ABSTRACT
In Rome, when God asks for Margery Kempe’s hand in marriage - the apotheosis, surely, of any late medieval mystical career she is on the brink of refusing Him. For she wants not the ‘Godhede’ but the ‘manhode’ of God:
Also þe Fadyr seyd to þis creatur, ‘Dowtyr, I wil han þe weddyd to my Godhede, for I schal schewyn þe my preuyteys & my cownselys, for þu xalt wonyn wyth me wythowtyn ende.’ þan þe creatur kept sylens in hir sowle & answeryd not þerto, for sche was ful sor aferd of þe Godhed & sche cowde no skylle of þe dalyawns of þe Godhede, for al hir lofe & al hir affeccyon was set in þe manhode of Crist & þerof cowde sche good skylle & sche wolde no-thyng a partyd þerfro.1
