Author: casperse (Page 2 of 2)

The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe (trans. BA Windeatt) going to Jermusalem, at Jerusalem, and after
Kempe’s Reflections on Jerusalem and What It took Her to get there

Kempe is still focused on the mistreatment she receives from the men in her travelling group and the consequences of how she deals with her emotions. She discusses her helplessness in stopping her tantrums during this chapter also (Kempe 102-107). As for the bullying she has to deal with,  she claims to have gotten banned from eating dinner with those she is traveling with and that they refused to buy her the bedding she required for the ship ride to Jerusalem (Kempe 102); in defiance of this message telling her to depart from their group, Kempe buys her own bedding and tells the group plainly that she will join them (Kempe 102) Adding to that, she is very focused on God and doesn’t miss his message to not take the ship to Jerusalm that she was scheduled to (Kempe 102). Kempe documents that she was riding a donkey when she caught sight of Jerusalem. Kempe does not fail to give two pilgrims from Germany credit for helping her make sure that she didn’t fall off her donkey when her emotions took over.  During her time in Jerusalem, Kempe took a 24-hour trip to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Kempe 103-104. 102-107). At the end of Chapter 28, Kempe mocks people who judge her harshly for the way she cries because of her sadness for Christ. She refers to her bullies as not  religious and therefore horrible .Her account of whom she is referring to is so specific that it makes me wonder if she was describing someone she knew without naming them. She also implies that it is okay for people to die after being accussed of crimes that they did not commit because of their wongdoings, which I find very disturbing. Kempe seems to only have empathy for Christ. (Kempe 106-107)

I believe that we can infer that Kempe’s medieval culture did not place the emphasis of treating people well that ours does. I believe this really stands out when Kempe doesn’t describe anyone coming to her defense and sticking up for her when her sheet is stollen or when the whole group refuses to get her sheets (Kempe 102, 102-107). It’s actually quite ironic because her companions are supposed to be going on a trip in order to celebrate and practice a religion that demands kindness.Travelling by donkey sounds awesome to me given the adorable donkey I meet at farm camp one summer. Getting to ride a donkey is not something I would consider usual today; however, it would be hard to imagine that Kempe was surprised by her opportunity to ride a donkey (Kempe 103). I am struggling to understand how Kempe’s religious feelings when she got back to England grew stronger over time. It seems like it would have been the other way around as more time since the pilgrimage would make the memories more vague (Kempe 105, 103-105). I believe that Kempe’s purpose for recording this piece of writing is to use it as a way of interacting with her own thoughts and feelings. This is because of the anger and resentment her tone gives off. This would mean that she was not necessarily writing to anybody, but rather for herself. (Kempe 107, 102-107)

Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. BA Windeatt. Chapter 28. Penguin Books, 1985, 102-107.

Emily Caspersen
February 16, 2022
The Book of Margery Kempe: Compostella, Bologna, and Venice
 

Kempe recorded her time travelling through Compostella, Bologna, and Venice as a period in her life that was mostly hellish and lonely (Kempe, 99-102). She was more concerned with the measures the pilgrims in her group took against her, such as stealing a huge percentage of her money, than with the local populations (Kempe, 100, 99-102) However, she described the locales as doing the best they could for her in terms of comfort (Kempe, 101). Kempe does not provide the dates she was in Compostella, Bologna, or Venice, but she does note that she stayed in Venice for thirteen weeks (Kempe 101, 99-102). She was frustrated with the language barrier keeping her from communicating with the local people, which is very understandable (Kempe, 101). Something that seems odd to me in 2022 but likely would not be surprising to travelers in the Medieval era is that her hostesses often gave up their beds for her (Kempe, 101). Another part of this account that sticks out to me is Kempe’s emphasis on how difficult this pilgrimage was for her mental health, yet she agrees to continue travelling with those who made the journey harder for her than it had to be (Kempe, 101, 99-102).  

Kempe’s expression of her annoyance at the woman she brought along as her maid suggests that women of her culture expected each other to have their backs. Kempe states, “And all the time her maidservant left her alone and prepared the company’s food and washed their clothes, and to her mistress, whom she had promised to serve, she would in no way attend.” (Kempe, 102) In this short quote, Kempe makes two references to what she perceived to be abandonment and states her needs were ignored. This shows that the way her maid treated her is something that greatly affected her emotionally despite having described her maid’s service to her already once having been terminated by their group (Kempe 100). Regardless of how the maid views Kempe, the other pilgrims likely influenced her actions (Kempe 100-102). Kempe must realize this as well, showing that she expects the maid to voluntarily suffer any consequences that serving her would bring. (Kempe, 99-102) The punishments inflicted on Kempe demonstrate a large emphasis on her culture’s value in blending in with people you spend your time with; this is shown because she is punished due to what the group views as inappropriate behavior (Kempe 100,101-102) Hopefully, today she would not have been so mistreated, but her companions would not to travel with her if she was making no effort fit in (Kempe 100-102).  I believe that Kempe wrote Chapter 27 for readers who want something raw and honest to help them deal with their own emotions. This is because of her use of the word “creature” (Kempe 99) to describe herself and the detailed account of all the unfortunate things that happened to her, paints her in a very vulnerable light (Kempe 99-102) Kempe also casts the majority of her companions in a bad light, so maybe she is trying to process her own anger by acknowledging what happened to her. (Kempe 99-102)   

Kempe, Margery c.1373-c.1439, and B. A. Windeatt. The Book of Margery Kempe, Chapters 26-27, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1987, https://lms.dickinson.edu/pluginfile.php/1699754/mod_resource/content/0/MargeryKempeJerusalem.pdf