Richard Maidstone

Richard Maidstone (d. 1396) was a Carmelite friar, theologian, and poet whose career flourished during the reign of Richard II (r. 1377–1399). Maidstone is thought to hail from Kent, perhaps near Aylesford, where he joined the Carmelite order. Maidstone’s name first appears in the registers of bishop William Wykeham (b. 1367–d. 1404), who presided over his ordination on 20 December 1376 at the convent church of Merton priory in London. Sometime before 1390, Maidstone moved to Oxford, where he earned a bachelor degree and, presumably, a doctorate in theology; his records of attendance and degrees granted have yet to be discovered. While at Oxford, he authored a series of Latin theological treatises and sermons on the office of the priesthood, interpretation of scripture, and in defense of apostolic poverty. During this period, Maidstone likely composed his verse translation and meditation on the seven penitential psalms in Middle English. Maidstone obtained license to preach and hear confession in the diocese of Rochester in 1390 and, soon after, is believed to have served as confessor to John of Gaunt. Maidstone’s surviving Anglo-Latin court poetry includes Concordia, celebrating Richard II’s return to London in 1393, and possibly “Nobis natura florem,” commemorating the death of Anna of Bohemia in 1394. Richard Maidstone died on 1 June 1396 and was laid to rest in the cloister at Aylesford.

Blanche, Two Chaucers and the Stanley Family

The textual history of The Book of the Duchess challenges many spurious traditions encouraged by the apparently disordered state of Chaucer’s texts on his death. The lack of contemporary references casts doubt on whether the poem was circulated in the fourteenth century or commissioned by John of Gaunt as an elegy for his wife. The first witnesses, in three mid-fifteenth-century manuscripts, contain substantial lacunae, ‘resolved’ in Thynne’s printed edition of 1532. This article examines Bodleian MS Fairfax 16, which bears the arms of John Stanley of Hooton, a leading court functionary from a rising family. It argues that the selection of texts in that MS reflects Stanley’s contact with a cultural milieu centred on the Duke of Suffolk, while the inclusion of The Book of the Duchess and The House of Fame may result from Suffolk’s wife Alice Chaucer making available material from her grandfather’s personal papers.

John of Gaunt. Petekind van Jacob Van Artevelde

IN 1340 WERD TE GENT EEN ENGELSE PRINS GEBOREN.

Holy Dying in Richard II

Dans le Richard II de Shakespeare, 2ième acte, scène 1, le roi Richard assiste à l’agonie de John of Gaunt, considéré—selon les termes de la théorie politique des Tudor—autant comme monarque sacerdotal de droit divin (dans son corps politique) que comme parent (dans son corps naturel). Ces deux fonctions correspondent chacune à une pratique particulière de la sainte agonie: l’agonie canonique, relevant du sacrement administré par les prêtres de l’Ordre pour la Visite des Malades, et l’ars moriendi laïque. La scène en question est construite de manière à montrer que Richard se crée des parodies démoniaques de ces pratiques, renforçant les détails précédant de la pièce le présentant comme rex imago diaboli plutôt que comme rex imago Dei. Toutefois, alors qu’il perd en puissance, Richard reconnaît graduellement la nature démoniaque de ses précédentes représentations de la monarchie, et entreprend un processus d’auto examen qui le prépare à une authentique sainte agonie dans 5.5. Bolingbroke, dans l’intervalle, a ironiquement tenu compte du précédant personnage démoniaque de Richard, lorsqu’il donne des exemples remarquables de la citation prisée des démonologues élisabéthains: « la rébellion est un péché comparable à la sorcellerie » (1 Samuel 15,23). Toutefois, malgré le rattrapage spirituel et personnel de Richard, la pièce de Shakespeare démystifie la royauté en tant qu’incarnation de la monarchie sacerdotale de droit divin, et par la même occasion soulève la question de la possibilité pour tous les humains d’incarner l’idéal du rex imago Dei.