Thynk on God, as we doon, men that swynke”
The Cultural Locations of Meditations on the Supper of Our Lord and the Middle English Pseudo-Bonaventuran Tradition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10766737 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryan Perry (0000-0001-7703-2914, Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 419-454 |
| Publication date | 2011-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Speculum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-7134 • E-ISSN: 2040-8072 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0038713410004707 |
| OpenAlex | W1992652578 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 18 |
“Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!” So exclaims John the carpenter in the Miller's Tale, simultaneously performing the sign of the cross in his frantic efforts to stir Nicholas from a feigned trance. Then, babbling folk charms and prayers, John continues his attempts to wrestle the young astronomer free from supernatural forces, the “elves” and “wightes” he supposes have afflicted his boarder. Here the text of the urbane late-fourteenth-century Chaucer apparently reflects upon a tradition often considered characteristic of fifteenth-century devotional literature and praxis, that is, “affective piety.” Tantalizingly, John's claims for the spiritually cathartic benefits of thinking “on Cristes passioun” parallel a construction used at the beginning of the Meditations on the Supper of Our Lord (hereafter MSOL) where the author states, “Whan þou þenkest þys [of Christ's Passion] yn þy þoʒt / Thyr may no fende noye þe with noʒt.” This kind of idea resonates throughout the pseudo-Bonaventuran tradition, a cluster of meditative literary treatments of the lives of Christ and Mary based on versions of the Latin Meditationes vitae Christi (hereafter MVC). The Privity of the Passion similarly promises “comforthe and gostely gladnes” to those who “with a besy thoghte ... duell in it [the Passion].” The Middle English translation of the Meditationes de Passione Christi (hereafter MEMPC), a text that was probably composed during Chaucer's lifetime, is representative of the tradition in how it promotes thinking on Christ's Passion as a means of spiritual renewal
Art · Banquet · Divinity · Heaven · Literature · Passion · Piety · Supper · Theology · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Medieval Literature and History · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Psychology
Books for the 'helpe of euery persoone þat þenkiþ to be saued'
Nicholas Love and Medieval Meditations on Christ
Chaucer's Parson's Tale and the Late-Medieval Tradition of Religious Meditation
Politics, Patronage, and Piety in the Work of Osbern Bokenham
Censorship and Cultural Change in Late-Medieval England
The Origins of the Meditationes vitae Christi
Stilwandel im Homerischen Epos. Studien zur Poetik und Theorie der epischen Gattung
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |