Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Richard Rolle, English Writer
- 2 “Ihesu louynge, Ihesu thynkynge, Ihesu desyrynge”: Affectivity, the Devotional Movement and Rolle's Implied Reader
- 3 “I wil becum a messager to bring þe to hys bed”: Ego Dormio
- 4 “A noble tretise of loue”: The Commandment
- 5 ‘A man or a womman þat is ordeynet to contemplatif lif’: The Form of Living
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - “I wil becum a messager to bring þe to hys bed”: Ego Dormio
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- 1 Richard Rolle, English Writer
- 2 “Ihesu louynge, Ihesu thynkynge, Ihesu desyrynge”: Affectivity, the Devotional Movement and Rolle's Implied Reader
- 3 “I wil becum a messager to bring þe to hys bed”: Ego Dormio
- 4 “A noble tretise of loue”: The Commandment
- 5 ‘A man or a womman þat is ordeynet to contemplatif lif’: The Form of Living
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Ihesu, Goddis son, Lord of mageste,
Send wil in to my hert only to couait þe;
Ref me likynge of þis world, my loue þat þou may be;
Take my hert in to þi way; set me in stabilite.
EGO DORMIO is the first of the English prose treatises composed by Richard Rolle on the subject of the journey towards spiritual perfection. According to the chronology set out by Nicholas Watson, which divides Rolle's writings into stages based largely on the evidence of self-borrowing throughout his texts, Ego Dormio falls into the category of “late works” in which, along with Melos Amoris, it pre-dates Super Lectiones Mortuorum, Emendatio Vitae, The Commandment, The Form of Living and, in all likelihood, the English Psalter and the shorter vernacular prose pieces. Because it is Rolle's first vernacular prose work of any length, Ego Dormio is of particular interest as the beginning point of his vernacular utterance and his address to a vernacular audience. Throughout this work Rolle relies on both his own Latin works and other writings from the Latin affective tradition to provide the form, theme and content of the text. However, this should not be discounted asmere borrowing and, as the following detailed discussion reveals, Rolle's first vernacular treatise can instead be considered as an illustration of his willingness and ability to adapt, and further develop, his ideas and his method both to a new language and a new audience.
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- Information
- The English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle , pp. 57 - 98Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004