John Capgrave, St Katherine

Karen Winstead (Ohio State University)

Ed. by Rory Critten, Université de Lausanne
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1463

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

John Capgrave’s Life of Saint Katherine of Alexandria is the longest and most complex medieval narrative about one of medieval Europe’s most popular saints. In over eight thousand lines of Middle English verse, Capgrave provides an elaborate account of Katherine’s ancestry, upbringing, education, mystical marriage to Christ, and martyrdom. Katherine’s story is told through the eyes of a garrulous and fallible narrator and exhibits a psychological and moral complexity unusual in saints’ lives. The issues it addresses range from the proper roles of women to the qualities of a good ruler to the importance of education.

Legends of Saint Katherine

Katherine …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2448 words

Citation: Winstead, Karen. "St Katherine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2023 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39419, accessed 21 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here