I am not sure how relevant this is to Margery Kemp, but the only
strong association with white clothing that I have for early-modern
England is the clothing of penance. When a person was ordered by the
church courts to do public penance for a fault, he or she was ordered
to appear in church at a main service clad in white clothes. I have
always assumed this was partly symbolic (white for repentance and in
anticipation of absolution) and partly practical, to make the
penitent(s) stand out and apart (because people wouldn't usually be
attending their village church clad entirely in white). I have seen
this frequently in 16th and 17th century church court records but I am
not sure how far back it goes (although it seems to me that I've read
that white preceded purple as a liturgical colour for Lent because of
its early association with penance). But I would think that a strong
eclesiatical assocation of white clothing with repentence and public
confession of wrong-doing would work against the notion of a bride
coming to church to be married all in white.
A.
Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/ Records of Early English Drama/
Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada
Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 585-4594/ [log in to unmask]
List-owner of REED-L <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html>
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html => REED's home page
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/stage.html => our theatre resource page
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young => my home page
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