Main Menu | List of entries | finished

REBEKKA, REBEKKE. Rebecca was Bethuel's daughter and Laban's sister. She married Isaac and became the mother of Esau and Jacob. She advised Jacob to dress in animal skins and to pretend to be Esau and thus obtain blind old Isaac's blessing. When Esau discovered this trick, he swore to kill Jacob, but Rebecca helped him flee to Laban's farm (Genesis 24). Dante places her in the Celestial Rose as exemplary of wifely obedience (Par XXXII.10). The medieval marriage service cited Rebecca for her sapiens (wisdom) and Sara for her fidelity.

Rebekke is one of Januarie's femmes de bon conseil or women of good counsel, MerchT 1362-1365, because she advised Jacob to wear animal skins and thus receive the blessing. The priest bids May take Sarra and Rebekke as her models, MerchT 1704-1705; ironically, she does, for she deceives Januarie. The story of Rebekka and Jacob is told in Mel 1098. The Friar puns on the name "rebekke," FrT 1573-1580, when he compares the old woman to the musical instrument. [Jacob: Rachel: Sarra: Ysaac]

Rebekka occurs in Mel 1098; Rebekke, a spelling variant with final syllabic -e, occurs in final rhyming position, MerchT 1363, 1704.


Dante, The Divine Comedy, ed. and trans. C.S. Singleton, III, 1: 355-359.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

Main Menu | List of entries | finished