Franciscan Studies

OLD AND NEW EVIDENCE OF THE CAREER OF WILLIAM MELTON, O.F.M. The preaching of William Melton in York in 1426 stands alongside the Wycliffite "A Treatise of Miraclis Pleyinge" as a rare instance in which drama was the subject of a medieval sermon .1 The text of the Wycliffite sermon tells us much about drama of the period, but we do not know the author. By contrast , though we do not have the text of Melton's sermon in York, we have some information about the preacher himself. Yet, scholars of English drama have frequently cited and drawn conclusions from Melton's preaching in York without considering what else is known about him.2 Indeed, I am not aware of any, single, published study which collates all known evidence. I will compare evidence from six sources, which I believe represents all available evidence on Melton. Five of these sources have received scholarly notice; the other I find mentioned in a letter of 1935 from Andrew G. Little to Hope Emily Allen.5 Apparently neither Little, Allen, nor anyone else has previously published any reference to it. The six sources are: The Book ofMargery Kempe* the York Memorandum Book,5 a letter from the University 1 "A Treatise of Miraclis Pleyinge" in ReliquaeAntiquae: Scrapsfrom Ancient Manuscripts, Illustrating Chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language, 2 vols., ed.Thomas Wright and James Orchard Halliwell (London: J. R. Smith, 1845) 2: 42-57. 2 See for instance, Martin Stevens, "The York Cycle: from Procession to Play," Leeds Studies in English, ns 6 (1972): 37-61 and Margaret Dorrell, "Two Studies of the York Corpus Christi Play," Leeds Studies in English, ns 6 (1972): 63-111. 5 I wish to thank Mr. Leo M. Dolenski and the staff of the Bryn Mawr College Archives for assisting me in researching the papers of Hope Emily Allen. The portion of her papers which remain there are contained in six file boxes and have not been catalogued. Therefore it is impossible to cite more accurately the location of this letter. 4 Sanford B. Meech and Hope Emily Allen, eds., The Book ofMargery Kempe, Early English Text Society, os 212 (London: Oxford University Press, 1940. Repr. 1961). 5 Maud Sellers, ed., York Memorandum Book . . . Lettered AIY in the Guild-haV. 26RICHARD L. HOMAN of Oxford to Humphrey, Duke of Glouscester,6 a papal bull,7 the sermon diary of Nicholas Philip,8 and another sermon diary, Caius College Ms. 356.9 Hope Emily Allen was aware of all six sources. In the prefatory note to the critical edition of The Book of Margery Kempe,10 she announced her intention to publish a companion volume in which she will comment on Melton among other subjects. Of course, Allen never completed her proposed second volume, but among her papers in the archives of Bryn Mawr College are drafts of an introduction. In one draft she devotes about 600 words to discussing the evidence of these six sources. I will cite her conclusions from this unpublished introduction along with my own. At the outset, I must state there is no proving that all of these sources refer to the same person, although they all speak of a Franciscan preacher and five explicitly give the name Melton . The exception is The Book of Margery Kempe, where the name "Melton" appears in an anonymous, marginal note of uncertain authority.11 In a recent study of Nicholas Philip's sermon diary, in which four sermons bear the name "Melton," Alan J. Fletcher concludes, "Philip's Melton sermons cannot . . . be clearly married with those which were preached by a friar against Margery [Kempe] or with those which it is known were delivered by a friar Melton at York."12 In the same vein, I would add that the Melton mentioned in the letter from the University of Oxford to Humphrey, Duke of Glouscester, is not necessarily the same William Melton mentioned in the papal Muniment Room, 2 vols., ed. Maud Sellers, Surtees Society Publications 125 (York: Ben Johnson & Co.: 1915). Excerpts from work relating to drama are reprinted in Records of Early English Drama: York, 2 vols., ed. Alexandra F. Johnston and Margaret...