THE LIFE OF SAINT KATHERINE, BOOK 5: FOOTNOTES

1 Lines 94-95: I would have thought / That one of you could handle nine of her

2 Lines 1110-13: the report [of her prediction] was widely circulated, / And various men who carefully noted the day and time (i.e., the details of her prediction) / Afterwards knew that / Everything she said was reliable and true

THE LIFE OF SAINT KATHERINE, BOOK 5: NOTES

6 fyve braunchis. Five is a number traditionally associated with Mary, with her five joys and five sorrows. Lydgate composes The Lyfe of our Lady in five books. Chaucer's poem on Mary in the Prologue to the Prioress' Tale is in five stanzas. Capgrave seems to be linking Katherine's life structurally to that of her Lady; n.b. his linking her to a red rose of five branches and five leaves in lines 10ff., the rose being a primary feature of Marian iconography. See Saupe, ed., Middle English Marian Lyrics, for numerous examples of the analogies. Five is also associated with the Passion - with the five wounds of Christ and with the five pains of the Passion. (For the latter, see Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend 1.203-06.) The significance of five is perhaps most fully elaborated in Middle English literature in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight's description of the five-sided star Gawain sports on his shield and the system of five fives it represents: five fingers, five senses, five joys of the Virgin, five wounds of Christ, and five virtues.

23 Betokynyng. MS: Betokynyth. This emendation is supported by Arundel 168 and 396.

62 Thus shall it be translate now new fro Lateyn. As Capgrave explained in his prologue (lines 57-60), the English priest whose work he had been transcribing died before he had completed his translation.

65 credulyté. MS: crudelyte. MSS Arundel 20 and 396 support this emendation.

69 Wherfor. I have changed MS Rawl. poet. 118's"for" to"wherfor," a reading supported by the other three MSS.

146 nevyr plant. MS: into oure hert plant.

165 these. MS: that. Emendation supported by the other MSS.

209-80 that we schuld ben baptized or we deye . . . trost me now trewly. The philosophers are expressing an eminently orthodox view - that baptism is necessary for salvation. Given current controversies surrounding the sacraments, however, it is surprising that Katherine should draw attention to baptem of the Goste (line 274) as an acceptable alternative to baptism by water or blood. For a discussion of baptism's place in sacramental controversies, see Sarah Beckwith, "Sacrum Signum: Sacramentality and Dissent in York's Theatre of Corpus Christi," in Criticism and Dissent in the Middle Ages, ed. Rita Copeland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 270-71. For a discussion of spiritual baptism, see Summa Theologiae III.68.2, wherein Thomas Aquinas says that people do not need to be actually physically baptized to be saved if they intended to be baptized and died before such a rite could be performed (he makes particular reference to martyrs).

275-76 These lines are reversed in the MS with a mark that they should be read in the order in which I have placed them.

339 putte you. Not in MS.

342 rytes. MS: riches. The emendation is supported by the other three MSS.

346 save on and no moo. Maxentius is referring to his wife. See below, lines 373-74, 393-96.

385 fulfyllyd as tyth. Tithes were the one-tenth portion of one's goods that a person owed to the Church during the Middle Ages. Maxentius is thus saying that he will take Katherine's wishes as seriously as he takes his religious obligations.

394 oure. MS: youre. This emendation accords with the reading of all the other MSS.

422 she. MS: che.

535-37 Appollo . . . Redressith this word with hete. Maxentius refers to Apollo's capacity as sun god.

543 schal. MS: schon.

547 schort tyme. MS: ryght.

576 An. MS: And. Emendation supported by the other MSS.

647 I. Not in MS.

707 torment. MS: tornament. The emendation follows the other three MSS.

710-11 These lines are reversed in the MS with a mark that they should be read in the order in which I have placed them.

785 seyde. Not in MS.

817 a savour. See note to 3.949.

852 braunches fyve. Capgrave echoes a theme he developed at length in the prologue to Book 5. For the significance of the number five, see the note to 5.6.

857 Whil she helde. MS: Wille she elde. The emendation accords with the reading of the other three manuscripts.

887 Fourty dayes. Katherine's days in prison correspond to Christ's days of temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4 and Luke 4). Compare Chaucer's allusion to Christ's feeding of the Egyptian Mary in the desert (CT II [B1] 498-501). See Paul M. Clogan,"The Narrative Style of the Man of Law's Tale," Medievalia et Humanistica 8 (1977), 217-33.

890-92 For He that fedde Danyel . . . Lord myth make. See note to 3.826 above.

891 Abacuc. MS: abouth.

893 fedde. Not in MS.

897-906 as Austen seyth . . . In his boke whech tretyth in Scripture. See Augustine's Exposition on the Psalms, Ps 95:11-12, on verse 9, where he discusses the feeding of manna to the Israelites in the desert (Ex. 16:13-35).

929 Thinke 'not long.' See note to 3.1343.

935 In the MS this line follows line 942 with a marker that it should be positioned as I have here.

1006 hid. Not in MS.

1052-57 Oure dedely bodyes . . . In fayrrer forme. For medieval views of bodily resurrection, see Caroline Walker Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).

1105-06 Constantyn . . . baptyzed was / Of Seynt Sylvestere. See Jacobus de Voragine's account in The Golden Legend, 1.279. The tale is also told in Gower's Confessio Amantis 2.3187-3496.

1133 plumbys of lede. Weights at the end of a whip.

1153 world. MS: worde.

1160 It longyth to yow to obey onto your heede. On the analogy between society and the body, with the king as head, see Anthony Black, Political Thought in Europe, 1250-1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 14-18.

1198-99 Every man must . . . Deye and rote but of the speciall grace. A corpse's preservation was taken as an indication of sanctity.

1299 both Robyn and Jon. Generic names, roughly equivalent to"Tom, Dick, and Harry."

1370-74 Thus dede He sumtyme in the Calde nacyon . . . thei toke the harm. See Daniel 3, where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survive the fiery furnace.

1395 woo. MS: who.

1433 mannes. MS: moonys.

1474 rend hir tetys.The tearing off a woman's breasts is typical of the sexualized torture in virgin martyr legends; it occurs in the legends of Agatha, Barbara, Christine, and many others.

1480-81 teye hir to a stake, / Smyte of hir heede. This is the method of execution Margery Kempe desires in Book 43.677-81: "Hyr thowt sche wold a be slayn for Goddys lofe, but dred for the poynt of deth, and therfor sche ymagyned hyrself the most soft deth, as hir thowt, for dred of inpacyens, that was to be bowndyn hyr hed and hir fet to a stokke and hir hed to be smet of wyth a scharp ex for Goddys lofe."

1572 dede. MS: yede.

1593-94 It is neythir worchipfull ne eke honest / Onto mankynd to foule his own nest. Proverbial: Whiting, Proverbs, B306.

1594 foule. MS: folow.

1697 On of the auctoures. The Vulgate Vita reads:"consummata itaque est horum passio mense Nouembrio die uicesima quarta, feria quinta." Ed. S. R. T. O. d'Ardenne and E. J. Dobson, Seinte Katerine, EETS s.s. 7 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981), p. 199.

1699 of. MS: aftyr.

1704-05 These lines are reversed in the MS with a mark that they should be read in the order in which I have placed them.

1714 Mayden. MS: May.

1762 the toure of Troye. Treason ultimately allowed the Greeks to capture Troy and win the Trojan war.

1779-82 I shall folow the lombe . . . wihouten mynd. Revelation 21-22.

1873 Thu schall receyve it in anothyr stede. Christ is alluding to the resurrection of the body after death. See note to lines 1052-67 above.

1923 Poule in his bokes maketh swech induction. See Galatians 4:22-31.

1939 There leve but fewe that hath mad asayes. One devotee of St. Katherine who made this journey (1480-83) was Felix Fabri, a Dominican friar from Ulm, Germany. His account of the trip has been translated by Aubrey Stewart, The Wanderings of Felix Fabri, 2 vols. (1887-97; rpt., New York: AMS Press, 1971). Felix's devotion to Katherine's relics is the point of departure for Sheri Holman's provocative novel, A Stolen Tongue (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997). For another fifteenth-century pilgrim's account of his visit to Katherine's shrine, see Pero Trafur, Travels and Adventures, 1435-1439, trans. and ed. Malcolm Letts (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1926).

1950 That oyle. As Capgrave explained in his prologue (lines 26-27), curative oil flows from Katherine's tomb - a sign of God's special favor.

1965 ff. In this matere pleynly I will me schryve. Capgrave's concerns about his perceived credibility and the authenticity of miracles are unusual for a saint's life. Perhaps not surprisingly, the scribe of British Library MS Arundel 20 replaced the final four stanzas of the poem with a more conventional invocation of Katherine's blessing on himself and his readers. The same scribe did other things to "tidy up" Capgrave's text: he omitted the unusually long and complex prologue and ended Book 4 with the execution of the philosophers rather than in the middle of the philosophers episode.