SOURCES
The Fire of Love and The Mending of
Life were first printed by the Early English Text Society, in 1896 from the
Corpus Christi College MS. 236, at Oxford. At that time it was the only MS.
known of Misyn's translation, but four years ago, at Lord Amherst's sale, the
British Museum bought an English MS. of the fifteenth century, known as Add.
MS. 37790, containing several very important mystical treatises,[7] and among them these two translations by Misyn. This I have
collated with the Corpus MS. (which I call C), and have noted any important
differences in the text as they occur. They are very few and are mostly
confined to spelling; the Amherst MS. showing the influence of a Southern
scribe.[8] From the doubling of vowels and
consonants in such words as bee, wee, off, nott, ffor, etc., and the writing of
th for p, one would infer that the Amherst is probably of rather later date
than the Corpus MS. In this latter The Fire of Love precedes The
Mending of Life, although the explicits give 1434 as the date of the
translation of The Mending of Life, and 1435 for The Fire of
Love; but in the Amherst MS. they are given in their correct chronological
order. I have, however, kept to the order of the Corpus MS., since The Fire
of Love is by far the longer and more important of the two works.
The editor of the Corpus MS. for the Early
English Text Society draws attention to the fact that the explicit to the
second book of The Fire of Love contains the statement that it was
translated by Richard Misyn, with the addition of these words, "per dictum
fratrem Richardum Misyn scriptum et correctum."[9] This was by some too easily considered a proof that
we have here Misyn's autograph; but judging from the wrong chronological order
Mr. Harvey concludes that this is not the case. It is therefore worth noting
that the explicit in the Amherst MS. is word for word the same as in the Corpus
MS., which fact, added to the probability of its later date, makes it unlikely
that here either we have Misyn's autograph. It is more probable that both were
copies of the autograph--the Corpus being the work of a more Northern scribe
than the Amherst--and that neither copyist exercised sufficient discretion to
omit Misyn's personal note.
At present the question of the Rolle canon is
most confused and uncertain. Scholars[10] are
working at it, and it is to be hoped the autograph of both Rolle and Misyn will
soon be discovered. In the meantime the only possible course open to me was to
choose the best available Latin MS. with which to compare Misyn's translation
whenever difficulties arose. For the Incendium I have taken a Cambridge
MS. (Dd. 5.64, referred to as L). For the De Emendatione it has been less
simple, because several printed versions exist of this work, all differing
considerably. Misyn sometimes seems to follow one and sometimes another,
showing clearly that he is translating from neither of these versions; and in
the MSS. to which I have had access the variants are as numerous. For this
reason I have been very chary of suggesting any emendations in my version of
this work. Obvious omissions I have supplied from another early translation in
the Bodleian (Douce MS. 322, which I call D). It seems to be of much the same
date as Misyn's, if anything rather later. It is not Northern, and is on the
whole a freer translation and has more attempt after style; whereas Misyn's
rendering is rather bald, being often very little more than a gloss on the
Latin. I have, however, followed Misyn, since we owe to him the longer and more
important work of Rolle which this volume contains.[11]
I owe some apology to the reader for the notes,
which may seem too numerous for a popular edition; but the difficulties and
obscurities in the text have called for emendations and explanations which have
necessitated rather full notes. I have been careful to place these at the end,
so that they who use this book as it was intended by the author to be used need
not be distracted by them.
The portrait of Rolle in the frontispiece is
taken from a Cotton MS. (Faust. B. VI. 2.) in the British Museum of a Northern
poem called the Desert of Religion. The authorship of this poem is unknown,
although it has usually been ascribed to Walter Hilton. It describes the trees
which grow in the wilderness, or desert, of religion. These symbolical trees
are drawn on the first side of each page; the reverse side is divided into two
columns, the one containing the poem itself, while on the other some saint of
the desert is depicted.
On the first side of the page containing this
picture of Richard the Hermit there is a rude drawing of a tree, with six
leaves on either side, representing the twelve abuses that grow among
religions. They are as follows:
A prelate negligent: A discipil inobediente.
A youngman idill: Ane alde mane obstinate.
A mownke cowrtioure: A mounke pletoure.
Ane habite preciouse: Mete daintinouse.
New tithandes in clostere: Strivynge in the
chapitour.
Dissolucioun in the qwere: Irreverence aboute the
auter.
In the picture the hermit is represented seated
on the grass in a white habit, with the sacred monogram in gold on his breast,
and holding a book in his left hand. On either side is a stiffly drawn tree.
Above, resting on clouds, are three angels bearing a scroll with the words:
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus; Dominus Deus Sabaoth; pleni sunt celi et terra
gloria tua. Round the picture the following verse is written:
A solitari here:
hermite life i lede,
For ihesu loue so dere: all flescli lufe i flede;
Pat gastli comforthe clere; that in my breast brede,
Might me a thowsande yeere: in heuenly strengthe haue stedd
There is no evidence that this picture is
a genuine portrait. It recalls some early portraits of Saint Francis. The hair
is light in colour, and cut evenly round the head, and the beard divided into
two small points. The saint's face is not emaciated, but of a clear complexion
with a touch of red upon the cheeks. Both the other manuscripts of The Desert
of Religion contain pictures of Richard Hermit, but since none are known to be
authentic, I have chosen this which seems the most interesting.
[7] Two of these have lately been printed: viz.,
a shorter version of the Revelations vouchsafed to Lady Julian of Norwich,
under the title Comfortable Words for Christ's Lovers, ed. by Rev. D.
Harford (Allenson), and extracts from The Mirror of Simple Souls, ed. by
Evelyn Underhill. Porch Series, I. No. 8. (J. M. Watkins.)
[8]
e.g., A. ought, schalle, whilk, folowe, gif.
C. oght, sall,
qwilk, felo, if.
[9]
E.E.T.S., p.x.
[10] Notably Miss H. E. Allen, who is preparing
for publication a descriptive catalogue of Rolle's writings, based on an
examination of all the accessible manuscripts. This work will include a
discussion of the Rolle canon. Also a Latin version of the Incendium Amoris
will shortly be published by the Manchester University Press, edited by Miss
Deanesly, of Newnham College.
[11] The Rev. D. Harford has edited an early
fifteenth century version of The Mending of Life, taken from a Cambridge MS.,
which has just been published by Allenson.