Abstract
This paper discusses how the fifteenth-century translators of Richard Rolle’s first-person accounts interpreted the mystic’s rapture. Rolle’s representations of the “immediate” occur in his Latin writings, but his English epistles also evoke such passages. The paper analyses the mystic’s idiosyncrasies with a focus on the idea of simultaneous presence and return. Then it investigates the ways in which the translators interfered in the vocabulary of heat and the sonority of Rolle’s experience. The translators “censored” both the melodic aspects of Rolle’s mysticism and his references to sighs. The paper concludes that the fifteenth-century translations of Rolle’s self-revelations intended to shape responses to mystical experiences by providing a more disciplined model of performing affects.
This paper was written with the support of the Bolyai János Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2009–2011), the Eötvös Scholarship of the Hungarian State (2012) and the visiting scholarship of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana. I am grateful to all those who personally provided help for my research.
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Notes
- 1.
All throughout this paper, “peak/culmination of the mystical /contemplative experience/ascent,” “rapture” and “fruition” will be used synonymously with unio mystica or “mystical union.”
- 2.
For a summary of the late fourteenth-century critical assessments of Richard Rolle’s exposition of the sensual aspects of his mystical experience , cf.: Sargent, Michael G.: Contemporary Criticism of Richard Rolle. In James Hogg (ed.): Kartäusermystik und –mystiker. Analecta Cartusiana Vol. 55/1, Salzburg, 1981, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 160–205; and Steinmetz, Karl-Heinz: Heich Savour of the Godheed: Some Reflections on the ‘Cloud of Unknowing’ and the Discourse of Perceiving God in Fourteenth Century England. Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, Vol. 64. 2008/1. 483–498, esp. 490–498.
- 3.
Bestul, Thomas H.: Review of The English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle by Claire Elizabeth McIlroy. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 106. 2007/1. 139.
- 4.
Asterics indicate works written in English where the title does not make it obvious. Cf. Watson, Nicholas: Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority. Cambridge, 1991, Cambridge University Press. p. 278. Renevey diverts from Watson’s chronology in two important details: he conjectures that the commentary on the Song of Songs was written before all other writings of the middle period, and that Rolle’s first English epistle, Ego dormio, was composed before the Latin treatise of Emendatio vitae. Renevey assumes that Rolle’s turn to the vernacular was not once for all, but his first experiments with English prose coincided with the composition of the most refined piece of all his Latin writings. Cf. Renevey, Denis: Language, Self and Love : Hermeneutics in the Writings of Richard Rolle and the Commentaries on the Song of Songs. Cardiff, 2001, The University of Wales Press, 124–125.
- 5.
For the tradition in which Rolle’s commentary on the Psalms is inserted and for later developments, cf.: Kuczynski, Michael P.: Rolle among the Reformers: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Wycliffite Copies of Richard Rolle’s English Psalter. In William F. Pollard and Robert Boenig (eds.): Mysticism and Spirituality in Medieval England, Cambridge, 1997, Derek S. Brewer, 177–202.
- 6.
Rolle, Richard : Ego Dormio. Trans. by Rosamund S. Allen. In Rosamund S. Allen (ed.): Richard Rolle: The English Writings. The Classics of Western Spirituality, New York, 1988, Paulist Press, 133. Cf. The original Middle English text as reconstructed from several manuscript versions by Barry Windeatt: “Forthi that I lufe, I wow the, that I might have the als I walde, noght to me, bot to my Lorde. I will become that messager to bring the to hys bed, that hase made the and boght the, Criste, the keyng sonn of heven.” Rolle, Richard: Ego Dormio. In Barry Windeatt (ed.): English Mystics of the Middle Ages , Cambridge, 1994, Cambridge University Press, 24–25.
- 7.
Cf. the Middle English Dictionary for “messenger”: 4. A written message, an edict. (Part M.1. Ed. by Sherman M. Kuhn. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1975, The University of Michigan Press, 367.)
- 8.
Cf. this interpretation in Renevey: op. cit. p. 127 and McIlroy, Claire Elizabeth: English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle. Studies in Medieval Mysticism Vol. 4. Cambridge, 2004, D. S. Brewer, 73–78.
- 9.
For the lack of any interest in translating Rolle’s Melos amoris , I will not consider the autobiographic passage that opens the tract. Cf.: Rolle, Richard : The Melos Amoris [of Richard Rolle of Hampole]. Ed. by E. J. F. Arnould. Oxford, 1957, Basil and Blackwell, 3.
- 10.
Rolle, Richard : The Incendium Amoris [of Richard Rolle of Hampole]. Ed. by Margaret Deanesly. Manchester, 1915, University of Manchester Press – Longmans, Green and Co., 84. The autobiographical blocks of Rolle’s experiencing calor, dulcor and canor as three consecutive steps of his mystical ascent and union are found in the Prologue , as well as in Chapters 14 and 15 of the work, which in Deanesly’s edition correspond to pp. 145–146, 185 and 187–190, respectively.
- 11.
For the full list and description of the manuscripts, cf.: Spahl, Rüdiger: Eine kritische Ausgabe des lateinischen textes De emendatione vitae von Richard Rolle mit einer Übersetzung ins Deutsche und Untersuchungen zu den lateinischen und englischen Handschriften. PhD dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, 2005, 12–65; and Lagorio, Valerie M. and Michael G. Sargent (with Ritamary Bradley): English Mystical Writings. In Hartung, Albert E. (ed.): A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050–1500. Vol. 9. New Haven, Connecticut, 1993, The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 3424.
- 12.
McIlroy: op. cit. p. 59.
- 13.
Ibid. pp. 58 and 84. Cf. also Watson: Richard Rolle. pp. 226 et seqq.
- 14.
McIlroy: op. cit. p. 140.
- 15.
“Explicit liber de Incendio amoris, Ricardi Hampole heremite, translates in Anglicum instancijs domine Margarete Heslyngton, recluse, per fratrem Ricardum Misyn, sacre theologie bachalaureum, tunc Priorem Lincolniensem, ordinis carmelitarum, Anno domini Mo. CCCCxxxvto. in festo translacionis sancti Martini Episcopi, quod est iiij nonas Iulij, per dictum fraterm Ricardum scriptum et correctum.” [Rolle, Richard ]: The Fire of Love and The Mending of Life or The Rule of Living. The First Englisht in 1435, from the De Incendio Amoris, the Second in 1434, from the De Emendacione Vitae, of Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole, by Richard Misyn, Bachelor of Theology, Prior of Lincoln, Carmelite. Edited with Introduction and Glossary from MS CCXXXVI in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Ed. by Ralph Harvey. London, 1896, Kegan Paul - Trench, Trübner and Co., 104.
- 16.
These manuscripts are: (1) MS Oxford, Corpus Christi College 236; (2) MS London, British Library, Additional 37,790 (Amherst MS) and (3) MS New Haven, Yale University Marston (olim Beinecke) 331. The translation of some other Latin fragments into English are indicated by Allen and Alford: Allen, Hope Emily: Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole and Materials for his Biography. The Modern Language Association of America Monograph Series 3. New York, 1927, D. C. Heath & Co., 68 and 403; Alford, John A.: Richard Rolle and Related Works. In A. S. G. Edwards (ed.): Middle English Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Authors and Genres. New Brunswick, NJ, 1984, Rutgers University Press, 46.
- 17.
MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College 140/80. The fifteenth-century MS London, British Library Harley 106 contains a folio (f. 1) with a fragment of another version of the Latin Form of Living, which proves the existence of other Latin translations of the same text.
- 18.
“The whilk boke [Incendium amoris], in sentence ne substance I þink to change, bot treuly aftyr myn vnderstandynge to wryte it in gude exposicione.” Rolle/Misyn: The Fire of Love . Ed. by Harvey. p. 1. [The which book I think to change neither in sentence nor substance, but truly to write it in good exposition after mine understanding.] Cf.: the modernized English version of Misyn in Rolle, Richard and Richard Misyn: The fire of love, or, Melody of love and The mending of life, or, Rule of living / translated by Richard Misyn from the “Incendium amoris” and the “De emendatione vitae” of Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole; edited and done into modern English by Francis M. M. Comper; with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill. London, 1914, Methuen. 9.
- 19.
Modern English translation is quoted in Sargent: op. cit. p. 163. The Latin phrases from the original are inserted from Rolle: Incendium. Ed. by Deanesly, 145–146.
- 20.
Cf. the following examples from Rolle: Incendium. Ed. by Deanesly: ignis interni (p. 146); amor enim eius [Christ’s] ignis est (p. 156); ignis in electis ardens (p. 156); ignis diuini amoris (p. 166); uror intime ignis incendio (p. 193); igne diuini amoris (p. 203); in illorum meditacione ignis exardesceret (p. 235). The semantic field of ignis is even broader than the binary of physical vs. inner. Rolle also evokes the fire of Purgatory and Hell, and he refers to several varieties of inner heat, such as the fire of earthly love and the fire coming from the Holy Spirit .
- 21.
Sargent: op. cit. p. 163. Cf. the Latin original: “flammam quam sub metaphora ignem appellaui, eo quod urit et lucet” (Rolle: Incendium. Ed. by Deanesly, 146.)
- 22.
Rolle qtd. in Sargent: op. cit. p. 165.
- 23.
Ibid. p. 165.
- 24.
Ibid. p. 166.
- 25.
Ibid. p. 165. For the sake of the contrastive reading of Rolle’s text with Misyn’s translation, it is best to give here the full Latin original of this passage: “Dum enim in eadem capella sederem, et in nocte cenam psalmos prout potui decantarem, quasi tinnitum psallencium uel pocius canencium supra me ascultaui. Cumque celestibus eciam orando toto desiderio intenderem, nescio quomodo mox in me concentum canorum sensi, et delectabilissimam armoniam celicus excepi, mecum manentem in mente. Nam cogitacio mea continuo in carmen canorum commutabatur, et quasi odas habui meditando, et eciam oracionibus ipsis et psalmodia eundem sonum edidi. Deinceps usque ad canendum que prius dixeram, pre affluencia suauitatis interne prorupi, occulte quidem, quia tantummodo coram Conditore meo.” (Rolle: Incendium. Ed. by Deanesly, 189–190.)
- 26.
Forcellini’s Totius Latinitatis Lexicon explains concentus as “vox et cantus multorum simul, consensus et harmonia plurium una canentium” and translates it into English as “a concert of music, singing in tune, symphony.” Lewis and Short’s Latin Dictionary says “sound blending harmoniously together, symphony, harmony, harmonious music.” For the post-classical semantic development of the word, cf.: the entries of Blaise Patristic Dictionary (concentus angelicus and concentus disputationis); Souter (“world harmony”); Stelten’s Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin (“harmony, concord, agreement”); the Kirchenlateinisches Wörterbuch (“1. Gesang [song] 2. Übereinstimmung [concordance], Eintracht [harmony, unity]”); the Dictionnaire latin-français de Firmin Le Ver (“chant ou concordance de chant .i. concordantia in cantu […] eciam dicitur cantus continuus et laus beatorum”). In: Brepolis Database of Latin Dictionaries, “concentus.”
- 27.
Recent scholarship of late medieval English religious literature and heterodoxy has taken painstaking efforts in reconsidering the vigour and the nature of this censorship. For a selection of the most influential contributions to this debate, cf.: Watson, Nicholas: Censorship and Cultural Change in Late Medieval England: Vernacular Theology, the Oxford Translation Debate, and Arundel’s Constitutions of 1409. Speculum, Vol. 70. 1995/4. 822–864. Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn: Books under Suspicion: Censorship and Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late Medieval England. Notre Dame, Indiana, 2006, The University of Notre Dame Press. Gillespie, Vincent and Kantik Ghosh (eds.): After Arundel: Religious Writing in Fifteenth-Century England. Turnhout, 2011, Brepols.
- 28.
Cf. the wide range of meanings ascribed to the word by the Middle English Dictionary: 1 (a) Skill, ingenuity, cleverness; (b) skilled or clever workmanship, elegance (of workmanship), beauty (of a work of art). 2 (a) Inquisitiveness, curiosity, interest; (b) idle or vain interest, esp. in worldly affairs. 3 (a) Subtlety; sophistry; (b) occult or magic practice; (c) recondite character (of a subject matter). 4. Misc. uses: (a) fastidiousness; (b) anxiety, a worry. (Part C. Ed. Hans Kurath. Ann Arbor Michigan, 1959, The University of Michigan Press, 794.)
- 29.
Rolle/Misyn: The Fire of Love. Ed. by Francis M. M. Comper, xxxvii.
- 30.
Rolle/Misyn: The Fire of Love . Ed. by Harvey, 2. Two further words Misyn inserts in his translation of the Prologue are: “helefull” [salutary] to qualify abundance and “with-outen ende” [endlessly, eternally] to qualify the company of the heavenly singers praising God. Ibid.
- 31.
Rolle/Misyn: The fire of love. Ed. by Francis M. M. Comper., 71.
- 32.
The Middle English Dictionary gives for “sound”: 1 (a) A sound, esp. a loud or unpleasant sound, din; (b) to make noise; (c) loud speech; outcry; lamentation; (d) outcry […]; (e) a pleasant sound; (f) the sound of a musical instrument; (g) characteristic sound of an animal, bird, or other creature. (Part N.3. Ed. by Sherman M. Kuhn. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1979, The University of Michigan Press, 1029.)
- 33.
Richard Rolle: Ego Dormio. Transl. and ed. by Rosamund S. Allen. pp. 139–140.
- 34.
Rolle, Richard : The Form of Living. Trans. by Rosamund S. Allen. In Rosamund S. Allen (ed.): Richard Rolle: The English Writings. The Classics of Western Spirituality, New York, 1988, Paulist Press, pp. 171–172.
- 35.
For a systematic classification of Rolle’s idiosyncratic sonority of expression, cf.: Wakelin, Martyn F.: Richard Rolle and the Language of Mystical Experience in the 14th Century. Downside Review, Vol. 97. 1979. 192–203.
- 36.
The transcript of the Latin version was published in Amassian, Margaret G. and Dennis Lynch. The Ego Dormio of Richard Rolle in Gonville and Caius MS. 140/80. Mediaeval Studies, Vol. 43. 1981. 218–249.
- 37.
Cf. the following insertions into the Latin translation: in voluntate Dei (ll. 79–80), non aliud illud iudicabis (ll. 200–201), Deo consummante (l. 266), secundum voluntatem Domini (l. 273) and creator omnium (l. 298). Amassian/Lynch: op. cit.
- 38.
Cf. the following insertions or changes of vocabulary in the Latin translation: per experienciam (l. 56), experieris (l. 61), sensibiliter experieris (l. 281). Amassian/Lynch: op. cit.
- 39.
Cf. the appearance of this motif in the following instances: omnia prefata tali amatori in tedium verterentur (ll. 54–55) and totus mundus tibi vaniter videbitur […] et pro animabus hominum nocumentum et tedium (ll. 200–201). Amassian/Lynch: op. cit.
- 40.
The four long interpolations are in lines 98–109, 110–118, 124–129 and 192–199 of Amassian’s edition of the Latin text. Amassian/Lynch: op. cit. The most conspicuous of all these that invests Rolle’s epistle with an explicitly polemical character is in the first interpolation: Non enim habet Deus ita bonum amicum in cello nec in terra quem non in eternum dampnaret si inueniret peccatum mortale in eo, quem tantum dilexit pro illo mori voluit. [God has no such a good friend in heaven or in earth whom He would not judge to eternal damnation if He found a mortal sin in him, even if He loved him so much that He wanted to die for him.] The in-depth studies of the concern of late medieval English literature with the belief in universal salvation do not discuss Richard Rolle; cf.: Kerby-Fulton, op. cit. and Watson, Nicholas. Visions of Inclusion: Universal Salvation and Vernacular Theology in Pre-Reformation England. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Vol. 27. 1997/2. 145–187. Pearsall, Derek: The Idea of Universal Salvation in Piers Plowman B and C. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Vol. 39. 2009/2. 257–281.
- 41.
Amassian/Lynch: op. cit. p. 247, ll. 277–279.
- 42.
There is no edition of the Latin translation of the Form of Living. I will rely on my transcript of MS Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College 140/80, ff. 108–115 (pp. 181–196).
- 43.
Cf. the respective Latin passage: “tunc enim anima ihesum canat, ihesum cogitat, ihesum amat ipsum desiderans in ipso quiescens et eius amore continue ardens. tunc cogitacio tua in canticum vertitur” (MS Gonville and Caius 140/80, p. 191b).
- 44.
Spahl: op. cit. p. 227 and 229, ll. 79–81. Modern English translation: Rolle, Richard : The Amending of Life: A Modern English Version of the “Emendatio Vitae”. Transl. and introduction by H. L. Hubbard. London, 1922, John M. Watkins, 89.
- 45.
Rolle: Ego Dormio. Ed. and transl. by Rosamund S. Allen. p. 141.
- 46.
It is important to keep in mind that what I call the “economy of emotions” in Chapter 12 encompasses also emotions that the contemplative feels on the way toward the mystical experience, but actually abandons them in the highest stage of love. Thus, words referring to weeping, crying, sighing and groaning do not describe the mystical union simultaneously with joy and iubilus.
- 47.
The seven independent translations, including Misyn’s version, survive in 16 manuscripts. Only three of the seven versions have been edited: Ralph Harvey prepared the edition of Misyn’s translation of Incendium and Emendatio in 1896 on the basis of MS Oxford, Corpus Christi College 236 (cf.: Rolle/Misyn: The Fire of Love .) Version A, the largest group of the translations with five manuscripts, has been edited in Kempster, Hugh: Richard Rolle: Emendatio Vitae: Amendinge of Lyf, A Middle English Translation edited from Dublin, Trinity College MS 432. PhD dissertation. University of Waikato, New Zealand, 2007. Kempster also publishes the parallel readings of all the other four manuscripts besides his base text. Version F, represented by one single manuscript (MS Worcester, Cathedral Library F. 172), was edited in Hulme, William Henry: Richard Rolle of Hampole’s Mending of Life from the Fifteenth-Century Worcester Cathedral Manuscript F. 172. Western Reserve University Bulletin, New series, Vol. 1. 1918/4. 29–58. For all other versions (B, C, D and E), I have relied on my transcripts of the manuscripts. For a full list of these manuscripts, cf. the Works Cited.
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Karáth, T. (2017). Mediating the Immediate: Richard Rolle’s Mystical Experience in the Translations of his Self-Revelations. In: Vassányi, M., Sepsi, E., Daróczi, A. (eds) The Immediacy of Mystical Experience in the European Tradition. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45069-8_8
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