Beds and Chambers in Late Medieval England: Readings, Representations, and Realities by Hollis L. S. Morgan (review)

Hollis L. S. Morgan infiltrates the "deepest space" occupied by chambers in England in the late Middle Ages by recreating their physicality and their importance through the pages of Middle English romances. In disagreeing with previous theories that look at materiality from one disciplinary lens, Morgan attempts, and achieves, an interdisciplinary analysis of beds and chambers incorporating literary, historical, archeological, and legal sources to better understand the role that beds, material objects often overlooked in research, were thought to have. Her book is both a comprehensive survey of chambers in literature and an innovative research on how these objects and spaces could affect and be affected by politics, religion, and sexuality. Surprisingly, each of the six chapters provides opportunities for further research on the simple, yet peculiar and extensive, topic of chambers. The book is divided into six comprehensive chapters and includes a full index, a wonderfully inclusive bibliography, several images, and the opportunity to glance at the amazing research conducted by Jonathan Foyle on what is thought to have been the bed of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.

Her chapters are organized around "Arise Early"—a set of precepts that instructs what must be done throughout the day, beginning and ending in the bed. The introduction and first chapter set the stage for the rest of the book by providing basic definitions of what beds and chambers were in the Middle Ages. She dedicates this portion of the book to familiarize the reader with the terms she will be using. Although one can think they know what a bed is, it is difficult for a twenty-first century mind to realize, without an explanation and images, that a "bed" was composed of between eight and eighteen layers, depending on the social class of the family. Thus, Morgan spends around twenty pages explaining it, which are the pages one needs to realize that beds are not that easy to understand.

From Henry VII's Household Ordinance to The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle to The Book of Margaret Kempe, Morgan touches on multiple sources to fully grasp the cultural associations related to bed and chambers. The next four chapters investigate the ideas of spirituality, power, leisure, and sexuality in bed. Centered on the precepts and pulling information from literary, historical, and legal sources, Morgan is able to recreate different moments lived in the chamber at different times of the day. "Serve Thy God Deuly" starts with a quote from the Song of Songs and examines the intangibility of spirituality attached to the tangibility of the bed. As Morgan points out that the mere "act of making the bed becomes an act of devotion" (46), it is hard to imagine King Henry VII making his own bed every morning. Thus, one can easily follow and agree with her argument that the chamber was used to read devotional texts and pray; but, one cannot completely fall for the argument that other devotional acts done at the chamber, such as making the bed, illustrate spirituality, for she never explains the relationship between servants and masters nor who actually makes the bed every morning: Is it Henry VII out of devotion to God or his servant out of obligation? The third chapter hints at the argument of the final chapter, which argues that chambers empowered women. In this chapter, Morgan explains that the privacy provided by the secluded chambers allowed honest discussions between the parties; the chamber, thus, is both a place of intimacy and public discussion. As she says that chambers elevated the status of those who had them, one wishes she could further develop this point by looking at how people without chambers conducted their daily lives. In "Goo To Thy Bed Myrely/ And Lye Therein Jocundly," Morgan considers chambers as spaces for leisure. Although she leans towards the idea that rest connects beds and books, she acknowledges the other side of the...