: Margery Meets the Bishop
of Lincoln 195
c) Julian of Norwich Counsels Margery 202
d) The Scope of Margery’s Active Mature Ministry 204
13 A Collection of Prayers:
The Faits and the Passion of Our Lord Jesu Christ 211
a) Women of the New Testament 212

b) The Author’s Conclusion 219
14 Women and the Law 224
a) The Confession of Hawisia Moone 226
b) The Prioress and Nuns of Hampole Petition Parliament 229
15 Eleanor Hull: 233
The Seven Psalms
a) The Legend of Saint Boniface 235
Meditations Upon the Seven Days of the Week
b) Meditation on the Name of Mary 238
c) The Conception of Christ 241
ix