STANZAIC LIFE OF MARGARET: FOOTNOTES

1 He had a premonition that their child would be baptized as a Christian

2 Lines 48-49: Where she kept her nurse's sheep gently (honorably) in public. / They offered her much and promised her more

3 The Saracens went forward to do their errand

4 [So that] I may defend myself from these evil spirits

5 Lord, she does not give a hawthorn berry (a type of something worthless) for all your power

6 "Bring her before me," he said."I will change her mind very soon"

7 You act as you know how in the manner of Satan your uncle

8 Lines 133-34: With your sharp instruments tear the flesh from her bones as completely as if dogs had chewed it off

9 Neither your concern nor your whips cause me any grief

10 Everything that you consider misery is a great joy to me

11 Have mercy on these sinful [people] who wish me ill

12 My joy in the Lord none [of your gods]/no [human being] can express

13 "You must go to prison," he said, "where you will be displeased (sad)"

14 Do not ever permit the evil spirit to change my steadfast heart

15 If he seized anything on earth, no matter how lightly, it would have to die

16 He repaid them for their service [to him], however much that displeased them

17 If a mere girl can overcome us like this, our power is minuscule!

18 Where I knew any woman whose child was not yet born

19 "Cut it out!" said Olibrius. "My men will prepare suffering for you"

20 Since you will not change your disposition, you will bitterly regret it

21 All followed from everywhere who could ride or walk (i.e., all classes)

22 I.e., they were too dazed to tell joy from sorrow

23 I.e., open her womb, so that the child can be born safely

STANZAIC LIFE OF MARGARET: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Abbreviations: A = Auchinleck (National Library of Scotland MS Advocates 19.2.1), fols. 16v-21r; Bl = Blackburn, Public Library MS (formerly Petworth 3), fols. 167r-183r; Bo = Bodleian Library MS Bodley 779 (SC 2567), fols. 204v-208r; C = Cambridge University Library MS Addit. 4122, fols. 6r-38v [base text]; R = Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson poet. 34 (SC 14528), fols. 1r-4r; T = Trinity College, Cambridge MS 323, fols. 20r-24r.

1-4 The poem's formulaic opening, a general call for the audience's attention, reminds us that it was probably designed to be read aloud.

5-16 Compared with other versions of the legend, the stanzaic Life pays unusual attention to Margaret's parents, emphasizing her father's powerful position among the enemies of Christianity and presenting a narrative of subterfuge in which Margaret's pagan mother plays a positive role, secretly sending the infant away to preserve her life. In more typical versions Margaret is sent away to a nurse because her mother has died, and her father does not reject her until he learns of her conversion in the nurse's household; for example, see Mirk's retelling, lines 14-23, and Lydgate's retelling, lines 85-91.

8 This line sounds very much like a later description of the saint's main persecutor, Olibrius (line 34, below). A, Bl, Bo, R, and T all describe Margaret's father as a worshiper of insensate idols ("Deve thinges and doumbe he served night and day" [A]) instead of a priest-magician who conjures up demons, but the anticipation of Olibrius here suggests the power and unity of the pagan culture that persecutes the saint. It also foreshadows the legend's later emphasis on demons as the real enemies that are confronted and ultimately overcome by Margaret.

17-24 The role of the nurse sounds almost like a metaphor for the Church, which was often personified as a nurturing mother of many children. Here she is just given general credit for Margaret's education and subsequent conversion; it is in the nurse's home that she hears the stories of earlier martyrs and commits herself to Christ. In other versions of the legend, including MSS T and R of the stanzaic Life, the nurse plays a more explicit role in Margaret's education as a Christian.

24 St. Stephen, a deacon and the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death in Jerusalem around the year 35 (see Acts 6-7). St. Lawrence (d. 285), also a deacon, was martyred in Rome under the Emperor Valerian by being roasted on a gridiron, according to his famous legend. He and Stephen are often paired - probably because both were deacons as well as martyrs, and both had major feast days in early August. The error of blaming the Jews for both deaths seems not to have been widespread, however. Among the six surviving manuscripts of the stanzaic Life of Margaret, only the present text has this reading. A lacks the whole stanza, and the other four MSS just have Margaret learning "How they tholid [suffered] martirdom, Seint Laurens and Seint Steven" (Bo).

27-28 The idea in these lines seems to be that Margaret sets an example of piety that influences her fellow shepherds. The point is clearest in Bo, which reads, "And alle the other herdis wel yerne [eagerly/intently] here behelde, / Hou ofte she made here preyere to Jhesu that al may welde." This theme is developed much further in some versions of the legend than it will be in this one, however. For example, see Lydgate's version, lines 99-109.

39 Sarasyne. On the use of this term to describe pagan adversaries of the saints, see explanatory note to line 194 of the early SEL account of Mary Magdalen, above.

44 Like the term "Sarasyne" (line 39), swearing by Mahound (a corruption of the name "Mohammed") was part of the generic vocabulary used to characterize villains who were pagans, idolaters, or adherents of other false religions. The rest of this line seems to be promising to pay the equivalent of a marriage settlement for Margaret's virginity, if she turns out to be too low-born for him actually to marry.

47 An infinitive verb of motion is implied here, completing the sense of dydde.

58 names seven. Medieval commentators sometimes listed and discussed various names of Christ (as, e.g., in Piers Plowman B.19 and C.21), but the only apparent purpose of the phrase here is to complete the rhyme.

66 foule gostys. "Evil spirits." By using this wording C again suggests the demonic nature of Margaret's enemies. The other MSS just refer to them again as Saracens.

70 Margaret's words echo Psalm 21:17 (22:16 in Protestant translations): "For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me."

72 sche gevys not a hawe! Proverbial. See Whiting H190.

75 T, A, and Bo preserve a version of this line in which the curse is an interjection, directed at Olibrius by the narrator: awarie/acorsse him sonne ant mone! This kind of exuberant story-telling, which can also be seen in the longer SEL account of Frideswide in this collection, has been suppressed almost entirely in C, presumably for the sake of decorum. For other instances, see below, explanatory notes to lines 243, 263, and 271-72.

81 Only C and R make Margaret such a model of politeness that she graciously initiates the conversation with the pagan persecutor whose men have just arrested her. More logically, the other four manuscripts have it be Olibrius who greets Margaret politely (Bo) or - more often - eagerly.

92 Longeous. Longinus. The name traditionally given to the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's side while He hung on the cross in order to confirm His death (John 19:34). In some legends he was a blind man, led by others to this act, whose sight was mercifully restored by the water and blood which came from Christ's wound.

98 In four of the other five MSS this line ends, and thider thou shalt wende! or that thou schalt in ende - an explicit prediction or threat by Margaret, that is, that Olibrius will end up in the same hell from which Christ's followers have been freed. As usual, the reading in C is more polite.

131 Ne geveth sche not an hawe. See explanatory note to line 72.

132 sche sette not bye a strawe! Proverbial. See Whiting S813.

137 The sense is clearer in some of the other MSS, which have them flaying the skin from her flesh (T, R) or her bones (Bl).

139-46 The pity of onlookers and the saints' rejection of their advice are standard features of a virgin martyr legend, serving to emphasize the martyr's heroism. The onlookers focus on her tormented body, while she is concerned only for the state of her soul.

164-78 This account of the angelic visit before Margaret confronts the dragon may suggest some nervousness about the scene to follow. The angel not only assures her that she has nothing to fear, since her place in heaven is already assured, but also provides her with Christ's cross to use as a weapon. In other versions of the legend she herself initiates the confrontation by asking for the sight of her adversary and is able to protect herself just by making the sign of the cross as the dragon tries to swallow her. See Lydgate's account, e.g., lines 277-82 and 288-94.

182 alle greene as the gresse. Middle English writers often use "green" or even "green as grass" to describe a complexion that has become deathly pale. Compare, e.g., Chaucer's description of the grief-stricken Criseyde: "And thus she lith with hewes pale and grene, / That whilom fressh and fairest was to sene" (TC 4.1154-55).

187 Margaret's most common iconographic symbols portray her either as emerging from within the dragon or (especially from the mid fourteenth century on) standing triumphantly on top of it. Mirk comments explicitly on this iconography in lines 49-51 of his account, given below.

193 The standard Latin version just says his hands were fastened to his knees, perhaps an echo of Mark 3:27. But the MSS of the stanzaic Life tend to describe him as a monstrous creature having (variously) spikes on his feet and knees (Bo), or hands or heads on his knees and eyes on every toe (A, Bl), or extra eyes on his claws and also on his toes (T), or many horns on his head and eyes more than two (R).

195-96 In Eastern iconography, Marina is often shown grabbing the demon by the head with one hand and holding a hammer in the other. In the stanzaic Life of Margaret, the cross of Christ has evidently replaced the hammer as her weapon. The detail of her binding the demon with her wimple reinforces his later lament about his humiliation at the hands of a weak female (line 214). Images of Margaret with a leash-like cloth around the demon's neck are fairly common.

207 Ruffyn. The demon says the dragon destroyed by Margaret was his brother Ruffinus (or Rufo, Rufonis in the standard Latin version of the legend). The name, presumably derived from the word for "reddish" or "red-haired," is also used for a devil in the Chester Cycle (Fall of Lucifer, line 271, in The Chester Mystery Cycle: A New Edition with Modernised Spelling, ed. David Mills [East Lansing, MI: Colleagues Press, 1992]) and in The Poems of John Audelay (ed. Ella Keats Whiting, EETS o.s. 184 [London: Oxford University Press, 1931; rpt. 1971], pp. 75, lines 298-300).

210 Other MSS of the stanzaic Life say more directly that he repaid these human followers with great sorrow (T, A) or by having them hanged (R).

212 In the standard Latin version he says the goal was to swallow Margaret and obliterate her memory from the earth. In C and other MSS of the stanzaic Life, this has become a mental rather than a physical attack, attempting to rob Margaret of her sanity and her ability to remember and remain faithful to God.

215 Belsabub. The name "Beelzebub," which means "lord of the flies" in Hebrew, first appears in 2 Kings 1:6 (4 Kings 1:6 in Vulgate and Douay) as a distortion of the name of a Canaanite god. Later the name came to be used for a ruler of the demons opposed to God (see Matthew 10:25, 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15-19), and sometimes as another name for Satan himself.

217 with wynde I flye. An allusion to Ephesians 2:2, where the devil is "the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief."

218 Alle I wolde do qwelle. His expression of enmity to all living creatures is typical demonic discourse, since the devils were understood to be envious of the earth and its inhabitants, who were made to replace them after their fall from heaven. (See, e.g., lines 351-71 of Lydgate's account.)

219-22 Here the devil confesses his particular attacks on pregnant women (a point that will be mentioned again in line 234) and on newborn children who have not yet been baptized. Since the legend ordinarily either has him describe his assaults on the chastity of celibate men and women (as in the standard Latin version and the Katherine Group) or omits all such specifics, this unusual addition supports the hypothesis that the stanzaic Life was designed specifically for a lay audience. In this connection, see also explanatory note to lines 311-18, below, on Margaret's final prayer.

223-32 King Solomon of Israel built the first temple and was credited with writing three books of the Hebrew Bible - Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. The apocryphal Testament of Solomon records Jewish tradition about Solomon's power over demons, which is the source for this story about how the demons were locked in a vessel and buried by Solomon but later escaped when greedy men opened it, assuming it was filled with treasure. For an English translation of the Testament, see D. C. Durling and J. Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), pp. 935-97.

239 Margaret emerges from prison and her victories over the devil on the third day, recalling Christ's emergence from the tomb and the Harrowing of Hell on the third day. Most other versions of Margaret's legend, including the other MSS of the stanzaic Life, say she was in the cell just overnight.

243 Some MSS have the narrator curse Olibrius at the end of this line: Crist yive him ivel dede! (A), that Criste worthe hym wrothe! (Bl). On such interjections, which C nearly always omits, see explanatory note to line 75 above.

254 Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River is recounted in Matthew 3:13-17 and Mark 1:9-11.

260-66 This is an unusual version of Margaret's torments. More typically, she is burned with torches and then tied up and thrown into a vat of water, either to drown or just to increase her suffering. Here the tormentors are ordered to scald her with boiling oil; but instead of harming her, the oil anoints her head and runs down in plentiful streams - an image that would remind a Christian audience of Psalm 23:5 [Vulgate 22:5].

263 MS A curses the torturers at this point: sorwe hem mot bitide!

271-72 This curse may be spoken by Margaret herself, but it seems out of keeping with the mildness of her other speeches, especially in C, to everyone except the devil. Three other MSS of the stanzaic Life have the narrator calling down curses at this point on Olibrius (Bo), his men (A), or both (Bl), and that may be the most plausible interpretation here too.

275-76 As with the oil, the elements of Margaret's ordeal are transformed into positive Christian symbols. Margaret, who has just recommended baptism to Olibrius (lines 253-54), is now baptized in the water that was intended for her destruction.

279-81 The number of Margaret's converts at this point is usually given as five thousand, not counting women and children - echoing the wording used in Matthew 14:21 to describe the multitude miraculously fed with a few loaves and fishes by Jesus and his disciples. Mirk retains that traditional wording (lines 82-83), but the MSS of the stanzaic Life give numbers ranging from 1005 to 10,005.

284 Malchus is the name of the high priest's slave in John 18:10, who comes with other men to arrest Jesus. Peter cuts off his ear with a sword, but Jesus restores it.

287-90 The scene of Margaret's execution is reminiscent of Christ's: she is led out of town, escorted by a crowd, and the occasion is marked by fearful omens. See Matthew 27:31-54, Mark 15:20-39, Luke 23:26-48.

303-22 Margaret's final prayer is the main source of her power as an intercessor. Note the different ways in which she says her memory and assistance may be invoked: by reading or hearing the story of her passion, building a church or chapel, giving any alms, or (lines 319-20) just honoring the day of her death or devoutly praying to her. The list is broad enough to cover the whole economic and educational spectrum of believers.

311-18 The Auchinleck MS (A) of the stanzaic Life places further emphasis on Margaret's specific role as an intercessor for women in childbirth by omitting most of the other petitions and introducing her final prayer with these lines:

Mergrete the milde that was Godes mayde
Thought opon the wordes the dragoun in prisoun seyd:
that devels yede in erthe women for to breyd
that were traveland of child or doun in childebed leyd.
Than bad Mergrete to Jhesu that was so fre:
"Yif ani woman travayl and hard clepeth to me,
Deliver hir, Lord, with joie thurch vertu of the Tre
That thou dest thi body on to make ous al fre."

Among MSS of the stanzaic Life, however, only C includes the stanza which extends the petitions specifically to the condition of the newborn child, asking that it be delivered with all its limbs and senses intact.

313 In a house where a woman was giving birth, it was customary for all knots to be unfastened in hopes that the "unbinding" would carry over to the delivery.

322 Here Margaret's general efficacy as an intercessor for the forgiveness of sins seems to be extended to those who cannot be buried in consecrated ground. If this promise was interpreted as applying to sinners who died without being shriven, it might have raised objections from church authorities.

323-26 The Rawlinson MS (R) reinforces and extends the promise to Margaret's devotees by adding another stanza after this one:

"More to thee ys grauntede off allemyghty Godde in Trynité,
Off thinge that thou nameste noughte, and worde is sente be me.
In what hous thi lyffe ys redde and a childe yborene schalle be,
Off the womane ne of the childe the ffynde getethe no postee."

328-34 See Jesus' words to the thief on the cross who confesses faith in Him: "This day thou shalt be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). In many versions of the Margaret legend, the executioner Malchus, converted by Margaret's prayer and the answering voice from heaven, falls dead at her side after striking the fatal blow.

335-36 It is unusual to name the angels who come to fetch a saint's soul, but Margaret's sanctity is emphasized in this version by the importance of her chief escorts, the three great archangels, as well as the great number of lesser angels in the retinue (a thousand in T, R, and Bl, and ten thousand here). Michael is a particularly appropriate escort for Margaret because he too fought great battles against demons and a dragon; in the eastern church, he and Marina were often paired as guardians of church doors.

337 Most MSS of the stanzaic Life say specifically that it is Margaret's soul that is borne to heaven by the angels. Her body remains on earth as a source of relics, of course, but some early versions of the legend say that the angels took her head to heaven immediately.

348 Margaret's feastday is July 20. This line says so a bit more clearly in T: The twenteuthe dai is hire in the time of Julie.

STANZAIC LIFE OF MARGARET: TEXTUAL NOTES

Abbreviations: see explanatory notes.

29-32 As the broken rhyme scheme in this stanza suggests, there is a textual problem at this point. Bo, R, and Bl all have a full quatrain describing Margaret's relationship with Jesus which uses the rhyme words yeme, deme, and queme in its first, second, and final lines. But these MSS all have different readings - and different rhyme words - for the second half of the third line, suggesting that this part of the stanza was missing in their common ancestor. The same gap must have existed in the ancestor behind C. Instead of filling the gap as the other three MSS do, however, C changes the rhyme in line 31 and for line 32 borrows a line from the next stanza, where other MSS have Olibrius was loverd, ase the boc us tellet (T) or Olibrius was tho lord, so ich you may telle (Bo).

36 Having used the line which originally rhymed on "telle" to complete the preceding stanza, C has to supply something else for the fourth rhyme in this one. Again the solution is to borrow and slightly revise the first line from the next stanza, which in all other MSS gives the distance as "miles ten and five."

41-42 The other five MSS of the stanzaic Life have a full quatrain at this point, rhyming see, me, free, and be, which begins with Olibrius calling his men's attention to the maiden he has seen and sending them to fetch her. C, which has borrowed these lines to complete the preceding quatrain, settles for a mere couplet here and finally gets back in step with the other MSS.

43 thral. A correction in C, written by a later hand over what seems originally to have been iral.

52 smyte. The other MSS preserve the rhyme more exactly by using the verbs (bi)swike (A, Bl, Bo, R) or fike (T), both of which mean "to flatter or deceive."

54 wynne. In the other five MSS, Olibrius' men say explicitly at this point that he wants to marry [wyve] her. C's use of wynne creates more ambiguity.

68 Cryste. Corrected in C from Cryste Cryste.

73-74 The other MSS maintain the rhyme on "-awe" to the end of this quatrain, but only with difficulty. The most satisfactory version (found in T and Bo), which may preserve the original rhyme words, ends these last two lines with drawe and plawe - the latter, a variant form of the noun "play" that would have been completely unfamiliar in some Middle English dialects.

77 he sayde. No other MS of the stanzaic Life includes these words, which make the line too long and would have been unnecessary in an oral performance that dramatized changes of speaker. C has an added "he said" or "she said" or "they said" in a number of other lines as well, including 91, 124, 127, 151, 155, 159, 167, 175, 199, 203, 235, 275, 285, and 328.

78 The other MSS of the stanzaic Life all have Olibrius vowing at this point to make her change her religion rather than to love him.

85 thral. C: ryal.

86 so longe as it schal bee. Instead of this vague phrase, at least one MS of the stanzaic Life (T) has so long so Ic be, "as long as I live." The words it and ic look so similar in late-medieval handwriting that one could easily be mistaken for the other.

91 This line is obviously too long in C. See textual note to line 77, above.

106 forsake Him nowe for aye. The other MSS all use more colloquial wording: thou do him al awei (T, A, Bl), thou lete him al away (Bo), or do him alle clene away (R).

114 oute. Corrected in C from oute oute.

117 by the here. The other five MSS all have him ordering her to be hung up by the feet instead.

171 dred thou not it. Other MSS have the angel telling her to fear no wight, "no creature," or nowid "nothing (nought)."

177 warde. The rhyme in C is obviously defective. The other MSS have that alle us mai amende (T), or something similar, all with amende as the rhyme word.

184 sche craked everye boone. Other MSS of the stanzaic Life say she was so afraid that she quakede (T, Bl) or schok (Bo) in every bone.

192 The reading in C is another dragon moo; but the other five MSS all refer to it either specifically as a devil (T, Bo), as in the Latin, or more generally as a foul or hateful creature (A, Bl, R).

194 In place of this line, the other five MSS just say that he was the foulest or most hateful or most grisly creature that ever walked on the earth.

224-25 C has fraffate, which looks like a corruption of bras fat, the reading found in A and Bo. R and Bl have fatte of bras and tonne of brasse respectively. T omits this stanza and the next one.

241 Other MSS portray Olibrius's officers more neutrally at this point, referring to them as "sergeants" rather than torturers and describing them as snelle (T) or fulle redy (R) - that is, quick to obey, rather than sadistic.

250 Other MSS have less anticlimactic versions of this line which warn Olibrius that his gods are leading him to death (Bo, R) or to hell (T, A).

282 Unemended, this line in C says they were all brought on lyve, which might suggest a mass baptism. But other texts of the legend, including the other MSS of the stanzaic Life, make it clear that all these converts were put to death (brought of lyve or o live) by Olibrius's men.

285-86 Olibrius threatens to carry Margaret out of town and kill her himself, if Malchus will not do it. C has the spear paired with a schelde, a familiar formula that does not suit the context here; the other MSS all have the more logical swerde.

299-300 The defective rhyme is not easily emended, since all the MSS of the stanzaic Life have different readings at this point.

339 Theophyle. Other MSS of the stanzaic Life name her biographer "Theophole" (Bl), "Theodius" (T), or "Theodocius" (R, A), all corruptions of "Theotimus," whose name derives from the Greek for "God" and "honor." He is a fictional character who first appears in the Mombritius recension of the Latin legend, claiming to have witnessed her trials and collected all the writings about her.

her vye. C: her bye ("about her"), which is probably just a misreading of her vye ("her vita, or life"), the reading in T and Bl, which looks almost the same in a late-medieval English hand.

347 vye. In C this line ends with weye, another scribal substitute for the French word vie, preserved in T and Bl, which makes better sense and a better rhyme.