Spalding’s Alliterative Katherine Hymn: A Guild Connection from the South-East Midlands?

Abstract

Richard Spalding’s inventive alliterative hymn to St. Katherine of Alexandria, ca. 1400, is an East Midland product of the “high revival.” On grounds of internal, dialectal, and other circumstantial evidence it can be argued that the poem may have been composed and inscribed on a roll for the guild of St. Katherine in Stamford, Lincolnshire, or for a guild member. Conjectural links can be made between this well-documented parish guild, the local church, and the adjacent Carmelite friary. The composition of verse hagiography, often for patrons, was a distinctive part of the work of East Anglian literary friars. Such “Englishing” of Latin authorities points to the friar as an acknowledged member of a society in which his convent, confraternity, patron, patron saint, and reading matter of the saint’s life were also correlated; however, Spalding also appears to be influenced by the strong literary tradition of the dramatic works of this richly cultural region.