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MARIE1 (saint). Mary, the mother of Jesus, fl. first century A.D., the daughter of Joachim and Anna, was cousin of Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother. The Apochryphal Gospels give the names of her parents and episodes of her early life. The Annunciation, the Visitation to Elizabeth, Jesus's birth, and Mary's Purification are recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The Legenda aurea contains all these episodes and adds the Assumption into heaven. The cult of the Virgin flowered in the twelfth century, and cathedrals were built in her honor. Bernard of Clairvaux was especially devoted to her.

Custance and the Second Nun invoke Marie as daughter of St. Anne, MLT 641; SNP 70. Marie is invoked as mother and maid, MLT 841; SNP 36, Astr Prol 103. She is Christ's mother, MLT 950; SumT 1762; PrT 537-538, 550, 556, 597, 620, 654-655, 677-678, 690; ParsT 557, 1088. She is called God's mother, SumT 2202; CYT 1243. The pilgrims and the characters in the stories they tell swear by Marie, FrT 1604; MerchT 2418, PardT 685; ShipT 402; Thop 784; CYT 1062. The Learned Eagle swears by Marie, HF II.573. The Prioress and the Second Nun invoke the Virgin at the beginning of their tales. The Prioress's Invocation is composed of passages from the Office of the Blessed Virgin and of paraphrases of Dante's Par XXXIII.16-20. The Second Nun's Invocation is composed of passages from several sources, the main one that of St. Bernard's address to the Virgin, Par XXXIII. Chaucer borrows passages from each to compose these Invocations. The Virgin is compared with the burning bush that Moses saw, PrT 468, ABC 89-94. Medieval exegesis held that the miracle of the bush that burned and was not consumed prefigured the Virgin. The ABC, a prayer to Mary, is a free translation of a prayer from Guillaume de Deguilleville, Le pelèrinage de vie humaine (1320-1355). The Ave Marie mentioned in ABC 104 is the short familiar prayer to the Virgin. [Anne2: Joseph2: Moises: Zacharie]

Marie, the French form as well as a pronunciation variant, appears three times initially, MLT 641; ShipT 402; CYT 1062; five times in medial positions, MLT 920; MerchT 1337; MerchT 1899; PardT 685; Thop 784; and five times in final rhyming position, MLT 841; FrT 1604; MerchT 2418; PrT 690; HF II.573.


"The Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelicon." Lost Books of the Bible; Guillaume de Deguilleville, The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man; "The Lyf of Oure Lady": The ME Translation of Thomas of Hales' "Vita Sanctae Marie," ed. S.M. Horall; Jacobus de Voragine, GL, trans. G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, 304-308, 519-530; ibid., LA, ed. Th. Graesse, 158-167, 585-593; E.L. Mascall and H.S. Box, The Blessed Virgin Mary; R.W. Tryon, "Miracles of Our Lady in Middle English Poetry." PMLA 38 (1923): 308-388; K. Young, ed., "The Plays of the Blessed Virgin Mary." The Drama of the Medieval Church, II: 225-257.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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