Friendship's Shadows

:Women’s Friendship in Medieval Literature

“…I so loved the nobility of your character, your wisdom, your chastity, your spirit, and indeed every aspect of your life that many people have said to me: What are you doing?" 25 Hildegard's intense attachment to…”

“…24 Henry also had an illegitimate half-sister named Marie through their father, Geoffrey of Anjou; she was born in France and lived in England as abbess of Shaftesbury. 25 Regardless of whether a single historical Marie can be definitively identified, these biographies demonstrate the close, if sometimes complicated, relations that existed between these female spiritual communities and the powerful Anglo-Norman families that were their patrons.…”

“…. Thus I ask as earnestly as I can, if I have any right to ask, that you love her as much as she loved you, and if she appeared to have any fault-which 25. "Letter 64: Hildegard to Abbess Richardis, " in The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, vol.…”

“…This was no easy task since, according to the hagiographer, "when anger rages, particularly in women, all that is justly spoken is believed to be perverse. " 25 Further, many times women-and it was always women-were drawn to her door by the sound of the holy woman's lamentations. Margaret was not a simple curiosity for them; rather, they were so moved by her devotion that they, too, ended up weeping and praying aloud.…”

Recovering Early Modern Women Writers

“…We see a similar focus in scholarship on Astell. Her remarks about friendship in her correspondence with Norris are sometimes seen, as one commentator says, as a way “to educate other women to virtue” (Anderson , 240). Another commentator claims that in A Serious Proposal Astell “uses friendship as a consciousness‐raising tool” (Broad , 67), and that The Christian Religion “has the same instructive purpose” as her Serious Proposal (Broad in Astell , 21).…”