Margery Kempe - The Fire of Love
The Mystery of Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe was one of the most remarkable figures in English history. Dating from about 1430, her account of her life - The Book of Margery Kempe - is the first autobiography by any English man or woman. In it, she tells of failures in business, mental illness, sexual passion, religious visions, courtroom dramas; and arduous treks - alone, lame and even pregnant - to foreign shrines.
Despite its candour, Kempe's Book leaves us crying out for answers. Mystic? Hysteric? Saint? Sham? Still exciting controversy, she comes centre stage in
The Fire of Love. Recently premièred in Wells-next-the-Sea, near Kempe's home town of Kings Lynn in Norfolk, UK, my play keeps Kempe's contradictions in tension, as she herself did.
With a cast of ten or a dozen, The Fire of Love suits amateur and professional groups alike, including open-minded church groups. Reflecting the Book, the last act tries Kempe on a charge of blasphemy with the audience as jurors. The final curtain leaves them to reach individual verdicts - if they can!
Good reading, great theatre
Being semi-literate, Margery had to dictate her Book. She did so in the Norfolky English of 1430 - a foreign language to us today. My modern translation, available here, lets her speak as plainly as she always did.
For those who want to go a step further and bring her alive on the modern stage The Fire of Love script is available here. (The cover, above, shows her interrupting a walk with her husband to mimic their priest. For other photos and more about her life click here.)
Tony D Triggs