Candidates for the Role of Priest-Scribe:

Textual Representations

Wenslawe, the German Priest

A German and Latin-speaking priest Margery meets in Rome.

v What we know about Wenslawe, the German priest (heretofore unidentified), is that he meets Margery at the St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. He is a priest of good standing in the Roman church, as he “had on of the grettest office of any preste in Rome” (Ch. 33). He understands both Latin and German (Ch. 40) but no English, so he and Margery pray for thirteen days to understand one another. Finally, he can understand Margery and becomes her confessor during her sojourn in Rome. Just before Christmas (probably 1411 or 1412), Christ commands her to go to Wenslawe to procure permission to wear white clothing again, which he allows. Though we hear no tell of Wenslawe after Margery’s stint in Rome, the German priest does suggest that they “trostyd to metyn ageyn, whan owr Lord wolde, in her kendly cuntré;” this suggestion seems rhetorical, however, as it is directly followed by “whan thei wer passyd this wretchyd wordelys exile” (Ch. 42).

Is Wenslawe Margery Kempe’s Scribe?

Wenslawe is NOT a likely candidate

for the identity of Margery’s Scribe.

Positive:

v Like the scribe, Wenslawe’s primary descriptor is “priest” and only priest.

v Although we are not offered any dialogue in which Wenslawe actually refers to Margery as “Mother,” he does receive Margery “for hys modyr and for hys syster” (Ch. 33).

v The priest, while being a German and Latin-speaking man, understands Margery’s English. This provides an interesting German-to-English linguistic connection that would have been necessary to decipher the work of Margery’s first scribe, whose writing is “neither good Englysch ne Dewch” (Proem).

v Wenslawe promises Margery they will “metyn ageyn, whan owr Lord wolde, in her kindly cuntre” (Ch. 42).

Negative:

v Although Wenslawe suggests that he and Margery will meet again in “her cuntre,” it is doubtful that by this phrase he means “England” rather than “heaven,” as he follows his suggestion with “whan thei wer passyd this wretchyd wordelys exile” (Ch. 42).

v Though it is of course possible, it is highly unlikely that, if Wenslawe indeed held “on of the grettest office of any preste in Rome,” that he would be capable of abandoning that office to act as Margery’s scribe in Lynn for nearly two years (Ch. 33).

v While the fact that Wenslawe can understand Margery’s English provides an interesting German/English linguistic connection, it is unlikely that Wenslawe’s Germanic origins would warrant the community involvement of Margery’s priest-scribe, who is clearly a citizen of Lynn. The priest-scribe, for instance, has meetings with the young gentleman who borrows money, the book peddler, the neighboring parish church petitioning for a baptismal font, etc.

PASSAGES

Involving the German Priest

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