Biblical Imitatio in the Writings of Richard Rolle

Though R. W. Chambers was not the first to appreciate Richard Rolle's prose style, his famous essay on the continuity of English prose had much to do with the subsequent direction of Rolle criticism-if it is accurate to speak of direction where there has been so little movement. Rolle's date, his style and his popularity, said Chambers, give him a supreme place in the history of English prose. In English or in Latin he was, during the latter half of the Fourteenth Century and the whole of the Fifteenth, probably the most widely read in England of all English writers. 1 Criticism of Rolle's vernacular style has hardly gone beyond the concerns expressed in this quotation. Chambers was not interested in making a detailed analysis of Rolle's style (nor, given the purpose of his essay, should he have been): he simply described some of its salient characteristics and tried to assess its place in the development of English prose. Much subsequent criticism has been content to do the same thing-to provide description ( forceful, uneven, etc.), supported by appropriately chosen examples, and to remind us of Rolle's place in literary tradition. (Frequently the writer will cite the above quotation from Chambers, in lieu of any real

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