The Digby Mary Magdalene
The Role of “Ayens” Within the Digby Mary Magdalene The word “ayens” appears nineteen times within The Digby Mary Magdalene and has two specific connotations that correspond to ambiguities between God and authority within the play itself. Now in order to understand how this word resonates within the play it is crucial to explore one of its most frequent connotations, “in opposition to right (the law)” (MED). The earliest transcription of the Middle English word is within MS Laud 636, where it displays an opposition to authority/law by means of an opposition “agenes” the king for some sort of transgression: “on this kinges time […] agenes him rise sona tha ricemen […] hi the eorl heold Lincol agaenes the kingy (Fol. 089r, 090v c1135-40). In
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The saint play, The Digby Conversion of St. Paul shares both associations of the word “ayens” that Magdalene incorporates. Within the play, both Saul when he works for the priests Anna and Caiaphas, and the priests themselves speak the phrase, “Agaynst our lawes” (40, 47, 136, 392). The phrase parallels the doxic authoritative use of “ayens” throughout the former half of Magdalene by continually advocating for their laws and for their authority. Similarly, there is a shift when Saul converts, which causes “ayens” to begin carrying Christian associations. Saul begins stating lines such as “templys of Jues that be very hedyous, / Agayns almighty Cryst, that Kyng so precious” (586), due to the word itself being a representation of both God’s authority and a king’s authority—Jesus himself is a king and to go against him is to go against both law and God. Furthermore, not only do the Digby plays use the word in such a manner, but Episcopus in The Croxton Play of the Sacrament declares lines such as, “Now for thys offence that thu hast donne / Agens the Kyng of Hevyn” (912-3) near the play’s conclusion. The act of opposing king and God is the only association of “ayens” within the Play of the Sacrament paralleling both Magdalene and St. Paul, which alongside its antisemitism may be another reason why it “seems appropriately at home in East Anglia” (Sebastian). Thus, the word “ayens” in Magdalene is a signifier of change within the word itself, the word represents a king’s authority and the authority of god simultaneously within both the play and contemporaneous plays, due to the word itself having both associations during their composition. Yet, whether these authoritative ambiguities within “ayens” predict “debates on iconoclasm and the power of liturgical and theatrical representation […] in the
The saint play, The Digby Conversion of St. Paul shares both associations of the word “ayens” that Magdalene incorporates. Within the play, both Saul when he works for the priests Anna and Caiaphas, and the priests themselves speak the phrase, “Agaynst our lawes” (40, 47, 136, 392). The phrase parallels the doxic authoritative use of “ayens” throughout the former half of Magdalene by continually advocating for their laws and for their authority. Similarly, there is a shift when Saul converts, which causes “ayens” to begin carrying Christian associations. Saul begins stating lines such as “templys of Jues that be very hedyous, / Agayns almighty Cryst, that Kyng so precious” (586), due to the word itself being a representation of both God’s authority and a king’s authority—Jesus himself is a king and to go against him is to go against both law and God. Furthermore, not only do the Digby plays use the word in such a manner, but Episcopus in The Croxton Play of the Sacrament declares lines such as, “Now for thys offence that thu hast donne / Agens the Kyng of Hevyn” (912-3) near the play’s conclusion. The act of opposing king and God is the only association of “ayens” within the Play of the Sacrament paralleling both Magdalene and St. Paul, which alongside its antisemitism may be another reason why it “seems appropriately at home in East Anglia” (Sebastian). Thus, the word “ayens” in Magdalene is a signifier of change within the word itself, the word represents a king’s authority and the authority of god simultaneously within both the play and contemporaneous plays, due to the word itself having both associations during their composition. Yet, whether these authoritative ambiguities within “ayens” predict “debates on iconoclasm and the power of liturgical and theatrical representation […] in the