68.In an effort to explain the modern collocation of green with envy, some cognitive linguists have pointed to general medieval associations of jaundice with envy and from this general association argued for a conflation of yellow with green. Anders Steinvall, “Colors and Emotions in English,” in Anthropology of Color: Interdisciplinary Multilevel Modeling, ed. Robert E. MacLaury, Galina V. Paramei, and Don Dedrick (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007), pp. 347–62 (p. 355). Less historically focused approaches have postulated that a “greenish, unhealthy-looking color of the face which may appear when one is feeling unwell is taken as a metonymic reference.” (Quoted in Steinvall, p. 354).
69.Langland, Piers Plowman, V.83.
70.Katharine Breen, Imagining an English Reading Public, 1150–1400 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 204.
71.While in the B-text, the allegorized Activa Vita, or active life, Haukyn laments the melancholy that leads him to “cacche the crampe, the cardiacle som tyme,” these details are added to Envy in the C-text.
72.On anatomical variation of “mawe,” see Middle English Dictionary “mawe” 1.b. For an alternative interpretation of “mawe” in the context of this passage, see “Discourses of the Human: Mouths in Late Medieval Religious Literature” (unpublished doctoral thesis, Cambridge University, 2007).
© The Author(s) 2016
Virginia LangumMedicine and the Seven Deadly Sins in Late Medieval Literature and CultureThe New Middle Ages10.1057/978-1-137-44990-0_5
5. Wrath
Virginia Langum1
(1)Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
With wrath, we move closer to the body, evidenced both in terms of how the sin ranks in relation to spirit and body, and in the increasing ambivalence with which bodily images must be interpreted. Medieval texts vary in their positioning of wrath relative to other sins. 1 However, wrath sits most commonly between the more spiritual sins of pride and envy and the more corporeal ones such as gluttony and lust, leading the confessional writer Thomas of Chobham to claim that wrath ira carni vicina est or “anger is near the flesh.” 2 Wrath straddles the boundary between the flesh and the spirit. In the scheme developed by Alexander of Hales, wrath (along with avarice and sloth) occupies anima, corresponding to the irascible power. 3 Whether negotiating the body in relation to the sin as metaphor, metonym, material, or as more ambivalent, pastoral and medical writers reach a certain consensus on the indicators and descriptors of wrath: fire or heat, fever, swelling, madness. 4
Of the species of wrath, Gregory lists rixae [quarrels], tumor mentis [swelling of the mind], contumeliae [insults], clamor [uproar], indignatio [indignation], and blasphemiae [blasphemies]. 5 One common way to divide the species of wrath is also according to the objects injured. For example, Jacob’s Well delineates four targets of wrath: God, the self, one’s household and one’s neighbors. Wrath’s general relation to sickness and self-injury arises from the single-mindedness of the wrathful. They lose interest in and are incapable of focusing on anything other than the object of their wrath: “þou mayst neyther etyn ne drinkyn, & perchauns fallyst in sykenesse, for þou mayst noʒt haue þi wyll to be vengyd.” 6
Metaphorical Wrath
The fleshiness of wrath, particularly its fleshy destruction, is part of its traditional iconography. For example, in the early fifth-century Psychomachia by Prudentius, Ira or Wrath attacks Patience. When Wrath’s sword breaks into pieces on Patience’s shield, Wrath flies into a fury and commits suicide. 7 Later medieval pastoral and poetic texts represent wrath in the general sense of destruction of the self, portraying the wrathful as rending their clothes and gnashing their teeth. In Confessio Amantis, Gower writes of wrath that “most to kinde he grieveth.” 8 The lover confesses to his own inner conflict, admitting thatmyn hand agein the pricke
I hurte and have do many day,
And go so forth as I go may,
Fulfote biting on my lippe,
And make unto miself a whippe
With which in many a chele [chill] and hete
Mi wofull herte is so tobete. 9
The Confessor’s exempla further illustrate the self-destructiveness of the wrathful, and their opposition to nature. For example, after disrupting mating snakes and thus the natural order, Tiresias transforms into a woman.
The destructiveness of wrath often presents as fever or swelling. For example, according to the pastoral Book of Vices and Virtues, of the four wars the wrathful person wages against God, his dependents, his neighbors, the first is “werre wiþ himself.” 10 The compiler describes the war against the self in terms of physical decline and death: “when wraþþe is ful in a man, he turmenteþ his soule and his body so þat he may haue no sleep ne reste; and oþerwhile it bynemeþ [deprives] hym mete and drynke, and makeþ hym falle in-to a feuere, or in-to suche a sorwe þat he takeþ his deþ.” 11 Here, fever and fire appear to be symbolic, as the writer goes on to say “þis is þe fier þat wasteþ al good of þe hous.”
Yet although fever and swelling are commonly correlated with wrath, these images function ambivalently; they may be as metaphors, descriptions of passions, or material representations of wrath. John Gower’s description in The Mirror of Man illustrates some of these possibilities:Anger is completely described in the swelling that inflames her, for she does not consider herself and pays no attention to anyone else. Her malady is comparable to heart disease, for it results in a sad life and soon dries up the heart so that no one is capable of curing it. Not only does she ill the body, but she also perverts the soul to her will. 12
This passage discloses a medical understanding of wrath—the passion as causing swelling and dryness as the vital spirits rush to the extremities—that is discussed in more detail later. But here the author pursues a symbolic comparison. Wrath, like fever, heats up the sufferer in one fifteenth-century sermon and causes heat and a thirst for vengeance in another. 13
Many pastoral texts also consider wrath in relation to madness. In “Templum domini,” wrath simply “may I likkyn wele by skille/To wodnesse.” 14 Arguing that “wrath obstructs God’s grace from flowing into the soul, as turbulent air obstructs the brightness and radiance of the sun,” the compiler of Fasciculus Morum cites Gregory’s Morals: “through wrath the light of truth is lost … anger injects the darkness of confusion into the mind.” More simply expressed, “anger blocks the mind from seeing what is true.” 15 When the pilgrim of John Lydgate’s Pilgrimage of the Life of Man (1426) encounters Wrath, the latter boasts that he “blynde[s] ffolkys off al Resoun” and “cause[s] hem that they may nat se/But bestyally in ther degree.” 16 Although reason is never absent from the experience of passion in Aquinas’ account, he acknowledges cases in which the heat of anger distracts reason from its task of evaluating the severity of the wrong that needs to be avenged. 17 The trope of blindness also relates to the madness of wrath. Like the other spiritual sins, wrath is associated with spiritual blindness, disturbing a person’s reason. Peter of Limoges writes of the “agitated eye of the angry man, who is temporarily insane,” citing Psalms 6:8 and 30:10. 18
Although more commonly linked with sloth, palsy further serves as a metaphor for wrath. In a sermon on Jesus’ miraculous healing of a man with palsy, one homilist draws a fairly elaborate metaphorical association with wrath. First describing the man with palsy as “every sinner liyng in þe bed of synne,” the homilist then details four purgatives that will clear harmful spiritual matter from the soul. Just as “ivill blood distemperythe a mans body” as it carries “contrarius wyndis” through the veins, so “wicked thowʒtys with the wynde of wrathe and of malicious disposicion … distemperethe mans sowle and maketh him ever distabyll and also owte of reste tyll he be let owte be the helpe of the heuenly leche, Ihesu.” 19 Although pride and “other diseses of sinful lyving” are also mentioned as evil winds in the blood, wrath is predominant. Bad blood “betokenethe synne and malice; and wrathe cawsithe þe blood of a man to be wastyd and so schall he falle into a palsey.” 20
&nbs
p; Metonymic Wrath
Wrath or anger was a distinct passion in medieval thought. So, although the passions may be considered ethically neutral in themselves, as previously discussed, the thoughts and actions prompted by the passions are virtuous or vicious, depending upon human reason. The object of anger determines whether anger is virtuous or vicious. Anger directed by reason to the fulfillment of justice is virtuous. The absence of anger in such circumstances may actually be sinful. 21 However, due to its bodily intensity, anger often overpowers reason. In these cases, anger facilitates sin. Aquinas notes that of all the passions, anger has a particular potential to inhibit reason. Due to the body’s reaction to anger—the heating of the blood and the movement of the vital spirits from the heart—its effects are seen most clearly in the outer members. Therefore, anger is the most “manifest obstacle to the judgment of reason.” The heat aroused by anger urges instant action and thus has great potential to forestall reason. 22
Later, the English bishop Reginald Pecock takes up the particular problem of wrath the passion in several of his works of vernacular theology. Pecock argues that the will may suffer more greatly as a result of the passions in cases of humoral imbalances; that is, a man predisposed to a choleric temperament will experience more anger and must struggle more to control that anger. Following on this, Pecock explains that passions may be useful or detrimental to the body and mind, depending on the individual’s complexion and self-control. 23 Anger is beneficial to some, particularly the phlegmatic, who “kunnen not haue clerli her wittis, neiþir feruentli y-nouʒ her willyngis, vnto tyme þei be wel chafid in anger, and bifore þei ben dul, derk and slow.” 24
Following his extensive discussion of the passions, Pecock explicitly distinguishes between anger the passion and wrath the vice: “angir is a passioun of þe wil or of þe louʒer sensual appetit, and wraþ is a fre deede chosen freli by þe wil.” 25 However, it is worth noting that although these concepts are distinct, Pecock is not entirely consistent in his choice of words, elsewhere referring to “þe passioun of wraþ.” 26
As in theological contexts, wrath as a passion in medical contexts is ambivalent: it may harm or heal. Some medical writers warn against swelling caused by wrath, reminiscent of advice given in pastoral texts. In his late medieval surgical manual, Lanfranc of Milan writes of the dangers of wrath to the patient, advising the surgeon to “entempre … þe herte of him þat is sijk, for to greet wraþþe makiþ þe spiritis renne to myche to þe wounde & þat is caus of swellynge.” 27 Here, Lanfranc’s sense of “entempre” is physiological in the sense of achieving humoral balance by pacifying the physiological effects of anger, but has an ethical application. One way of tempering the body and countering anger is to direct the will against anger.
That anger causes swelling leads some writers to use anger as a simple synonym for swelling. For example, in a passage on ague, one medical writer instructs the doctor to “anonynte hym firste with popilion, if he hafe anger in his lyuer.” 28 Anger is a material condition, something physically evidenced, instantiated in the body, that can impair healing. For Lanfranc, “wraþe” also causes excess blood to gather in a wound. 29 Lanfranc further advises “tempering” in the sense of physiological and emotional balance in the treatment of broken ribs: “he schal drinke swete wijn temperatli, & þou muste defende him fro wraþþe & fro crijnge, & fro alle þingis þat wolen make a man to couȝe.” 30 The rhetoric of “defense” against wrath echoes that in pastoral writing on sin. Like priests caring for souls, the surgeons caring for bodies had to monitor and minister to their patients’ non-material conditions.
In other contexts, however, medical and technical writers highlight the advantages of wrath. Pecock’s discussion of the benefits of wrath for phlegmatics occurs in other texts, such as the late fifteenth-century dietary attributed to John of Burgundy Gouernayle of Helthe. 31 Wrath is also a corrective to timidity. By inducing wrath, the physician can cure the “coldness” of the timid man, thus emboldening him to make decisions and to take actions. 32 Passions under the yoke of reason can be used for both physical and moral good. Passions can thus be converted into virtues as well as vices. Wrath is a treatment in certain medical contexts and a virtue in certain ethical contexts. Moralists distinguish between virtuous anger or zeal, which is directed against evil, and bad anger or—wrath. 33 Aquinas’ understanding of justice as the virtuous end of anger is echoed in a host of pastoral texts. 34 For example, the author of Doctrinal of Sapience notes that “there is a good ire whan one is angry ayenst euyl or ayenst defaulte of another, & that is no sinne.” 35 Regardless of its healing or harming properties, anger in medical texts is firmly understood as a force in the body that caused physiological changes. As in Bartholomaeus, “wraþþe makeþ þe puls swift and strong and þicke.” 36
Testament to the convergence of the two types of wrath—as passion and as sin—is the warning against wrath issued by the compiler of the pastoral work Jacob’s Well. In the following passage, he refers to a possessed man in the Bible:For an angry man & a wretthefull may be lykenyd to a man þat was vexed wyth a feend. Mat. Ix. Whan þe deuyl took hym, þe man hurte hym-self, & beet his hefd & his body aʒens þe ground, & fomyd out at his mowth, & grente wyth his teeth, & wexe drye. Ryʒt so, whanne wretthe & anger touchyth a dyspytous & a malycous man, he hurtyth & betyth hym-self, wyth heuynes & vnpacyence; he fomyth out of his mowth, crying, dyspysing, chydng; he grynteth wyth his teeth, malice & venym coniectyng; he waxieth drye wythoutyn grace, wyth þe fyre of wretthe. 37
Rather than a correspondence between material causes and spiritual causes and a correspondence between material symptoms and spiritual symptoms, the two sets of causes and symptoms are proximate, vicina. Dryness, for example, is both a spiritual dryness and a physiological dryness. Whereas a lack of pity or grace is elsewhere referred to as dryness in a metaphorical sense, here it takes on a more material resonance, as wrath dries the body. Although all imbalances are unhealthful, Bartholomaeus Anglicus warns that “drynes sleeþ and is þe werste qualite whanne it passiþ þe proporciouns in bodyes,” before going on to detail the slow and painful death caused by the imbalance. 38
Material Wrath
Of all the sinners, the wrathful were perhaps the easiest to identify by humoral complexion. In Robert Mannyng’s physiognomic exemplum, the priest identifies the wrathful as those with red skin, who stare intently as though mad, demonstrating an excess of the choleric humor. It is reasonable to assume that medieval confessors with a basic knowledge of complexion theory could identify the wrathful accordingly. For example, an English surgical manual describes the choleric as reddish in color, “full of wraþþe” and “half-wood”. 39 Cholerics also present with yellow skin and bodies. As we have seen, wrath is conventionally associated with madness in pastoral texts, and, knowledge of one’s own disposition or complexion is critical to monitoring the passions and overcoming the vices. Lydgate’s Wrath poses a greater threat “to folkys colleryk/Than to folkys fflewmatyk,” for example. 40
The physiology of wrath has particular implications for gender in pastoral, legal, and medical texts. As previously noted, angry dispositions were thought to reflect an imbalance of the hot quality, the fire element, and the choleric humor. As dryness and hotness were male properties, anger is more often a male than a female vice in medieval texts. 41 This biological understanding of anger infilitrated the legal process, such that men could mitigate their sentences for deeds committed in “hot anger,” that is, crimes of passion, whereas women hardly used this defense. 42 Here, biological understanding underpins culpability for behavior. The distinction between different people’s experiences of the same passion, specifically anger, is explored at length in a recent article by Elena Carrera. 43 Carrera argues that rather than causing passions, humoral balance affects the experience of the passions, for instance, how quickly they are experienced or how slowly they build. Medicine demonstrates how wrath physically impacted women in particular ways. As anger causes blood to flow to the e
xtremities, it follows that anger may cause deficient menses. 44 Furthermore, Trotula notes, “coughing, diarrhea or dysentery or excessive motion or anger or bloodletting can loose the fetus.” 45
The writer of a fifteenth-century dominical sermon cycle plays on the gender associations of wrath. The sermon develops a conceit whereby the devil renames the sins as positive character traits. Wrath is thus called “virilitas, þat is to sey manhode,” because “he that is a facer or a bracer, a grete bragger, a grete swerer or a grete fyʒtter, soche men ben calde manly men.” 46
As for wrath’s cures, Chaucer’s Parson prescribes “debonairetee” or meekness, which “withdraweth and refreineth the stirynges and the moevinges of mannes corage in his herte, in swich manere that they ne skippe nat out by anger ne by ire.” 47 By “corage,” Chaucer’s Parson seems here to refer to the vital spirit, which rushes out with anger. The Parson suggests that humility might have a balancing physiological effect. Thus, the contrary virtue serves as much as a material remedy as a moral one.
Other remedies that invoke physiological wrath include “science.” As the Doctrine of Sapience explains, this third gift of the Holy Ghost allows “a man clere seyng … for it maketh a man wise by mesure in all thinges.” The writer continues that “his yeft, whan it descendeth to the hert, it plucketh & casteth out the rote of the synne of yre and of felome, whiche troubleth the herte & maketh the man all fro him self, in such wise that he seethe nothing for to conduite him self.” 48
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