Guillaume de Deguileville: Le Pèlerinage de l'âme (The Pilgrimage of the Soul) trans. by Eugene Clasby

Abstract

Reviewed by: Guillaume de Deguileville: Le Pèlerinage de l'âme (The Pilgrimage of the Soul) trans. by Eugene Clasby Hilary Maddocks Clasby, Eugene, trans., Guillaume de Deguileville: Le Pèlerinage de l'âme (The Pilgrimage of the Soul) (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 471), Tempe, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2017; hardback; pp. xxii, 154; R.R.P. US$56.00; ISBN 9780866985246. French Cistercian monk Guillaume de Deguileville (c. 1295–1358) was the author of a popular trilogy of allegorical poetical works: Le Pèlerinage de la vie humaine (The Pilgrimage of Human Life), Le Pèlerinage de l'âme (The Pilgrimage of the Soul), and Le Pèlerinage de Jhesucrist (The Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ). This trilogy of devotional narratives in rhymed, octosyllabic couplets provided its lay audience with an entertaining spiritual guide for how to live a moral Christian life. The first two works in particular were widely read and translated during the Middle Ages and have been cited as major influences on Langland, Chaucer, Bunyan, and others. Le Pèlerinage de la vie humaine was translated into modern English prose in 1992 by Eugene Clasby, who has now made the second work of this important trilogy available in English with his clear and engaging prose translation. The Pilgrimage of the Soul continues the allegorical dream vision narrative of the Pilgrimage of Human Life. In the first work, the narrator/pilgrim describes his resolution to travel to the celestial city of Jerusalem. Guided by the beautiful Grace Dieu, the hapless pilgrim embarks on his journey through life, making many foolish errors and falling prey to a series of fearsome, misshapen hags, personifications of the seven deadly sins. Finally, he meets Death, only to be woken from his reverie by the bell for Matins. His journey post-death is resumed in the Pilgrimage of the Soul. Again falling asleep, the narrator finds himself high in the air, looking down on his 'foul and disgusting' body (p. 1). Guilty of many sins and weaknesses during his lifetime, he must now suffer the consequences. He teeters on the cusp of eternal damnation as his guardian angel and the Devil argue over his soul. Finally, he is led before the heavenly tribunal for judgement before St Michael with Justice, Reason, Truth, and Mercy as witnesses. The devil also calls on Synderesis, his conscience, a 'monstrous and hideous old hag' with a long, thick worm-like tail (p. 13). Justice, Reason, and Truth agree that the soul should be condemned; Mercy alone supports him. On great scales, St Michael weighs the case for and against: of course, the damning evidence grossly outweighs the positive and the soul seems doomed to an eternity in hell. It is only when Mercy produces a document from Jesus Christ himself that the scales tip in the soul's favour and he is consigned instead to Purgatory for cleansing. The narrator carries the burden of his sins to Purgatory in the form of a pack containing 'horns, claws, teeth and plenty of other filthy things that I will not describe because they were so foul' (p. 31). In Purgatory he is scorched and roasted, the agony relieved only by the soothing ointments of a woman, Prayer. Taking him by the hand, his angel instructs him on the nature of Purgatory, Hell and Paradise and shows him the ghastly punishments meted out for various vices. [End Page 191] For example, those guilty of sloth are roused from their torpor by being bound to a wheel and smashed so hard against a pillar that their brains are dashed out and eyes burst from their sockets. After the angel digresses at length on various complex theological subjects including original sin and the fine distinctions between the soul and the body, the pilgrim finds his torments easing. He realizes that the Trinity is 'like a peacock's tail, three colours in one, red, gold and green' (p. 130) and that the many mansions of heaven, as described to him by the angel, are 'great comfort, great delight, great joy everlasting, so marvelous that the heart cannot conceive it and the tongue may not tell of it. It...