"To passe the see in shortt space": mapping the world in the Digby Mary Magdalen

Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Annual, 2006 by D.K. Smith

In a similar way, the King of Marcelle locates his own, albeit pagan, spirituality in an earthly locale. As he offers praises to his own pagan god, the spiritual returns that he receives are couched in geographical terms:

    Mahownd, thou art of mytes most--
    In my syth a glorius gost.
    Thou comfortist me both in contre and cost
    With thy wesdom and they witt;
    (1210-13)

The comfort that Mahownd offers is proclaimed in terms of physical location, in country and coast. The King of Marcelle seems intent on mapping his spiritual benefits onto the physical world, and he isn't the only earthly ruler who thinks in this way.

As Herod says, in conveying his respects to Caesar's messenger:

    And recummend me to my soferens grace.
    Shew him I woll be as stedfast as ston,
    Ferr and nere, and in every place.
    (1290-92)

Herod locates his obedience, and by implication his power and steadfastness, in the physical world. Again, he seems to be mapping himself onto the world in a way that suggests a kind of geographical awareness. And the messenger, upon returning to Rome, addresses the emperor in terms that reinforce this worldly emphasis:

    Heyll, worthy withowtyn pere!
    Heyll, goodly to grauntt all grace!
    Heyll, emperowr of the wor[l] ferr and nere!
    (1294-96)

In part this is, as John W. Velz suggests, an attempt to focus the play on issues of sovereignty. But at the same time it is bringing a concern with the physical shape of the world, with the physical positioning of events in the world, into the mix of issues with which the play deals.

This concern with sovereignty, with exercising power in an arena which is at least in part geographically imagined, extends not just to the secular, pagan rulers in this play, but to the character of Mary herself. Her task, given by God, is not only to preach to the world but, in a sense, to encompass it. The angel Raphael says to her:

    Abasse the[e] noutt, Mary, in this place!
    Owr Lordes preceptt thou must fullfill,
    To passe the see in shortt space
    Onto the lond of Marcyll.
    (1376-79)

Be abashed not by this place, the angel says, but also, implicitly, be not abashed by the world.

Later, in instructing her disciples to cover the earth with their teachings, she cites God's guidance and help in the enterprise:

    Of alle maner tongges he gaf us knowing,
    For to undyrstond every langwage.
    Now have the disipilles take ther passage
    To divers contreys her[e] and yondir,
    To prech and teche of his hye damage;
    Full ferr ar my brothyrn departyd asondyr.
    (1343-48)

The reason God has given them knowledge of every language is to be sure that his teachings are spread to every realm. And, through her disciples, Mary herself is seen, at least figuratively, to cover the earth. All the countries of the map are to be visited and reclaimed through God's teachings. The act of proselytizing becomes an act of travel and a kind of geographical surveying of the newly expanding Christian world. The journeys that Mary makes back and forth across the known world, become a device for mapping the words of God onto the globe even as they focus attention on the geographical world in which these spiritual conquests are taking place. Later, when Mary is describing the power of her God to the King of Marcelle, she offers a partial description of his accomplishments: