Kempe, like Marie de France, is identified as a “mystic.” A couple centuries after de France, Kempe wrote what is considered the first autobiography in English. I do not pretend to be the strongest in the area of medieval lit - not by a long shot - but I did spend a summer in college as a research assistant for a medievalist studying Margery Kempe.
(Or what we could call proto-French.) Her writings are considered foundational to the genre of chivalric romance, which of course is more popularly known as “that knights-of-the-round-table stuff.” Kind of a big deal? She is considered the first francophone poet. Marie de France was, in fact, a real person. Marie is a half-blood noble described as ugly, queer, and headstrong. Her protagonist is a 12th century nun at the head of an abbey, an abbess, by the name of Marie de France. Groff’s newest novel is about a particular kind of mother: a mother superior. The oldest meaning of the word “matrix” in the Oxford English Dictionary is womb.
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