‘Here may we se a merveyl one’: Miracles and the Psalter in the N-Town ‘Marriage of Mary and Joseph’

Abstract

A major theme of the N-Town ‘Marriage of Mary and Joseph’ is its characters’ ability to interpret religious truths by interacting with scripture or witnessing miracles. Mary’s reading of her psalter at the play’s ending comments upon the episode in which the miraculous ‘flowering wand’ identifies Joseph as Mary’s future husband. The play privileges scripture reading as a method of attaining knowledge as the psalter’s salvific power supplants the miracle of the flowering branch as a source of virtue and mercy; yet the play also affirms images like the wand flowering and Mary reading as devotional icons.