Pore Caitif: A Middle English Manual of Religion and Devotion

Abstract

Pore Caitif is an anonymous late fourteenth-century Middle English work of religious instruction and devotion written expressly for the laity, male and female readers alike. Known only in its manuscript form—and there are now known to be fifty-four extant (including twenty-eight with the full text in addition to a plethora of others with fragments)—until Sister Mary Theresa Brady wrote her doctoral dissertation on it at Fordham University and successfully defended the same in 1954, its content and importance were familiar to relatively few scholars.Now, with this publication of a fine edition of Paris, BN Anglais 41 (modestly subtitled “avec introduction, notes et glossaire”) by Karine Moreau-Guibert, the Pore Caitif can be read and studied by a far wider readership. Sister Mary Theresa wrote in 1954 that she was hoping to see an edition published before her death in 2002 and at last we have one—of a different manuscript from the one on which Sister Maria Theresa worked (London, BL Harley MS 2336)—but just as important and significant as the Harleian one. Indeed, Moreau-Guibert includes Harley 2336 in her body of three manuscripts, which serves as the basis for textual comparison (along with Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.14.53, and Cambridge, St. John's College, MS G.28) and we await a second volume, which will examine the relationships between the manuscripts and problems arising therefrom.This publication has had a long period of gestation but it was well worth waiting for. Karine Moreau-Guibert passed away in September 2017. She had been working on this edition for ten years since its origins as a doctoral dissertation. Her supervisor, Stephen Morrison, was responsible for seeing this and its accompanying volume through the press and a large debt of gratitude is due to him for his selfless effort to finish Moreau-Gilbert's magnificent work.This publication includes an extensive general introduction and an equally thorough chapter on the Transmission of the Text—together over one hundred pages. The introduction presents Moreau-Guibert's research on the manuscripts, the work's historical context, the identification of the pore caitif, his readership, the work's title, the various forms of the text, and selecting the manuscripts to be studied. The chapter on transmission (which serves as an introduction to the second volume) explores the method adopted in presenting this edition, the main procedures in collating and selecting the manuscript and its chapters and chapter titles, the substantial variant readings, the assessment of the reliability of individual copies based on isolated variants, and selected manuscripts and base text. It discusses the manuscripts, classifying them in groups, and exploring in depth some of the more important variants they inevitably preserve, not least the Lollard interpolations present in several of the manuscripts (upon which Kalpen Trivedi researched his PhD dissertation, “Traditionality and Difference: A Study of the Textual Traditions of the ‘Pore Caitif,’” at the University of Manchester, successfully defended in 2002), and witnessing the influence of the Wycliffite Bible.We then have a diligently prepared critical edition of the Paris manuscript, beautifully set out. This is followed by a well-prepared and presented glossary, appendices (to explain emendations and suggest possible readings for challenging passages), an Index Nominum, a Reference Composite Text of the prologue and seven extracts, and a comprehensive bibliography, helpfully broken down into subject areas, including paleography, language, philology, social and political history, Wyclif, the Lollard movement and heresy, and over two pages of articles and chapters focusing on the Pore Caitif. The publication is further enhanced by three images from London, BL MS Harley 2336 and MS Additional 30897, and Paris, BN MS Anglais 41 (proving that this last is not the easiest of manuscripts to read!).The one glitch I noticed is that the blurb on the back cover of this book refers to “a commentary on the text” followed by “a full glossary.” There is, however, no commentary. This, sadly, is a glaring omission, unless the word commentary is meant to refer to the appendices of explanatory notes on text and emendations (which seems unlikely and in any case are preceded by the glossary).This aside, the edition is an invaluable contribution to texts and studies of late Middle English. It will be fascinating to see what emerges from it.