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Prik of Conscience: Entre
ENTRE: FOOTNOTES
1 Lines 237–38: Appearance, the favor of people, youthful splendor, and wealth Steal from you the knowledge of what man is
2 They will not hear anything except that [which] pleases them
3 He would not understand that he might do well. Psalm 35:4
4 They believed not his word and they murmured. Psalm 105:24–25
5 For they believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. Luke 8:13
6 Lines 304–05: And they believed his words: and they sang his praises. They had quickly done, they forgot his works. Psalm 105:12–13
ENTRE: EXPLANATORY NOTES
Abbreviations: CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; PL: Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne.
The Entre is the introduction or “subject of discourse” of the book. See MED entre n.5c, which cites for this meaning line 353 of this text along with Reginald Pecock, The Rule of Christian Religion, 30: “Here bigynnyþ þe entre or þe introductorie or þe inleding into þe book.”
9–68 The prayer to the Trinity and the following exposition of God’s unity in three persons respond to long-standing creedal debates (beginning at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and finding expression in the Nicene Creed) regarding the triune nature of God. The idea that “this lyfe” (line 37) and earth are contingent, and that only heaven and hell are eternal, is likewise a tenet of Christian theology (compare the inscription over the hell-gate in Inferno 3:1–9) and it poses the salvific tenor of the poem: if, of created things, only humans, fiends, and angels shall persist, and if there are only two ultimate destinations, the fate of every soul hangs in the balance. Purgatory, a contingent realm, is discussed in Part 4.
49–56 The charming notion that beasts were once capable of reason but now are dumb corresponds to the tradition of a lost golden age and of “the world grown old” (see below, 2.530, and Dean, World Grown Old). Nevertheless, by natural law (“kynde”) even dumb creatures know to worship God, unlike some humans.
72 myddellerde. The idea of “middle” earth is spatial: earth lies between the eternal kingdoms of heaven and hell (Tolkien’s use of “middle earth” is temporal, in order to indicate the time on earth that existed between the first, golden age and the depraved present). That mankind was created last, in God’s image (“Lyke hymselfe,” line 73), corresponds to the first creation story in Genesis 1:27.
76–90 Mankind’s knowledge of good and evil, and its possession of free will, foreground the debate on sin, responsibility, and salvation. Here, but not henceforth, I have punctuated line 76 to help the reader appreciate the three distinct components of intelligence represented in medieval brain diagrams by three lobes (see Clarke and Dewhurst, Illustrated History of Brain Function, pp. 25–43) that are often designated by the poet. N.b., line 157.
104 The poet balances Original Sin (Genesis 3) and the eternal verities of heaven and hell with the intervention by God in human form and in an earthly context. The Incarnation and Crucifixion define and enable man’s relationship to the Divine. The word division of line 101 is significant: God did not take “mankind” (monkynde), he took “man’s nature” (mon kynde).
107 The alliterating formula “lered and lewed” is found throughout Middle English literature. It designates the learned, clerical class (mostly monks and priests) as opposed to the unlearned, or lay population (by no means ignorant, but simply not in full command of reading and writing). Since the fourteenth century the word “lewed” has descended the semantic register to become Modern English “lewd.” The degree and prevalence of medieval literacy are complex questions. See Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, and Morey, Book and Verse, p. 4.
163–64 The duties of the learned and the unlearned (see line 107) are reciprocal: clerks have the obligation to teach what they know and the unlearned to seek knowledge.
173–74 The complaint against trifles and vanities is common in didactic literature, especially that people spend too much time reading romances. The Cursor Mundi complains that people are too eager for “Storyes of dyuerse thinges / Of princes prelatis & of kynges / Mony songes of dyuerse ryme / As englisshe frensshe & latyne / To rede & here mony are prest / Of thinges that hem liketh best / The wise mon wol of wisdome here / The fool him draweth to foly nere” (lines 21–28, from Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.8, ed. Morris).
196 as seyth the book. “The book,” as opposed to “this booke” (line 39), is often posited as the poet’s source. It may be either the Bible or, more likely, a florilegium of biblical and patristic passages (see the Introduction, pp. 4–5). The appeal to an external authority to validate a current literary project is a commonplace of much medieval literature.
206 of hymself hath no knowyng. “Nosce te ipsum” is the message of the Delphic oracle. See above, line 138.
237–38 Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), the founder of the Cistercian order, wrote extensively on ascetic and devotional life and was one of the most influential Church fathers. This quotation comes from >i
274 The prophet is King David, author of the Psalms, which were regarded as a prophetic book.
322 Therfore is this book oute blowen. Cotton Galba E.ix reads Þarfor þis buke es on Yngles drawen. Perhaps oute blowen implies “created” (out blown, exhaled), a more vivid metaphor than Galba’s drawen(“created”). Or perhaps the sense of blowen is “flowered” (see MED blouen v.2). But more likely the sense is “widely known, renowned” (MED blouen v.1.8), given the fact that it is in the vernacular rather than Latin (line 325).
330 pryck her soule. The first use of the “prick” metaphor, drawing on the tradition of the stimulus conscientiae and of the English Ayenbite of Inwyt (ed. Morris). See the Introduction, pp. 2–3.
335 seven partyes. The seven-part division is paralleled by other groupings, such as the seven deadly sins, the seven pains of purgatory (see Part 4), the Seven Works of Bodily Mercy, and the Seven Works of Spiritual Mercy.
340 The full range of the verb “reden” should always be kept in mind, not only “to read” in the modern sense but also “to read aloud” and especially “to consider.”
ENTRE: TEXTUAL NOTES
Abbreviations: see Explanatory Notes
1–37 The first 37 lines are taken from Morris’ edition of Cotton Galba E.ix. The Osborn Manuscript begins on fol. 2r, with line 38.
23 Whas. The manuscript reads Was.
243 thi is canceled at the end of the line.
299 temptacionis. The manuscript reads temptaconis.
310 This line appears at the bottom of the leaf, with marks indicating its proper place.
328 drede. The initial “d” is smudged.
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