Wayward Nuns in Medieval Literature

Two of the most fascinating religious figures in medieval literature are Chaucer’s Prioress, Madame Eglentyne, and the Archpriest of Hita’s Dona Garoza, from his Libro de Buen Amor. Over the years literary critics have interpreted these characters in a variety of ways: from gentle, mildly sinning creatures, to religious failures, to purposefully ambiguous figures with both characteristics.

Daichman begins her discussion by focusing on the medieval nunnery as a social institution and finds abundant historical evidence of indecorous behavior among the nuns. Who were the women most likely to transgress their vows? What were the most common transgressions? Why did these women choose convent life in the first place? What we learn is that many women were sent to the convent against their will, or they chose to go there for reasons unrelated to religious vocation.

What Daichman has done is trace the pattern of a long-forgotten literary convention, the profligate nun, reviewing first the works of the medieval moralists and satirists on the subject, and then the popular literature of the time with special emphasis on the “chanson de nonne” and the fabliau. She proves the stock character of the Wayward Nun to be as traditional as that of the Gluttonous Monk, the Disobedient Wife, or the Cuckolded Husband.

In developing her premise that the profligate nun of the Middle Ages is not an isolated literary occurrence, but the reflection of the woman in the nunnery, Daichman also provides us with a deepened understanding of two well-known literary figures, Dona Garoza and Madame Eglentyne.