Margery Kempe and the Spectatorship of Medieval Drama

Summary

On a midsummer day of 1413, John and Margery Brunham Kempe (c. 1373—c. 1440) were among the spectators of the York cycle. Although Margery does not mention the event in her book, Claire Sponsler and Barry Windeatt observe that the day Margery and her husband returned from York — Midsummer's Eve in 1413 — must have been June 23 and that the previous day was Corpus Christi. The Kempes were consequently in York on the day that the great York cycle was performed, and if they were anywhere near the city center, they could not have escaped seeing some of the pageant wagons nor missed the hustle and bustle related to the production. Later that same summer, Margery came before the bishop of Lincoln with her husband and asked to be given the traditional mantle and ring of a virtuous widow and to be clothed in white. The bishop was unwilling to grant Margery's atypical requests for white garments and the common accoutrements of chaste widowhood, even though her husband supported her. In spite of this setback, Margery went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the fall, where she cried “the fyrst cry that evyr sche cryed in any contemplacyon,” and shortly thereafter, she began dressing in white attire of her own volition.