| A Few Notes on Widow's Weeds and Chaucer's Troilus & Criseyde |
| Some light may be thrown on the subject of widow's weeds and black veils by examining Chaucer's poem "Troilus & Criseyde". (The translation, in capital letters, is my own, so no one is at fault for errors of translation or interpretation but me. If anyone thinks I am in error, please let me know, for sake of scholarship!)
Criseyde, the widowed daughter of the Trojan priest/soothsayer Calkas is first described in line 109: 109 In widewes habet large of samyt broun IN A FULLWIDOW'S HABIT OF BROWN SAMITE Again in line 169 and 170 169 Among thise othere folk was Criseyda, 170 In widewes habit blak, but natheles AMONG THESE OTHER FOLK WAS CRISEYDA, IN A BLACK WIDOW'S HABIT, BUT NONE THE LESS From line 173 to 177 Chaucer gives us an even fuller description of Criseyde's beauty: 173: Hire goodly lokyng gladed al the prees. 174: Nas neuere yet seyn thyng to ben preysed derre, 175: Nor vnder cloude blak so bright a sterre, 176: As was Criseyde, as folk seyde euerichone, 177: That hir behelden in hir blake wede; HER GOOD LOOKS MADE ALL THE CROWD HAPPY. NEVER HAD YET BEEN SEEN A THING TO BE PRAISED MORE HIGHLY, NOR, UNDER A BLACK CLOUD SO BRIGHT A STAR, AS WAS CRISEYDE, AS EVERYONE OF THE FOLK SAID THAT SAW HER IN HER BLACK WEEDS. I believe that the reference to the "bright star under a black cloud" indicates that she wore a black veil as well as a black garment. A widow's weeds are usually understood to be both dress and veil. Much later in the poem in line 758, when Criseyde is considering whether or not to love Troilus, she makes a reference that I believe demonstrates Chaucer's consciousness of the link between the clothing of Nuns (vowed religious) and widows. 758: Shal I nat loue, in cas if that me leste? What, pardieux! I am naught religious. SHALL I NOT LOVE, IF I WANT TO? PARDIEU, I AM NOT A NUN. It is my observation that even though traditional habits have been abandoned by many Orders of Roman Catholic religious, the tradition of widow/nun clothing lives on. I have often thought that the semi "uniform" of older women and widows that I see here in Arizona: little or no make up, sensible and comfortable shoes, knit, "easy care" pant suits or skirts and blouses and "wash and wear" hair cuts (usually too tightly permd) is almost exactly the same "uniform" I see on older Nuns |
| A. Vermeersch's article on Veils in the Catholic Encyclopaedia (online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/) sheds a great deal of light on the veils of nuns, widows, brides and little girls at their First Holy Communion. All uses that survive to this day in some form.
(Transcription by Herman F. Holbrook) "The taking of the veil then suggested an obligation of constancy, which forbade, first, illicit sexual intercourse, and afterwards marriage itself. Virgins took this veil themselves, or received it from the hands of their parents. It was worn also by widows, who made a profession of continence, and was called velum, velamen, maforte, flammeus (flammeum), flammeus virginalis, flammeus Christi (Wilpert, "Die gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in den ersten Jahrhunderten der Kirche", p. 17). . . . the solemn consecration of virgins was reserved to the bishop, while priests gave the veil to widows. These virgins and widows were not all cloistered; those who entered a monastery received from the abbess a veil which symbolized their religious profession, and the virgins at twenty-five years of age received solemnly from the bishop the veil, which was the mark of a special consecration The veil thus became in convents of women the distinctive sign of the different conditions. Suarez (De religione, tr. VI, t. I, col. 11, n. 5) mentions the following as in use, or as having been in use: the veil of probation, generally white, given to novices; the veil of profession; the veil of virginal consecration, given only to virgins at the age of twenty-five years; the veil of ordination, which the nun received at the age of forty years, on becoming a deaconess, with the privilege of intoning the office and reading the homilies in choir (cap. Diaconissam, 23, c. xxvii, q. 1); the veil of prelature, which abbesses obtained as a reward at the age of sixty years (cap. Iuvenculas, 12, c. xx, q. 1); the veil of continence, which with widows took the place of the veil of the virgins (cap. Vidua, 34, c. xxvii, q. 1). Tamburinus (De iure abbatissarum, d. 27, q. 2) mentions also a veil of penitence, given to penitent sisters. Several of these veils fell into disuse; at present, we know only the veil which forms part of the religious habit" As a Protestant girl in the 1950s I was facinated by the white dresses and veils of little Catholic girls who were making their First Holy Communion. I wanted such an outfit even though my parents and others I heard commented on the impropriety of dressing little girls up "as if they were brides." In truth, it is the bride who for the last time wears the white veil of virgins. Another very useful article from the Catholic Encyclopedia is the one on Nuns at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11164a.htm By Catherine Rogers Cook revised 06/03/2011. All rights reserved Page last updated 06/03/2011 |