Margery. Kenape
Bowdon. With an introduction by R. W. Chamb6is. . (Jonathan Cape. 10s. 6d.)
THE discovery of the long-lost book of Margery Kempe of Lynn is an event almost equally important to students of mediaeval manners, and disconcerting to students of mediaeval mysticism. Hitherto, this work has only been known to us in the brief and judicious extracts printed by Wynken de Worde and reproduced by the late Professor Edmund Gardner in The Cell of Self-Knowledge. These isolated fragments, several of great beauty, suggested that Margery was a recluse and contemplative : a worthy and (it was supposed) an early member of the little group of English mystics which included her fellow East Anglian, Dame Julian of Norwich. But the real Margery, now self-revealed to the world, has little :in common with this ideal portrait. She was a vigorous and exuberant woman, the wife of a prosperous burgess of Lynn and mother of fourteen children, whose over-plus of energy, intense emotionalism—and, we must add, hysterical tendencies —poured theraselves into a religious Mould. The much- coveted "gift ottears " in its noisiest form was bestowed upon- her early in her career. "Loud cries and boisterous weeping" were a usual accompaniment of her prayers : and were much esteemed by her, since the voice of Christ had said to her "Thy tears are angels' drink." In church, and at constant intervals during her many and adventurous pilgrim- ages—often to the intense annoyance of her fellow-travellers-- she "sobbed boisterously and cried full loud and horribly, so that the people were oftentimes afraid, and greatly astonished." These peculiarities, exasperating to her neighbours and especially to her clergy, made her an object of interest in the countries through which she passed. The psycho-physical phenomena of vision, audition, the hearing of heavenly music,
the smelling of sweet smells, and" heat burning in her breast" wereldso part of her daily experience : and were accepted by her at face value as evidences of divine favour.
There is very little in Margery Kempe's book which can properly be described as mystical--unless we dignify her romantic dreams of Christ as the soul's husband, and similar emotional phantasies, by this name—but a wealth of material Itir the study of imaginative religion of the late-mediaevil :type. It is most unfortunate that the chapters dealing with 'these experiences,- which are of considerable interest to the student, have 'been removed by the present editor from their ,proper plaee in the text, and printed in small type in the appendix. This tiresome and unscholarly device throws the whole book out of gear, and makes it more difficult to obtain a ,balanced view of Margery's personality and career, in which .natural and supernatural adventures held an equal place. The reminiscences of earlier visionaries are numerous—espe- daily St. Mechthild of Haekeborn, St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena—and show Margery Xempe as possessed of a very active and suggestible siib-conseious _mind, always, ready to turn to personaL use any suitable material that came to hand. Thus the account in Ch ipter 35 of her "spiritual marriage" appears to deriN e from St. Catherine of Siena, whose life was well known in England by the opening years of the fifteenth century. But there is much here too which is characteristically English, especially that deliberate use of homely metaphor to describe or suggest spiritual facts, which we find in Rolle and Hilton and which is employed with such exquisite art in the Revelations, of Julian of Norwich. Margery's touch is less sure, and some- times draws near to the grotesque. Thus she sees the body of Christ on the Cross "fuller of wounds than was ever a dovehouse of holes " ; and first hears the sound of the Holy Ghost "as' if it were a pair of bellows blowing in her ear." but later. like "the voice of a little bird which is called a _redbreast, that sang full merrily often-times in her right ear." Moreover, we are struck—as always when reading the records of mediaeval religious experience—by the solid theological basis, the concrete hold on great spiritual truths, which seems to have been a common possession of the devout ; and is found even in so dubious a visionary as Margery 'Kempe. Side by side with the most crude pictorial phantasies—e.g., the three Persons of the Trinity sitting on three cushions of gold, red velvet and white silk—" sweet dalliances" and sentimental colloquies with Christ and the Virgin, and divine communications which are obvious wish- fulfilments, we come upon sudden phrases which lift us to 'another realm of experience, and imply contact 'with the depth and height of Christian thought. Here the contrast with the saccharine ardours of most modern visionaries and pseudo-mystics is extreme.
Only twice in this book, however, do we feel ourselves in contact with undoubted sanctity. The first occasion is that in which Margery visits Dame " Jelyan " or Julian of 'Norwich ; a passage of much historical importance, being one of the very few independent notices establishing Julian's 'date and status. At once we are-a,wase- of a phange of tone, so marked that it is..an -indirect witness to the truthfulness of the report : a change from the Self-occupied fervours of the devotee to the calm objectivity of the saint. Margery, .ever ready for self-expression, shows the great anehoress `" full many holy speeches and dalliance that Our Lord spoke to her soul and many wonderful revelations." Julian quietly replies, lust giving thanks to God with all her heart, and
• then indicating charity and stability, as the authentic marks
of God's .Presence in the sotil.. f "Holy Writ saith that, the soul of a -rightful man is the wilt of God, and so I trust, sister, that ye be. I pray God grant you perseverance. . . . Patience is necessary to you, for in that sbdll ye keep your soul."
The second occasion 'is in Rome, where Margery visits the room in which St. Bridget died, and is told by the woman , who had_been her, handmaid that her lady, St.. Bridget, was kind and meek to every creature, and that she had laughing face " : so homely with all, another witness adds, that it was hard to remember her great holiness. Here again we suddenly pierce through the trappings of spiritual romanticism, and are brought face to face with that exquisite simplicity of spirit which is born only of humility and love.
- - - - 4, EVELYN UNDERHILL. '
Previous page
