Revisiting the Medieval North of England

Interdisciplinary Approaches

Anita Auer, Denis Renevey, Camille Marshall, Tino Oudesluijs

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781786833945
• eBook ISBN: 9781786833969
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

The medieval north of England has been underexplored to date, and this volume may be seen as an invitation for further exploration. It brings together scholars with shared interests in language, literature, culture, history and manuscript studies, viewed from different disciplinary perspectives such as English philology, historical linguistics and medieval literature. While many scholars have thus far been debating the dividing lines between north and south as well as between north, Midlands and south, the contributors to this volume are interested in texts produced in the north, the providence of which has been determined by way of affiliation to religious and civic writing centres including the important monastic houses in the north (such as Durham, York and the Yorkshire Cistercian houses). Most of the contributions grow out of recent and ongoing research projects that touch upon different aspects of the north of England in the medieval period. Concentrating on the north as a centre of manuscript production, dissemination and reception, this volume aims also at illustrating the fluidity of boundaries and communication, and the resulting links to different geographical regions.

1

Northern Spirituality Travels South: Rolle’s Middle English Encomium Oleum Effusum Nomen Tuum in Lincoln College Library, MS 91, and Dublin, Trinity College, MS 155

DENIS RENEVEY

The presence of Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole in BL, MS Additional 37049, discussed in the introduction, occurs both textually and visually. A Rollean lyric, ‘Jhu my luf my ioy my reste’ appears on folio 24 r, preceding an anonymous text on the wounds of Christ. Folio 30v offers excerpts from Rolle’s Middle English epistle, Ego Dormio, on a scroll that is tied to the left hand of a lying male figure, dressed as a hermit, and possibly representing Richard Rolle himself. Further on in the manuscript (fol. 37r), extracts in Middle English from Rolle’s Incendium Amoris are flanked by an image of a male hermit holding a book in which one can only read the first word, Ego, which suggests again the representation of Richard Rolle presenting his own textual production, the Ego Dormio epistle. Rolle bears a large red monogram, ‘ihc’, that stands for the name of Jesus and the devotion attached to it. Another Rollean lyric next to The Desert text and just below another portrait of a sitting hermit under a canopy bearing the Jesus monogram further confirms the strong presence of Rollean spirituality in the manuscript. Indeed, the short lyric which begins with ‘I syt and syng / Of luf langyng’ ends with ‘Richard hampole’ in red ink. Not only does the manuscript authorise Richard Rolle as the desert father of the north of England, it also associates closely his authority and spiritual achievements with the devotion to the Holy Name. The manuscript bears witness to Rolle and his devotion to the Name as central elements of northern religious textual culture. The devotion to the Name and the special visual prominence given to the monogram in the manuscript contributes to our understanding of its close relationship to the spirituality of Rolle and of its popularity in the north of England, more particularly Yorkshire. In addition to the monogram inscribed on the chest of Richard Rolle (fols. 37r, 52v), it appears on folio 36v as a complex visual representation, with the vertical stroke of letter ‘h’ in ‘ihc’ shaped in the form of cross on which a profusely bleeding Christ hangs. The monogram appears again on folio 46r, as part of a coat of arms held by an angel, with a kneeling hermit paying his devotion to it. Further in the manuscript (fol. 67r), it is framed by a scroll in the form of a lozenge, while its use as a communal religious devotion is highlighted on folio 81r, where it appears on a processional banner leading the twelve apostles in front of the cart of faith. While the saved souls are led literally upward on the manuscript page behind the Jesus monogram, the damned souls fall headfirst down to the right of the manuscript page into the mouth of hell. The image makes a strong proclamation about the power of the Name, which brings those who perform devotion to it to the door of the heavenly realm. The visual representation of ‘ihesus nazarecenus’ of folio 23v and the double ‘ihus mercy’ placed next to Jesus’s bleeding heart, displayed by a bleeding Jesus on folio 24r, remind us that the devotion to the Name is part of larger Christocentric devotions in which the instruments of the passion, the wounds and drops of blood of Christ play a significant role. MS Additional 37049 bears witness to the close association of the devotion to the Name of Jesus with Richard Rolle in the north.1 This chapter considers the way in which such an association was negotiated in two Middle English versions of his Latin treatise exclusively devoted to the Name, his commentary on the first verses of the Songs of Songs, which circulated on its own and as part of a compilation.

The compilation Oleum Effusum Nomen Tuum attributed to Richard Rolle consists of his Latin commentary beginning with the ‘Oleum effusum’ verse of the Song of Songs, which is part of his Super Canticum Canticorum, compiled together with a section of a letter of St Anselm, as well as chapters twelve, fifteen and the opening paragraph of the eighth chapter of Rolle’s Incendium amoris. This compilation is found next to the short text of the Incendium amoris in at least twelve manuscripts. The commentary on the ‘Oleum effusum’ verse, called the Encomium Nominis Jesu by early editors, is also found independently from the rest of the compilation in fourteen manuscripts.2 This section was translated into Middle English and appears in one form or another in four manuscripts: a) Lincoln Cathedral Library, MS 91 (L); b) Dublin, Trinity College, MS 155 (D); c) London, British Library, MS Harley 1022 (H), fols 62–64; d) London, British Library, MS Stowe 38 (St), fol. 161rv.3 The text in the last manuscript is a fragment. In addition, another Middle English version of the Encomium is found as the ninth tract of the Pore Caitif. The version chosen by Ralph Hanna for his 2007 EETS (Early English Text Society) edition is that found in Lincoln Cathedral Library, MS 91 (L), known as the Thornton MS, and offered in parallel to Dublin (D). The edition of both versions facing one another makes it an interesting tool for an investigation of versions written in different dialects, with subtle but interesting differences in terms of content. Hanna indeed notes the paraphrasing tendencies of the D scribe, as well as his conscious effort at avoiding specifically northern lexis.4 As for the L manuscript, he considers Robert Thornton to be occasionally sloppy as a copyist, who makes serious editorial interventions.5 One of the points that Hanna highlights is the fact that Thornton considers Rolle’s concluding anecdote, that of his warding off the devil disguised in the form of a beautiful woman with the Name of Jesus, as if it were an exemplum. The information Hanna offers reveals the editorial engage­ment of the scribes translating, copying and transmitting an extract of a text whose life started as part of Rolle’s Super Canticum Canticorum. Hanna’s assessment of Thornton’s scribal activity is based on its Latin sources, for which he uses the 1536 print of Rolle’s Latin works, especially fols 142r–144v.6 His edition of Rolle’s Super Canticum, 4 provides further material for investigating the way in which the Encomium circulated and was translated into Middle English.7

The aim of this chapter is to pursue a comparison of the versions of the Encomium in L and D. My assumption, following Hanna, is that these versions are both based on a Latin version similar to that found in the 1536 edition.8 This chapter analyses textual activity in both versions, with particular emphases placed on translation practice, lexis, the translation/omission of emotion words, the way in which the relationship between the ‘I-voice’ and the Name and character of Jesus is designed, and the extent to which Middle English ‘name’ is given prominence or not in these two Middle English versions. As we shall see, when studied together, these modifications offer interesting evidence as to northern features (spiritual, linguistic, etc.) that compiler/scribes feel the need to accommodate, modify or suppress to satisfy a non-northern, more particularly non- Yorkshire, audience.

The hand responsible for the Middle English Oleum Effusum in D provides a text in the dialect of east central Staffordshire. The hand of L is that of Robert Thornton, who lived in East Newton, near Pickering, in North Yorkshire, and died c.1465. It provides a text in the northern dialect, close to Richard Rolle’s own idiolect.9 L offers a translation of the Latin Encomium that is fairly close to the original. The examples below demonstrate that faithfulness to the original marks the translation strategies of L, albeit with some occasional editorial interventions. This long extract, with the Latin original, provides useful evidence to contrast L’s translation practice with that of D:

Oleum effusum nomen tuum, ideo adolescentulae dilexerunt te nimis. Nomen Iesu venit in mundum, et statim adoratur oleum effusum. Oleum capitur, quia aeterna saluatio speratur. Iesu vero, id est saluator vel salutare. Quid est ergo: Oleum effusum nomen tuum, nisi Iesus est nomen tuum? Hoc nomen est oleum effusum, quia Iesus est verbum dei incarnatum. Imples in opere, quod vocaris in nomine, vere saluas hominem quem vocamus saluatorem: ergo Iesus est nomen tuum.

‘Thy name is as oil poured out; therfore young maidens have loved thee excessively.’ The name of Jesus comes into the world, and immediately oil poured out is smelled. One seizes this oil because it offers the hope of eternal salvation. In truth, Jesus means ‘saviour’ or ‘salvation’. Then what is ‘thy name is as oil poured out’, if not ‘Jesus is thy name’? This name is oil poured out because Jesus is the word of God made flesh. You fulfil in work what you are called by name. Truly, you save man, you whom we call saviour; therefore Jesus is your name.10

L: ‘Oleum effusum nomen tuum’, in cantico etc. That es on Inglysce, ‘Oyle owtȝettede es thi name’. The name of Ihesu commys into the worlde, and als sone it smellys oyle outȝetted. Oyle it es takyn for aylastande saluacyone es hopede. Sothely Ihesu es als mekyll to bemene, als saueoure or helefull. Tharefore what menys it, ‘Oyle owtȝettide es thy nam’ bot ‘Ihesu es thy name’? This name es oyle owteȝettyd for Ihesu, the worde of God, has tane manes kynde. Ihesu, thow fulfillis in warke that thow es called in name. Sothely [man sauys þou] wham we calle saueoure. Tharefore Ihesu es thy name.

D: ‘Olium efusum nomen tuum’. Þat is to sey, ‘Oyle owteȝette is þi name’. Þe name of Iesu, anone as it was comen into þis world, it smelled swetenes of grace. Þe kynde of oyle is to saufe a þing fro corupcyon. Soþely Ihesu is als muche to sey as a saueoure or aylastyng sauacion, for Ihesu þe sone of God haþ taken mankynde and fulfylleþ in werke þat he is cleput by name. For soþely Ihesu saueþ alle þat forþinggyng her synne touchen hym þurȝ holy lyfyng.11

The L passage offers a very close rendering of the Latin extract. The only noticeable addition to the Latin is ‘Ihesu’, before ‘thou fulfillis’ for the Latin ‘imples’. It adds perhaps more to the way in which the I-voice progressively builds a personal relationship with the Name.12 However, that modification is rather negligible and does not modify significantly the tenor of the Latin version. It is also important to mention that the passage makes a clear attribution to ‘Ricardus herimita’ in its incipit.

D in comparison operates according to a different agenda.13 Rather than opting for a faithful rendering, it often paraphrases and shortens the Latin version. The D passage (74 words) is indeed short of fourteen words in comparison to L (88), and this tendency is noticeable throughout the Encomium . The offer of the Name of Jesus to the world is qualified as ‘swetenes of grace’, while L speaks of ‘oyle outȝetted’, preserving therefore a physical quality to the image that the Latin passage conveys.14 Interestingly, both the Latin and L use the present tense, thus giving a sense of actuality to the devotion. D paraphrases the Latin ‘oleum capitur, quia aeterna saluatio speratur’ with ‘Þe kynde of oyle is to saufe a þing fro corupcyon’, offering a piece of information that, after making specific reference to the salvation of the soul, moves to a more general, rational report about the properties of oil in its literal sense:

Cocunque fuero, quocunque sedero, quicquid egero, memoria nominis Iesu a mente mea non recedit. Posui illud vt signaculum super cor meum, et vt signaculum super brachium meum quia fortis est vt mors dilectio.

Anywhere I have been, wherever I have sat, whatever I have done, the memory of the name of Jesus does not withdraw from my mind. ‘I have put it as a seal upon my heart, and as a seal upon my arm, for love is strong as death’.15

Whareso I be, wharero I sytt, whatso I doo, the mynd + of the name Ihesu departis noghte fra my mynde.

I haf sett my mynde, I haf sett it als takynnynge appone [my hert, als takynnynge apon] myn arme, for luf es strange als dede.

D: Whereso I be, whereso I goo, what so I doo, þe mynde of Ihesu departes noȝt froo me. I haue sette it as a token vpon my hert þat hyt departe noȝt þerfroo, for luf is strong as deeþ.16

The example above shows that L is occasionally careless, with the omission from the Latin of a pass...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Editors' Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Figures
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Setting the Scene: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Medieval North of England: Anita Auer, Denis Renevey, Camille Marshall and Tino Oudesluijs
• 1: Northern Spirituality Travels South: Rolle's Middle English Encomium Oleum Effusum Nomen Tuum in Lincoln College Library, MS 91, and Dublin, Trinity College, MS 155: Denis Renevey
• 2: Mechtild of Hackeborn and Cecily Neville's Devotional Reading: Images of the Heart in Fifteenth-Century England: Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa
• 3: Langage o northrin lede: Northern Middle English as a Written Medium: Merja Stenroos
• 4: A Pystille Made to a Cristene Frende: A Translation of Walter Hilton's Epistola ad Quemdam Seculo Renunciare Volentem in a Northern Anthology, London, British Library, MS Additional 33971: Marleen Cré
• 5: 'So to interpose a little ease': Northern Hermit-lit: Ralph Hanna
• 6: The Children of the York Plays: Richard Beadle
• 7: Linguistic Regionalism in the York Corpus Christi Plays: Anita Auer
• 8: The Hermit and the Sailor: Readings of Scandinavia in North-East English Hagiography: Christiania Whitehead
• 9: Towards a Nuanced History of Early English Spelling: Old Northumbrian Witnesses and Northern Orthography: Marcelle Cole
• Notes
• Appendix
• Bibliography