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THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE PRICK OF CONSCIENCE RECONSIDERED

THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE PRICK OF CONSCIENCE RECONSIDERED THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE PRICK OF CONSCIENCE RECONSIDERED There can be no doubt that the Prick of Conscience (PC)1 is among the more interesting English homiletic texts of the Late Middle Ages. Its medieval popularity is amply documented by the numerous manuscripts that have come down to us2. The work consists of seven books comprising 9624 lines, the metrical pattern being iambic couplets with four, though very irregulär stresses. Because of its wide circulation the problem of its authorship provoked considerable interest. Ever since H. E. Allen, in a study published in 19103, tried to prove that Richard Rolle cannot possibly be its author, the question has generally been considered äs settled. If, however, one attempts today, SOyears later, to tackle the matter afresh, one ends up with the astonishing fact that none of Allen's arguments is really convincing, and therefore the issue must still be regarded äs unsolved. Allen started with the assumption that Rolle could not possibly have written PC and then tried to prove her hypothesis from the text. The reason why she was opposed to the attribution of PC to the greatest medieval English mystic was that, because at that time his main mystical http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologie de Gruyter

THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE PRICK OF CONSCIENCE RECONSIDERED

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Niemeyer
ISSN
0340-5222
eISSN
1865-8938
DOI
10.1515/angl.1993.1993.111.1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE PRICK OF CONSCIENCE RECONSIDERED There can be no doubt that the Prick of Conscience (PC)1 is among the more interesting English homiletic texts of the Late Middle Ages. Its medieval popularity is amply documented by the numerous manuscripts that have come down to us2. The work consists of seven books comprising 9624 lines, the metrical pattern being iambic couplets with four, though very irregulär stresses. Because of its wide circulation the problem of its authorship provoked considerable interest. Ever since H. E. Allen, in a study published in 19103, tried to prove that Richard Rolle cannot possibly be its author, the question has generally been considered äs settled. If, however, one attempts today, SOyears later, to tackle the matter afresh, one ends up with the astonishing fact that none of Allen's arguments is really convincing, and therefore the issue must still be regarded äs unsolved. Allen started with the assumption that Rolle could not possibly have written PC and then tried to prove her hypothesis from the text. The reason why she was opposed to the attribution of PC to the greatest medieval English mystic was that, because at that time his main mystical

Journal

Anglia - Zeitschrift für englische Philologiede Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1993

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