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IX.—The “Corones Two” of The Second Nun's Tale
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
In the legend of St. Cecilia, not only as the Second Nun tells it, but also as it appears in the Legenda aurea and in Simeon Metaphrastes, an angel gives to Cecilia and Valerian (as everybody knows) two crowns:
- Valerian goth hoom, and fint Cecilie
- With-inne his chambre with an angel stonde;
- This angel hadde of roses and of lilie
- Corones two, the which he bar in honde;
- And first to Cecile, as I understonde,
- He yaf that oon, and after gan he take
- That other to Valerian, hir make.
- 'With body clene and with unwemmed thoght
- Kepeth ay wel thise corones' quod he;
- 'Fro Paradys to yow have I hem broght,
- Ne never-mo ne shal they roten be,
- Ne lese her sote savour, trusteth me;
- Ne never wight shal seen hem with his yë,
- But he be chaast and hate vileinyë.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1911
References
page 315 note 1 G. 218-231.
page 316 note 1 G. 243–259.
page 316 note 2 G. 270–83.
page 316 note 3 Oxford Chaucer, v, 402. under l. 27.
page 316 note 4 Sacred and Legendary Art, Introduc, § V, “Of the significance of colors.”
page 317 note 1 See also her discussion of the legend of St. Cecilia in her second volume.
page 317 note 2 Rituale Romanum, Tit. v, cap. 3. The names of the apostles are followed by the words: “Omnes sancti Apostoli et Evangelistae, orate pro nobis;” the names of Saints Stephen, Laurence, Vincent, Fabian and Sebastian, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, Gervase and Protasus by the words: “Omnes sancti Martyres, orate pro nobis;” the names of Saints Silvester, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Martin and Nicholas, by the words: “Omnes sancti Pontifices et Confessores, orate pro nobis;” the names of Saints Mary Magdalen, Agatha, Lucia, Agnes, Cecilia, Katharine, and Anastasia, by the words: “Omnes Sanctae Virgines et Viduae, orate pro nobis.”
page 317 note 3 Rituale Romanum, Tit. v, cap. 2, 7.
page 317 note 4 Id., Tit. ii, cap. 4, 25.
page 318 note 1 I have cited examples as fully as I have because the Missal, the Breviary, and the Ritual are often, even to scholars, more or less a terra incognita.
page 318 note 2 Ed. Clutius, 1760. References to the orders just named are of course numerous in the Sermones. In the third sermon on St. Ambrose, among the members of the mystical body of Christ, the eyes, hands, ears and nostrils are assigned to the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins respectively: “Nam oculi sunt Apostoli, totum mundum illuminantes; manus sunt Martyres in bello Dei fortiter laborantes; aures sunt Confessores Dei praeceptis obedientes: nares sunt Virgines, puritatis odorem spirantes” (ii, 153). In the second sermon on the Assumption of the Virgin, the twelve stars of the crown are the nine orders of angels, and the three orders of saints, “scilicet Martyres, Confessores, et Virgines, qui omnes ipsam coronant, quia earn venerantur et laudant ” (ii, 251). Each order praises a special virtue of the B. V.—“Martyres tantam in tribulationibus constantiam. Confessores tantam sobrietatem et temperantiam. Virgines tantam puritatem et munditiam” (ii, 251). Compare the third sermon on All Saints (ii, 338), and the sermon De Nomine S. Mariae (Serm. aurei de laudibus Deiparae Virginis, p. 88). Certain qualities are ascribed to the different orders: “Zelus Apostolorum, constantia Martyrum, sobrietas Confessorum, et puritas Virginum, sive castitas” (De Laudibus Deiparae, p. 19; cf. p. 117). Compare in general De Laudibus Deiparae, pp. 12, 16, 48, etc. The same distinctions underlie the Solemnity of All Hallows, in the Golden Legend.
page 319 note 1 ii, 360.
page 319 note 2 ii, 151.
page 319 note 3 ii, 284, In De Laudibus Deiparae, “rosa patientiae … viola humilitatis profundae, et lilium puritatis et munditiae ” are again associated with Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins (p. 148).
page 319 note 4 ii, 330.
page 320 note 1 ii, 250. This interpretation is repeated in De Laudibus Deiparae, p. 12: “Flores rosarum sunt Martyres, Lilia convallium sunt Confessores et Virgines.”
page 320 note 2 De Laudibus Deiparae, p. 67. The “Libanum” is explained in a parallel passage in the Sermones de Sanctis: “quia deputata est ad producendum rosas Martyrum, Libanum, id est thus odoriferum Confessorum, et lilium Virginum” (ii, 262).
page 320 note 3 A closely corresponding symbolism appears in the colors that are associated with the three orders of Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins. Red belongs to the Martyrs, white to the Virgins; the color that symbolizes the Confessors tends to vary. A few examples will suffice:
Ibi enim est color aureus Apostolorum, rubeus Martyrum, caeruleus Confessorum, albus Virginum (ii, 263).
Istam namque associant Apostoli cum vestibus deauratis, Martyres cum vestibus purpureis, Confessores cum vestibus hyacinthinis, Virgines cum vestibus candidis (ii, 337).
Sancti enim sunt quaedam vestis B. Virginis, ipsam tanquam dominam et reginam adornantes. Quae quidem vestis est multiplici varietate contexta; nam Apostoli ibi ponunt colorem aureum, Martyres colorem rubeum, Confessons colorem indigum, Virgines et Angeli colorem candidum. (De Laudibus, p. 145).
I add, as curiosities of interpretation, one or two other passages. Isaiah 54, 11-12, is thus explained:
Per lapides sculptos intelliguntur Martyres, qui diversis vulneribus sunt sculpti et vulnerati. Per jaspidem qui est viridis coloris, intelliguntur Confessores, qui fuerunt virides in conscientia, et in vita. Per saphyros qui sunt cælestis coloris intelliguntur Virgines, quae vitam cælestem et angelicam habuerunt (ii, 341).
In the sermon on St. Dominic appears a quadriga of the saints:
Et sunt in quadriga, id est quarta. In prima enim quadriga sunt equi rufi, id est Ordo Martyrum. In secunda sunt equi nigri, id est Ordo Confessorum, qui se per macerationem denigraverunt. In tertia sunt equi albi, id est Ordo Virginum (ii, 235).
Moreover, the many mansions of John 14, 2 (which Jacobus enumerates as oratorium, atrium, cellarium, consistorium, cœnaculum, viridarium and cubiculum) are divided among the seven orders. The whole quaint passage deserves quotation; there is space for the particularly pertinent lines alone:
In cœnaculo ponunlur Martyres, quia fuerunt tribulati, afflicti, ideo nunc pienissime saturantur … In viridario vero ponuntur Confessores, qui sunt viridarium Dei; in quibus fuit rosa palientiae, lilium humilitatis, et viola munditiae. In cubiculo autem ponuntur Virgines tanquam sponsae (ii, 342).
Space fails for further illustration. Enough has been given however, to show that the Sermones de Sanctis are steeped in the symbolism that attached itself to the order of the saints.
page 321 note 1 The story in Jacques de Vitry, which Professor Skeat (Oxford Chaucer, v, 409, under l. 271) refers to, is perfectly explicit in its interpretation of the roses. It is given in full in Crane, Exempla of Jacques de Vitry (Folklore Soc., 1890), No. cccvii, p. 128. Professor Skeat quotes verbatim Professor Crane's synopsis (Crane, p. 268), but seems to have overlooked the pertinent passage in the story itself: “At ille valde territus et compunctus caepit cogitare, quod Deus Christianorum ad martyrii rosas vellet et ipsum vocare,” etc.
page 322 note 1 G. 24-28.
page 322 note 2 Proprium Missarum de Sanctis, Festa Novembris, Die xxii. The same phrase, of course, applies to Saints Catherine (Nov. 25), Bibiana (Dec. 2), Luke (Dec. 13), Prisca (Jan. 18), Agnes (Jan. 21; cf. Jan. 28), Emerentiana (Jan. 23), Martina (Jan. 30), Agatha (Feb. 5), Dorothea (Feb. 6), Thecla (Sept. 23), Ursula and her companions (Oct. 21).
page 322 note 3 It is present, too, as a matter of fact, in the explanation ascribed to the preface of St. Ambrose:
The palm of martirdom for to receyve …
Devocioun of chastitee to love (ll. 274, 283).
page 323 note 1 The version of the legend of St. Cecilia found in Ashmole ms. 43 (Chaucer Society, Originals & Analogues, 208 ff.) agrees with Jacobus de Voragine in its interpretation of the crowns:
þe lilie betokeneþ зoure maidenhod · þat is so wit & suote.
þe rose bitokeneþ зoure martirdom · uor þeron deie зe mote.
See also Kölbing, Englische Studien, i, 232. The same interpretation is also found in a version published by Schönbach, in Ztschr. f. d. A., xvi, 165 ff.: … ich wil ir betiutunge och sagen dir: | es betiutent die rosen rot | daz man dur got sol williklich liden den tot; | so betiutet der wizen lylien shin | daz der menshe an libe und an herzen kiushe sol sin (Kölbing, Englische Studien, i, 232).