Many thanks to Nell GIfford Martin and Bella Millett for inquiring about the
abstract of my dissertation. I have included a copy of it here. Currently
I am preparing an article that examines the influence of Cassian's
Conferences on the author of the Ancrene. I will be presenting my findings
at the International Congress at Leeds in July.
Again, thanks.
Arlene
HILFER, ARLENE CATHERINE, Ph.D., August 1997 ENGLISH
CACKLING EVE, SILENT MARY: IMAGE AND STRUCTURE IN ANCRENE WISSE
Director of Dissertation: Susanna Greer Fein
The Ancrene Wisse, the first rule in English for anchoresses, has a complex
structure. This dissertation examines a major structural frame in that
rule--the topos of the mouth and tongue. In the Introduction to the rule,
the Ancrene author establishes his goal: to transform the daughter of Eve
into a daughter of Mary--a feminized version of the monastic path defined by
Cassian in his Collationes. To achieve this transformation, the Ancrene
author juxtaposes the accepted ecclesiastical image of woman as verbal
seductress to the image of the humble, obedient, chaste, and silent Blessed
Virgin. The author identifies the Inner Rule of the Ancrene as the Lady
Rule, the rule of Mary who was both handmaid and spouse to the Lord. By
adhering to the Lady Rule and patterning her own life after the exemplar for
all women, the anchoress can be transformed into God’s spouse, a worthy
lover for her Beloved.
To achieve this status, the anchoress must enclose her physical, emotional,
and psychological natures. In imitation of the Virgin’s silence, she must
regulate her physical mouth and tongue. She must also regulate her inner
mouth and tongue that speak to God and her soul. To attain spiritual health
she must perfect her heart through a life of confession and penance. The
key to her success lies in her mouth and heart. Through the aperture of her
mouth she can spew forth filth and vileness in response to the conditions of
her life, or she can vomit the poison of sin and regain her spiritual
health. She can raise her voice in prayer and supplication, seeking
strength and help from the Lord to whom she has plighted her troth, or she
can use her voice to destroy any good she has accomplished. Through proper
use of her mouth, the anchoress can remove the cnost and dolc from her heart
and align her will to God’s. She can, like Mary, voice the perfect “Fiat.”
"I profess, and to my last breath I shall profess it, that both in body and
soul, in everything, whether in prosperity or adversity, you provide for me
in the way that is most suitable. . . with the one and uncreated wisdom, my
sweetest God, reaching from end to end mightily and ordering all things
sweetly."
---Gertrude the Great
Arlene Hilfer
Department of English
Kent State University
Kent, Oh 44242
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