The Meaning of the Digby Mary Magdalen

The anomalous Digby Mary Magdalen, preserved in Bodleian Digby MS 133, has undergone in recent years a reversal of critical fortune. In the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century the play was largely ignored, and even when considered at all, it was consistently denigrated.¹ In recent years, however, scholarly commentary has turned so positive that the critical remarks at times border on the effusive. David Bevington says that "this long play aims at the panoramic inclusiveness of a Corpus Christi cycle" and notes that the time lapses and the scale of the geography covered "add to the vast, inclusive dimensions of this cosmic account."² The editors of the recent Early English Text Society edition of the Digby plays state that the Mary Magdalen "is physically the most elaborate play in English religious drama" and further point out that "although lacking the subtlety of the Castle of Perseverance our play surpasses that great morality in theatrical spectacle"; the play is in many ways "the culmination of late medieval East Anglian popular drama."³ John C. Coldewey, the latest editor of the work, calls it "the most extravagant play in the whole of early English drama" and commends the riches found in it.⁴ These newer commentaries certainly manifest critical change, but the change is one primarily of tone, and unanswered questions and critical confusion persist.⁵ An initial purpose of the present study is to suggest that the comments of the newer critics, although positive, are inadequate. Recognition of the dramatic power of the Digby play is in itself not enough. No light has yet been thrown on those aspects of the drama which are most puzzling, those which deal with the dramaturgical structure of the work, for example, or with the identity and role of the protagonist, or, in fact, with the essential meaning of the work itself. The main purpose of this study is to provide a logical explanation not only for the unusual structure of the play, but also for various features of the work which likewise have been problematic. It is hoped that this study will confirm the present writer's early statement, admittedly based partially on surmise, that the Digby Mary Magdalen is an original, logically crafted, and unified dramatic creation.⁶

There is a key to the solution of the problem. Understanding the play depends on recognizing the specific theological philosophy woven into it. Although on the surface the work appears to be a saint's play about Mary Magdalen, it is at the same time a Marian play and, in fact, is based largely on two patristic formulations intrinsic to the cultus of the Virgin Mary. The first is the centuries-old credo of the Second Eve, and the second is the Bernardine doctrine of the "mother" of God. The Second Eve concept is founded on the premise that while Eve through her disobedience condemned Man, the Virgin Mary through obedience and grace became destined to remedy Eve's sin by waging war against Satan; and the Bernardine formulation, to put it simplistically, is the view that a true believer who pursues the struggle against Satan can through grace become a "mother" of God.⁷ Most relevant to the meaning of the Digby play is the aspect of this second doctrine which implies that a major focus of the required obedience for the true believer is the forwarding of the Word of Christ, and a main thrust of the dramatic action in the Digby play is the struggle of the protagonist to pursue this apostolic goal. The protagonist is Mary Magdalen, and since Magdalen is destined to become a "mother" of God, the Devil, who has an active role on stage, is determined to destroy her.

Features borrowed from the morality tradition inform the beginning of Magdalen's personal struggle with Satan. The Prince of Devils enters the playing place in a stage with "helle ondyrneth," approaches the King of the World, another devil, and Flesh (presumably on their respective scaffolds or stages), and asks for assistance in capturing Magdalen.⁸ The request of the Devil...